[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | U.S. Reaches Agreement to Allow Iran’s Oil Exports and Announces Sanctions Waivers

Bipartisan U.S. senators urged the Treasury Department to ensure state authority to supervise stablecoins when drafting implementation rules for the GENIUS Act.

According to Odaily, a bipartisan group of senators led by Senator Cynthia Lummis sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, calling for the preservation of state supervisory authority over certain stablecoin issuers.

The GENIUS Act, signed into law last year, established a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States. The law requires stablecoins to be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similarly highly liquid assets, and mandates annual audits for issuers with market capitalizations exceeding $50 billion.

For stablecoin issuers with market capitalizations of $10 billion or less, the law allows state-level supervision if the state regulatory framework is substantially similar to federal requirements. The senators argued that the Treasury’s current draft rules do not clearly specify the timeline and standards for application, review, and certification of state regulatory regimes, creating uncertainty for individual states.

They emphasized that because legislative calendars vary by state, with some states meeting only every two years, a flexible and ongoing certification process is needed so states can apply whenever necessary.

According to PANews, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 3019, which includes the Digital Asset Tax Act.

The law imposes a 0.2% business tax on brokers that trade, transfer, or custody digital assets on behalf of customers in Illinois. It will take effect on January 1, 2027.

The state government expects the tax to generate approximately $60 million in annual revenue. The tax applies to digital asset-related business activity, not to investment gains.

The Illinois Digital Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Blockchain Association opposed the tax, arguing that it unfairly targets a specific asset class. Industry groups also claimed the measure could encourage crypto companies to relocate to other states.

Odaily, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that the United States will immediately allow the sale and export of Iranian oil and fuel under the agreement.

According to the report, the sanctions waiver for oil sales will take effect immediately after the agreement is signed this week, and transaction support services including banking, shipping, and insurance will also be exempted.

United Against Nuclear Iran said that a very large crude carrier loaded with Iranian oil departed Chabahar port and moved into the Gulf of Oman. This is said to be the first confirmed case since the United States imposed a maritime blockade in April this year.

A senior U.S. official said that while Iran will receive preemptive sanctions relief for oil sales, any long-term sanctions easing will depend on whether it reopens the strait and complies with demands related to its nuclear program.

A Saudi media outlet disclosed the contents of a 14-point memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.

The document includes provisions for an immediate and permanent end to the war, mutual respect for sovereignty, and negotiations toward a final agreement within 60 days.

According to Odaily, the United States agreed to immediately lift the maritime blockade on Iran, fully restore Iran’s shipping capacity within 30 days, and withdraw troops from areas around Iran within 30 days of a final agreement.

Iran, for its part, would take steps to restore commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to pre-war levels within 30 days. Under these terms, the Strait of Hormuz would also be reopened within 30 days depending on Iranian action.

The memorandum also states that the United States and regional partners would create a reconstruction and development plan for Iran and provide at least $300 billion in support. Under a final agreement, the United States would terminate sanctions on Iran, including those imposed through the UN Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and U.S. primary and secondary sanctions.

It also includes provisions for waivers on Iranian crude oil and petrochemical exports, as well as related banking, insurance, and shipping services until sanctions are fully lifted, and for the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian funds during the negotiation period.

Iran reaffirmed that it would not develop nuclear weapons, while issues related to enriched uranium and other nuclear matters would be addressed in the final agreement. The final agreement would be approved through a UN Security Council resolution.

PANews, citing an official announcement, reported that Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base will activate the Beryl hard fork on mainnet on June 26.

The upgrade includes the introduction of B20, Base’s native token standard; a reduction in the single-proof withdrawal finality period from seven days to five days; and implementation of Reth V2. The Reth V2 upgrade is expected to reduce disk usage by 50% and increase throughput by 33%.

B20 is an ERC-20 compatible token standard aimed at stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), and long-tail token issuers. It includes built-in compliance features such as transfer controls, freezing and seizure functions, role-based access control, memo support, and supply caps.

The Beryl upgrade will first go live on the Sepolia testnet on June 19 before being activated on mainnet on June 26.

Odaily reported that Coinbase unveiled a system upgrade including AI investment advisory, globally integrated liquidity, and options trading features.

The update includes integration of an SEC-registered AI investment advisory system into its main trading platform, liquidity connectivity between U.S. and international platforms, and stronger support for spot digital asset and derivatives trading.

On the consumer side, Coinbase added benefits tied to the Coinbase One Card. Users can stake between 500 and 5,000 USDC to obtain the card, and receive 5% Bitcoin cashback when making payments through a travel portal integrated with Booking.com.

Coinbase also said it is advancing thematic stock indexes, pre-IPO perpetual contracts, options trading, and developer platform improvements. The company has recently been expanding beyond digital assets into stocks, derivatives, and prediction markets.

Source: Odaily

PANews, citing SoSoValue data, reported that U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded total net inflows of $5,301,700 on June 16 (U.S. Eastern Time).

All of the day’s inflows went into the Franklin XRP ETF. The ETF’s cumulative net inflows reached $406 million.

As of the time of reporting, total net assets of spot XRP ETFs stood at $1.063 billion, and the XRP net asset ratio was 1.40%. Total cumulative net inflows reached $1.444 billion.

According to SoSoValue data, spot HYPE ETFs recorded total net inflows of $8.625 million on June 16 (U.S. Eastern Time).

By product, the Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP) received the largest inflow at $7.3554 million. Its cumulative net inflows reached $114 million.

The 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP) recorded daily net inflows of $1.2651 million, bringing cumulative net inflows to $61.4658 million.

Total net assets of spot HYPE ETFs stood at $234 million, with a net asset ratio of 1.44%, while cumulative net inflows totaled $180 million.

According to Odaily, Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base launched Base Privacy, a business-focused private transaction feature.

Base Privacy combines instant onchain settlement, transaction confidentiality, and built-in compliance tools to support enterprise clients.

Use cases include business-to-business payments, payroll, treasury management, stablecoin issuance, cross-border remittances, and broker settlement.

Base said the feature integrates with the Base ecosystem and can be configured to meet each enterprise’s specific needs.

According to PANews and CoinDesk, Ethereum developers are operating a developer network containing relevant EIPs ahead of the public testnet deployment of the Glamsterdam upgrade.

Ethereum Foundation core developer Paritosh Jayanthi said this stage is the final step to strengthen the codebase and prepare for the transition to public testnets. While no specific date has been set, the mainnet launch is expected in the second half of this year.

Glamsterdam is regarded as Ethereum’s most significant upgrade since the Merge. Its core components include EIP-7732, which incorporates block creation and proposal structure into the protocol, and EIP-7928, which introduces block-level access lists.

The upgrade will also include gas repricing. Costs for computation-heavy operations may decline, while state management costs could rise, potentially changing how the Ethereum network is operated.