News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Polymarket Hit By $700K Exploit: What We Know And Why Experts Say It Could Have Been Worse | Bitcoinist.com
Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure Polymarket came under attack earlier on Friday after a contract exploit drained more than $600,000 in crypto. Despite the size of the theft, multiple security analysts emphasized that user funds and market outcomes were not impacted. One expert even argued that the incident could have been significantly worse if additional controls in the compromised contract had been used. According to on-chain sleuth ZacXBT's findings on the matter, he flagged a suspected exploit involving Polymarket's UMA CTF Adapter contract on Polygon (POL). At the time of reporting, the total figure associated with the exploit had climbed to nearly $700,000. The breakdown of how the exploit functioned was later detailed by security expert Ox Abdul. In his explanation, the first key point was that the USDC amount -- over $600,000 -- appeared to be a one-time drain taken from a specific wallet on Polygon, identified as 0x8F98, the UMA CTF Adapter Admin. Ox Abdul also described how Polymarket's automation appears to have contributed to the exploit mechanics. He said Polymarket's top-up system was repeatedly sending 5,000 POL about every 30 seconds to keep an oracle gas wallet funded. Rather than stealing once, the attacker waited for each refill and then swept it for roughly 120 cycles over the course of about 70 minutes, which he estimated as around 600,000 POL. Importantly, the continued POL losses, in this account, were attributed to how quickly Polymarket's detection and response happened. The exploit was ultimately stopped after the keys were rotated. After draining the refills, Ox Abdul said the exploiter then exited via 16 sub-addresses using ChangeNOW. Even with the damage limited, he warned that the situation had potential red flags beyond the theft itself. In his view, the compromised admin wallet was not only holding USDC and POL; it also carried "resolveManually rights" on the UMA Adapter. Those manual resolution permissions, he explained, could bypass the oracle and allow an attacker to force any market outcome on Polymarket. Ox Abdul laid out what "worse" could have looked like in practical terms. He said the attacker could have taken large positions in specific markets, then flagged those markets for manual resolution, waited out the roughly one-hour safety window, and finally used resolveManually to resolve markets in favor of their positions. Following the incident, Josh Stevens, a leading developer at Polymarket, later provided additional context via social media. Stevens attributed the issue to a compromised 6-year-old private key, explaining that it was included in an internal top-up configuration -- so funds were being sent to the key while it remained active. He added that the key has been rotated, all production permissions have been revoked, and the company is moving all private keys to KMS-managed keys going forward. While the technical incident was unfolding, Polymarket was also dealing with regulatory scrutiny on Friday. As Bitcoinist reported, Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced a formal investigation into prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi. Comer said the committee is seeking information from the CEOs of both companies regarding their efforts to prevent insider trading on their platforms. In his letter, he requested documents and details on how both platforms implement identity verification for domestic and international account holders, enforces geographic restrictions, and detect anomalous trading activity to help prevent insider trading across their global platforms. In a separate development, Bloomberg reported that Polymarket has appointed a representative in Japan while preparing to lobby for authorization of prediction markets in the country. According to sources cited in the report, Polymarket's goal is to obtain government approval in Japan by 2030. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
SpaceX tries to launch a bigger version of Starship but hits a series of last-minute problems
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- SpaceX got within a half-minute of launching its newest and biggest Starship on a test flight Thursday evening before a cascade of problems halted the countdown. The 407-foot rocket was poised to begin a space-skimming journey from Texas extending halfway around the world. But issues cropped up with the brand-new pad at Starbase near the Mexican border, and the company ran out of time. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower's arm in place did not retract. If the problem can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt will be made Friday, he noted. Thursday's launch attempt came one day after Musk announced that his rocket company would be going public. Starship holds 20 mock Starlink satellites to be released before the spacecraft's controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the hourlong flight. It will be the 12th test flight for a Starship and the first since last fall. NASA is relying on this latest version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon in a few years.
SpaceX tries to launch a bigger version of Starship but hits a series of last-minute problems
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- SpaceX got within a half-minute of launching its newest and biggest Starship on a test flight Thursday evening before a cascade of problems halted the countdown. The 407-foot rocket was poised to begin a space-skimming journey from Texas extending halfway around the world. But issues cropped up with the brand-new pad at Starbase near the Mexican border, and the company ran out of time. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower's arm in place did not retract. If the problem can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt will be made Friday, he noted. Thursday's launch attempt came one day after Musk announced that his rocket company would be going public. Starship holds 20 mock Starlink satellites to be released before the spacecraft's controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the hourlong flight. It will be the 12th test flight for a Starship and the first since last fall. NASA is relying on this latest version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon in a few years.
Polymarket And Kalshi Are Now Under Congressional Investigation -- The Evidence That Triggered It Is Hard To Dismiss | Bitcoinist.com
Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced a formal investigation into prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi on May 22 -- demanding that the CEOs of both companies explain how their platforms detect and prevent insider trading, in a probe triggered by a series of suspicious trades tied to classified US military operations and geopolitical events. Comer, who announced the investigation on CNBC's Squawk Box, sent formal letters to the leadership of both platforms seeking information on how they verify user identities, enforce bans on users from restricted jurisdictions, and identify unusual trading patterns that could indicate exploitation of non-public information, per CNBC's reporting. The inquiry marks a significant escalation of congressional scrutiny that has been building across both parties for months. The specific trading patterns that prompted the investigation are difficult to dismiss as coincidence. A US special forces soldier was arrested for placing insider trades on Polymarket tied to the US military incursion into Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro -- bets placed hours before the operation became public knowledge, per The Hill's reporting. A separate trader accumulated nearly $1 million with a 93% success rate on wagers predicting unannounced US and Israeli operations against Iran, placing bets hours before strikes in October 2024, June 2025, and February 2026, according to a CNN report cited by Democratic lawmakers in a letter to Comer. The February 28 incident is the most striking data point. A group of 38 accounts collectively netted more than $2 million on bets tied to that day's Iran strikes -- with the accounts preloaded with funds the preceding week, per the Democratic lawmakers' letter. On April 7, at least 50 newly created accounts placed coordinated bets on a US-Iran ceasefire, some opened minutes before the announcement, per the same letter. Polymarket separately reported suspicious activity across nearly 50 accounts in advance of the US-Iran ceasefire talks, per casino.org's reporting of the congressional correspondence. Kalshi responded through its head of communications, Elisabeth Diana, who said the company looks forward to engaging with the committee and described its protections against insider trading as comprehensive, per CNBC. Polymarket did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication. Both platforms announced updated rules and surveillance tools in March 2026, restricting politicians from trading on their own campaigns and barring athletes from sports-related contracts -- moves that preceded but did not prevent the current congressional escalation. The investigation lands at a moment of peak political sensitivity for prediction markets. Combined trading volumes on Kalshi and Polymarket reached tens of billions of dollars in March 2026 alone, per TipRanks. Both platforms count Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor. And both spent a combined nearly $1 million on federal lobbying in 2025, per CNBC -- a Washington presence that may now complicate rather than protect their regulatory standing. This development marks a pivotal and potentially consequential moment for the nascent prediction market sector. A formal congressional investigation with documented evidence of military-linked insider trading is a categorically different threat than a regulatory inquiry -- and the outcome could reshape how these platforms operate, who can participate, and whether the CFTC's current oversight framework survives intact. Cover image from Grok, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview
SpaceX tries to launch a bigger version of Starship but hits a series of last-minute problems
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- SpaceX got within a half-minute of launching its newest and biggest Starship on a test flight Thursday evening before a cascade of problems halted the countdown. The 407-foot rocket was poised to begin a space-skimming journey from Texas extending halfway around the world. But issues cropped up with the brand-new pad at Starbase near the Mexican border, and the company ran out of time. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower's arm in place did not retract. If the problem can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt will be made Friday, he noted. Thursday's launch attempt came one day after Musk announced that his rocket company would be going public. Starship holds 20 mock Starlink satellites to be released before the spacecraft's controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the hourlong flight. It will be the 12th test flight for a Starship and the first since last fall. NASA is relying on this latest version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon in a few years.
SpaceX tries to launch a bigger version of Starship but hits a series of last-minute problems
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- SpaceX got within a half-minute of launching its newest and biggest Starship on a test flight Thursday evening before a cascade of problems halted the countdown. The 407-foot rocket was poised to begin a space-skimming journey from Texas extending halfway around the world. But issues cropped up with the brand-new pad at Starbase near the Mexican border, and the company ran out of time. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower's arm in place did not retract. If the problem can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt will be made Friday, he noted. Thursday's launch attempt came one day after Musk announced that his rocket company would be going public. Starship holds 20 mock Starlink satellites to be released before the spacecraft's controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the hourlong flight. It will be the 12th test flight for a Starship and the first since last fall. NASA is relying on this latest version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon in a few years.
House Oversight Committee Launches Insider Trading Investigation Into Kalshi and Polymarket - Blockonomi
Platforms employ blockchain tracking and identity verification to combat manipulation. Federal lawmakers have initiated a comprehensive investigation into potential insider trading violations on prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket. The inquiry demands comprehensive information regarding user authentication protocols, geographical access controls, and systems designed to identify questionable trading behavior. Congressional leaders are evaluating whether these platforms possess adequate safeguards to prevent exploitation of privileged information. James Comer, leading the House Oversight Committee, issued formal requests to both platforms' chief executives with a June 5 deadline for document submission. The investigation centers on possible misuse of confidential information related to electoral outcomes and military operations. Comer's team is scrutinizing whether individuals with government access leveraged classified details for market profits. The platforms have proactively enhanced their internal monitoring mechanisms to address insider trading vulnerabilities. Kalshi terminated accounts belonging to three individuals running for congressional seats after discovering they placed wagers on their own electoral contests. Polymarket deployed sophisticated blockchain analysis tools to identify anomalous trading patterns and strengthen regulatory adherence. This federal scrutiny emerged following demands from seven Democratic representatives calling for official subpoenas. Specific concerns involve trading activity occurring mere hours before coordinated U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iranian targets. Congressional members are considering legislative measures to explicitly ban government personnel from accessing prediction market platforms. Kalshi functions under Commodity Futures Trading Commission supervision and mandates full user identification for all transactions. Polymarket maintains regulatory licensing through Panamanian authorities while providing a restricted CFTC-compliant offering for American participants. The majority of its operations exist beyond direct U.S. regulatory jurisdiction, creating potential vulnerabilities for insider exploitation. Both organizations have pursued international expansion, complicating their ability to monitor cross-border trading activities effectively. Insider trading vulnerabilities particularly affect users possessing security clearances or access to sensitive government intelligence. Congressional investigators expect platforms to produce comprehensive internal documentation demonstrating enforcement of anti-manipulation policies. Past incidents underscore these systemic vulnerabilities. A military service member allegedly generated $400,000 in illicit profits through insider trades on Polymarket. The platform identified more than 80 suspicious transactions preceding significant geopolitical developments. Kalshi has experienced compliance breaches despite operating under federal regulatory framework. Both companies implemented strengthened protective measures before the formal investigation commenced. Polymarket contracted with Chainalysis to deploy advanced detection algorithms for market manipulation and enhance operational transparency. Kalshi maintains rigorous identity authentication requirements and restricts contract offerings related to political violence and certain electoral events. Bipartisan legislative proposals seek to impose restrictions on insider trading within prediction market environments. Several bills specifically target trades executed by congressional members and federal agency employees. Legislators emphasize the necessity of preserving public confidence and maintaining equitable market conditions. The congressional review will assess whether both platforms fulfill their statutory compliance requirements. Documentation regarding insider trading prevention proves essential for identifying violators and measuring enforcement efficacy. Both organizations are anticipated to provide full cooperation, including detailed transaction records and internal policy communications. Prediction markets have experienced substantial growth, attracting intensified scrutiny from regulatory bodies and legislative committees. These platforms enable participants to speculate on electoral results, sporting competitions, and government policy decisions. Concerns regarding insider trading exploitation remain the primary driver behind this congressional investigation.
Forget SpaceX: These IPOs Turned Every $10,000 Into More Than $1 Million
The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks. Get them here FREE. Big IPOs have a way of making investors dream big. And few offerings have generated more anticipation than SpaceX, which is expected to begin trading on June 12. The leading space company could raise roughly $25 billion at a valuation approaching $2 trillion, making it the largest public debut ever. That size matters. Historically, mega IPOs often struggle to outperform after listing because so much future growth is already priced into the shares. The bigger the valuation, the harder it becomes to keep delivering market-beating returns. That doesn't mean SpaceX can't succeed. It just means investors expecting another overnight Nvidia-style run may want to reset expectations. Still, history shows smaller, innovative IPOs have occasionally turned modest investments into fortunes. Let's look at six that transformed every $10,000 invested at their IPO into more than $1 million today. Here's what the numbers tell us: Microsoft debuted at roughly $780 million. Nvidia entered public markets valued below $700 million. Compare that with SpaceX potentially debuting near $2 trillion. Investors aren't buying an undiscovered growth story. They're buying a company already considered one of the world's most valuable enterprises. What stands out is that these companies weren't flashy trillion-dollar giants when they debuted. They were category disruptors entering massive markets with plenty of room to expand. Walmart practically reinvented retail logistics. The company built a distribution network competitors couldn't match, allowing it to expand aggressively into rural America before moving upscale. Today, Walmart generates more than $725 billion in trailing revenue. Coca-Cola became one of the most recognizable consumer brands in history by pairing global distribution with a product that costs pennies to make but sells billions of servings annually. That business model helped Coca-Cola raise its dividend for 64 consecutive years. McDonald's mastered franchising. That means it figured out how to expand globally while having franchisees shoulder much of the restaurant-level operating cost. The result is a business that produced $12.7 billion in trailing operating income. Home Depot capitalized on the rise of do-it-yourself home improvement and professional contractor demand. Since its 1981 IPO, the company expanded from four Atlanta stores into more than 2,300 locations across North America. Then there's Nvidia and Microsoft -- two companies that effectively became digital infrastructure. Microsoft's Windows operating system became the backbone of personal computing during the PC boom. Nvidia's graphics processors evolved from gaming chips into the foundation powering artificial intelligence data centers. Nvidia alone generated over $253 billion in revenue over the past 12 months. SpaceX absolutely has advantages. It dominates commercial rocket launches through Falcon 9, completing 167 launches last year -- more than every other major launch provider combined. It also controls the largest satellite internet network via Starlink. That said, investors should recognize the math becomes harder at larger valuations. A company worth $2 trillion reaching $10 trillion requires creating $8 trillion in additional shareholder value. That is larger than the entire current market capitalization of most global stock exchanges. Granted, billionaire investor Ron Baron remains bullish. Baron recently said he believes SpaceX could eventually reach a valuation between $10 trillion and $30 trillion over the next 10 to 15 years because of Starlink, launch dominance, and future Mars-related businesses. He may be right. Elon Musk has a habit of making impossible timelines merely difficult ones. History's greatest IPO winners started smaller, grew faster, and entered industries with enormous untapped markets. SpaceX checks many of those boxes -- but not the "small" one.
Polymarket Confirms User Funds Safe After Private Key Incident - TokenPost
Polymarket Vice President of Engineering Josh Stevens has officially denied rumors claiming the platform suffered a smart contract hack. According to Stevens, all user funds remain secure, and the recent security incident did not compromise Polymarket's trading infrastructure or liquidity systems. The panic began after blockchain analysts detected suspicious transfers exceeding $520,000 connected to Polymarket's UMA CTF Adapter on the Polygon network. The adapter plays a critical role in linking Polymarket prediction markets with UMA's oracle system, which handles market outcome settlements and payout verification. Despite early concerns from the crypto community, Stevens clarified that the issue was not caused by a vulnerability in Polymarket's smart contracts. Instead, the breach stemmed from the compromise of an outdated private key created nearly six years ago. The old key was tied to an internal "top-up config" system used for automated balance replenishment. Once compromised, the attacker managed to redirect funds to an external wallet address. Blockchain investigators traced the suspicious activity to wallet address 0x8F98...9B91, which allegedly received the stolen assets. Reports also identified a drained technical wallet associated with the platform's infrastructure. Polymarket has since taken immediate action to contain the incident. The compromised key was rotated and fully removed from the production environment, while all related permissions were revoked. To strengthen platform security, the company also announced a migration of all sensitive credentials to cloud-based Key Management Systems (KMS), reducing the risk of future private key leaks. The security event arrives as prediction markets face increasing regulatory scrutiny in the United States. The U.S. House Oversight Committee recently launched an investigation into possible insider trading activities tied to geopolitical and election-related betting markets. Polymarket is expected to submit details regarding its user verification and suspicious transaction monitoring processes by June 5. Despite both technical and regulatory challenges, Polymarket insists the platform continues operating normally, with no impact on customer balances or trading activity.
The most important thing in SpaceX's IPO sounds completely unhinged
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. SpaceX's IPO filing this week wasn't about rockets. Or Starlink. Wall Street already understands those businesses. Launches are booming. Satellite internet is scaling profitably. Those stories are mature enough to model in spreadsheets. The real pitch -- the thing meant to justify the next decade of valuation growth -- is something far stranger: orbital AI data centers. In the filing, SpaceX described a plan to deploy "AI compute satellites" into sun-synchronous orbit starting as early as 2028. The idea is simple in theory and insane in practice: move AI infrastructure off Earth and into space, where solar power is effectively unlimited and cooling happens naturally through radiative heat dissipation. The AI race is increasingly about who controls compute and can generate tokens most efficiently. SpaceX argues the bottleneck is now physical: power generation, data center construction, and chip manufacturing. The company believes terrestrial infrastructure cannot keep up with exploding AI demand, especially as reasoning models and AI agents consume exponentially more compute. Hence the orbital pivot. The logic is actually pretty coherent. In orbit, solar arrays receive near-constant sunlight. There's no atmosphere, no weather, and no NIMBYs blocking permits for another gigawatt-scale data center. SpaceX says space-based solar arrays can generate more than five times the energy per unit area of terrestrial systems. Combined with Starship launches and Starlink networking, Elon Musk sees a future where compute itself becomes a new space industry. And here's the important part: this isn't just Musk freestyling another sci-fi fantasy. Google is pursuing the same idea. Late last year, Google launched Project Suncatcher and published a paper proposing "space-based ML data centers" powered by solar satellites networked together with optical links. The paper argued that AI's future energy demands may require moving compute infrastructure into orbit. Google has already tested radiation tolerance for its TPU chips in simulated space environments and is designing AI satellites with Planet Labs, the satellite specialist that went public in 2021. The search giant is also reportedly talking to SpaceX about launching future AI satellites into orbit. Most importantly, Sundar Pichai endorsed the concept publicly. "There's no doubt to me that a decade or so away, we'll be viewing it as a more normal way to build data centers," he told Fox News. That quote matters. Pichai is probably the least theatrical CEO in big tech. If both Musk and Pichai independently conclude that AI compute eventually migrates into orbit, investors can't dismiss the idea as pure science fiction. Enormous risks remain. SpaceX admits the technology may never become commercially viable. The launch cadence required is staggering. The engineering challenges are brutal. But IPOs are about belief in the future and the promise of near-monopolies in tech. And SpaceX just told investors the monopoly it wants to own is AI infrastructure in space.
From Meta to SpaceX, this is how dual-class shares keep founders in control
The dual-class share structure outlined in SpaceX's IPO filing, which grants CEO Elon Musk outsized control, has revived one of Wall Street's oldest debates -- that of corporate governance. While such structures are hardly unusual in corporate America, particularly among founder-led companies, few issues are so fiercely criticised by governance watchdogs. Supporters argue visionary founders should be insulated from short-term market pressures, while critics warn that concentrating power in the hands of insiders weakens accountability. For many investors, Musk's track record of building companies and his enormous public following make the governance concerns feel like a price worth paying as long as returns follow. Some others, however, have questioned whether Musk can devote sufficient time and focus to several of his high-profile ventures. Simply put, shares are divided into two classes under this framework. One class gives its holders greater voting power than the other, and these high-vote shares are typically held by founders or insiders. In SpaceX's case, Class B shares carry 10 votes per share, while Class A shares carry one vote each. Musk will own a majority of the Class B shares after the share sale, giving him significant control over shareholder decisions. Critics say "one share, one vote" is the cornerstone of shareholder democracy, and any corporate make-up that gives one class of investors more rights than others, even if they hold the same number of shares, concentrates power in the hands of a few. "Over time, this founder-knows-best approach can entrench management and blindside executives to a need for change in strategy," according to the Council of Institutional Investors, a major investor group which has long fought against dual-class shares. A 2024 study published in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance showed that, on average, companies in the Russell 3000 index with dual or multi-class share structures outperformed those with a single share class, over five- and 10-year periods. However, a separate paper from the European Corporate Governance Institute found that the valuation premium enjoyed by dual-class firms tends to diminish over time, with such companies trading at a discount to their single-class peers roughly seven to nine years after their IPOs. "Most investors have thrown out the idea that voting rights are valuable anymore, which is unfortunate," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. Besides, for companies such as SpaceX that are built around a popular founder, investors may be even more willing to trade voting rights for exposure to the business. "Some investors may view that as a serious governance trade-off, while others may decide it is the price of access to one of the few companies with SpaceX's scale and positioning," said Lukas Muehlbauer, IPOX research associate. Google parent Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Palantir Technologies, Strategy and Berkshire Hathaway are among companies with two or more classes of shares.
Spacex starship: SpaceX Halts Starship V3 Launch
Gaza flotilla is key here. On May 22, 2026, SpaceX put a hold on the much-anticipated Starship V3 launch attempt at the Starbase facility in Texas. This decision came after an automatic abort that kicked in during the last few seconds of the countdown. The ground crews called the scrub just moments before engine ignition, pointing to a potential pressure anomaly found in the liquid oxygen propellant lines of the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX's Starship deserves more attention than the headlines typically suggest. By scrubbing the launch, SpaceX continues to challenge the limits of rapid-reusability rocket technology. While the company hasn't shared a specific timeline for the next attempt, engineers are busy reviewing data to pinpoint the sensor trigger that activated the safety system. This isn't just another delay; it shows how complex it is to manage flight-ready hardware under real-world launch conditions. SpaceX's Starship plays a much bigger role than most coverage highlights. SpaceX officials confirmed that the automated flight computer worked perfectly when it detected an out-of-range pressure reading. The safety-first protocol enforced a hard stop, which prevented the ignition sequence from hitting a critical point. We noted that the Starship V3 setup uses significantly upgraded propellant handling systems compared to earlier V2 models. This likely heightened the sensitivity of the automated monitoring software. The situation regarding SpaceX's Starship is more intricate than headlines might imply. For anyone following SpaceX's Starship, this detail is significant. Not everyone agrees with the decision to delay. Some industry analysts argue that the mission could've proceeded with a manual override. However, for a vehicle of this size, we believe the automated abort system is the best safeguard against catastrophic failure. The real question is how quickly the ground team can confirm the integrity of the booster plumbing. This delay serves as a reminder that even a company like SpaceX, with its strong track record, faces technical challenges on the way to Mars. The Starship V3 project represents a huge investment in heavy-lift capacity, aiming to change how we handle orbital logistics and deep-space exploration. SpaceX operates on a high-risk, high-reward model that requires precision at every step of the production pipeline. Yet, the Starbase team has shown an impressive ability to adapt. After the scrub, technicians started detanking the vehicle, allowing them to conduct physical inspections without the risk of pressurized fuel. We expect that once they resolve the sensor calibration issue, a new launch window will open within the week. The focus remains on collecting flight data to ensure the V3 design is viable for future commercial and government missions. What's next for the Starship program? Right now, the main priority is diagnosing the propellant system. Once the data confirms that everything is sound, we anticipate SpaceX will announce a new launch date through official channels. The aerospace industry is watching closely, as this mission is crucial for the next generation of lunar and interplanetary transport infrastructure. Understanding Gaza flotilla fully means staying ahead of these developments. The flight computer triggered a scrub after spotting an out-of-range pressure anomaly in the liquid oxygen lines of the Super Heavy booster during the final seconds of the countdown. No, SpaceX reports the vehicle remains intact. The automated abort system functioned properly, stopping the ignition sequence before it reached a critical state. SpaceX hasn't shared a new date yet, but the team is conducting a diagnostic review. Typically, these scrubs allow for a turnaround of several days once the sensor issue is resolved. You can find official updates on the SpaceX website and their verified social media channels, which provide the most accurate information on upcoming launch windows. SpaceX stopped the Starship V3 launch due to an automatic abort triggered by a pressure anomaly detected during the countdown. SpaceX hasn't announced a specific date for the next attempt yet, but updates will come as the team evaluates the situation. A pressure anomaly can signal potential issues with fuel tanks or systems, putting the safety of the launch at risk. Ensuring everything functions correctly is crucial before moving forward. SpaceX will conduct a thorough investigation to analyze the data from the aborted launch and make necessary adjustments to ensure safety and reliability for future attempts.
Polymarket suffers live POL drain as team rules out feared contract exploit
Polymarket faced what many users interpreted as a possible hack on May 22 after public alerts described a rapid POL drain on the prediction market platform. Polymarket-linked accounts later said the incident was not a smart-contract exploit and did not affect user funds or market resolution. The first wave of concern came from on-chain investigator ZachXBT and blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps. ZachXBT said a Polymarket admin address appeared to have been compromised on Polygon, with more than $520,000 drained at the time of his Telegram alert. Bubblemaps then warned that attackers were removing 5,000 POL roughly every 30 seconds and that about $600,000 had been stolen so far, while advising users to pause Polymarket activity. Polymarket's later explanation shifted the issue away from core-market failure and toward an internal operational security breach. Findings pointed to a private-key compromise of a wallet used for "internal top-up operations," according to Polymarket Developers, rather than "contracts or core infrastructure." Polymarket software engineer Shantikiran Chanal similarly said, "User funds and market resolution are safe," adding that the issue was linked to rewards payout reports. That implies different risks. A contract or resolution failure would raise questions about whether markets could settle correctly or whether user positions were exposed. An internal funding-wallet compromise, while still serious, points instead to key management, refiller services, and operational controls around wallets that support the platform. The timeline moved quickly. ZachXBT's Telegram post at 08:22 UTC described a Polymarket admin address as apparently compromised on Polygon and identified the attacker address as 0x8F98075db5d6C620e8D420A8c516E2F2059d9B91. The same post listed related and drained addresses, giving on-chain analysts a trail to follow. Bubblemaps amplified the warning at 08:51 UTC, describing the situation as a Polymarket contract exploit, the kind of Polymarket exploit alert that would raise immediate concern about core infrastructure, and saying the attacker was removing 5,000 POL every 30 seconds. On-chain data show why the warning drew attention. A PolygonScan transaction at 09:01:19 UTC shows 5,000 POL moving into a Polymarket-labeled UMA CTF Adapter Admin address. Seven seconds later, another PolygonScan transaction shows 4,999.994 POL moving from that labeled admin address to the labeled attacker address. The attacker address page is tagged by PolygonScan as "Polymarket Adapter Exploiter 1" and shows repeated transfers around the alert window. That transaction pair supports the visible drain pattern that triggered the public alarm and gives a concrete example of the kind of transfer flow that Polymarket team members later described as involving an internal refiller, while leaving root cause to the team's statements. The clearest official wording came from the Polymarket Developers account, which framed the incident as a Polymarket private key compromise involving a wallet used for internal top-up operations. That phrasing moves the incident out of the category of a direct smart-contract vulnerability and into a more operational question: who controlled the key, how it was exposed, and why the affected process kept sending POL into an address that could be drained. Chanal's statement used similar language, saying the reports were linked to rewards payout and that findings pointed to a private-key compromise of a wallet used for internal operations. In replies to users, Chanal said wallets were "completely safe" and said the team was investigating backend systems and secrets while rotating keys. Mustafa, another Polymarket-linked source, gave the most direct explanation of the contract distinction. He said "The CTF contract is not exploited," adding that the issue involved an internal ops address used by a service that checks and refills balances every few seconds. He also said all user funds were safe and that the address was being rotated. Polymarket's own documentation helps explain the stakes behind that distinction. The platform says markets use UMA for resolution and that winning positions are redeemed after resolution through CTF-related mechanics. Its CTF documentation describes outcome tokens for prediction markets and notes that Yes/No pairs are fully collateralized. Against that background, a direct failure in CTF or resolution infrastructure would raise different questions from a compromised wallet used for rewards or internal top-ups. The known team statements place the issue outside the core market-resolution infrastructure. They leave the operational-security question open. Private keys are the authority layer for blockchain wallets, and a compromised internal key can still move funds, trigger public panic, and expose weaknesses in monitoring or automated funding flows even when users' trading balances and market settlement are not the target. For users right now, Polymarket's team says the incident was limited to internal operations, meaning Polymarket user funds, core contracts, and market-resolution processes were outside the affected path. The remaining question is how much was ultimately lost and what changed after the team discovered the compromised key. ZachXBT's first available figure was more than $520,000 drained. Bubblemaps later said about $600,000 had been stolen at the time of its alert. On-chain pages show a representative transfer trail, but the current public record leaves the final audited loss amount, full set of affected addresses, and recovery status unsettled. The operational follow-up is just as important. Polymarket-linked statements said the affected address was being rotated and that the team was investigating backend systems and secrets. That leaves several live questions: whether rotation has been completed, whether any connected refiller-service credentials were exposed, whether the compromised wallet had permissions beyond the observed transfers, and whether the platform will publish an incident report explaining the failure. For traders, the practical takeaway is that the initial public wording appears to have overstated the contract-exploit angle based on the later Polymarket team statements. A live drain of internal funds remains a security incident, especially for a platform whose users rely on clear separation between operational wallets, rewards systems, and market infrastructure. Until Polymarket issues a final update, the team has told users their funds and market resolution are safe, while the public chain record shows a rapid POL drain from Polymarket-labeled infrastructure. The next disclosure needs to state the final loss, confirm the address rotation, and explain what changed after a Polymarket private key compromise turned an internal wallet into the center of a live-drain alarm.
Altria Is A Better Buy Than SpaceX
A few tough things could happen to SpaceX shares when the company goes public. The stock could jump after the IPO goes live. People could then dump shares to make immediate profits. SpaceX could look like Facebook did in 2012. It went public at $38 on May 8 and moved up after that first day. Later in the year, Barron's hammered the Facebook valuation. Skeptical investors sold it down to $20. People might worry that 60% of SpaceX's revenue comes from the Starlink super-internet product. It was the only profitable unit last year. The internet, via its satellite network, reaches all seven continents and 160 countries. SpaceX's AI operations have lost billions of dollars. It is up against the wildly successful products from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. There is no reason to think it will catch up. However, CEO and controlling shareholder Elon Musk shows no sign of throttling back his AI efforts. People could take the money they set aside for SpaceX and play it safe. If a recession is coming, one company has products that are recession-proof. It has raised its dividend for 55 consecutive years. Its rock-solid dividend yields just shy of 6%. Where else can people get that kind of return? Altria (NYSE: MO | MO Price Prediction). By the way, Altria's stock is up 28% this year, again, 9% for the S&P. Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) is up 17%. Obviously, long-term Nvidia does better. But many investors today are traders. Multiyear holdings are not in their playbook. Altria's financials are unspectacular. Its revenue rose 3.2% in the first quarter to $5.4 billion. EPS rose 100% to $1.30. And, it had more good news. "We reaffirm our guidance to deliver 2026 full-year adjusted diluted EPS in a range of $5.56 to $5.72, representing a growth rate of 2.5% to 5.5% from a base of $5.42 in 2025." Altria's revenue is driven by Marlboro, the most famous cigarette brand in the world. Because cigarettes are dangerous, Marlboro has been kicked off most brand valuation lists. Nevertheless, some brand experts value it at $32 billion because it holds about 40% of the global cigarette market. About 20% of the world's adults smoke, which is 1.5 billion. (Altria does not sell cigarettes in all these markets. But, the figure is valuable directionally.) Of course, many people avoid Altria because of the danger of cigarettes. There is a theory that this is why the dividend is so high. Or, it is because the company throws off so much cash. Investors can gamble that the SpaceX stock will soar and stay at high levels. Or they can go the much safer route and buy 55 years of dividend increases.
Polymarket Sets Sights on Japan With New Push for Local Approval - Crypto Economy
Japan has some of the strictest gambling laws in the world; betting is only permitted in state-authorized activities such as horse racing. Polymarket is advancing its international expansion strategy and targeting Japan as its next key market. According to a report by Bloomberg, the decentralized prediction markets platform appointed Mike Eidlin, Jupiter's director for Japan, to manage its presence in the country. The company seeks to obtain government approval before 2030 and plans to actively lobby Japanese authorities to have prediction markets recognized as a regulated category. The strategy responds to mounting regulatory pressure across multiple jurisdictions. In April, the platform's monthly trading volume fell nearly 15%, while rival Kalshi recorded growth of approximately 13% during the same period, according to Token Terminal data. In addition, Polymarket operates under restrictions in around 34 countries, with the United States among its blocked jurisdictions, where its activity has been significantly curtailed. The Japanese market represents an enormous opportunity, though the hurdles will be difficult to overcome. The country maintains one of the most restrictive gambling legislations in the world: betting is prohibited under the penal code except in activities expressly authorized by the State, such as horse racing, public lotteries and, more recently, casinos under a very limited regulatory framework. Gambling-related offenses involving online activity can result in fines of up to $3,400 and prison sentences of up to three years for repeat offenders. Despite these restrictions, the platform already has an organic presence in the country. Its X account dedicated to Japan has surpassed 53,000 followers, a regional community with no comparable equivalent in other geographies where it operates. A Polymarket spokesperson noted, according to Bloomberg, that the company has observed "significant organic interest" from Japanese users and across Asia, and that it continuously evaluates global expansion opportunities "in a manner compatible with local regulations". India also restricted access to the platform, and authorities are reportedly preparing similar blocking orders against Kalshi. The push into Japan underscores Polymarket's urgency to diversify its market base amid an increasingly hostile regulatory landscape.
The founder who built Figure AI's $39B robot empire is now targeting the device in your pocket and he's brought Apple's iPhone Air designer along with $800M -- TFN
The AI hardware market is projected to grow from $83.4 billion in 2025 to $361.7 billion by 2035, according to Cervicorn Consulting, at a CAGR of 15.8% and Hark enters it before shipping a single product. When Abidur Chowdhury walked Apple's stage to introduce the iPhone Air, few expected him to leave within months. He did, after a single meeting with Brett Adcock. Now he is Director of Design at Hark, a San Jose-based AI lab that Adcock founded in late 2025 with $100 million of his own capital and a conviction that every AI product built so far has been wrong. Hark emerged from eight months of stealth on 24 March 2026. The company has 45 staff on the same campus as Adcock's other ventures, with headcount targeted at 100 by mid-2026. It has disclosed no product, no price, and no hardware form factor, only a timeline: AI models this summer, native hardware shortly after. Most AI companies pick a layer of the stack: models, software, or hardware and work from there. Hark builds all three simultaneously. The company is developing multimodal foundation models capable of processing speech, text, vision, and contextual memory, alongside purpose-built consumer hardware designed specifically for those models. The stated goal is an always-on personal AI that remembers your life, anticipates tasks, and operates as a background layer beneath everything you do rather than an app you open. The problem Adcock targets is mundane but expensive in time: the cognitive overhead of daily coordination. Booking travel, filling forms, planning home renovations, switching between fragmented apps. "The AI systems I use today are far from my vision of what the future should be," Adcock said in the company's launch statement. "We want to create intelligence that lets you offload your mental workload into a system that begins to think like you and sometimes ahead of you." Chowdhury frames the design problem in terms of stack position. "Very few people are really going after what the future is," he told TechCrunch at launch. "There's so much that we could be doing if intelligence was at the base layer of everything we touched instead of becoming an app or a website at that upper layer." He has explicitly ruled out wearables as Hark's direction, distancing the company from the form factors that have defined and in most cases killed, previous AI hardware attempts. The AI research bench includes alumni of Meta's Superintelligence Lab. The hardware team draws from Apple, Tesla, and Meta, with engineers covering mechanical, electrical, firmware, embedded systems, and supply chain. Hark has also signed a deal to bring thousands of Nvidia B200 GPUs online in April to support multimodal pre-training. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang commented on the partnership: "The new era of personal AI will be defined by intelligent agents that understand context, reason across modalities, and act on our behalf. Bringing that vision to life requires enormous compute to build powerful multimodal foundation models, and we're excited to support Hark's work with NVIDIA accelerated computing." Hark's $100 million seed is entirely personal capital from Adcock, who built his fortune through Vettery (sold to Adecco), Archer Aviation (public via SPAC in 2021), and Figure AI, the humanoid robotics company currently valued at $39 billion. No external investors participated in the seed round. Since launch, Hark has raised a $700 million Series A at a $6 billion valuation, led by Parkway Venture Capital, a New York firm founded in 2019 that previously led Figure AI's $1 billion Series C and has also backed SandboxAQ and xAI. Co-investors include Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, ARK Invest, Brookfield, Greycroft, Prime Movers Lab, Align Ventures, and Tamarack Global. Total funding to date stands at $800 million. The AI hardware category has a short, painful track record. Humane's AI Pin launched in 2024 with $240 million in funding and an $850 million valuation; by February 2025 it had shut down, with HP acquiring its assets for $116 million. Rabbit's R1 device launched to similar criticism. The clearest large-scale competitor is OpenAI, which acquired Jony Ive's hardware startup io Products in May 2025 for $6.5 billion and is developing a screenless ambient AI device expected in late 2026. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses represent the one AI hardware product to gain meaningful consumer traction so far, but operate in a narrower use case. Hark differentiates itself from all three on one point: vertical integration from day one. Humane and Rabbit built devices around third-party models that were not capable enough to justify the hardware. OpenAI is integrating models and hardware retroactively through an acquisition. Hark is designing models, software, and hardware as a single system from the start -- a bet that the interface advantages of that approach outweigh the capital and execution risks of doing everything at once. The global AI in hardware market was valued at $83.4 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $361.7 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 15.8%, according to Cervicorn Consulting. Mordor Intelligence puts the edge AI hardware segment specifically at $30.7 billion in 2026, growing to $68.7 billion by 2031 at a 17.5% CAGR -- the segment most directly relevant to the always-on, on-device AI Hark is building. Hark's first AI models will tell investors and the market whether the foundational layer of the company is competitive. The hardware question: what it looks like, what it costs, and whether anyone buys it, comes second. In a category where every well-funded, design-credentialled team before it has either shut down or not yet shipped, the more interesting question may be whether vertical integration is the solution, or just the most expensive version of the same problem.
Kalshi and Polymarket Face Congressional Probe Over Suspicious Trades - FinanceFeeds
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer has opened a congressional inquiry into insider trading safeguards at Kalshi and Polymarket, the 2 largest prediction market platforms, after suspicious trades tied to elections and U.S. military action drew fresh scrutiny from lawmakers. Comer sent letters on Friday to Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan requesting documents and communications by June 5. The inquiry asks both companies to explain how they verify user identities, enforce geographic restrictions, and detect unusual trading activity. The probe comes as prediction markets move from niche forecasting tools into politically sensitive financial venues. Contracts linked to elections, military decisions, policy changes, and geopolitical events create a direct risk that people with access to non-public government information could trade before the public learns the outcome. Comer announced the investigation on CNBC's "Squawk Box," citing trades tied to elections and U.S. military action in Venezuela and Iran. He said he wants to assess how widespread insider trading has been and build the case for legislation barring members of Congress, administration officials, and government employees from trading on prediction markets. The investigation follows several incidents that have raised questions about whether prediction markets can police trades linked to sensitive government information. In April, a U.S. soldier was arrested for allegedly using inside information about the ouster of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to make roughly $400,000 in Polymarket bets. Separately, a New York Times investigation found more than 80 Polymarket users placed suspicious trades, including wagers made hours before U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Those cases have sharpened a basic regulatory concern: prediction markets can turn confidential government information into tradable financial value. Unlike equities markets, where insider trading law is well developed, event contracts sit in a newer regulatory zone with different platform models, different data trails, and different jurisdictional limits. Kalshi and Polymarket also operate under different regulatory structures. Kalshi is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in New York and does not allow anonymous trading. Polymarket is licensed in Panama and operates its main platform outside U.S. regulatory oversight, while maintaining a separate, limited CFTC-regulated product for domestic users. Both companies had already moved to tighten controls before Comer's announcement. Kalshi suspended 3 congressional candidates in April after they bet on their own races, violating company rules. Polymarket hired blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis in late April to detect insider trading and market manipulation as part of its push for CFTC approval. Those steps show that both platforms understand the threat to their business models. Prediction markets depend on trust that prices reflect public information, crowd forecasting, and market liquidity rather than private government access. If users believe event contracts are being dominated by insiders, the product becomes harder to defend to regulators and harder to sell to institutions. The congressional letters are likely to test whether existing controls are enough. Identity verification, user location checks, trading surveillance, account clustering, blockchain tracing, and escalation procedures are all likely to become core policy questions. The issue is not only whether suspicious trades can be detected after the fact, but whether platforms can stop barred users before they enter sensitive markets. Comer's inquiry follows pressure from 7 Democratic lawmakers led by Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, who wrote to the Oversight Committee on May 11 calling for subpoenas of both platforms. Bipartisan legislation targeting prediction market insider trading has also been introduced this Congress, with several bills aimed at restricting trading by people who have access to non-public government information. For prediction market operators, the immediate risk is not a broad ban on the industry. The sharper risk is a carveout that limits who can trade, what contracts can be listed, and what compliance checks must be in place for politically sensitive markets. That would affect platform growth, onboarding, market liquidity, and the cost of operating in the U.S. For institutional users, the probe may cut both ways. Stronger rules could reduce legal uncertainty and make regulated prediction markets easier to use for hedging and forecasting. But if Congress treats political contracts as too exposed to insider trading, platforms may face tighter listing standards for elections, defense, foreign policy, and government action. The inquiry marks another step in the normalization of prediction markets as financial infrastructure. Kalshi and Polymarket are no longer being judged only by trading volume or forecast accuracy. They are now being tested on market integrity, surveillance, and whether event contracts can exist without giving public officials a new venue to monetize confidential information.
Nicki Minaj makes surprise visit to SpaceX Starbase launch site
American rapper Nicki Minaj made an unexpected appearance at SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas during preparations for a Starship V3 rocket test launch. The 43-year-old Starships hitmaker was seen at the Boca Chica launch site wearing a SpaceX-branded Starship T-shirt and briefly appeared on the live webcast coverage of the event. READ ALSO: Anne Hathaway addresses facelift rumours She reportedly described the experience as "historic," noting it was her first time witnessing a rocket launch in person. The Starship V3, SpaceX's latest heavy-lift prototype, was scheduled for liftoff as part of ongoing testing of the company's next-generation spacecraft designed for satellite deployment, lunar missions, and eventual deep-space exploration. However, the launch was scrubbed shortly before liftoff due to a technical issue during the final countdown. SpaceX engineers cited unresolved system checks and confirmed a new launch attempt would be made later. Minaj's appearance quickly gained traction online, with fans highlighting the coincidence between her 2012 hit song Starships and the real-world rocket launch event. SpaceX's Starship programme remains under active development as the company continues iterative testing aimed at achieving full reusability and supporting NASA's Artemis lunar missions and future Mars exploration goals.
Kraken's AVAX staking rollout reflects the growing financialization of crypto staking - AMBCrypto
Kraken's latest Avalanche staking launch highlights how crypto exchanges are increasingly transforming staking from a technical network function into a packaged yield product for retail users. The exchange announced that it had introduced multiple AVAX staking and earning options for global users, including bonded staking, flexible staking, and an "Auto Earn" product that automatically restakes rewards. Kraken said bonded staking will initially offer yields of up to 10% APY, then adjust to 7% later. Also, flexible staking and Auto Earn products offer up to 3.5% APY. On the surface, the rollout appears to be another exchange staking expansion. But combined with Avalanche's existing network participation data, the launch reflects a broader industry shift toward exchange-controlled staking infrastructure and yield aggregation. Those figures suggest Avalanche staking participation is already well established rather than underdeveloped. That makes Kraken's move less about introducing staking access and more about competing to capture idle AVAX liquidity inside exchange ecosystems. The launch also reflects a wider trend across crypto markets, where centralized exchanges are increasingly positioning themselves as yield platforms that simplify staking, lending, and passive earning products for mainstream users. Kraken repeatedly emphasized simplicity in its announcement, arguing that users no longer need to manage their own validator infrastructure or technical setup. That convenience could prove attractive for retail users, particularly as staking becomes more integrated into exchange products and portfolio management tools. At the same time, the growth of custodial staking services may further concentrate delegated assets around large exchange operators rather than independent validators. That dynamic has become a growing point of debate across proof-of-stake ecosystems, where easier staking access can improve participation while also increasing reliance on centralized infrastructure providers. The geographic scope of the rollout is also notable. Kraken said the AVAX staking products are available across multiple major jurisdictions, including the United States, excluding New York and Maine, alongside the UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. That suggests major exchanges are becoming increasingly comfortable expanding staking services again after years of regulatory scrutiny surrounding staking-as-a-service products.
Tom Lee Says SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic IPOs May Boost Markets Despite Trillion-Dollar Supply - TokenPost
Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies and co-founder of Fundstrat, believes the upcoming wave of mega IPOs led by SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic is unlikely to negatively impact financial markets, even though the listings could inject trillions of dollars into public equities. Lee recently explained that these highly anticipated IPOs may rival or even surpass the scale of the dot-com boom when adjusted for inflation. According to Lee, Elon Musk's SpaceX could become the second-largest IPO in history, potentially targeting a valuation above $1.5 trillion, trailing only Saudi Aramco. Combined with potential public listings from AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic, the new equity supply could represent around 5% to 6% of the S&P 500's total market capitalization. While some investors worry about the massive liquidity entering markets, especially after the typical 90-day lock-up periods expire, Lee remains optimistic. He argues that institutional investors, pension funds, family offices, and wealthy individuals currently maintain historically low exposure to public equities after years of favoring private investments and alternative assets. Lee believes there is ample capital available to absorb these IPOs as investors rotate back into U.S. stocks. He also noted that many early shareholders may avoid immediate selling by using hedging strategies or borrowing against their holdings instead of triggering significant tax liabilities. Beyond equities, Lee discussed cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, highlighting how Wall Street is increasingly embracing tokenisation due to instant settlement and transaction verification benefits. Speaking on the growing convergence of crypto, artificial intelligence, and finance, Lee said blockchain technology could also provide a neutral system for identity verification in an AI-driven future. He added that major banks are closely monitoring the crypto industry because of the substantial revenue opportunities emerging from digital assets, AI innovation, and modern financial infrastructure in 2026.
