Democratic investigators in the U.S. Senate alleged that USDT, a dollar-linked stablecoin, has become an important channel in Iran's shadow-banking system and asked the Treasury and Justice departments to examine whether Tether violated sanctions or banking laws. The report also highlighted links between Tether and the Trump administration, including business dealings involving Cantor Fitzgerald, whose family controls Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and the appointment of former White House Crypto Council head Bo Hines to lead Tether's U.S. business. The inquiry extends a broader Democratic investigation into Trump-linked crypto ventures, including TRUMP, World Liberty Financial and USD1. Separately, Ondo Perps CEO David Wells said U.S. perpetual futures (contracts without an expiry date) represent a major opportunity, although any American product would require different market, settlement and clearing structures. The developments come as regulators and firms test routes into the U.S. derivatives market, including CFTC-approved infrastructure, Hyperliquid products and single-stock perpetuals. NEAR Intents said it blocked $503,000 linked to the $388 million Bitget theft after filtering more than $50 million in attempted laundering flows. Other major developments included Coinbase Clearing's approval by the CFTC, Goldman Sachs' roughly $100 billion FTIXX Treasury fund joining Lynq, HashKey's planned 12-to-24-month acquisition focus, and new digital-asset licensing moves in Jamaica and Bhutan. Markets remained focused on inflation, oil prices, U.S. interest rates and crypto volatility, while a user said about 50 BTC deposited with Solv Protocol remained unavailable for redemption for more than two months.