Bitcoin Forms Painful Wyckoff Accumulation Pattern

According to crypto market expert NoName, Bitcoin is currently at a critical stage, with its market structure flashing warning signs of a potential price crash. In a Monday, 26 X post, the analyst cautioned that Bitcoin is now running one of the most psychologically brutal setups in financial markets, and that most investors may not be ready for what comes next.

NoName revealed that the emergence of the Wyckoff Accumulation suggests that large institutional players and whales may be deliberately keeping prices suppressed and chaotic. He said that the only purpose of this pattern is to shake out as many ordinary investors as possible before a major price rally. 

According to the analyst’s chart, Bitcoin has already completed the early stages of this painful pattern on the weekly chart. He declared that the Preliminary Support (PS), Selling Climax (SC), and Secondary Test (ST) have all been printed, meaning the foundation of the Wyckoff Accumulation structure is firmly in place. Already, the market is experiencing widespread selling pressure after recording a brief recovery in March and April. 

With the pattern now seemingly in place, NoName has called for one final Bitcoin price drop to $52,000 before the structure fully resets. This lower price point aligns with the Spring phase of the Wyckoff Accumulation theory, which signals a deliberate sharp move below support. This stage typically triggers stop losses, causes panic selling, and convinces the majority of investors and holders in the market that Bitcoin is heading much lower. 

Bitcoin Bottom Marked As Next Buying Opportunity

NoName’s analysis suggests BTC’s potential decline toward the projected cycle bottom below $52,000 is where smart money would likely step in aggressively. Personally, he noted that this is likely where he would begin accumulating without hesitation, marking the area as a prime buying opportunity. 

The $52,000 bottom is also not seen as a complete price breakdown, but a short-term decline before the real Bitcoin move begins. If the full Wyckoff Accumulation structure plays out as mapped on the analyst’s chart, then the next move could easily take the BTC price through its Last Point of Support (LPS), marked around the $76,000 range. After this, the cryptocurrency is expected to enter the Sign of Strength (SOS) breakout phase, where its price could skyrocket toward $110,000. 

XRP Volatility On Binance Keeps Traders On Edge

After XRP’s persistent negative price action, the pressure is now being felt across cryptocurrency exchanges across the sector. However, in this scenario, Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, continues to stand out as the most impacted trading platform by this bearish performance.

As traders navigate erratic market conditions and fluctuating momentum, trading activity related to XRP on Binance continues to be extremely volatile. While Binance’s trading activity sees heightened volatility, the price of XRP was stabilizing near the $1.30 level at the time of the post.

Looking at the XRP Perp-Spot Volume Imbalance Z-Score, the metric has now reached 0.54, along with the Z-Score indicator rising to nearly 0.95, which reflects a noticeable increase in activity relative to previous averages. With this, uncertainty is building across the market, which poses a risk of a further corrective phase.

The volume imbalance positioning at around 0.54 indicates that trading volumes in perpetual contracts have become significantly higher compared to past periods of normal activity. This trend signals an increase in traders entering short-term positions and a rise in leverage usage.

A reading of this kind is not considered low, but it points to a market that has started to experience stronger activity in comparison to previous moments of relative calm. As for the Z-Score value nearing 0.95, Arab Chain highlighted that this implies that the current activity has become higher by nearly a full standard deviation compared to its usual average. 

Furthermore, this positioning indicates that the market is beginning to exit its normal balance state and move into a phase of unusual activity when compared to previous periods. When this Z-Score value moves closer to 1 or exceeds it, the current momentum strength becomes more pronounced and impactful.

Traders Returning To Speculative Activity

Data show a persistent move into the negative zone prior to the metric’s recent return to the positive zone, indicating a steady improvement in risk appetite. It also underscores the return of traders to speculative activity after a period of calm or reduced market participation. 

In contrast, Arab Chain noted that XRP’s price has not yet moved with the same intensity as the indicator, as it remains close to the $1.34 to $1.45 range for most of the observed period.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $1.31 after falling by over % over the past day. Despite ongoing waning price action, CW reported that buying of long positions is appearing following the short closing. This is a sign that real upward pressure is emerging and is increasing further.

Ripple Requests SEC To Provide Clarity On Stablecoins and Tokenized Securities

In a letter addressed to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, Ripple requested clarity on stablecoins and tokenized deposits and offered suggestions on how the Commission could proceed. Firstly, the crypto firm cited the need for clarity on the treatment of stablecoins as collateral and suggested that the Commission amend Rule 15c3-1 to clarify how stablecoins can be properly applied on balance sheets. 

Furthermore, Ripple demanded clarity on the requirements for custodying clients’ stablecoins and suggested that the SEC amend Rule 15c3-3 to define the category of “Qualified Payment Stablecoins.” The firm also asked the Crypto Task Force to clarify that crypto asset non-securities, aside from Bitcoin and Ethereum, can receive equivalent treatment. Ripple alluded to the SEC’s recent guidance, which classified other major cryptos as commodities alongside BTC and ETH. 

To achieve this, Ripple suggested that the SEC revise Question 4 in the FAQ relating to crypto asset activities to account for any non-securities that meet the readily marketable definition. The firm further asked the Commission to provide an analysis that illustrates how a 2% haircut for stablecoins remains punitive. They suggested that stablecoins should have 0% haircut, provided there is a mint-burn relationship between the broker-dealer and issuer. 

Lastly, Ripple asked the SEC Crypto Task Force to clarify which registry of ownership, whether off-chain or on-chain, takes precedence to determine ownership and legally enforceable rights. The firm urged the Task Force to designate the on-chain registry as the single authoritative legal register, thereby eliminating the dual-registry ambiguity that arises in digital twin structures. 

Ripple mentioned in the letter that the response was a follow-up to their March 20 meeting with the SEC Crypto Task Force. The firm further revealed that they had discussed the treatment of payment stablecoins and tokenized securities under the net capital and consumer protection rules, as well as potential next steps toward broader guidance. 

Ripple CEO Says Anti-Crypto Army Has Been Defeated

In an X post, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the anti-crypto army was defeated by the courts, the voters, and U.S. President Donald Trump. He noted how the crypto witch hunt never made “policy, legal, or political sense.” He added that combating financial innovation only helped protect those who wanted to keep the old, often broken, system in place. 

Garlinghouse was reacting to a post by President Trump in which he called out former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the anti-crypto army for nearly destroying the American crypto industry. The president also vowed that his administration will codify the CLARITY Act, which cannot be undone by the “crypto haters.”

That figure, cited by analyst Darkfost, captures the strain building across the market as big players pull back from buying and demand shows little sign of recovery.

A Slow Exit By The Biggest Players

Whale-sized accounts — those holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC — have seen their annual balance growth turn negative, according to CryptoQuant.

Monthly growth across that cohort has been essentially flat since February, a pattern the on-chain analytics firm says mirrors what happened during the 2022 bear market, when prices dropped sharply over several months.

Slightly smaller but still significant holders, known as dolphins, hold between 100 and 1,000 BTC and include exchange-traded funds and corporate treasury accounts.

Their balances are still growing on an annual basis, but the pace has dropped sharply, with monthly growth now hovering near zero and readings posting lower highs since September 2025.

CryptoQuant says these two groups together form the backbone of structural demand in Bitcoin markets, which makes their slowdown hard to ignore.

Long-Term Holders Pile Up, But Buyers Are Missing

One figure stands out as deceptively optimistic: long-term holder supply has climbed to a record 15.8 million BTC. On its face, that sounds like conviction. But CryptoQuant reads it differently — as a sign that existing holders are sitting tight while new buyers stay away, leaving the market without the fresh demand needed to push prices higher.

Tim Sun, a researcher at HashKey Group, says the share of supply sitting at an unrealized loss has at times approached 50%, a level not seen since the depths of the 2022 downturn.

He puts the absolute bottom range at $40,000 to $45,000, though he considers $55,000 to $60,000 a more realistic floor — provided the situation between the US and Iran does not worsen and the Federal Reserve holds off on rate hikes.

BTC continues to trade back and forth within a distribution cluster between $66,000 and $80,000, where buyers and sellers are still battling for control.

This remains a difficult environment for investors to navigate, with euphoria emerging whenever BTC approaches the upper end… pic.twitter.com/8Zr96tDiJ0

— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) May 28, 2026

Sun is clear that a genuine turnaround depends on more than price action alone. A definitive shift toward easier monetary policy and looser financial conditions would need to come first, he said.

Crypto analyst Darkfost described the current market as a difficult range to trade, with excitement building each time Bitcoin nears the upper end and pessimism returning just as fast as it drifts lower. At prices around $73,510, the data paints a picture of a market still searching for a floor.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Alderoty said Ripple’s role in that shift is tied to its enterprise focus. He described the company as a provider of crypto infrastructure for large and medium-sized businesses looking to add payments, custody, tokenization, liquidity or treasury management capabilities. Ripple, he said, has become “a one-stop shop” for enterprises adopting crypto into their platforms.

Ripple CLO Says Crypto Has Hit Mainstream America

The broader argument, however, centered on the NCA’s latest State of Crypto Holder Report. Alderoty said the association partnered with Harris Poll for the second year in a row and surveyed 40,000 Americans, a sample size he called “enormous” for this type of research.

“We found that 67 million Americans today own or use crypto,” Alderoty said. “So, crypto is no longer a niche product. I think it is creeping more into the mainstream.”

The report also found that 12 million more Americans entered the crypto economy over the past year, based on the comparison between the 2025 and 2026 State of Crypto Holder reports. Alderoty said that growth is not concentrated in the industry’s older stereotypes of Silicon Valley engineers, financial technologists or “crypto bro” early adopters.

Instead, he pointed to a broader demographic spread. “That growth is coming from women,” Alderoty said. “It’s coming from construction workers. It’s coming from manufacturing employees.”

For the Ripple CLO, that matters because it suggests crypto adoption is becoming less geographically and culturally concentrated. He said the NCA’s website includes an interactive map showing where crypto holders live across the United States, including state-level and congressional district-level data. The takeaway, he argued, is that crypto holders are distributed across the country rather than clustered in a few technology or finance hubs.

Alderoty also tied the adoption trend to the increasing overlap between traditional finance and crypto. He said users are no longer being forced into a binary choice between digital assets and legacy financial services. Instead, he argued, the two are beginning to merge inside familiar financial apps and consumer interfaces.

“It’s not an either or,” the Ripple CLO said. “It’s not where you either use crypto or use traditional financial services. I think we are now in a world where we’re using both, and both are becoming interchangeable and interoperable.”

That interoperability, in his view, will define the next phase of adoption. Alderoty compared the process to the smartphone transition, arguing there was no single moment when consumers collectively abandoned flip phones. The change happened incrementally because the technology became useful enough to fade into daily life.

He said crypto may follow a similar path as traditional finance platforms make digital assets available through products that consumers already use. In that model, crypto does not need to announce itself at the point of sale. It becomes one more funding source inside a broader financial stack.

“I’m going to be able to show up at the Walmart checkout registry and use my OnePay app,” Alderoty said. “And I can set that OnePay app to say, ‘Do I want to pay in cash? Do I want to pay using my debit card? Do I want to pay using my credit card? Or do I want to pay using my crypto wallet?’ And that transaction will be sort of all happening behind the scenes.”

The Ripple CLO added that consumers would not need to make “some big announcement” that they are paying with crypto. Instead, he said, it could become as seamless as tapping with Apple Pay.

The NCA report also broke down adoption by age. Alderoty said 18% of new holders are between 18 and 24, while 28% of holders are older than 55. That split gives the report a wider generational signal: younger users are entering a financial world where crypto already exists as part of the product suite, while older users are also adopting the technology rather than sitting outside the market.

Alderoty said the industry remains young at roughly 15 years old, but argued that Gen Z, millennials and Gen X users will increasingly treat crypto as a normal part of finance.

“They’re never going to grow up in a world where crypto was not part of the financial suite of products that they can use,” he said.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.32.

A Fabricated Deal Sets Off The Selloff

The chaos started when Iranian state television reported that Tehran and Washington had agreed on a memorandum of understanding to ease months of conflict.

The draft reportedly called for restoring commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz within a month, a US troop pullback from Iran’s immediate surroundings, and the lifting of a naval blockade.

Iran’s broadcaster acknowledged the measure was still unofficial. Reports note that Tehran said it would not proceed without what it called “tangible verification,” and that a final agreement could be taken to the UN Security Council within 60 days if talks moved forward.

Markets Move On Mixed Signals

Bitcoin had been trading above $75,000 before the story broke. According to Coingecko data, prices slid to a daily low of $73,200 before clawing back slightly to around $75,115 — still down about 1% on the day.

The White House wasted no time dismissing the report. Officials said the MoU that Iranian state media released was “a complete fabrication,” and warned that nobody should take Iranian state media claims at face value.

US President Donald Trump went further, saying the US was not satisfied with any deal Iran had put forward. That statement landed hard on markets already rattled by conflicting signals from both sides.

Washington Shuts The Door

The broader backdrop feeding the market reaction involves months of conflict that have already disrupted shipping in the Gulf region, raising fears about energy supplies and financial stability globally.

Reports indicate the current tensions trace back to fighting between Iran and Israel earlier this year, which pulled US forces deeper into the region.

Any genuine ceasefire or trade corridor agreement would have carried real economic weight — which is why even an unverified report moved prices as sharply as it did.

The episode underscores just how sensitive crypto markets have become to geopolitical developments, particularly ones that touch global shipping and energy supply chains.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Speaking in a Bernstein presentation excerpt dated May 27, 2026, Sprecher said ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has been watching Hyperliquid closely as the decentralized platform moves into markets historically dominated by traditional venues. He said he had met with the Hyperliquid team several times to discuss what the platform is building, what ICE is doing, and where the two may have overlapping interests.

Hyperliquid Gets Major Wall Street Nod

“First of all, we know them well, and I’ve met with them a number of times personally and to talk about what they’re doing, what we’re doing, where there may be some common overlap that we can work on,” Sprecher said. “They have gotten attention because they’ve been trading oil on the weekends when our traditional oil markets are closed. And it just so happens in this time of conflict in the Middle East, there has been a lot of activity that happens, a lot of decisions and things happen on the weekend.”

That weekend activity, he said, has made Hyperliquid relevant not only as a crypto venue but as a source of off-hours price discovery for markets that still operate on more limited traditional schedules. ICE’s response, according to Sprecher, will not be to keep oil markets open through the entire weekend after pushback from major oil companies. Instead, he said ICE plans to extend trading very late on Friday and reopen very early on Monday, effectively narrowing the window in which traditional oil markets are closed.

Sprecher framed the issue as a “wake-up call” for the industry. Many institutional energy clients, he said, are not trading on blockchain-based foreign venues and may not be permitted to do so under internal controls. Still, they are watching the activity and the prices formed there.

“They’re all watching it, and they’re watching the price discovery,” Sprecher said. “And whether they admit it or not, it is being part of the zeitgeist of when our markets do open, really early on Monday.”

The ICE chief also focused on Hyperliquid’s broader market structure. He described the platform as “a true DeFi exchange” that settles on blockchain rails, uses stablecoins and has attracted market makers and early adopters who would otherwise be active in traditional markets. He also highlighted the risks attached to its leverage model.

“It is on a blockchain. It is settled with stablecoins, algorithmically settled. It has very high margining. You can have up to 100:1 leverage, which is part of the allure.”

Sprecher said the platform’s listing of a derivative tied to SpaceX could become a test case for whether private-market price discovery on a DeFi venue matters to the broader financial system. He said market participants and regulators would soon be able to judge whether the price formed on Hyperliquid was “irrelevant” or “highly relevant” once the company goes public, according to the excerpt.

The most striking part of Sprecher’s remarks came near the end of the exchange, when he openly praised Hyperliquid’s builders and compared the platform’s scale to Nasdaq, though the excerpt did not specify the metric behind that comparison.

“I love that. I wish I was younger and doing it,” Sprecher said. “By the way, the number of billionaires that are being created doing this. This Hyperliquid that we’re talking — if you haven’t heard about it, it’s bigger than Nasdaq, okay? It’s 11 people.”

That tension is already visible in Washington. Before Sprecher’s Bernstein remarks surfaced, ICE and CME pressed US officials to scrutinize Hyperliquid’s role in offshore, oil-linked trading, arguing that anonymous 24/7 markets could affect price discovery in commodities and create risks around manipulation or sanctions evasion.

Hyperliquid has pushed back on that framing, arguing that continuous onchain markets reduce rather than increase market risk. The split leaves Sprecher’s comments with a sharper edge: ICE may admire what Hyperliquid has built, but the platform’s rise is also forcing legacy exchanges to decide whether to compete with crypto-native market structure, lobby against it, or try to absorb parts of it into regulated venues.

At press time, HYPE traded at $61.526.

Why Traditional Finance Is Winning The Crypto Payments Race

Grocery runs and restaurant bills are now among the most common uses for crypto-linked cards, according to data from OKX’s European card product. In January, supermarket purchases made up over a quarter of all transactions on the OKX card, followed by restaurants at 18% and online shopping at 13%.

The numbers point to something bigger happening in the payments space. Monthly transaction volume on crypto-linked debit and credit cards has jumped 230% from a year ago, with cumulative volume reaching $7.8 billion this month, based on data from The Kobeissi Letter, a market research publication.

BREAKING: Cumulative crypto card payment volumes have reached a record $7.8 billion, with monthly volumes now up +230% since May 2025.

Crypto card adoption has rapidly accelerated in 2026 due to growing access to stablecoins as a payment rail through crypto cards.

In other… pic.twitter.com/nLIW0QCkys

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 27, 2026

Stablecoins Driving The Surge

Stablecoin access is widely credited for accelerating the trend. More cardholders can now spend dollar-pegged digital assets in place of traditional currency, pushing adoption at a faster pace than in previous years.

The Kobeissi Letter put it plainly: crypto card adoption has rapidly picked up in 2026 because more people can spend stablecoins the way they spend cash. The cards are running on familiar payment networks — not replacing them.

Visa holds a commanding position in this space, capturing roughly 90% of crypto card transaction volume through partnerships with blockchain-native companies. One of those partners is Jupiter Global, the payments project tied to the Jupiter decentralized exchange on the Solana network.

OKX launched its stablecoin card for European customers in January, operating on the Mastercard network. That card’s spending data offers a ground-level view of how people are actually using digital assets in everyday life.

Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Chile are among the countries already included in the Visa-Bridge rollout. Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East are next, reports say, with expansion targeted before the year is out.

The broader picture shows crypto payments finding a place in daily transactions without sidelining the companies that have long dominated the industry. Visa and Mastercard are not being pushed out — they are the ones carrying the new rails.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

SoFi Has Made Its Stablecoin Available On Its Retail Banking App

As announced in a press release, SoFi Technologies has rolled out its stablecoin to the official SoFi banking app, which hosts a userbase of nearly 15 million members. SoFi, short for Social Finance, is a financial technology company based in the United States that operates as a direct bank with a national charter.

In December, SoFi launched a stablecoin called SoFiUSD, becoming the first national bank in the US to issue a stablecoin on a public blockchain. Back then, the token was only available for internal settlement activity and institutions/developers, with the firm noting that broader availability would arrive in the coming months. That launch finally appears to be here.

SoFi members can now buy, sell, and hold SoFiUSD directly within the app. “This marks the first time that a U.S. national bank-issued stablecoin is available directly on a banking app,” said the announcement.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that have their value pegged to a fiat currency. As SoFiUSD’s name suggests, it’s a token backed by the US Dollar, which is the most in-demand currency for these digital assets. Currently, the cryptocurrency is available on Ethereum and Solana, two of the most-used networks for transactions.

Anthony Noto, SoFi CEO, said:

People no longer have to choose between blockchain technology and regulated banking products. With SoFiUSD, we’re giving our members a single place to buy, hold, and pay with digital assets in the same app they already use to save, spend, borrow, and invest.

SoFiUSD isn’t SoFi Technologies’ first foray into the digital-asset sector. As reported by Bitcoinist, the bank became the first of its kind to offer cryptocurrency trading to US customers back in November.bToday’s launch isn’t the end of SoFi’s digital-asset journey, either, as the announcement revealed that it’s only the first phase of a broader roadmap to integrate stablecoin utility across the bank’s ecosystem.

In the next few weeks, the FinTech platform is planning to allow members to convert SoFiUSD to tokenized deposits, offer 24/7 global mobility via the blockchain, and release its stablecoin on its first centralized exchange partner, Bullish.

The press release also noted that networks beyond Ethereum and Solana are planned for the stablecoin, although it’s not yet known which blockchains will be supported or when a rollout will occur.

Ethereum Has Declined Under The $2,000 Level

The cryptocurrency market has suffered a bearish blow during the past day, and Ethereum, the second-largest token by market cap, has been among the worst performers out of the top coins.

After a drop of more than 4% during the last 24 hours, ETH has slipped below $2,000 for the first time since late March.

The cryptocurrency now trades just above the $74,500 support band, a level that aligns with the lower boundary of its 21-day Donchian channel.

A Pattern Taking Shape

Repeated failures to break past the $80,000 to $81,000 range have left a head-and-shoulders pattern forming on the daily chart.

The most recent lower high, set near $78,000, now sits as the right shoulder of that setup. A daily RSI reading below 50 adds to the bearish lean, reflecting limited strength during recent price recoveries.

On May 18, miners moved roughly 21,000 BTC to Binance — the second-largest such transfer this year, trailing only the 23,150 BTC sent on February 5.

Analyst Amr Taha flagged the move, noting that large miner deposits to exchanges typically signal potential selling as miners convert holdings to cover operating costs.

Demand Failing To Keep Pace

Despite the surge in supply hitting the exchange, the price reaction stayed relatively calm. Binance’s total BTC reserves climbed from about 618,600 on May 6 to nearly 634,000 by May 26, yet no aggressive sell-off followed.

The more pressing concern may not be miner activity at all. Glassnode data shows spot volume delta slipping back into net sell-side territory after Bitcoin was rejected near the low $80,000s.

Without a return of spot buying, the market risks slipping back into the choppy, seller-dominated conditions that capped prices earlier in the year.

The realized profit/loss ratio currently stands at 1.56 — well below the two to five range associated with stronger bull market conditions. That reading points to moderate buying conviction at best during the recent price bounce.

$75,000 Becomes The Line

The $74,500 to $75,000 zone is now being watched closely across multiple analytical frameworks. Adler identifies $74,500 as critical support, while technical analysis places the same area at the neckline of the broader chart pattern.

A confirmed break below that level would expose the next major support near $70,400. For now, the market is holding — but the balance of supply, weak demand, and a deteriorating momentum picture has put that hold under serious strain.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin’s Exchange Reserve across all exchanges has fallen to 2,666,753 BTC. The last time that specific reserve level was recorded was August 31, 2019 — when Bitcoin was trading at approximately $9,430. Today, Bitcoin trades near $77,300. The same exchange inventory reading. Approximately eight times the price.

That comparison creates an immediate and important question. Two identical exchange reserve readings at dramatically different price levels describe two fundamentally different market structures — different participant compositions, different institutional presence, different regulatory environments, and different on-chain dynamics surrounding the same supply number. The reserve figure is the same. Almost nothing else about the two moments is.

The CryptoQuant analyst uses a second indicator alongside the reserve data to capture what the raw number cannot — the Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator, which characterizes the structural regime surrounding each reserve reading and determines whether the same supply level carries the same forward implication in 2026 as it did in 2019.

Same Supply Level But Two Very Different Market Regimes

The CryptoQuant analysis places the identical exchange reserve readings side by side and reveals the structural divergence that makes the comparison as alarming as it is instructive. In August 2019, the Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator stood at +0.83, with the 30-day moving average at +1.045 — readings firmly in bull territory that confirmed the demand context surrounding the supply constraint. Bitcoin leaving exchanges in 2019 was occurring against a backdrop where the cycle structure supported the thesis that reduced available supply would meet genuine buying interest.

In May 2026, the same indicator reads -0.379, with the 30-day moving average at -0.375 and the 365-day moving average at -0.323. The current exchange reserve level is identical to 2019. The cycle regime surrounding it is the opposite.

The analytical framework the report establishes is precise. Declining exchange reserves reduce the inventory available for immediate sale — that supply dynamic is constructive regardless of the cycle context. But supply constraints alone do not drive prices higher. Demand must arrive to meet the reduced available supply before the constraint translates into price appreciation. In 2019, the bullish cycle structure provided that demand confirmation. In 2026, it has not yet appeared.

The structural variable that separates 2026 from every previous exchange reserve comparison is the spot Bitcoin ETF. Approved in January 2024 and representing a category of demand that did not exist in August 2019, ETF inflows have been a persistent feature of the declining reserve environment throughout the entire post-approval period. That structural buyer changes the demand equation in ways the 2019 comparison cannot fully capture.

Whether ETF demand is sufficient to bridge the gap between the current supply constraint and the demand confirmation that the Bull-Bear Indicator has not yet delivered is precisely what the current market setup is testing — and what the next phase of Bitcoin’s price action will begin to answer.

Bitcoin Bears Retake Short-Term Control

Bitcoin has fallen below the critical $75,000 region, confirming a significant loss of momentum after weeks of struggling beneath major resistance near the $80,000–$82,000 zone. The daily chart now reflects a market transitioning from consolidation back into defensive positioning, with sellers regaining short-term control after repeated failed breakout attempts throughout May.

Technically, the breakdown below the $73,500–$74,000 support cluster is an important deterioration in structure. That zone had acted as the foundation for the April recovery and aligned closely with the rising 100-day moving average, making it one of the most important support areas on the chart. Bitcoin is now trading beneath that level, while the 50-day moving average has started curling downward again after briefly stabilizing during the recovery phase.

The rejection from the declining 200-day moving average near $80,000 also reinforced the broader macro weakness still dominating the market. Bulls were unable to reclaim long-term trend resistance, and the failure triggered another wave of downside pressure that accelerated once short-term support gave way.

The next major demand zone now sits near the $65,000–$66,000 region, where buyers aggressively defended price during the February capitulation event. Volume has started increasing slightly during the latest decline, suggesting market participation is rising again as uncertainty expands.

Unless Bitcoin can quickly reclaim the lost $74,000 region, the broader structure now favors continued downside pressure and prolonged volatility rather than immediate recovery continuation.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

In a Truth Social post highlighted by Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, Trump framed the issue as a reversal of the Gary Gensler era and a bid to make US crypto policy harder for future regulators to unwind. Terrett said the post marked the first time Trump had publicly weighed in on market structure since March, making the timing notable after the Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act earlier this month.

“Gary Gensler and the ‘Anti-Crypto Army’ nearly DESTROYED the American Crypto Industry by driving Bitcoin, Crypto Perpetuals, and INNOVATION offshore, but ‘TRUMP’ SAVED IT. America is now the CRYPTO CAPITAL of the WORLD, and Builders and Entrepreneurs are coming BACK to the United States where they belong. Under my Leadership, we will codify a FUTURE-PROOF Digital Asset Market Structure that cannot be undone by the Crypto Haters.”

NEW: President Trump says his administration is building a “future-proof” digital asset market structure that can’t be undone by “crypto haters.”

This marks the first time the president has publicly weighed in on crypto market structure since March. pic.twitter.com/7FNN06Vasy

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) May 27, 2026

The post was quickly echoed by CFTC Chairman Mike Selig, who wrote that, “Thanks to @POTUS’ leadership, America is the Crypto Capital of the World. Bitcoin, Crypto Perpetuals, and INNOVATION are Coming to America.”

In Washington, “market structure” is shorthand for the legal architecture that determines whether crypto assets are treated as securities or commodities, which agencies supervise them, and how trading platforms, brokers, dealers, custodians and issuers are regulated. For crypto markets, the stakes are substantial: the framework would shape registration pathways, disclosures, custody rules, consumer protection, AML obligations and market integrity standards.

The broader policy direction has been visible since Trump’s Jan. 23, 2025 executive order, which called for support for digital asset growth, self-custody, public blockchain access, dollar-backed stablecoins, fair banking access and clearer jurisdictional lines between regulators. The White House’s July 2025 digital asset working group report later recommended that Congress build on CLARITY by giving the CFTC authority over spot markets for non-security digital assets, while directing the SEC and CFTC to clarify rules for registration, custody, trading and recordkeeping.

The stablecoin leg of that agenda has already become law. Trump signed the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025, with the White House describing it as the first federal regulatory system for stablecoins. The law includes 100% reserve backing with liquid assets such as dollars or short-term Treasuries, monthly public reserve disclosures, marketing restrictions and priority claims for stablecoin holders in insolvency.

The unresolved fight is the broader market-structure package. The House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, in July 2025 by a bipartisan 294–134 vote. The Senate Banking Committee advanced its version on May 14, 2026, in a 15–9 vote, sending the bill toward the Senate floor. The committee vote drew support from two Democrats, though those lawmakers did not commit to backing the final bill.

Crypto’s CLARITY Act Heads Toward Senate Fight

The Senate version would create a category for ancillary assets, require initial and semiannual disclosures for certain transactions, and introduce a “Regulation Crypto” exemption from SEC registration for some ancillary asset offerings. It would also treat digital commodity brokers, dealers and exchanges as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, bringing AML programs, customer identification and due diligence into the framework.

Trump’s reference to “crypto perpetuals” points to another piece of the agenda: bringing offshore derivatives activity into regulated US venues. Selig said in January that perpetual contracts had become widely used for risk management and price discovery, while arguing that the previous administration failed to create an onshore pathway for those products. He also said the CFTC would explore rules for leveraged, margined or financed retail crypto commodity transactions and a possible new registration category for retail leveraged trading.

The bill still faces opposition. Critics have argued that AML provisions are too weak, that political officials should be restricted from profiting from crypto ventures, and that expanded CFTC authority may not fully address investor-protection concerns traditionally handled by the SEC. Bank groups have also focused on stablecoin-yield language, warning that crypto firms could compete for deposits through rewards on stablecoin balances.

The timing is becoming a legislative risk in its own right. The CLARITY Act has cleared the Senate Banking Committee, but it has not yet secured a full Senate vote, and any final package still has to survive unresolved fights over AML rules, stablecoin rewards, political-conflict provisions and the division of authority between the SEC and CFTC.

The bill also has to fit into a shrinking Senate calendar, with lawmakers facing summer recess, a fall campaign break and the Nov. 3 midterm elections. That leaves a narrowing window for Republicans and pro-crypto Democrats to turn committee momentum into final passage before election politics make a complex market-structure bill harder to move.

At press time, the total market cap stood at $2.43 trillion.

The signal the analyst has identified is not one that typically appears in mainstream market commentary — but its implications for Ethereum’s short-term supply dynamics are direct and measurable. Recent on-chain data suggests that Ethereum’s failed transaction count may be experiencing an upward trend. At the same time, exchange inflows appear to be showing a slight but gradual increase alongside that trend.

Failed transactions on a blockchain network are not simply technical errors. They represent attempted activity that the network processed without completing, and their frequency carries information about the nature of demand currently interacting with the Ethereum network. When failed transaction counts rise in a specific context, they can reflect a market under stress, with participants attempting to execute transactions at speeds or gas levels that the network’s current conditions are not accommodating.

The combination of rising failed transactions and increasing exchange inflows is the pairing the CryptoQuant analyst has flagged as worth examining — because together, they may be describing a market dynamic that the price chart is only beginning to reflect.

 Rising Exchange Inflows And A Price Without Direction

The CryptoQuant analyst connects the three data points into a coherent near-term assessment that each indicator alone would not fully support. Ethereum’s price is consolidating in primarily sideways movement — not collapsing aggressively, but equally not demonstrating the directional momentum that would suggest the $2,000 support breach was a temporary overextension rather than a structural shift.

Against that directionless price action, the rising failed transaction count describes network friction that reflects stress rather than organic activity growth. Failed transactions consuming gas without completing useful work is not the signature of a network experiencing healthy demand — it is the signature of a market where participants are competing for block space under conditions of uncertainty, rushing transactions at inappropriate gas levels, or attempting arbitrage and liquidation activity that speaks more to volatility management than genuine utility expansion.

The gradual increase in exchange inflows compounds the picture. Coins moving toward exchanges in a period of price weakness and network friction describes participants reducing their time horizon — moving from self-custody positions toward venues where assets can be sold quickly if conditions deteriorate further.

The analyst’s near-term assessment follows directly from the combination. No single element here confirms a bearish outcome independently — sideways price action can precede recovery as easily as decline, and moderate exchange inflows are not distributed at scale. But the convergence of network friction, increasing exchange-bound liquidity, and absent directional momentum creates a setup that the broader Ethereum landscape currently does little to offset. Until failed transaction trends reverse and exchange inflows stabilize, the data supports a cautious near-term outlook rather than one that anticipates an imminent recovery above $2,000.

Ethereum Loses Critical Support As Market Structure Weakens

Ethereum has broken below the psychological $2,000 level, confirming a significant deterioration in the recovery structure that had been developing since the February lows. The daily chart shows ETH failing to hold the key support cluster around $2,050–$2,100, an area that previously acted as the foundation for the April and early May rebound.

Technically, the breakdown shifts momentum back in favor of sellers. ETH is now trading below the short-term moving averages, while the 100-day moving average continues acting as dynamic resistance overhead near the $2,150 region. More importantly, the rejection from the major resistance zone between $2,250 and $2,350 confirmed that bulls lacked the strength necessary to reclaim the broader macro trend.

The structure has also started forming lower highs after the May peak, a classic sign of weakening demand during recovery attempts. The recent decline accelerated once ETH lost the 50-day moving average, triggering another wave of selling pressure that pushed the price back toward the lower demand zone highlighted near $1,800–$1,850.

As long as Ethereum remains below the $2,050–$2,100 region, the market structure continues to favor downside risk and prolonged consolidation rather than immediate bullish continuation.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin Golden Ratio Multiplier Signals 50% Price Crash

In a recent post on X, CryptoCon warned that the market may still have more downside ahead, as key chart signals continue to point toward a deeper cycle bottom for Bitcoin. His analysis is based on the Golden Ratio Multiplier, a model used to identify major price peaks, bottoms, and extended market conditions.

He noted that Bitcoin’s cycle bottom estimate has steadily declined as the bear market progresses. According to him, the latest readings now place the expected bottom around $36,000, which would represent roughly a 51% drop from current levels above $73,000. He added that this shift shows the model is still adjusting as market conditions evolve.

Sharing his chart, CryptoCon pointed to Level 1 of the model, currently aligned near $36,000. He stressed that this level has historically marked key cycle lows, including Bitcoin’s drop to $1.98 in November 2011, $181 in January 2015, $3,000 in December 2018, and $16,800 in June during the 2022 bear market.

Because of this surprisingly accurate track record, Crypto Con continues to treat Bitcoin’s Golden Ratio Multiplier as one of the most reliable tools for mapping Bitcoin’s long-term cycle structure and bottom target. However, he acknowledged that while the metric is reliable, the Level 1 price can change over time as market conditions change. This means that Bitcoin’s target could still drift lower than $36,000 if weakness continues, further adjusting the projected cycle bottom.

BTC’s Realized Market Cap Bottom Defines Range

In his analysis, CryptoCon also compared the Golden Ratio Level 1 with Bitcoin’s Realized Market Cap bottom, which currently sits near $42,500. The Realized Market Cap bottom tracks the average price at which all BTC tokens were last moved on-chain and has historically aligned with major capitulation phases and bear market lows when the price approaches it.

With the Golden Ratio Multiplier Level 1 at roughly $36,000 and the Realized Market Cap floor at $42,500, CryptoCon predicts that BTC’s likely cycle bottom will fall somewhere between the two targets. From current market prices above $73,000, a move into this bottom range would imply a decline of roughly 42% to 52%, depending on where BTC’s price ultimately settles.

Under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, crypto rules are tightening across the European Union for the issuance, trading, and custody of digital assets, and the regulator says companies that miss the cutoff may face serious consequences.

Crypto Licensing Pressure Builds In The EU

According to Reuters, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) warned that crypto companies could be blacklisted and sued if they fail to obtain an EU license by the end of June. 

“It’s becoming very, very urgent to finalize the license applications,” Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, president of the French markets regulator, AMF, told journalists on Thursday. 

She said firms that do not secure the necessary authorizations by the EU deadline would be placed on blacklists and could face enforcement actions, including prosecution, if they continue attempting to serve customers in Europe without permission.

As Reuters noted in the report, MiCA requires crypto firms to apply for licenses through regulators in individual EU member states. Those national licenses can then be used as a “passport,” allowing companies that obtain approval in one country to operate throughout the 27-nation bloc. 

Barbat-Layani noted that last year, some regulators drew concern for differences in how quickly licenses were being approved, with Malta’s pace reportedly coming under scrutiny from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

The AMF president also reiterated France’s position on the “passporting” mechanism. She said France would be willing to block the portability of licenses granted by other countries if it does not agree with that country’s decision.

Barbat-Layani added that this outcome is not what the regulator would prefer, describing it as a “serious collective failure,” but indicating that France is prepared to act if necessary.

US And European Union Diverge

MiCA’s rules were agreed in 2023 and are designed to standardize oversight across the EU, regardless of where a firm initially applies for authorization. 

That regulatory push is taking shape even as US policy has shifted away from the more aggressive enforcement posture seen under the Biden administration—an approach that was led at the time by the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler.

In the US, the policy change under the Trump administration was followed by the passage of the GENIUS Act last year, the first crypto bill in the country focusing on stablecoins. 

Another measure now moving through Congress is the CLARITY Act, intended to provide a clearer framework for digital asset classification and, more broadly, bring long-awaited clarity for regulation across the crypto market. 

The bill is currently expected to face a full Senate vote, along with reconciliation steps needed to finalize the text and a final agreement between the House and the Senate before it reaches the President’s desk.

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

Apps Revenue On Solana Network Booms

Regardless of Solana’s price experiencing growing bearish pressure, its network is entering a powerful expansion phase in ecosystem activity. The current network growth is observed in its total app revenue, which has witnessed a massive surge.

Zensei, a DeFi and RWA researcher, shared this development on X, suggesting increasing user engagement and robust monetization among decentralized applications built on the blockchain. This app creation ranges from Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms to gaining and trading services, underscoring the massive coverage of Solana in the crypto sector.

According to the researcher’s report, Solana‘s cumulative app revenue has climbed to approximately $4 billion. About a year ago, this figure was sitting at $2.87 billion, representing an over $1.17 billion increase in just 12 months. Such a growth is a sign of expanding real-world utility and sustained demand across the network within a competitive blockchain space.

Zensei stated that there is a rapid growth in how the ecosystem continues to expand across every sector. However, only a few places in the crypto space create opportunities at the scale and speed that Solana does consistently. 

Solana’s blockchain dominance is not one to be overlooked. Despite multiple moments of slowdown, the network continues to challenge leading chains such as Ethereum across the sector, even surpassing them in several areas.

In another X post, Zensei reported that Solana has successfully flipped Ethereum in month-to-date Decentralized Exchange (DEX) volume, leading by over $5.27 billion. While Ethereum blockchain recorded about $31.59 billion in MTD DEX volume, SOL scooped up a total of $36.87 billion.

The researcher stated that SOL’s dominance goes beyond just DEX volume. Even though it is valued far lower than the likes of ETH, the network continues to outperform where it matters most, which includes usage, volume, speed, and efficiency.

More Active Loans Carried On The SOL Network

After multiple chains experienced fading active loans due to negative developments such as hacking, particularly the KelpDAO exploit in April 2026, Solana has largely picked up pace in this aspect. This may indicate a shift into SOL as participants search for a more secure blockchain.

As seen in the data posted by David Alexander, a programme and crypto enthusiast, the SOL network currently represents 10% of the total on-chain active loans market. By hitting 10%, SOL has effectively doubled its representation year-over-year (YTD), with over $2.1 billion in outstanding loans. After this notable rise, the leading blockchain is now positioned second to Ethereum.

US Anti-Crypto Era Is Over?

On Thursday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized the previous US administration’s anti-crypto campaign, which targeted the digital assets sector for years and pushed firms and investors abroad.

In an X post, the executive asserted that “the ‘Anti-Crypto Army’ was defeated… by the courts… the voters. And Trump,” who has repeatedly pledged to make the US the “crypto capital of the world” since returning to the White House in 2025.

To Garlinghouse, the Biden administration’s crackdown on the industry “never made policy, legal or political sense.” Moreover, he affirmed that the efforts to combat financial innovation “only helped protect those that wanted to keep an old, often broken, system in place.”

His comments echoed similar remarks made by President Trump on Wednesday. On Truth Social, the US president stated that he had saved the American digital assets industry from the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, and the “Anti-Crypto Army,” who nearly “destroyed” the sector by driving Bitcoin (BTC), perpetuals, and innovation offshore.

Now, “America is now the CRYPTO CAPITAL of the WORLD, and Builders and Entrepreneurs are coming BACK to the United States where they belong,” Trump asserted, pledging to “future-proof” the digital asset market structure legislation under his leadership so that it “cannot be undone by the Crypto Haters.”

“The new Frontier of Finance is being Built in America, and ‘TRUMP’ will NEVER let Crypto down!,” he continued. In another statement from this week, Trump also discussed the US’s push to lead the digital assets sector, explaining that it is a major industry and the government must protect its leadership.

Other countries are trying diligently to replace us in that capacity, but we won’t let that happen. It is a major Industry, and we must protect it.

A New Regulatory Chapter

Over the past year and a half, US regulators have shifted from a “regulation by enforcement” strategy towards a more welcoming approach. On Wednesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) joined Gemini in a motion for relief from the judgment in the January 2025 order against the exchange, which included a $5 million penalty.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the Commission revealed it had reviewed the history of the investigation, the evidence, the charging decision, and the changes in federal digital asset policy, concluding that the complaint “should not have been filed — and would not have been under current enforcement standards.”

Similarly, the SEC has dismissed multiple investigations and lawsuits against crypto firms, while calling the industry one of the top priorities in its shift toward a pro-innovation approach.

Last month, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce affirmed that the pivot to a more welcoming environment has made developing a clearer regulatory framework that is “fit for purpose” significantly easier. In addition, it allows the regulators to address problems the industry may face and open opportunities for innovation.

Amid this new regulatory chapter, Ripple recently submitted a letter to the SEC Crypto Task Force as a follow-up to a late March meeting between the regulator and the industry.

In the letter, Ripple asked the regulator to clarify the treatment of payment stablecoins, crypto asset non-securities, and tokenized securities under the recent net capital and customer protection rules. It also asked for potential next steps for broader guidance and applauded the Task Force and Commissioner Peirce for the “in-depth and engaging discussion.”

Bitcoin Price Crashes Amid ETF Outflows And Rising Selling Pressure

The market is seeing heavy volatility, as new factors place immense pressure on the Bitcoin price and the broader crypto market. According to crypto analyst Nic on X, Bitcoin recently crashed below the $75,000 support zone and is now sitting around its next critical support level, around $73,000. 

The cryptocurrency had surged as high as $83,000 earlier this May, but was firmly rejected. Since then, Bitcoin has been on a steady decline. However, this past week has accelerated the downtrend, with the price dropping much faster and more sharply than before. 

Several factors have been linked to this severe price drop, including the decline in the demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs. Not only are institutions showing very low interest in these investment products, but on-chain data from SoSoValue shows that Bitcoin ETFs have recorded their eighth consecutive day of outflows. 

Since May 15, Bitcoin ETFs have recorded only outflows, as institutions continue to exit the market to protect their assets from further losses. Tuesday, May 27, saw the highest outflow of the month. About $733.43 million was withdrawn in just one day, with BlackRock’s IBIT leading the move with the highest outflows. Prior to this, BTC had only recorded six days of inflows, underscoring how much sellers now dominate the market.  

Swissblock, a private financial research firm, has also highlighted the recent negativity and downside risk currently plaguing the market. They noted that Bitcoin’s Risk Index is now signaling that selling pressure is overwhelming the market. 

Because of this trend, the firm has said that BTC has automatically flipped back into distribution territory after experiencing strong accumulation and multiple rallies in March and April. They say that the lack of ETF support, combined with the Risk Indef readings, suggests that BTC’s downside risk is accelerating at a concerning pace.  

US-Iran Fresh Strikes Add More Pressure To Fragile Market

In addition to rising selling pressure and ETF outflows, fresh US-Iran air strikes have also weighed negatively on Bitcoin’s market sentiment. Nic noted that renewed fighting following a recently announced ceasefire sparked mass liquidations across the market, triggering a decline in Bitcoin’s price. 

Moreover, live data from CNN reveal that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recently launched a new attack on an American air base. Meanwhile, the US strikes had targeted Iranian drones and a critical launch site near the Strait of Hormuz. 

The resumption of the war has placed uncertainty over the proposed peace deal. Currently, the market is awaiting further positive updates, even as investors exit risk assets to avoid losses. 

On-chain data shows that the Short-Term Holder Cost Basis is around $78,000, while the True Market Mean is sitting close to $78,300. These two levels have now converged, creating a heavy ceiling just above Bitcoin’s current price.

Bitcoin Is Stalling Below The Level Recent Buyers Need Most

Bitcoin’s price action is currently trapped between two forces. One side is $74,000, where buyers are still trying to defend. The other is the $78,000 area, where on-chain valuation models are now meeting at almost the same point. The next break may decide whether the latest weakness is another range-bound dip or the start of a deeper correction below $70,000.

According to data from on-chain analytics platform Glassnode, Bitcoin’s short-term holder cost basis is currently at about $78,000. The Short-Term Holder Cost Basis is one of the cleanest ways to understand the pressure on newer Bitcoin investors. It measures the average acquisition price of coins held for less than 155 days, which means it measures the breakeven point of the more reactive investors.

There’s also Bitcoin’s true market mean, which makes the $78,000 price level even more important. The true market mean tracks the cost basis of actively transacted supply, and according to Glassnode, it has always acted as a dividing line between bear-market and bull-market regimes. It is currently near $78,300, almost exactly where the short-term holder’s cost basis is sitting.

Bitcoin Needs To Hold Above This Level

Many recent buyers accumulated between $75,000 and $78,000, pushing their cost basis close to the true market mean. That can support a recovery if demand is strong, but it can also create fast downside pressure if demand is low.

However, spot demand is fading, and this is placing pressure on the $74,000 price level. BTC fell to this level last weekend and rebounded, but the bounce was shallow. At the same time, US Spot Bitcoin ETF demand has started to weaken again, with flows turning negative over the past two weeks and recording a $733.43 million outflow in the last 24 hours alone.

If BTC is going to push meaningfully higher from here, spot demand likely needs to step back in and defend $74,000. That isn’t going so well right now, as the Bitcoin price is currently down by 3.4% in the past 24 hours and trading at $73,230.

Glassnode’s Realized Profit/Loss Ratio is at 1.56, which confirms that Bitcoin has seen net positive capital flow since the $60,000 floor. However, that reading is still below the 2 to 5 range that has always appeared during the early stages of more persistent bull markets.

Kalshi And Minnesota Clash

At the core of Kalshi’s lawsuit is its jurisdiction argument. The company contends that prediction markets fall under exclusive federal oversight through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), rather than being governed by state gambling laws. 

Kalshi says its event contracts should be treated as federally regulated financial products, not traditional betting. In the company’s view, that means Minnesota cannot simply outlaw or criminalize the activity through state legislation.

Minnesota lawmakers take the opposite position. They characterize sports and event-based contracts as a form of gambling that should remain under state control, particularly because, in their view, the products operate outside existing consumer protection and gambling regulations. 

Rather than focusing on civil enforcement or narrower product restrictions, the new law includes criminal penalties for users or businesses operating, promoting, or facilitating certain prediction market products. 

Supporters of the bill argue that prediction market platforms function similarly to sportsbooks, but operate in a legal gray area without meeting the standards they believe should apply to gambling businesses.

Probe Triggered By Suspicious Trades

Supporters of the legislation have also pointed to risks they say the industry has not adequately addressed. Those concerns include potential addiction impacts, the possibility of insider trading, and the increasing overlap between financial-style trading behavior and gambling-like outcomes. 

The Minnesota lawsuit also arrives amid scrutiny from federal lawmakers. As Bitcoinist reported earlier this month, Representative James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced a formal investigation into Polymarket and Kalshi on May 22. 

In that probe, Comer said he wants the CEOs of both companies to explain how their platforms detect and prevent insider trading. The investigation was triggered by a series of suspicious trades tied to classified US military operations and geopolitical events.

Featured image from Bloomberg; chart from TradingView.com

What Ethereum Whales Are Doing In This Pullback

Ethereum’s large investors have remained resilient in recent market sessions. While ETH’s price has struggled to sustain strong momentum, these key investors continue to hold on to their positions rather than aggressively reduce their exposure or sell off their coins.

In a waning market environment, the activity of large holders is closely monitored as it typically provides more insight into long-term market conviction and sentiment among institutional investors. This trend is seen in the Ethereum Whale Vs Retail Delta metric, which has flipped toward the upside once again. 

As reported by CW, a verified data analyst at the CryptoQuant platform and crypto investor, the crucial metric has now surpassed the 0.5 level and continues to move in an upward direction. When this metric flips upward, it is a sign that whales are regaining influence over the market, reflecting renewed confidence in the asset’s long-term prospects.

Amid ongoing volatility in ETH’s price action, the large investors have shifted into an accumulation phase as they quietly and rapidly increase their long positions in the altcoin. Should this trend continue over the following days and weeks, it could play a critical role in shaping the altcoin’s next trajectory.

Another aspect that is picking up again is the Ethereum Futures market. CW revealed that movement in the market is steadily increasing, as investors start to lean toward the upside for ETH. Open Interest (OI) has transitioned into an upward direction alongside a persistent rise in long positions.

Investors appear to be taking advantage of the current downside performance of ETH’s price rather than exiting the market in fear. Furthermore, this activity suggests that investors may be positioning for the altcoin’s next major rally.

This Metric Could Support ETH’s Next Move

Bullish momentum is starting to reflect on several key Ethereum metrics even as prices trend downward. Ali Charts, a seasoned crypto investor and data analyst, has outlined a renewed shift, emerging in the ETH market as the Market Value To Realized Value (MVRV) metric declines below the 0.8 level.

However, this bullish development may fade soon. According to Ali Charts, whenever ETH drops below the 0.8 MVRV band, the move is not sustained for very long. Data shows that in the past, this exact zone represented a high-probability macro accumulation window. At the same time, this window could build the ultimate foundation for the next major bull market.

At the time of writing, the ETH price was trading at $1,980, demonstrating a nearly 5% decline in the last 24 hours. However, its trading volume is moving in an opposite direction, rising by more than 17% over the past day.

Ethereum’s Make-Or-Break Zone

The latest chart shared by crypto analyst BladeDefi points to a higher timeframe ascending trendline that has quietly supported Ethereum’s structure for months. According to the chart, ETH has now returned directly to that region after failing to hold above a key resistance area near the upper part of its recent range.

That breakdown triggered a fresh wave of bearish commentary across the market, particularly after Ethereum lost momentum near the $2,700 region. Yet the broader structure shown on the chart tells a more layered story. Instead of depicting a complete collapse, the price action still appears to be operating within the same macro recovery channel that helped Ethereum rebound earlier this year.

The chart highlights multiple interactions with this rising support line, showing that earlier retests of the same structure eventually sparked strong upward reversals. At the same time, the broader chart structure suggests that Ethereum has not yet invalidated its wider bullish framework, despite the market’s sharp reaction to the recent pullback.

That distinction matters because losing short-term support is not always equivalent to destroying long-term structure. In previous cycles, ETH experienced similar periods where confidence evaporated near support zones shortly before momentum returned aggressively.

The Road Back To $3,000

With Ethereum now testing this critical trend region, analysts believe that a sustained hold above the ascending support could reopen the path toward reclaiming higher resistance zones, especially as traders begin rotating capital back into large-cap digital assets.

The $3,000 level has become psychologically important because it sits near a zone where market participation previously accelerated during Ethereum’s earlier breakout attempts. Reclaiming that territory would likely shift sentiment dramatically after days of heightened uncertainty.

Market observers are also watching whether Ethereum can rebuild momentum through higher lows on lower timeframes. If that process develops while the broader trendline remains intact, confidence around continuation toward $3,000 could strengthen considerably.

The wider crypto market environment may also play a role. Bitcoin’s relative stability has helped prevent more serious damage across major altcoins, while institutional attention toward digital assets continues expanding through spot ETF flows and broader adoption narratives. That backdrop gives additional weight to ETH’s current technical position.

For now, the market appears locked in a tense standoff between fear and structure. The chart shared by BladeDefi suggests that Ethereum is not merely revisiting another random support level. Instead, it may be testing the exact foundation capable of deciding whether the next major move points back toward $3,000 or toward a much deeper correction.

Analyst Predicts This Year Will Be The Biggest Altcoin Season Ever

In an X post, Fergani stated that this year will be the biggest altcoin season ever and suggested it would happen within the next six months. He cited the Others/BTC chart, which shows that these altcoins have formed a strong support at their current levels and are ready to record significant gains against Bitcoin. 

The analyst also alluded to AI as what will drive the altcoin season, although he didn’t explain why or how that would happen. He added that this might be the last real altcoin run before the game changes forever. It is worth noting that some AI coins, such as TAO, NEAR, and VVV, have recorded significant gains over the past few weeks. 

Crypto analyst CW recently pointed out that exchange volume for altcoins, excluding the top 5 cryptos by market cap, is increasing and that trading is increasingly concentrated in altcoins amid this sluggish situation. He added that some investors are quietly accumulating altcoins, while some people are negative about the altcoin season. 

Despite the recent gains in some altcoins, it is worth noting that it is still far from being altcoin season. BlockchainCenter data shows that the altcoin season index is currently at 31, signaling that it is still Bitcoin season. The index needs to reach 75 for it to be altcoin season. Over the last 90 days, only 15 of the top 50 coins by market cap have outperformed BTC. For it to be altcoin season, 75% of these coins need to have outperformed the leading crypto over this period. 

Altcoin Season To Start In June

Crypto analyst Ryker predicted that the next altcoin season will take place from June to January 2027. This came as he noted that the season usually lasts about six months and occurs when all altcoins are undervalued. The analyst cited the 2017 and 2021 bull cycles, when the market pumped strongly, leading many coins like XRP, ETH, SOL, and LUNA to see 10x gains. 

Ryker noted that it has been up to 4 years since the last altcoin season and advised market participants not to miss the one about to begin and last for 6 months. He also alluded to the OTHERS/BTC chart, which showed that these altcoins are about to break out against Bitcoin. In another X post, the analyst noted that the gains recorded by coins such as ZEC, HYPE, NEAR, and ONDO are just the beginning of altcoin season and that it will lead to pumps for other coins.

The partnership, announced May 28 via PR Newswire, connects Orbital’s payment orchestration layer to Banking Circle’s newly activated stablecoin settlement services — capabilities the Luxembourg-based bank launched on April 27, 2026, following its receipt of a Crypto-Asset Service Provider license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier on April 15, per Stablecoin Insider’s reporting of the bank’s announcement.

The timing is notable: Banking Circle became the first institution in Luxembourg to simultaneously hold banking, electronic money token, and CASP licenses — a regulatory trifecta that positions it as one of the most comprehensively licensed digital asset settlement banks in the European Union.

What The Integration With Circle Delivers

Through Banking Circle’s platform, Orbital gains access to instant two-way fiat-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-fiat settlement supporting Circle’s USDC, Paxos’ USDG, and Banking Circle’s own euro stablecoin EURI — all with 24/7 real-time execution directly from the bank’s core platform, per the PR Newswire announcement.

The integration removes a structural friction point that has historically complicated enterprise stablecoin adoption in Europe: the requirement to maintain separate relationships with multiple settlement counterparties across different jurisdictions and regulatory frameworks.

For Orbital’s enterprise clients — which include businesses managing cross-border payments across both stablecoin and traditional rails — the Banking Circle connection adds direct access to SEPA infrastructure, named IBANs, and full AML and KYC compliance checks within a single integrated payment layer, per the announcement.

The MiCA Context

The partnership arrives as Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation enters its operational enforcement phase — creating both an opportunity and a compliance threshold that many payment infrastructure providers are scrambling to meet. Banking Circle’s simultaneous licensing across banking, EMT, and CASP categories means Orbital’s stablecoin settlement activity now operates under the same regulatory oversight framework that governs its traditional payment operations — a structural alignment that matters considerably for the institutional clients both companies serve.

The broader European stablecoin infrastructure buildout is accelerating in parallel. A consortium of twelve European banks including ING, UniCredit, and CaixaBank is advancing the Qivalis euro stablecoin project with a planned launch in the second half of 2026 — signaling that the institutional demand Orbital and Banking Circle are positioning to capture is expanding rapidly across the continent.

This development marks a pivotal moment for the nascent sector’s integration with Europe’s regulated financial infrastructure. A payment orchestration platform connecting stablecoin rails to a bank processing €1.5 trillion annually — under full MiCA oversight — is precisely the institutional plumbing the sector has been building toward, and its arrival suggests the gap between crypto payment infrastructure and traditional finance settlement is narrowing faster than most observers anticipated.

Cover image from Grok, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview

In a May 27 livestream, the Cardano founder gave an detailed account of why the Gillette, Wyoming clinic is being shut down, framing the decision as the result of structural losses, weak local support, difficult healthcare economics and a business model he said could not survive without subsidy or a private-equity-style operating approach.

Hoskinson said the project began in 2021 as a family effort involving his father and brother, both physicians, and was intended to build a “center of excellence” in an underserved rural market. The clinic eventually served about 22,000 patients, which he said amounted to roughly two-thirds of the town. But the economics moved in the wrong direction.

According to Hoskinson, the facility initially lost about $4 million per month before cost reductions brought losses down to roughly $1.7 million per month. He said even that reduced burn rate remained untenable, especially because reimbursements for primary care and mental health often failed to cover the clinic’s cost per appointment.

Related Reading: Hoskinson Reaffirms Cardano Focus After IO Treasury Proposals Pass

“The American health care system is broken,” Hoskinson said. “This was never a business. It was basically a charity.” He added that the clinic had become “an indispensable component of the public health of that county,” but said local and state stakeholders were unwilling to provide the kind of support needed to keep it operating.

Why This Matters For Cardano And Midnight

The most relevant part for crypto markets and Cardano observers came when Hoskinson connected the clinic’s failure to his own allocation of time. He said his strongest focus is no longer on running fee-for-service clinical operations, but on areas where he has expertise and influence.

“Every day I wake up, I say, ‘How do I get Midnight adopted? And how do I get Cardano back into the top 10, back into the top five?’” Hoskinson said. “These are the things that I’m primarily interested in. And these are the things that I have core expertise in and agency over changing.”

That line gives the livestream a different significance from a local business postmortem. Hoskinson has often operated across a wide portfolio of ventures, including blockchain, ranching, healthcare, regenerative medicine and policy interests. In this video, he described the clinic as a costly diversion that ultimately could not be reconciled with his main professional priorities.

He did not present the closure as a bankruptcy or liquidity problem. Hoskinson said he has “well more than enough money” to settle bills and close accounts, and that the facility will remain vacant for a time while conversations continue with other healthcare systems that may be able to use the building.

The explanation also included a broader critique of US healthcare incentives. Hoskinson argued that clinics in primary care are structurally disadvantaged by insurance reimbursements, Medicare and Medicaid rates, hospital billing advantages and a system that rewards procedures, cancer treatment and pharmaceuticals far more than routine care. He said the clinic faced a choice between dramatically increasing patient volume, relying more heavily on mid-level providers and reducing specialist capacity, or shutting down.

“We could have built it as a steel warehouse with crude fixtures. It would still lose money,” he said. “That’s just the reality of the matter. It had nothing to do with the capex. It had to do with the opex.”

For Cardano, the livestream is notable less for any specific roadmap update than for the signal it sends about Hoskinson’s bandwidth. He described Midnight adoption and Cardano’s return to the upper tier of crypto market rankings as daily priorities, while making clear that running a rural clinic is not a venture he expects to revisit soon.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.23.

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

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.

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 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

“ACTUAL ONCHAIN BOATING ACCIDENT?” Galaxy Research wrote. “On Monday, 5 bitcoin addresses sent ~107 BTC ($8.3m) to an old burn address, making the coins provably unspendable. Why would someone do this? The Galaxy Research team’s best theories are in the thread below (spoiler: none are very good).”

The burn address in question is not merely a wallet whose owner lost a key. Galaxy said the address, 1111111111111111111114oLvT2, corresponds to a Hash160 value of twenty zero bytes. Encoding that with Bitcoin’s P2PKH version byte produces the address. In practical terms, spending coins from it would require finding a public key whose Hash160 is all zeros, an outcome Galaxy framed as computationally out of reach.

That makes the transaction different from a mistaken transfer to an exchange address, a wallet controlled by an unknown counterparty, or an address whose private key may exist somewhere. The coins were not simply moved into obscurity. They were sent to a destination designed to be unspendable.

Theories Why Someone Burns $8.3 Million In Bitcoin

Galaxy’s first theory was tax-related, but the firm appeared skeptical of its own explanation. A sender could have been attempting to create a tax loss by destroying the coins, the team wrote, but that logic weakens if the Bitcoin was acquired long ago. “Most are very old, so selling them would produce gains, not losses,” Galaxy said.

The thread then moved into more speculative territory. Galaxy suggested the burn could have been motivated by religious reasons, citing traditions in which adherents renounce possessions. But it also noted that giving assets away, rather than destroying them, is the more typical pattern. That distinction matters: a donation or transfer would move wealth to another party, while a burn removes it from circulation entirely.

Another possibility raised by Galaxy was that the coins were tied to illicit activity and that the sender concluded there was no viable path to launder or spend them. In that scenario, destruction would function less as a financial decision than as a risk-management act, eliminating the asset rather than attempting to move it through traceable channels.

Galaxy also floated darker explanations involving coercion. “Perhaps the sender was under some form of duress, such as torture or threat of kidnapping or bodily harm, and instead of making him spend the coins to the attacker, the attacker is sick and twisted and instead demanded the victim destroy his wealth. We sincerely hope it is not this one.” The firm added a related theory in which proof-of-burn was demanded as an initiation ritual for a club or cult.

The most striking theory, and the one Galaxy described as “perhaps among the most likely,” was not human ideology or criminal pressure but an automated error. The team imagined a large trading or Bitcoin operation using an agentic system to execute transfers. “Say you are running a big agentic trading or bitcoin operation, and you recently onboarded a new counterparty,” Galaxy wrote. “You instruct your agent to ‘send the counterparty 107 BTC’ and the [agent] accidentally sends it to the Countparty (Burn Address) instead of your counterparty.”

The typo-like logic behind that theory is notable. “Counterparty” is also associated with one of Bitcoin’s older burn mechanisms, and the address used here has long been known as a burn destination. If an automated system confused a real counterparty with a burn address label, the result could be catastrophic: an irreversible transfer with no recovery path.

Galaxy did not claim to have identified the sender, and the thread made clear that each theory remains conjecture. “We may never know who sent the 107 BTC or why, but these are the best we can come up with,” the firm wrote, inviting other explanations.

At press time, BTC traded at $72,828.

The attackers cycled funds through multiple wallets to repeatedly farm rewards, taking advantage of flaws baked into the protocol’s incentive structure.

A Wave Of Attacks Hitting The Ecosystem

That incident was one of several to rock the DeFi space in recent days. Fraudulent Google advertisements impersonating Uniswap also surfaced earlier this week, routing unsuspecting users to phishing sites designed to steal wallet credentials — a scam that reports say drained at least $400,000 before it was flagged.

The back-to-back incidents set the stage for a blunt public warning from Manuel Aráoz, the founder of OpenZeppelin, one of the most widely used smart contract security firms in the industry.

Aráoz said he now considers all of DeFi unsafe, a statement that spread quickly across developer circles after he posted it online.

His reasoning cuts to a basic problem in how blockchain security works. Defenders have to find and patch every single vulnerability, while an attacker only needs one to drain a protocol entirely.

PSA: I now consider *all* of DeFi unsafe.

Coding agents are superhuman at finding vulnerabilities, and smart contract security is too asymmetric: defenders need to fix every bug while attackers need just one exploit to steal funds.

— Manuel Aráoz (@maraoz) May 26, 2026

AI Tools Shifting The Balance

Aráoz pointed to AI-powered coding tools as the reason that balance has gotten harder to manage. Reports indicate he believes these tools allow attackers to scan contracts for weaknesses at a speed and scale that most security teams cannot match.

He went further in private communications, reportedly advising friends and family to pull their funds from major DeFi platforms altogether, including Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound. Those three platforms represent a significant share of total value locked across decentralized finance.

Cybersecurity analysts have raised similar concerns, warning that AI is accelerating how fast attackers can map out vulnerabilities, build phishing infrastructure, and run simulated exploit strategies against live protocols.

The problem is compounded by how modern DeFi protocols are built. Many now stack multiple components on top of each other — bridges, lending systems, staking mechanisms, automated reward contracts — and each additional layer widens the surface area that has to be defended.

OpenZeppelin itself previously flagged how dangerous these combinations can be, identifying a vulnerability that emerged from the interaction between ERC-2771 and Multicall standards, two widely used contract types that created unintended exposure when used together.

Major protocols have responded by pouring resources into audits, bug bounty programs, and formal verification. Reports note that even those efforts have not fully closed the door on phishing attacks and incentive manipulation schemes.

The concern now is whether smaller DeFi projects — those without the budget for continuous security reviews — can hold up against attackers who are moving faster than before.

Featured image from Binance, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index Is Signaling Extreme Fear Again

The “Fear & Greed Index” is an indicator created by Alternative that tells us about the average sentiment present among investors in the Bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency markets.

To represent the market mentality, the index make use of a numerical scale running from zero to hundred. When the metric has a value under 47, it means the average investor is showing fear toward digital assets. On the other hand, the indicator being above 53 suggests the dominance of greed in the sector. Values between these two cutoffs naturally correspond to a net neutral sentiment.

Besides these three main zones, there are also two ‘extreme’ regions called the extreme fear (values of 25 and below) and extreme greed (above 75). Currently, the index is in the former of these two zones.

As is visible, the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index has a value of 25, which is right on the boundary of the extreme fear territory. Earlier in the week, the indicator had managed to escape out of this zone, but the latest level suggests that the improvement in sentiment couldn’t last.

The latest decline in the index has come as the various cryptocurrencies have faced a pullback. Bitcoin, which had recovered into the high $77,000 levels earlier, is now back below $75,500.

Historically, the extreme sentiment zones have held much significance for the sector as they have been where major price tops and bottoms have tended to form. The relationship between sentiment and the market’s trajectory has been an inverse one, however, meaning that extreme fear is where bottoms have appeared while extreme greed has facilitated top formations.

Considering this, the return to extreme fear may not exactly be a negative for the market. That said, just entry into the zone alone isn’t enough to force a bottom, as in the past, the index has often stayed in the region for long periods before Bitcoin and others have reversed their course.

The Fear & Greed Index incorporates a variety of metrics related to the sector to determine the market sentiment. One factor included in the index is social media sentiment. In an X post, analytics firm Santiment has talked about how bullish and bearish comments related to digital assets have compared on the major social media platforms recently.

From the chart, it’s apparent that bearish sentiment has outweighed the bullish one on social media recently, indicating that the crowd on these platforms has also been pessimistic toward Bitcoin and others.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $75,400, down almost 3% in the last seven days.

The Staking Angle

That revenue push comes alongside Bitmine’s biggest single purchase of the year. The company acquired 111,942 ETH last week, stepping in after prices slid below $2,200, a level Chairman Tom Lee described as an attractive buying opportunity.

Ether has been trading between roughly $2,025 and $2,147 over the past seven days.

Lee tied the purchase to a broader outlook he has been pushing for months. He believes a crypto supercycle is coming, driven by Wall Street’s growing interest in tokenization and the rise of AI-powered agents.

“We continue to steadily acquire ETH, with Bitmine now owning nearly 5.4 million ETH tokens,” Lee said in a statement.

1/ BitMine provided its latest holdings update for May 26, 2026

$12.3 billion in total crypto + “moonshots”: – 5,390,404 ETH at $2,134 per ETH per ETH (@coinbase) – 202 Bitcoin (BTC) – $200 million stake in Beast Industries…

— Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH (@BitMNR) May 26, 2026

A Target Still Within Reach

Bitmine’s goal is to own 5% of Ether’s circulating supply, which currently stands at 120.7 million tokens. To get there, the company still needs around 644,596 ETH — a gap Lee said will be closed sometime this year.

The firm had slowed its buying pace earlier in May after snapping up more than 100,000 ETH per week for three straight weeks before resuming with this latest purchase.

Bitmine follows a model similar to Strategy, the Bitcoin treasury company led by Michael Saylor, which has built its business around accumulating crypto regardless of market conditions.

Ether hit an all-time high of $4,946 in August 2025 but has dropped more than 58% since then. Lee has previously argued that steep pullbacks in ETH prices represent buying opportunities rather than warning signs.

Staking Pressure Builds Across Industry

Reports from staking infrastructure provider Everstake say ETH treasury companies are under mounting pressure to generate income through staking and other yield methods.

The appeal of simply holding Ether as a public company has been dulled by the growing popularity of spot crypto exchange-traded funds, reports say.

Staked supply has hit a fresh record. Data shows more than 39 million ETH — roughly 32% of total supply — is currently locked in, with another 3.3 million waiting in the entry queue.

About 234,368 ETH is sitting in the exit queue.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The macro picture that frames the signal is straightforward and familiar. Crypto trading volume has been declining. Investor sentiment has been moving progressively more negative as weeks of sideways price action and macro headwinds have eroded the enthusiasm that briefly returned during the February recovery attempt. The market feels stagnant because, by most conventional measures, it is.

Against that backdrop, one data point stands out as anomalous. Exchange volume for altcoins excluding the top five assets — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and BNB — has been increasing. The broader market is getting quieter, while the segment of the market most associated with speculative risk and early-cycle positioning is getting louder.

That divergence between declining overall sentiment and rising altcoin-specific volume is the signal CryptoQuant has identified as worth examining — because the participants generating that volume in a market this quiet tend to be making deliberate decisions rather than reactive ones, and their behavior at this specific moment in the cycle has a historical context that changes how the current altcoin weakness should be read.

The Market Is Quiet But Someone Is Building Altcoin Positions

The CryptoQuant analysis identifies the behavioral pattern behind the volume divergence with a precision that prevents it from being dismissed as statistical noise. Trading activity is concentrating into altcoins at exactly the moment when overall market participation is declining — a dynamic that describes a specific category of participant rather than broad market enthusiasm returning.

The consensus view on altcoin season remains skeptical. The cycle has repeatedly disappointed participants who positioned for a broad-based altcoin rally that never materialized at the scale previous cycles delivered. That skepticism is visible in the sentiment data, in the declining overall volume, and in the commentary surrounding most altcoin assets trading well below their previous highs.

But skepticism and accumulation can coexist — and the volume data suggests they currently are. While the majority of market participants express caution or outright negativity about altcoin prospects, a quieter cohort is directing capital into the sector with enough consistency to produce a rising volume trend that has persisted through the broader market’s stagnation.

The most important detail the CryptoQuant report identifies is the trend’s continuation. The increasing altcoin volume is not a single-session anomaly or a brief spike that has since reversed. It is an ongoing directional development — building quietly, session by session, in a market where most participants are looking elsewhere.

OTHERS/BTC Ratio Attempts Stabilization After Multi-Year Downtrend

The OTHERS/BTC index — which tracks the total crypto market capitalization excluding the top 10 assets relative to Bitcoin — continues showing signs of stabilization after more than two years of persistent underperformance against BTC. The weekly chart reflects the broader reality of the current cycle: capital has remained concentrated in Bitcoin and a small group of dominant assets while the majority of smaller altcoins continue struggling to recover lost market share.

Technically, the structure remains weak on a macro basis, but momentum deterioration appears to be slowing. The ratio is still trading below the 50-week, 100-week, and 200-week moving averages, confirming that Bitcoin dominance over smaller-cap altcoins remains structurally intact. However, the chart also shows that the aggressive decline that defined most of 2024 and early 2025 has transitioned into a prolonged sideways consolidation phase near the 0.12 region.

That behavior matters because major altcoin rotations historically begin with stabilization before momentum expansion becomes visible. The repeated defense of the current range suggests sellers are gradually losing control despite the absence of a confirmed breakout.

Volume has also started increasing during recent recovery attempts, indicating renewed speculative participation beneath the surface even while broader market sentiment remains cautious. If the ratio can reclaim the declining 50-week moving average and establish higher highs, it would signal that capital is beginning to rotate back into higher-risk altcoins after years of concentration in Bitcoin leadership.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

A New Layer For Crypto Transactions

Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network operated by Coinbase, has rolled out a tool that lets AI agents carry out blockchain operations directly from a chat interface.

Called Base MCP, the system works with AI models including Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, allowing users to transfer funds, swap tokens, check balances, and pull up transaction history without leaving the conversation window.

The tool also connects to a range of crypto apps, including Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr, and Virtuals.

Users interact with these platforms through the AI agent, which proposes actions that must then be approved by the user through a separate wallet window. The agent has no access to private keys.

Confirmation Required Before Funds Move

Lincoln Murr, Coinbase’s head of AI Product, described Base MCP as a wrapper on top of existing APIs.

He told Fortune that unlike standalone agentic wallets confined to a terminal, the Base account syncs across both in-agent and in-app activity, carrying a user’s trade history and portfolio wherever they go.

Base said every proposed transaction goes through the same review process users see with standard Base account requests. Asset changes are simulated before the user confirms anything. No funds move without a deliberate approval step.

The launch is also expected to drive more activity through x402, the agentic payment standard Coinbase introduced in May 2025.

The protocol is designed to let AI agents make small crypto payments as part of a broader micro-transaction economy.

Data shows that economy is still getting started — x402 has processed just $1.1 million in volume over the last 30 days, according to x402scan.

Security Researchers Flag Risks

Not everyone is convinced the infrastructure is ready for wider use. A research paper from Google and several universities concluded that AI agents should be treated as untrusted components within any system.

The research warns that bad actors can manipulate agents by embedding hidden instructions inside data the agent processes.

Those concerns are not purely theoretical. The developer platform Socket recently uncovered malware targeting crypto developers that worked by injecting concealed instructions into AI coding tools to redirect their behavior.

Reports indicate that Base MCP supporters argue the confirmation step addresses the core risk, but researchers say the problem runs deeper than any single safeguard can fix.

Featured image from Coinbase, chart from TradingView

The context Darkfost establishes first is the broader market environment that makes the Chainlink signal worth isolating. Since the local bottom recorded in early February, the crypto market has shown early signs of recovery. Total3, which measures the combined market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins, has increased by more than 15% over that period. The recovery exists, but it has been deeply uneven.

Some assets have dramatically outperformed the baseline. HYPE has surged nearly 190% since the February lows — a move that reflects a specific combination of genuine utility growth, ETF momentum, and institutional accumulation that most altcoins have not been able to replicate. The broader altcoin market has recovered modestly while a handful of assets have generated cycle-defining returns.

In that kind of selective environment, Darkfost argues that flow data becomes the most useful tool available for identifying where genuine investor interest is shifting before it becomes visible in price. And in that data, Chainlink is beginning to send a signal worth paying close attention to.

The Biggest Chainlink Withdrawals Since 2025

Darkfost’s Chainlink signal is specific and documented. The top 10 outflow transactions on Binance — the largest daily withdrawals by transaction size — have increased sharply in recent weeks, reaching their highest level since 2025. Throughout May, the largest daily outflows averaged more than 3,600 LINK, with several individual sessions recording spikes above 5,000 LINK withdrawn in a single day.

These are not routine portfolio adjustments. They are the behavioral signature of participants making deliberate, large-scale decisions to move Chainlink off the exchange and into external storage.

The price context is what makes the outflow data significant rather than simply notable. These record withdrawals are occurring while LINK is still trading approximately 66% below its previous cycle highs. The participants driving the largest outflows are not accumulating into strength or chasing a recovery that has already run. They are building positions at deeply discounted levels — a behavioral profile consistent with long-term conviction rather than short-term momentum trading.

Darkfost is careful about what a single indicator can and cannot confirm. Large outflows accelerating do not guarantee a structural reversal — on-chain signals require corroboration before they become actionable conclusions. What the current Chainlink outflow data does suggest is that a portion of the market has made a quiet, deliberate decision about where the asset is heading from here — and has begun repositioning accordingly, well before the price has given any public confirmation that the thesis is correct.

LINK Continues Grinding Near Support

Chainlink remains trapped in a prolonged consolidation structure below the psychological $10 level, with price continuing to trade inside a tight range that has defined most of the market since February. The daily chart shows LINK struggling to establish sustained momentum despite repeated attempts to reclaim higher resistance zones near $10.50 and $11.

Technically, the structure remains fragile but stable. LINK is currently trading around the convergence area of the short-term moving averages, reflecting the indecision that has dominated recent price action. The 50-day moving average has flattened after months of decline, while the 100-day and 200-day averages continue trending downward overhead, showing that the broader macro trend has not yet fully reversed bullish.

At the same time, the chart also highlights an important shift in behavior compared to the aggressive selling phase seen earlier this year. Since the sharp breakdown in February, LINK has consistently formed higher lows around the $8.50–$9 support region, suggesting that buyers continue absorbing sell pressure whenever price approaches that area.

As long as LINK holds above the $8.50–$9 range, the broader accumulation structure remains intact despite the lack of immediate upside expansion.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Trump Says CFTC Rules Will Help Crypto ‘Thrive’

In a new statement shared Tuesday on Truth Social, Trump said it is “critically important” that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) retain “exclusive authority” over prediction markets, and he added that the sector “will thrive” under that approach.

The president also framed the issue as part of building what he described as “rules of the road” that set a “Gold Standard for the States.” He said other countries are pursuing this “new form of Financial Market,” and the US must remain competitive. 

Trump tied the prediction market question directly to the broader push for US leadership in crypto, writing that while the US is currently the global “Crypto (Bitcoin, etc.) Capital of the World,” other countries are trying to replace America in that role—and that they “won’t let that happen.”

Trump’s remarks came after an investigation by The New York Times published Sunday that described how the CFTC has played an active role in advancing prediction markets “at virtually every turn.” 

The report also alleged that the regulator has softened its enforcement posture toward digital currencies. It said the agency did so by changing internal staffing—specifically culling ranks and sidelining career officials—steps the investigation suggested reflect a more permissive regulatory direction.

States Clamp Down On Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are increasingly on the defensive as states move to restrict them, often arguing they operate like “unlicensed casinos and violate state gaming laws.” 

On one side of the debate are Trump and allies within the CFTC, who argue that prediction markets are truly “markets” and should be treated like other federally regulated trading venues, such as securities markets and commodities markets. 

On the other side, a growing group of governors and state attorneys general—drawn from both political parties—contend that event contract betting, particularly when it involves sports, is essentially gambling. They argue it should therefore be regulated at the state level in the same way casinos and lotteries are.

Minnesota has become a focal point in this fight. The Democratic governor, Tim Walz, signed a law last week that would ban prediction market sites from operating in the state—described as the first-of-its-kind legislation in the nation. The administration filed a lawsuit aimed at asserting the CFTC’s authority over Minnesota’s decision.

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

Waning XRP Price Movement Intensifies Pressure On Traders

XRP traders are experiencing pressure due to the asset’s protracted sideways price movement, which is putting pressure on both the spot and derivatives markets. With its inability to create a clear directional breakout, traders are caught between waning momentum and uncertainty about the market’s future course.

This pressure has increased over the past month, making this period a critical one for the leading altcoin. Data from Santiment, a popular on-chain data analytics platform, shows the average XRP trader that has been active in the past 30 days is down a whopping -47%. At the same time, many traders have been selling their coins at the bottom, increasing the volatility across the XRP market.

In the past, the Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) average trading returns have remained average out to 0%, making the current period an extreme undervalued zone for XRP. The MVRV chart on the 30-day timeframe is currently showing a decline to its lowest level since December 2020, suggesting that fear and frustration among traders have reached rare extremes that have historically led to strong rebounds.

Despite the major price retracement that has caused the altcoin to lose over half of its market value since last summer, Santiment highlighted that optimism is still present among patient investors. This bullish sentiment is driven by regulatory progress, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) speculation, and Ripple’s long-term adoption narrative.

Santiment drew attention to XRP’s massive rally in late 2024 and early 2025, which left many traders buying near local tops before momentum cooled off. However, repeated selling pressure has pushed many short-term traders deeply underwater since then.

When MVRV moves deeper into negative territory, it is often caused by retail traders giving up, creating conditions where even small positive catalysts can trigger strong rebounds. While weak MVRV readings do not guarantee a reversal, they typically signal that the majority of panic selling has already happened and downside risk becomes more limited relative to potential upside.

A Final Flush For The Altcoin

Despite falling sharply over the past few months, this downside performance does not seem to have come to an end yet, as XRP may witness one last drawdown. After examining its price action on the 4-hour chart, CasiTrades has predicted a pullback before any upward attempt.

Over the past few days, the altcoin has continued to reject below the major consolidation pattern. As seen on the chart, XRP has spent over 4 months trying to break past the $1.65 resistance. Furthermore, the longer this fails to reclaim the level, the more likely it becomes clear that a final flush will take place into the lower macro supports.

When this happens, the next key supports are $1.10 and $0.87. CasiTrades expects the recovery to occur after these macro supports have been tested aggressively. Meanwhile, the first true sign of that shift will be the altcoin reclaiming $1.65 and turning it into support.

The CFTC said it carried out a thorough reexamination of the matter, looking back at the investigation’s history, the evidence it relied on, the decision to file charges, and how the case was litigated. 

CFTC Cites Lacking Credibility

Based on that review, the CFTC concluded that the complaint should not have been filed and that it would not have been brought under the agency’s current enforcement approach. 

In its release, the regulator laid out several reasons for that determination. It said the complaint leaned heavily on a whistleblower account that it described as lacking credibility. 

It also argued that the investigation was not focused on the alleged fraudsters at the center of the underlying dispute, but instead pursued Gemini—whom it characterized as a fraud victim—for purported false statements made during the company’s registration application process. 

The CFTC further said there were serious questions about the strength of the evidence against Gemini. The agency asserted that personnel improperly influenced the CFTC’s regulatory authority in a way that effectively created settlement leverage.

What Happens To Gemini’s Remaining Injunction

Because of its findings, the CFTC said it determined that pursuing enforcement of the consent order’s prospective provisions would no longer serve the regulator’s mission or the public interest. 

The CFTC explained that the consent order’s non-prospective parts—such as the civil monetary penalty—have already been satisfied, and it argued that keeping remaining prospective elements in place, including injunctive relief, would not be equitable.

Gemini previously settled the CFTC’s charges in January 2025, during the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration. As part of that settlement, Gemini paid a $5 million penalty and agreed to an injunction barring the company from making false or misleading statements to the CFTC.

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin Risk Index Signals Major Threat

Market analyst Crypto Tice is sounding the alarm on Bitcoin after flagging the cryptocurrency’s weakening market structure and rising downside risk. In a recent X post, the analyst stated that the Bitcoin risk index, a metric used to measure the current market environment, has moved back into “a high risk zone.” 

According to him, this dangerous shift signals that the safe market conditions that had previously supported BTC’s recovery above $83,000 are now starting to break down. He added that the price area between $78,000 and $79,000, which previously acted as a breakeven level for many traders, has also been lost. 

In his view, this change suggests that selling pressure is no longer fully absorbed by buyers and that sellers are now gaining more control over the market and BTC’s short-term price direction.

Attempting to pinpoint BTC’s next move, Crypto Tice outlined two possible paths from here. In the first scenario, the analyst suggested that if Bitcoin’s risk index falls back below 25, the market could stabilize, and the cryptocurrency’s recovery trend may continue. 

However, he highlights a less optimistic scenario for his second outlook. Crypto Tice stated that if Bitcoin’s risk reading continues to rise, it could be an early confirmation that a broader breakdown has officially begun. The analyst noted that the BTC price would then enter a more fragile phase where recent support levels may no longer hold.

As a warning, Crypto Tice stressed that BTC’s current structure, which has supported its price for weeks, is now under serious threat. While he did not predict a specific price direction, he cautioned that the next move could be significant and urged traders to closely monitor Bitcoin’s risk index for further confirmation of trend direction.

BTC Sits At Critical Price Level That Could Decide Next Move

In a separate analysis, crypto expert Killa has identified a key Bitcoin price level that is critical to its broader market direction. He stated that BTC is currently in a make-or-break zone that could determine whether its uptrend continues or reverses, depending on its next move. 

If Bitcoin holds current levels and rebounds toward $81,000 to $82,000, the analyst said it would confirm a shift in structure and suggest the market is continuing higher. He described this move as a strong bullish signal, noting that many traders are underestimating its importance.

On the flip side, the analyst has warned that a breakdown below current support levels would automatically invalidate Bitcoin’s bullish setup and open the door to a deeper correction. In that scenario, he sees BTC potentially dropping below $60,000 as selling pressure intensifies.

Forward Industries To Be Included In Russell 2000 From June 29th

According to a press release, Forward Industries is joining the Russell 2000 and 3000 indexes. The publicly traded company has historically focused on design and manufacturing, but last year, it pivoted toward a digital-asset treasury (DAT) model based on Solana. With backing from major industry names like Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, and Jump Crypto, Forward Industries quickly became the largest corporate holder of SOL.

As of March 2026, the firm’s treasury held a total of 7,013,536 tokens. Forward spent more than $1.5 billion to assemble this stack, but at the current exchange rate of the cryptocurrency, the reserves are only worth about $586.4 million, meaning that it is holding a significant unrealized loss.

Following the latest semi-annual reconstitution of Russell indexes, Forward has been included in the Russell 3000 index, which captures the 3,000 largest stocks in the United States as of April 30th. As a result of this inclusion, the company has gained an automatic membership in the Russell 2000, which corresponds to small-cap assets.

Ryan Navi, the chief investment officer of the firm, noted:

Inclusion in the Russell 2000® and Russell 3000® marks an important milestone for Forward and reinforces the growing institutional recognition of our strategy, scale, and execution.

The current underwater status of Forward’s Solana holdings is naturally a result of the bearish shift that the digital asset sector has faced since Q4 2025. Compared to when the firm began its SOL buying in September 2025, the asset’s spot price is down more than 65%. In response to the market drawdown, the DAT company has significantly slowed down its Solana accumulation, although it hasn’t participated in any selling.

Navi said:

As we continue executing our disciplined Solana treasury strategy and compounding SOL-per-share, we believe Forward is well-positioned to establish itself as a leading institutional platform for digital asset exposure.

Forward Industries isn’t the only DAT firm that has been included in the Russell index with the latest reconstitution. As announced in a press release, Sharplink has also won its inclusion in the Russell 2000 and 3000 indexes.

Sharplink is the second-largest Ethereum treasury company in the world, behind only Tom Lee’s Bitmine. According to the ETH dashboard on the company’s website, it holds a total of 874,351 ETH ($1.81 billion) right now. Like Forward, Sharplink is also facing a significant loss on its treasury reserves, being down more than $1.2 billion.

Joseph Chalom, Sharplink chief executive officer, noted:

Joining the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 is a meaningful validation of Sharplink’s institutional-grade ETH treasury strategy and we believe will broaden SBET’s shareholder base while strengthening our access to capital markets.

Solana Price

At the time of writing, Solana is trading around $84, down 2% over the last 24 hours.

In her comments, the pro-crypto lawmaker focused on what she described as the real-world risk to software developers if the legislation does not move forward quickly enough.

Lummis Warns Code Publishers Are At Risk

Lummis’s statement followed this month’s progress in the Senate. The Senate Banking Committee approved its portion of the bill, building on a prior step earlier in January when the Agriculture Committee successfully voted on its version. 

With those committee actions complete, the bill still faces several major hurdles before it could become law: a full Senate vote, the legislative reconciliation steps needed to finalize the bill, and a final agreement between the House and the Senate—before the legislation reaches the President’s desk.

On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Lummis said, “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.” 

The core of her warning, in other words, is that today’s regulatory uncertainty leaves a lot of software developers looking over their shoulders—especially when they’re writing code that helps run blockchain-related services.

What The CLARITY Act Would Change

The CLARITY Act includes several provisions aimed at reducing that uncertainty. One key part is the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which is designed to protect software developers and infrastructure providers from being treated as money transmitters when they do not control customer funds. 

The CLARITY Act also addresses scenarios in which people compile network transactions. It directs the SEC to clarify when securities laws apply to decentralized finance trading protocols, specifically those involved in activities tied to securities.

As such, if the bill does not pass this year, a new administration—potentially bringing fresh appointments at regulatory agencies—could increase scrutiny across the broader sector. 

This could also draw more attention to code publishers operating in an environment where legal boundaries remain unclear. This could lead to renewed action similar to that seen during the Biden administration and under the leadership of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

However, both blockchain networks are also different in their operation, and that difference is where the comparison becomes very interesting.

XRP Ledger Holding Up Against The Bitcoin Network

Bitcoin is the first decentralized monetary network secured by proof-of-work, giving it unmatched strength as a store-of-value system. The XRP Ledger, on the other hand, was built for fast settlement, low transaction costs, and a payments-focused utility.

Network reliability is the baseline by which any financial infrastructure is judged. Based on this measure, both Bitcoin and the Ledger carry strong records, but one has a better record than the other. According to data from one XRP market commentator that goes by the name Rob Cunningham on the social media platform X, the XRP Ledger has less documented downtime compared to the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin’s documented downtime history runs to roughly 888 minutes, concentrated in two notable incidents that are now more than a decade in the past. These were an 8.5-hour outage in 2010 caused by a value overflow bug and a 6.3-hour disruption in 2013 stemming from a consensus fork. Since 2013, Bitcoin has maintained a clean 100% operational record, over 13 years of unbroken uptime as of mid-2026, with an overall historical uptime of approximately 99.988%.

The XRP Ledger’s documented downtime is much lower, at approximately 74 minutes in total. This downtime is concentrated in two brief events: a 10-minute disruption in November 2024 affecting some nodes due to a software bug, and a 64-minute consensus drift in February 2025 that self-healed without external coordination. The Ledger claims an uptime figure of approximately 99.999%, which puts it ahead of Bitcoin in this metric. 

The Quantum Question And What Comes Next

XRPL outpaces Bitcoin in terms of uptime, utility, speed, cost efficiency, and energy usage. Bitcoin processes blocks roughly every 10 minutes, with fees that fluctuate significantly during periods of network congestion. The XRP Ledger, on the other hand, processes transactions in three to five seconds, with consistent throughput. Transaction costs on the Ledger run to fractions of a cent, which is also consistently low regardless of network demand. 

Perhaps the most forward-looking dimension of the comparison between the Bitcoin network and the XRP Ledger is how each network is positioning itself against the long-term threat of quantum computing. Bitcoin currently has no formal roadmap for post-quantum cryptography, but the Ledger is moving in a different direction. 

Ripple published a detailed four-phase roadmap in April 2026 to prepare the XRP Ledger for a post-quantum future, targeting full readiness by 2028. The plan responds to recent research from Google Quantum AI that shows quantum computers could break current blockchain cryptography with fewer resources and on a faster timeline than previously estimated, with some scenarios placing a credible threat window as early as 2032.

The document is addressed to the SEC Crypto Task Force at the US Securities and Exchange Commission and is marked as a follow-up to a prior Ripple meeting with the task force. According to the letter, Ripple met with the group on March 20, 2026 to discuss “the treatment of payment stablecoins and tokenized securities under the net capital and customer protection rules, and potential next steps for broader guidance.”

“We are submitting this response as a follow-up to several questions raised in our meeting,” Ripple wrote in the visible portion of the letter. “The enclosed sections outline our rationale and suggestions for the Task Force to provide clarity to the issues at hand. The response addresses the following:”

JUST IN: Ripple officially submitted a follow-up letter to the SEC Crypto Task Force on May 22, 2026

Here’s what they’re demanding: Stablecoins treated as proper collateral RLUSD haircut reduced to 0% XRP & other non-securities get same treatment as BTC & ETH… https://t.co/9DTmsGUz4f pic.twitter.com/MgERkvxr0O

— ????????????????XRP (@BankXRP) May 27, 2026

What Ripple Is Requesting From The SEC

The first issue raised is the treatment of stablecoins as collateral. Ripple’s letter calls for Rule 15c3-1 to be amended to clarify how stablecoins can be applied on broker-dealer balance sheets. That rule sits at the center of net capital requirements, making the treatment of stablecoin collateral a practical issue for regulated intermediaries that want to handle tokenized instruments without facing capital treatment that makes the activity uneconomic.

Ripple also asks the SEC to clarify requirements for custodying clients’ stablecoins. The company proposes amending Rule 15c3-3, the customer protection rule, to define a new category called “Qualified Payment Stablecoins.” The framing suggests Ripple is seeking a clearer regulatory box for stablecoins used in payments and settlement, rather than forcing them into legacy categories that may not reflect how these assets function in crypto market structure.

Another major point concerns crypto asset non-securities beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. The letter asks the SEC to clarify that “crypto asset non-securities aside from BTC and ETH can receive equivalent treatment,” citing the agency’s recently released guidance on the application of securities laws to crypto assets. Ripple specifically proposes revising Question 4 in the SEC’s FAQ relating to crypto asset activities to account for any non-securities that meet the “readily marketable” definition.

That language matters because it pushes against a narrow regulatory framework in which only BTC and ETH are treated as clearly eligible for certain forms of favorable or workable treatment. While the visible page does not name XRP directly in that section, the implication is significant for assets that issuers, exchanges or broker-dealers may argue are non-securities and sufficiently liquid to be treated similarly under capital and customer protection analysis.

The letter also challenges the SEC’s treatment of stablecoin haircuts. Ripple says it is providing analysis showing that a 2% haircut for stablecoins “remains punitive,” and argues that “Stablecoins should have a 0% haircut” when there is a mint-burn relationship between the broker-dealer and issuer. For firms operating in tokenized settlement, that distinction could affect whether stablecoins are usable at scale as collateral or treated as carrying a capital cost that limits adoption.

The final issue listed in the letter goes to tokenized asset ownership. Ripple asks the SEC to clarify whether an off-chain or on-chain registry takes precedence in determining ownership and legally enforceable rights. Its proposed answer is direct: “Designate the on-chain registry as the single authoritative legal register,” which Ripple says would eliminate “dual-registry ambiguity” in digital twin structures.

BankXRP framed the submission more aggressively, saying Ripple was demanding stablecoins be treated as proper collateral, RLUSD receive a 0% haircut, XRP and other non-securities get the same treatment as BTC and ETH, and on-chain registries be recognized as the only legal record. “Ripple isn’t asking anymore. They’re telling,” the XRP community account wrote.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.3299.

For context, between 2022 and 2024 the same index typically sat above 3—and at times above 4—signaling a much deeper and more active market.

XRP Liquidity Thins

What makes this shift stand out is that it appears to have happened while price strength was holding up. Daodu says market depth thinned out as XRP pushed to new highs in 2025, then continued to thin even as the token maintained its current trading range this year. 

The liquidity drop was reflected in exchange flows. Between May 3 and May 15, around 403 million XRP left Binance, with large wallets withdrawing tokens almost every session. 

The pattern resurfaced on May 22: whales removed $49.2 million worth of XRP while the price remained below $1.35. Daodu notes that similar behavior also showed up in late February and twice in March, again around the $1.35 to $1.40 area.

On the surface, withdrawals can look like a quiet positive because they reduce potential sell-side supply on the exchange. But Daodu’s key point is that removing coins from Binance doesn’t automatically produce a rebound. Price still depends on buyers showing up. 

CryptoQuant’s interpretation adds another layer: the drain appears less like long-term investors losing confidence and more like a change in who holds XRP and where that liquidity sits.

CryptoQuant’s Explanation

CryptoQuant suggests large holders may be relocating XRP from Binance to venues such as over-the-counter (OTC) desks and regulated funds—places institutions typically use to trade large sizes privately. 

In that reading, XRP isn’t necessarily being dumped into the market. Instead, it’s being moved beyond the reach of the retail order book, which is why liquidity on Binance is thinning while the token’s broader narrative can remain intact.

This distinction matters because a thinner order book changes how XRP’s price reacts to trades. Daodu explains that when there are fewer orders resting near the current price, there’s less liquidity to absorb incoming market activity. 

That means even a single medium-sized order—something that might barely register in a deeper environment—can move XRP by roughly 4% to 5% on its own. 

The same thinness that makes sell-offs more painful can also make rallies more dramatic. If buyers return with size, there may be little resistance in the form of resting sell orders. 

In that scenario, a wave of positive news or even one large buyer could push XRP higher quickly, because there’s less in the way to slow the move. 

So is the liquidity drop a red flag or a bullish setup? Based on the data, Daodu’s framing is that it’s both “neither and both.” A five-year liquidity low isn’t, by itself, a crash signal. But it also isn’t an all-clear. 

With the market’s “usual cushion” stripped away, XRP appears caught between durable support and an unusually hollow order book, leaving the next significant volume wave to decide the outcome. 

At the time of writing, the altcoin was trading at the lowest point of its three-month consolidation range, at $1.32. This represented a 5% drop over the course of the month. 

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

BlackRock-Linked Bitcoin Wallets Shed Over $1 Billion With IBIT Outflows

Arkham Intelligence data shows that BlackRock-linked Bitcoin wallets sold every trading day last week, with total sales reaching about $1.01 billion for the entire week. The tracked movements were tied to about 15,000 BTC sent through Coinbase Prime, a flow that appears connected to redemptions from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT.

However, the selling did not stop there, as the outflows have continued into this week. On May 25, an additional $105.19 million in outflows was recorded from IBIT, while another $333.71 million was recorded in outflows on May 26, extending the pressure into the new week.

The balance history data from Arkham shows IBIT’s holdings peaked above $75 billion in the first half of May, briefly touching near $75.5 billion around May 11. From that point, the fund’s balance declined in a near-uninterrupted slide, falling below $67 billion by May 26, a drop of about $8 billion from peak to trough over less than three weeks.

According to data from SoSoValue, the 11 US pot Bitcoin ETFs logged net outflows of $1.26 billion across the five trading days from May 18 to May 22. The reversal is notable given that April recorded $1.97 billion in net inflows, the strongest monthly total of 2026, and an early-May streak.

BlackRock Bitcoin Balance History. Source: Arkham

Satoshi-Era Miner Moves $203 Million In Bitcoin

The ETF outflows are not the only large-wallet activity catching attention. A Satoshi-era Bitcoin miner moved 2,650 BTC, worth around $203 million, to FalconX and Cumberland, two major OTC desks used by large holders and institutional counterparties. The transfers were split across three transactions, and the wallet still held about 6,000 BTC, worth about $460 million.

OTC desks are used to reduce visible price impact, especially when a large holder wants to find private counterparties without dropping a block of coins directly on crypto exchanges. There’s also the case of these Satoshi-era coins moving from inactive supply to active supply.

The strange part of this setup is that retail behavior has not fully matched the outflows coming from large wallets. Dip-buying language is loud across crypto social media, and Bitcoin’s ability to hold above $76,000 despite more than $1 billion in ETF-linked selling has helped keep the bullish crowd active. 

The question being asked by Arkham, “If BlackRock is selling… who’s buying?” captures the current divide. The supply is clearly moving, but there is still enough demand to keep Bitcoin from breaking down immediately below $76,000.

Mastercard Wins Major Regulatory Approval

On Wednesday, Mastercard announced that its subsidiary Mastercard Transaction Services (U.S.) LLC had been granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to operate digital asset services under the strict regulatory framework.

New York’s BitLicense framework is one of the most rigorous and comprehensive crypto regulatory frameworks in the US. It establishes strict requirements for consumer safeguards, cyber defenses, financial integrity, and operational resilience.

The payment giant joins the list of companies to receive the license in 2026. As reported by Bitcoinist, the NYDFS granted GalaxyOne Prime NY, its entity designed to serve New York clients, both a BitLicense and a Money Transmission License last week, allowing the company to provide institutional trading and custody services to clients.

The approval aligns with Mastercard’s long‑term strategy for digital assets, especially stablecoins and tokenized deposits, while maintaining and building upon the same standards that support its global payments network.

It also supports Mastercard’s commitment to “meeting the high standards required to operate in a well‑regulated financial environment as payment systems continue to evolve,” the announcement noted.

Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard, stated that “clear regulatory frameworks play an important role in building trust and confidence as new forms of digital value move from experimentation toward practical application,” adding that “this approval underscores our focus on aligning innovation with regulatory expectations of high levels of security, compliance and risk management.”

The company also reaffirmed its goal to advance interoperability, reliability, and trust within the payments ecosystem. Additionally, it emphasized the strengthening of the infrastructure that underpins global commerce, ensuring its safe and scalable operation.

Mastercard Expands Digital Asset Strategy

Mastercard has made strategic moves in the digital asset landscape this year, including the launch of a global partnership program to connect crypto payments to the company’s network.

In March, the payments giant announced an initiative to scale digital assets, integrate them seamlessly into existing payment frameworks, and position itself as a bridge between digital assets and traditional payment systems.

The company partnered with more than 85 firms from the payment and financial sectors, including Circle, Binance, Ripple, SoFi Technologies, Global Payments’ Worldpay, PayPal, BitGo, Crypto.com, Gemini, and Paxos.

This project follows a collaboration between Ripple, Gemini, WebBank, and Mastercard to explore settling Gemini Credit Card transactions using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

In addition, Mastercard, alongside Ondo Finance, Kinexys, and Ripple, completed the first near-real-time cross-border, cross-bank redemption of tokenized US Treasuries in early May. The pilot, executed in under five seconds, used XRP Ledger as the settlement blockchain, connecting public blockchain infrastructure directly to global banking rails for the first time.

The company also announced earlier this year the acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure solutions provider operating in more than 130 countries. The deal aimed to expand Mastercard’s end-to-end support of digital assets and “value movement across currencies, rails, and regions.”

Bitcoin Yet To Bottom With The S&P 500 Still Reach New Highs

In an X post, Chain Mind stated that Bitcoin has never bottomed before the S&P 500 does. He further noted that each BTC bear market ended exactly when the stock market made its final retrace, as in the 2015, 2018, and 2022 cycles. The analyst added that BTC is repeating the same structure again. Meanwhile, he noted that the stock market hasn’t printed its final retrace yet, which means that BTC hasn’t bottomed.  

The S&P 500 continues to reach new all-time highs (ATHs), climbing above $7,500 this week, and has yet to see a significant retrace despite the U.S.-Iran war. As such, the Bitcoin bottom may not be in. However, Chain Mind suggested that BTC may soon bottom, with a potential retrace for the stock market on the horizon. 

In another X post, Chain Mind stated that the S&P 500 is showing a classic top signal, including a broadening pattern, a parabolic arc, and a fake breakout. He noted that history shows this exact setup before every major top, as this setup appeared during the Dotcom bubble and the financial crisis in 2008. The analyst added that the macro confirms this, with the Buffett Indicator at historical highs, suggesting a dump is imminent. In line with this, he declared that the stock market won’t reach $9,000 as some have predicted. 

BTC May Be Forming A Topping Pattern

In an X post, crypto analyst Colin stated that he sees the current Bitcoin price action as a potential Head-and-Shoulders topping pattern. He noted that BTC will have to break below the neckline to confirm this bearish pattern. The analyst added that if that happens, the downside target will be $65,000, and that it could even drop lower due to a potential breakdown of the yellow channel, with the target being as low as $61,000. As such, he believes that this is something to keep an eye on. 

Meanwhile, crypto analyst Chain Mind revealed that Bitcoin has just printed a Head-and-Shoulders pattern on the 1-week chart. He noted that the cycle structure has played out exactly as expected, with a first peak, a cycle high, a final rebound, and now a dump. He added that BTC has gotten the final rejection to dump and will mark the final bottom at around $50,000. 

Related Reading: Everyone Is Calling For Lower Bitcoin Price: Why This Is The Perfect Time To Go Parabolic

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $75,500, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Hyperliquid ETFs Mark Strongest Debut In Crypto ETF History

Kairos said spot HYPE ETFs absorbed 1.04% of HYPE’s market capitalization over their first 10 trading days. That compares with 0.59% for spot Bitcoin ETFs, 0.41% for spot Ethereum ETFs and 0.31% for spot Solana ETFs across the same initial trading window, using a new-issuer cohort and stripping out GBTC and ETHE outflows because those products were legacy trust conversions.

“Spot HYPE ETFs have absorbed 1.04% of HYPE’s market cap in their first 10 trading days,” Kairos wrote on X. “Strongest debut of any spot crypto ETF to date. HYPE: 1.04%. BTC: 0.59%. ETH: 0.41%. SOL: 0.31%.”

The comparison is notable because it frames demand relative to the underlying asset’s market size rather than simply ranking ETF launches by dollar inflows. In absolute terms, Bitcoin products still operate on a much larger scale. But Kairos’ metric suggests that, adjusted for the size of the underlying token market, HYPE’s ETF launch has drawn unusually strong early demand.

SoSoValue data supports the picture of a fast start. The platform lists total net assets across US HYPE spot ETFs at $117.38 million, equal to 0.88% of HYPE’s market capitalization, with cumulative total net inflows of $95.36 million. Daily net inflows stood at $20.45 million, while total value traded reached $53.76 million.

The market currently consists of two listed products in the SoSoValue dataset: Bitwise’s BHYP on NYSE and 21Shares’ THYP on Nasdaq. BHYP accounted for the larger daily inflow on May 26, taking in $19.05 million and bringing cumulative net inflows to $55 million. THYP added $1.41 million on the day, with cumulative net inflows of $44 million.

Assets were more evenly split. SoSoValue listed BHYP with $62.92 million in net assets, representing 0.47% of HYPE market capitalization, while THYP held $54.46 million, or 0.41%. Trading activity was also balanced: BHYP recorded $23.30 million in value traded, compared with $30.35 million for THYP. Both products closed higher on the day, with BHYP up 9.49% and THYP up 9.44%.

Kairos also addressed a methodological question around whether the 1.04% figure was based on circulating supply. In response to a user, the firm said it avoided that approach because of uncertainty around the correct way to calculate HYPE’s circulating supply.

“No – given disputes on how to properly calc HYPE circ supply we did a different methodology you can see in bottom right hand corner,” Kairos wrote. “We ran the same thing using circ supply and the results are roughly the same even when you include & exclude GBTC & ETHE.”

That caveat matters because ETF absorption metrics can shift depending on whether analysts use total market capitalization, free float, circulating supply or adjusted supply. Kairos’ argument is that HYPE’s relative lead remains intact even under alternative supply assumptions and even when legacy trust dynamics are handled differently.

At press time, Hyperliquid traded at $62.90.

The proposal, titled AMM Swappable Curves and designated XLS Discussion #547, was submitted by Denis Angell (@dangell7) and Roman Thpt (@RomThpt) — both active contributors to the XRPL codebase — and is currently in draft status awaiting community review, per the GitHub discussion thread. It builds directly on XLS-30, the amendment that introduced XRPL’s original automated market maker in 2024.

The Problem The Proposal Solves

The current XRP Ledger AMM operates on a single invariant: the constant product formula — the same model used by Uniswap v2, where liquidity is spread uniformly across all price ranges. The proposal identifies three structural gaps that limit the current system’s competitiveness.

The first is capital inefficiency. Spreading liquidity uniformly means that only a small fraction is ever active near the current market price — making it less attractive for liquidity providers than concentrated alternatives. The second is curve inflexibility. Volatile trading pairs benefit from constant product pools. Stablecoin pairs benefit from StableSwap curves, which minimize slippage between closely correlated assets. Long-tail or asymmetrically weighted pairs benefit from Balancer-style weighting.

Forcing all pairs into one model is a structural disadvantage, per the proposal. The third is composability. The XRPL payment engine already routes across AMM pools and its native order book — adding curve diversity multiplies available liquidity sources without requiring changes to existing pathfinding logic.

The proposal introduces a pluggable curve architecture — pool creators select their preferred curve type at creation time from an initial set of three. Curve 0 is the existing constant product model, preserving full backward compatibility with all existing XLS-30 pools. Curve 1 is Concentrated Liquidity — equivalent to Uniswap v3 — allowing liquidity providers to target specific price ranges for dramatically greater capital efficiency. Curve 2 is StableSwap — equivalent to Curve Finance v1 — optimized for stablecoin and correlated asset pairs where minimal slippage matters most, per the proposal’s specification.

A fourth curve type — Smart AMM — is reserved for a forthcoming companion specification. It would allow pool creators to deploy WebAssembly binaries providing fully custom swap mathematics, dynamic fees, and lifecycle hooks including before and after swap, deposit, and withdrawal events. The architecture intentionally mirrors the host ABI and sandbox model already being developed for XLS-100 Smart Escrows — meaning the WASM runtime infrastructure is being built once and reused across multiple XRPL features, per the proposal.

Multiple pools per token pair — one for each curve type — would operate simultaneously without affecting existing pools. The XRPL’s payment engine would route across all of them automatically, selecting the optimal liquidity source for each transaction without any changes required from end users or existing integrations, per the technical specification.

This development marks a pivotal moment for the XRP Ledger’s DeFi infrastructure. A protocol that already hosts over $2 billion in tokenized real-world assets and processes $1.93 billion in monthly stablecoin transfers gaining Uniswap v3-grade concentrated liquidity and Curve Finance-style stable pools would represent a meaningful step toward institutional-grade on-chain liquidity — exactly the infrastructure that the asset managers, banks, and stablecoin issuers currently building on XRPL will eventually require.

Cover image from Grok, XRPUSD chart from Tradingview

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Handles $1.3B Block Sale

Galaxy research lead Alex Thorn first flagged the transaction on X, calling it a “massive $1.289 billion IBIT block sale by an unknown party through dark pool at 10:30am today.” Thorn said it was the “biggest such trade I’ve ever seen,” while adding that he was still checking whether it was the largest in IBIT’s history.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas later said the trade had been confirmed. “Confirmed.. 29 million share trade ($1.3b) of IBIT executed at 1030am this morning. This screen shows all the IBIT trades today by size and you can see one of these is not like the others. Price unchanged today so mkt absorbed it well.”

James Seyffart, another Bloomberg ETF analyst, also said he had verified the print on his terminal. “It was def a massive block sale of IBIT,” he wrote. “29.2 million shares.”

Spot Bitcoin ETF Continue To Bleed

The trade comes after a sharp reversal in US spot BTC ETF flows. According to SoSoValue, US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $1.257 billion of net outflows during the May 18–22 trading week, with IBIT accounting for $1.008 billion of that total. Fidelity’s FBTC followed with $112 million of weekly outflows, while total spot Bitcoin ETF net assets stood at $98.87 billion and cumulative net inflows at $57.08 billion.

That followed another weak week. For May 11–15, SoSoValue data shows $1.039 billion of net outflows, ending six consecutive weeks of inflows. ARKB led that week’s withdrawals with $324 million, while IBIT saw $317 million of outflows; total spot Bitcoin ETF net assets were then listed at $104.29 billion.

The daily data also shows that the pressure was not confined to a single print. SoSoValue data shows US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $70.47 million of net outflows on May 20, extending the streak to four days, followed by $101 million on May 21 and $105 million on May 22, the sixth consecutive day of outflows.

Michael Nadeau of The DeFi Report framed the sale against that broader run of withdrawals. “This is on the heels of $2.5b of outflows over the last few weeks. The ETFs have held up remarkably well. Many have pointed to this as evidence that the bottom is in.”

He added a more cautious macro read: “But it looks like institutions are starting to get skittish about what they’re holding in an environment where inflation and rates are rising.”

At press time, BTC traded at $75,730.

Russia-Linked Crypto Firms Hit With New Sanctions

On Tuesday, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) announced a new package of sanctions targeting crypto firms and illicit networks used by Russia to circumvent sanctions and channel funds.

The announcement disclosed that the Kremlin has “increasingly turned to dark networks and shadow financial systems to bypass legal restrictions.” Consequently, the UK government is taking measures to restrict these avenues and adapt its approach to counter Russian evasion strategies effectively and shut down the payment routes that fuel its “war machine” against Ukraine.

The package designated 18 entities linked to Russia’s illicit financial infrastructure used to move funds, procure goods, and sustain the war against Ukraine, such as the A7 network. Notably, the Kremlin-backed network reportedly exploits Kyrgyzstan’s financial systems to channel funds into Russia.

The measures target key A7-linked individuals, including a Kyrgyz bank suspected of facilitating payments for the network and a major global cryptocurrency exchange suspected of channeling over $1.5 billion back into the Kremlin’s hands.

Officials have sanctioned Huobi Global S.A., the Panamanian company that operates crypto exchange HTX, listing it as part of the “entities and individuals involved in making available funds, economic resources, goods or technology to individuals and entities in the Russian financial sector.”

A spokesperson for HTX told Bloomberg that “Regulatory compliance remains our absolute top priority at HTX,” adding that they “proactively monitor and strictly adhere to regulatory frameworks in all jurisdictions where we operate globally, including the UK.”

The FCDO also imposed sanctions on three Georgian companies operating Russia-focused exchanges seeking to evade sanctions. The list names crypto exchanges and financial services providers, EXMO Exchange Limited, ARVIX Limited Liability Company, RAPIRA GROUP LLC, AIFORY LLC, among others, as entities and individuals “involved in supporting the Russian financial sector.”

International Crackdown Intensifies

Over the past four years, the UK has sanctioned over 3,300 individuals, businesses, and ships to sever the Kremlin’s access to vital cash flows, the announcement noted. This has significantly impacted Russia’s war economy, with officials estimating the loss of approximately $450 billion due to international sanctions, equivalent to four years of funding for its war against Ukraine.

Earlier this year, the European Commission (EC) began exploring measures to prohibit all crypto transactions linked to Russia to further crack down on the country’s use of digital assets to evade sanctions.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the EC’s proposal focused on preventing the growth of successors to the Russia-linked exchange Garantex, targeting payments platform A7 and connected ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5.

The FCDO noted that “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues, the UK and its allies stand ready to ratchet up pressure on Russia and will continue to strengthen sanctions at every opportunity.”

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper stated that “If the Kremlin thinks it can evade our sanctions by hiding behind crypto networks and shadow financial systems, it is gravely mistaken.”

“We will continue to act fast and decisively, alongside our allies, to expose, disrupt and dismantle these networks, and ensure those enabling Russia’s aggression face consequences,” she concluded.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office Virtual Asset Crime Joint Investigation Unit announced on May 27 that it had arrested and indicted two suspects on market manipulation charges, indicted a third without arrest, and separately indicted two additional suspects for obstructing justice by helping the ringleader evade capture — five defendants in total across two separate charging tracks, per Digital Asset’s May 27 reporting of the prosecutor’s statement.

How The Solana Scheme Worked

The operation centered on CATFI — a Solana-based meme coin launched on pump.fun, the widely used Solana token issuance platform that gained significant traction during the early 2025 meme coin frenzy. The group spent several million Korean won to launch the token and list it on a decentralized exchange, per the prosecution’s account.

The ringleader, identified only by his surname Park, operated under the influencer alias “EtherFather” on social media — presenting himself as an independent third party with no financial interest in the project while actively recommending CATFI purchases to his followers. Simultaneously, the group operated the project’s official social media accounts, artificially inflating follower counts and publishing false promotional announcements to drive retail buying interest, per the prosecutor’s statement as reported by Digital Asset.

To conceal their control over the token’s supply, the group distributed holdings across multiple wallets and conducted circular trading — a technique designed to create the appearance of organic market activity while masking the fact that the issuing parties controlled the token’s liquidity. Once retail investors had entered, the group executed the rug pull — abandoning the project and exiting with approximately 400 million Korean won in illicit proceeds from an initial outlay of roughly 10 million won, per the filing.

The Scale Of The Damage

CATFI’s price surged 1,001 times in the 26 hours following its launch, attracting approximately 6,000 investors. Of those, 256 suffered confirmed financial losses totaling approximately 900 million Korean won — roughly $650,000 at current exchange rates — per the prosecution’s figures cited in the Digital Asset report.

Two firsts define this case’s significance. It is the first prosecution under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act using fraudulent trading charges — specifically the act’s prohibition on “use of fraudulent means, plans, or schemes” and “false statements on material matters” in connection with digital asset transactions, per the prosecution’s legal framing.

The prior landmark case under the same law applied market manipulation charges relating to centralized exchange activity. This case extends that framework to decentralized exchange transactions for the first time — a meaningful expansion of regulatory reach into a space prosecutors have historically struggled to address.

This development marks a critical juncture for the nascent sector’s regulatory trajectory in South Korea. A successful rug pull prosecution targeting DEX activity on Solana, influencer-driven manipulation, and coordinated wallet obfuscation simultaneously signals that Korean enforcement agencies are developing both the technical capability and the legal framework to pursue crypto fraud beyond the centralized exchange perimeter.

Cover image from Grok, SOLUSD chart from Tradingview

Sanctions Against Polymarket And Kalshi

Spain’s Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling launched a sanctioning process targeting Polymarket and Kalshi. Along with opening the procedure, the authority ordered the nationwide blocking of both platforms’ websites across Spanish territory as a precautionary step, pending the outcome of the case.

Spain’s regulator framed the action around allegations that the companies are operating without the proper authorization. In an official release connected to the matter, the agency said it initiated the sanctioning procedure over what it described as breaches of gambling rules. 

The accusation centers on the claim that Polymarket and Kalshi are present in Spain without the mandatory administrative license. According to the regulator, Spain—similar to other European jurisdictions—treats prediction markets as games of chance where users place wagers on uncertain future outcomes. 

Under that interpretation, platforms operating in Spanish territory must obtain a specific administrative license. The authority argued that operators without authorization do not provide the technical and regulatory guarantees Spain requires for gambling activities. 

Those safeguards include systems for identity verification, mechanisms designed to prevent access by minors, controls related to self-excluded or banned individuals, and supervisory standards intended to protect users.

The regulator also indicated that the procedure against both Polymarket and Kalshi is expected to run for roughly three to four months before a final decision is issued.

US Investigation, Indonesia Ban

The Spanish action follows pressure on Polymarket and Kalshi elsewhere, making it an unusually tough month for the sector. Earlier developments included Polymarket dealing with an exploit and also being banned in Indonesia on Monday after increased local attention surrounding a bet related to the President’s term. 

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs said the restriction was intended to protect the public, with emphasis on younger users and people participating in the digital space. 

In the US, Representative James Comer announced a formal investigation into the duo of prediction market platforms. In that inquiry, Comer requested that the CEOs of both companies explain how their platforms detect and prevent insider trading. 

The probe was reportedly prompted by a series of suspicious trades linked to classified US military operations and geopolitical events. With Spain now moving to sanction and block access, the regulatory list continues to expand. 

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin Has Seen Institutional Demand Turn Red Recently

In a new post on X, Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards has discussed the latest trend in the institutional demand for Bitcoin. The indicator cited by Edwards is the “Net Institutional Buying,” which gauges the net trend of institutions in the BTC market.

As a proxy for institutions, the metric makes use of the data of the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and digital-asset treasury (DAT) companies. The spot ETFs are investment vehicles that allow investors to gain indirect exposure to Bitcoin. These funds hold and custody BTC on behalf of their investors. Similarly, DAT firms also provide their traders with exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price by holding BTC on their balance sheets.

As both of these represent a regulated off-chain route into digital assets, they tend to be the preferred mode of investment for the more traditional traders like institutions.

Now, here is the chart shared by the analyst that shows the trend in the Net Institutional Buying for Bitcoin over the last couple of years:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Net Institutional Buying rose to a positive level during March and stayed there until very recently, indicating that demand from massive entities was pouring into the cryptocurrency.

The trend has changed, however, and the metric is now back inside the negative territory. “Institutions are once again dumping on us,” noted Edwards. The indicator’s decline has primarily been driven by the United States spot ETFs, which have observed a shift toward net outflows since the May 12th Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.

The report showed that the CPI rose to 3.8% in April, which is the highest level seen in the US since May 2023. The high inflation rate could be why big-money entities have been pulling out of risk assets like Bitcoin.

It now remains to be seen how long the Net Institutional Buying will remain negative for. “Hard to get meaningful price improvement while this metric is in the red,” explained the analyst.

In some other news, there are currently 7.75 million tokens held at a net unrealized loss on the Bitcoin network, as on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has pointed out in an X post.

This level is lower than the highs seen after the February crash, but still notably elevated compared to last year’s figures. “This supply overhang is a structural feature of bear markets, typically resolved only as weaker hands capitulate,” said Glassnode.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has overall moved sideways over the last few days as its price is still floating around $77,300.

How The Attack Works

The scheme targets people searching for Uniswap, the decentralized exchange, by placing fraudulent ads above the legitimate site in Google’s sponsored results section.

Attackers either purchase ad space outright or break into existing advertiser accounts to run the fake listings, then outbid the real protocol to secure the top position.

What makes the ads hard to catch is how they are built. The phishing links use URLs that look authentic, while a hidden secondary element quietly loads the malicious code — invisible to Google’s automated review systems.

Victims who click through land on convincing replicas of the real Uniswap platform, with all their network activity routed silently through attacker-controlled servers.

Community alert:

A website impersonating Uniswap is draining funds from multiple wallets.

The scammers are currently holding at least ~$400,000.

0x37925684BA178821b4436E06e67f5dBD6cfA49Bb 0x2fC25F46cC49D226eF92E9A7665f3d2821F3c5E2

Please only use official links, and… pic.twitter.com/JikqftTVHY

— b-block (@b_block_oficial) May 25, 2026

On-chain analyst “b-block” raised the alarm on Monday after tracing stolen funds to addresses linked to the fake Uniswap site.

At the time of writing, two flagged wallets held a combined 146 ETH, valued at roughly $306,000. The total haul is estimated at at least $400,000.

A Year Of Losses

The nonprofit Security Alliance, known as SEAL, has been tracking the broader pattern. According to the group, there was a sharp rise in this type of phishing activity in March, with $1.27 million stolen between March 13 and 30 alone.

SEAL said it blocked more than 356 malicious ad links, describing that number as typical of weekly attacker activity sustained for more than a year — and said the pace has not slowed.

Stacy Muur, founder of Web3 marketing agency Green Dots, shared a screenshot of one such sponsored result and said scammers had used it to steal funds from users. She called out Google directly, saying the company has let the problem persist for years while users continue to lose money.

DeFiLlama, a crypto data platform, echoed the concern, calling fake Google ads a common and recurring source of phishing attacks targeting the crypto community.

Two scammers have already stolen ~$400,000 from users through a phishing @Uniswap ad on Google.

It’s insane that Google has ignored this issue for years while fake links keep getting pushed above real ones and users keep getting drained.

This is the first result that popped out… https://t.co/Ov488s9DIl pic.twitter.com/qStRGq8qTE

— Stacy Muur (@stacy_muur) May 25, 2026

The Threat Spreads Beyond Google

The Uniswap case is part of a wider pattern hitting multiple platforms and audiences. Reports indicate that in early May, attackers were abusing both Google Ads and shared chat links from AI tools to push malware targeting Mac users in an active campaign.

Meanwhile, reports note that Facebook has seen a similar wave of fake paid ads, with scammers mimicking official Microsoft promotions and directing users to counterfeit Windows 11 download pages loaded with credential-stealing malware.

SEAL said it continues to receive reports from victims and that the campaign shows no sign of stopping.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Ethereum OG Wallet Has Turned $620 Into $4.2 Million

According to data from cryptocurrency transaction tracker service Whale Alert, an old Ethereum wallet has just broken a 10.8-year phase of dormancy. The address in question held a total of 2,000 ETH, worth $620 back in 2015.

The wallet is so old that Whale Alert classifies it as a pre-mine address. In the context of ETH, a “pre-mine address” refers to one that received its tokens before mining began on the network with its public launch in 2015. Such wallets were allocated these coins because they belonged to early contributors and participants of the presale in 2014.

Interestingly, despite getting in early on the cryptocurrency, this particular investor just never participated in activity, with their only transaction in over 10 years being the deposit that they received at the blockchain’s genesis.

Now, the pre-mine address has suddenly been reactivated. Below are the details related to the transaction that broke the long spell of dormancy for the wallet.

As is visible, the move involved a sum of just 1 ETH, suggesting that it was likely a test transaction. After this transfer, the wallet followed up with a few more transactions, including a 1,997.9 ETH shift that nearly completely emptied out its balance. So far, these coins haven’t made their way to a centralized exchange, so it’s hard to say whether the investor is looking to sell them.

As mentioned before, the Ethereum stack held by the address was worth just $620 back in 2015. Today, the same amount converts to more than $4.2 million, representing a gain of nearly 630,000%.

What could be the reason behind the OG making a sudden return? Well, the answer to that would lie in what happened to the wallet after it fell silent. Often, addresses that are this old get to their age not via resolute HODLing, but by being lost or forgotten. As such, it’s possible that this address was simply inaccessible during its dormancy and just recently had its keys rediscovered.

A less probable, but not impossible, scenario is that the Ethereum balance indeed reached its age by long-term holding. If so, the investor would be among the most stalwart of diamonds in the digital asset sector.

ETH Price

Ethereum declined toward the $2,000 level a few days ago, but the cryptocurrency has managed to claw its way back up as its price is now trading around $2,130.

On May 22, XRP open interest expanded sharply across major derivatives exchanges in a single session. Binance added approximately 25.6 million XRP in open interest while Bybit added approximately 54 million XRP — a combined increase of nearly 79.6 million XRP representing roughly $107 million in new notional positioning at the prevailing price near $1.35.

The move was not an isolated event. On May 26, an almost identical expansion occurred. Binance added another 28.9 million XRP in open interest and Bybit increased by 42.9 million XRP — a combined rise of 71.8 million XRP worth approximately $96 million as XRP traded near $1.34.

Two separate sessions. Two nearly identical open interest expansions. A combined $203 million in new derivatives positioning was added within four days in a market that has shown no directional conviction for months. Something is being built — and the CryptoQuant report examines exactly what the flow data behind that positioning reveals about which direction it is pointing.

$203M in New Positioning and Rising Spot Demand

The CryptoQuant analysis places the two open interest expansions in historical context immediately. These were the strongest XRP derivatives positioning events since March 16 — meaning speculative activity has returned to levels not seen in over two months after a prolonged period of subdued derivatives participation. The market is not simply active. It is more active than it has been at any point since before the most recent consolidation phase began.

Open interest confirms the return of leverage. Direction requires the taker to flow data, and that data reveals the split that makes the current setup structurally significant. Binance Perpetual CVD has fallen to approximately -$641.9 million, a record negative reading that confirms aggressive selling has dominated XRP’s perpetual markets throughout the open interest expansion. New positions are being built, and the participants building them on Binance are predominantly short.

Against that, derivatives selling, All CEX Estimated Spot CVD has climbed to approximately $397.3 million — exceeding the April levels that sat near $380 million and confirming that genuine spot demand has been strengthening simultaneously. Real buyers accumulating in spot markets while derivatives traders build short positions is the divergence that defines the current structure.

The liquidation data adds the layer that determines when the divergence resolves. On May 23, XRP long liquidations reached approximately $5.44 million — the highest since February 5, 2026. The forced exits have been hitting longs rather than shorts, meaning the squeeze pressure is building on the short side rather than releasing it. If spot CVD maintains its strength while perpetual CVD remains at record negative territory, the conditions for a short squeeze are assembling — not yet triggered, but accumulating with every session that the divergence persists without resolution.

XRP Continues In Compression As Market Waits For Confirmation

XRP remains locked in a prolonged consolidation structure near the $1.35 region, with the daily chart showing a market that has struggled to establish momentum in either direction since the sharp February breakdown. Price action continues grinding sideways beneath all major moving averages, reinforcing the broader bearish structure that has controlled XRP for most of 2026.

Technically, the chart highlights the importance of the $1.30–$1.35 support zone, which buyers have defended repeatedly during the past three months. Every selloff into this region has attracted enough demand to prevent a deeper breakdown, but bulls have also consistently failed to reclaim the $1.45–$1.50 resistance area that caps every recovery attempt. The result is a compressed range structure with declining volatility and increasingly neutral momentum conditions.

The moving averages also reflect this indecision. The shorter-term averages have flattened significantly while the 200-day moving average continues trending downward overhead, signaling that XRP has not yet transitioned into a confirmed recovery structure despite the stabilization seen since March.

Volume remains relatively muted compared to the massive liquidation-driven spike recorded during February’s collapse, suggesting that aggressive market participation has not fully returned yet. However, prolonged compression phases like the current one often precede major volatility expansions once liquidity builds sufficiently on both sides of the range. A breakout above $1.45 could trigger renewed bullish momentum, while losing the $1.30 support zone would likely accelerate downside pressure quickly.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Why Crypto Stablecoins Need 100 Million TPS

Prince framed the issue as less a bandwidth crisis than an economic one. Cloudflare, he said, expects AI bot traffic to exceed human internet traffic in the first half of 2027, a shift that will massively increase the number of requests hitting websites. Technically, he said, the internet can probably absorb that pressure. The harder question is who pays for the servers, security, publishing and infrastructure underneath it.

“The big question though is what’s the business model going to be and who’s going to pay for it,” Prince said. “If the business model of the internet for the last, you know, 30 years has been ads and subscriptions, problem is agents don’t click on ads. And buying one subscription and then having agents be able to basically pick all of the content back up from that, that’s not going to help make sure that the people who are creating that content get compensated.”

That argument sits at the center of Cloudflare’s push into “pay for crawl,” x402 and stablecoin-based payments. Prince said the HTTP 402 “payment required” response code has existed for years, but the missing piece has been a payment rail cheap and fast enough to handle fractions of a cent at enormous volume. Visa-style card infrastructure, he argued, cannot support that model because transaction fees make tiny payments uneconomic.

Cloudflare’s scale makes the requirement unusually stark. Prince said the company handles about 500 million requests per second. It estimates that 1% to 10% of those requests could be monetizable, implying roughly 5 million to 50 million paid requests per second if the model took off across its network. That is why Prince said even systems claiming 2 million transactions per second are still below Cloudflare’s likely needs.

“What we’ve struggled with is people will say to us, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re so excited. We can handle 2 million transactions per second.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s awesome. Good job.’ But I think day one I need 10 million transactions per second,” Prince said. He later sharpened the challenge: “So if you want to go build like a layer 1 blockchain that can support 100 million transactions per second, call us.”

For crypto, the comments amount to both validation and a technical indictment. Prince is not describing stablecoins as a marginal payment feature, but as infrastructure for an agentic web where bots pay for access in the background. At the same time, he said he does not yet see a blockchain ecosystem capable of handling the throughput Cloudflare would need if it switched the system on at scale.

The proposed end state is not simply paywalls for AI. Prince described a model where humans could still access content freely, while automated agents pay publishers and infrastructure providers through embedded microtransactions. Bankless summarized the idea as “humans get content for free and the robots pay a ton,” a line Prince endorsed as close to the objective.

Cloudflare’s role, in his telling, is coordination. The company sits in front of a large share of the web, counts many AI firms as customers and already gives site operators tools to control crawler access. Prince said the aim is to let publishers decide whether they want AI systems to consume their content freely, block them, or charge for access.

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.55 trillion.

However, a CryptoQuant analysis tracking Binance exchange flows suggests that the underlying market structure may be shifting in a way that price action alone is not yet reflecting.

According to the analysis, Binance netflows have remained deeply negative throughout May, with continuous outflows dominating exchange activity. The persistent red bars across the charts indicate that large holders are aggressively withdrawing LINK from Binance and moving tokens into self-custody wallets rather than preparing them for sale on the open market. This behavior is typically associated with long-term positioning and institutional-style accumulation rather than short-term speculative trading activity.

The implications for supply dynamics are significant. As LINK continues leaving exchanges in large quantities, the amount of immediately available sell-side liquidity on Binance order books gradually declines. The analysis notes that this type of prolonged exchange depletion historically creates conditions for a potential supply shock, where even moderate buying pressure can produce disproportionately strong price movements because fewer tokens remain available for sellers to distribute into demand.

AWS CCIP and a Support Level That Refuses to Break

The CryptoQuant analyst identifies the support defense around May 22 as structurally significant rather than coincidental. When outflow spikes create temporary selling pressure — coins moving off exchanges in volume while the price tests support — the market’s ability to absorb that pressure without breaking lower confirms that genuine demand exists at the current level.

The buyers defending this zone are not simply catching a falling asset. They are absorbing supply at a price they have repeatedly chosen to defend.

The fundamental backdrop adds the dimension that separates the current accumulation pattern from purely technical behavior. Chainlink’s integration into the AWS Marketplace, effective May 25, 2026, materially lowers the barrier for institutional participants to access and implement CCIP — Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability protocol.

As CCIP establishes itself as the infrastructure standard for connecting blockchain networks, the demand for LINK begins decoupling from the Bitcoin-beta correlation that has historically defined its price movements. Utility-driven demand and speculative demand behave differently — and the exchange flow data suggests the former is increasingly present.

The forward condition the analysis identifies is precise. As long as outflows continue outpacing inflows on Binance, the accumulation phase remains structurally intact. Sideways consolidation at a defended support zone — with exchange liquidity gradually exhausting — has historically preceded sharp breakouts rather than breakdowns. The supply is leaving. The buyers are holding. The AWS catalyst has arrived. The setup is assembling quietly while the price waits for the final piece.

Chainlink Consolidates Below Major Resistance

Chainlink continues trading below the psychological $10 level after months of sustained selling pressure, but the weekly chart suggests the asset may be attempting to build a long-term base near a historically important support region. LINK is currently consolidating around $9.60 after recovering from the sharp breakdown that pushed price briefly below the $8 mark earlier this year.

Technically, the chart shows Chainlink trapped beneath the 50-week, 100-week, and 200-week moving averages, all of which continue acting as dynamic resistance overhead. The rejection from the $25 region in late 2025 initiated a strong bearish trend that erased much of the previous rally and forced LINK back toward levels last seen before the major breakout phase of 2023.

However, the current structure differs from earlier periods of weakness because volatility has begun compressing significantly near support. Since March, sellers have repeatedly failed to push LINK decisively below the $8–$9 region despite broader market uncertainty. That behavior suggests buyers continue absorbing supply near these levels, reinforcing the accumulation narrative reflected in Binance outflow data.

Volume has also declined during the consolidation phase, a condition often associated with exhaustion in directional momentum. If LINK eventually reclaims the $12 region and breaks above the cluster of weekly moving averages, the current sideways structure could transform into the foundation for a larger recovery phase driven by tightening exchange supply conditions.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

The Kalshi platform had consistently favored the Democratic challenger in the House race as well, with Christian Menefee’s odds holding firm since February.

Two PACs with ties to the cryptocurrency industry are behind millions of dollars in advertising spending tied to both races.

The Stakes Behind The Spending

Texas voters cast ballots Tuesday in two runoffs — one statewide, one in the Houston-area 18th congressional district. On the Republican side, Paxton faced Cornyn for the US Senate seat.

On the Democratic side, Green faced Menefee to determine who runs in November’s general election. The outcomes could shape the balance of power in Congress when the new session begins in 2027.

Protect Progress, which is affiliated with the Ripple- and Coinbase-backed Fairshake PAC, reported spending $5 million on ads backing Menefee. It spent another $2.8 million on ads that ran against Green, whom the PAC described as “actively hostile” to digital assets.

Reports disclose that Menefee also drew the endorsement of the Blockchain Leadership Fund, a committee backed by Anchorage Digital and Chainlink Labs, though that group had not reported any expenditures as of Monday.

An Unusual Advertising Strategy

Not all of the ads focused on cryptocurrency. At least one spot funded by Protect Progress attacked Green over his opposition to US President Donald Trump — with no mention of crypto or blockchain anywhere in the ad.

A local commentator who appeared on a FOX26 segment said he saw 12 television commercials in a single day paid for by the Protect Progress PAC, pointing out that the same group of people funding those ads are also among Trump’s primary financial backers.

The Senate race drew spending from a separate PAC. The Fellowship PAC, backed by Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald and Anchorage, reported a $500,000 expenditure in support of Paxton — a move that came roughly 24 hours after Trump endorsed Paxton and criticized Cornyn for being slow to back him as a Republican presidential candidate.

Kalshi gave Menefee a 91% chance of winning the Democratic House primary. Rival platform Polymarket showed similar odds for both candidates in their respective races.

Under the current Republican-led Congress, lawmakers have already passed cryptocurrency-friendly legislation, including the stablecoin GENIUS Act, giving the industry a clear interest in who holds these seats when the next session convenes.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Technical analysis shows that Bitcoin may still be moving through the final part of a bear market sequence, and it may not be until October that everything changes.

A Typical Late-Stage Setup

Bitcoin is trading around $76,000 to $77,000 in the last week of May 2026, down by 39% from the all-time high it set in October 2025. Fear and Greed readings are now back to fear, retail sentiment is now fragile, and various technical signals are pointing to the fact that the real bottom hasn’t arrived yet.

As shown in the technical chart below, which depicts Bitcoin’s repetition fractal cycle, the cryptocurrency has created a cycle of bottoms, moving through accumulation, entering a strong markup phase, topping out, and then spending months pushing through a bear market before the next major bottom formed.

Bitcoin Repetition Fractal Cycle. Source: @CryptoTice_ On X

The 2018 and 2022 cycle lows both arrived only after traders had already spent months believing the worst was behind them, but that is the warning behind the current analysis. The chart shows Bitcoin already deep into its present cycle, but it does not yet suggest that the final bottom has been fully confirmed.

Instead, the projected structure places the next major bottom around October 2026. According to a crypto analyst that goes by the name Tice on the social media platform X, every major signal is converging on the same month. These signals include cycle timing, HODL Wave analysis, on-chain bottom indicators, and historical drawdown patterns.

What To Expect Before The October Window

The average length of previous bear market corrections has always come up to somewhere around 12 months. Based on the average length of prior bull and bear markets, analysts calculating from the October 6, 2025 all-time high of $126,000 estimate four more months of corrections before Bitcoin’s price bottoms, a timeline that points to mid-October 2026.

There are multiple analyses using previous cycles that show Bitcoin still needs to create a lower low before the correction timeline ends. However, history does not have to repeat with perfect precision, and the projected timeline does not automatically mean Bitcoin must break below its early February bottom near $63,000. 

The bottom may already be in place, but the correction timeline suggests Bitcoin could be stuck in a continued consolidation phase before the next major bull rally begins around October 2026. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $76,640.

On Tuesday, The Digital Chamber (TDC) sent a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, pushing back on Warren’s claims and arguing that the OCC’s actions were both lawful and grounded in a careful supervisory review.

Why Warren Targets OCC Crypto Charters

The dispute centers on a letter Warren wrote to Gould earlier this month, following reports that the OCC had approved national trust charters for a range of digital-asset companies. 

Warren’s argument, as reported by Bitcoinist ahead of TDC’s reply, is that at least some of the firms appear to be “seemingly ineligible” for the kind of charter they received. 

In her letter, the senator said the OCC approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies that, in her view, “appear to go far beyond the narrow set of activities permitted by law.” Warren also went further by describing what she sees as an “apparent violation of the National Bank Act.”

However, TDC argued that the charter decisions represent “a legally sound and long-overdue step” toward bringing digital asset activities into the federal prudential framework, which it described as being focused on safety and soundness. 

The Digital Chamber’s Response

The Digital Chamber emphasized that the firms named in Warren’s letter were not simply handed permission. According to TDC, each company went through a rigorous OCC review and met applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. 

The group said charters, or conditional approvals for charters, were granted only after each firm demonstrated that its proposed activities fit within permissible activities for national trust banks. 

TDC further rejected Warren’s characterization that the approvals could amount to “apparent violations” of the National Bank Act, arguing that this view misunderstands both the statute and the OCC’s longstanding authority to grant charters. 

At the end of the letter, The Digital Chamber said it is ready to work with the OCC, Congress, and other stakeholders to help ensure that the federal framework for digital asset activities is both legally durable and functionally effective. 

The group concluded that it does not view the chartered banks as threats to the banking system, calling them regulated federal entities operating under OCC supervision and arguing they represent “the future of a more inclusive and competitive financial system.”

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin Rejection At Macro Resistance

Bitcoin has run into a resistance level that has not mattered this much in years, in reference to the most recent rejection at $83,000 on May 6. According to a crypto analyst that goes by the name Chiefy on the social media platform X, that rejection is not just another failed rally but a reaction from a five-year macro resistance line that has touched some of Bitcoin’s most important turning points since the last major cycle.

The analyst believes Bitcoin has now followed the structure he previously warned about, moving into a bull trap near $83,000 before rejecting and falling to as low as $74,000. The trendline behind that rejection is important because it connects the early 2021 and mid-2021 cycle tops, stretches through Bitcoin’s first breakout above it in 2024, later acted as support in early 2025, and has now returned as resistance around the $83,000 zone.

Interestingly, the rejection zone also lines up with the 200MA. Rejections from this moving average have appeared around major cycle turning points in the past, including the 2014, 2018, and 2022 market phases.

The Levels That Now Matter

Now with the initial phase of Chiefy’s projection already confirmed, the next important thing is what comes next. Notably, there are three downside targets if Bitcoin continues to follow the pattern: $68,000, $61,000, and $48,000. 

These levels fit the path drawn on the chart above, which shows Bitcoin first breaking lower below $76,000, then forming a brief relief bounce, before falling deeper into the red-circled $48,000 area. The most extreme bottom target of $48,000 is close to the weekly 350 moving average shown in pink and would be the final reset from the recent $83,000 bull-trap zone.

Bitcoin’s reaction around $74,000 now matters most because it could determine whether Chiefy’s bearish map will be feasible. The drop into that region came immediately after the rejection, but it has recovered back above $76,000 and is trading at $76,580 at the time of writing. 

Even with that rebound, Bitcoin is still close to a support area that looks fragile. Sentiment shows that the market is no longer in a strong risk-on phase, with CoinMarketCap’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index now at 39, placing the market in a fear mood. A break below $74,000 would put $68,000 in focus as the next logical downside target.

Bitcoin Ongoing Market Volatility Is Easing

The Bitcoin market is currently witnessing a crucial shift in conditions as the BTC Annualized Realized Volatility Index flips back toward the downside. According to Arab Chain, a market expert and author at the CryptoQuant platform, this move points to a steady cool-down in market turbulence, along with BTC’s price trading near the $76,000 level.

Compared to earlier periods of extreme market fluctuations, Bitcoin’s price fluctuations are becoming less erratic, which may indicate a period of consolidation or stabilizing investor behavior. As seen in the 30-day chart, the key metric has dropped to around 0.26, which represents its lowest level since the beginning of 2026.

When the index reaches this level, it often indicates an environment of relative calm in market fluctuations, in contrast to previous times when there was significant volatility and abrupt price swings. Furthermore, the data shows that the market experienced repeated waves of heightened volatility over the past month, particularly in times of rallies or sharp corrections. 

Previously, the metric saw a rise to levels exceeding 0.70 in some phases, which coincided with strong price movements. However, Arab Chain highlighted the recent gradual retreat in volatility, indicating that the market has transitioned into a phase of greater stability and relative calm.

When volatility is low, these periods are often associated with a state of anticipation in the market. Here, investors tend to limit their exposure to risks and await new catalysts that could push Bitcoin’s price into a clearer direction. In addition, sustained low volatility levels could be a sign of decreased liquidity and a decline in speculative activity relative to periods of strong activity.

While a drop in the volatility index is not inherently considered a bullish or bearish signal, markets typically experience strong movements following prolonged periods of calm. This is mostly evidenced when positions accumulate in a specific direction within the derivatives market. As a result, traders are keeping a close eye on this indicator in order to determine whether the market is likely to trigger a fresh wave of volatility in the coming period.

Fewer Investors Are Accumulating BTC

Given volatility across the market, Bitcoin investors are demonstrating cautious behavior as buying activity drops. Joao Wedson, the founder of Alphractal, has revealed that fewer wallet addresses are truly accumulating Bitcoin right now compared to 60 days ago.

During this phase, Michael Saylor’s Strategy has continued to acquire more BTC. However, the company’s accumulation is basically insignificant when compared to the scale of the entire Bitcoin blockchain. Wedson has noted that real accumulation often occurs in periods of extreme fear when the crowd is convinced that BTC is dead.

The Big Price Theory

The idea of crypto assets creating life-changing wealth is not new. Bitcoin created millionaires after climbing from under $1 in 2011 to more than $100,000 by 2025 across multiple market cycles. Ethereum produced similar stories after rising from single-digit prices in 2015 to several thousand dollars during the 2021 bull run. Solana and Binance Coin also delivered explosive gains between 2020 and 2021 as adoption and institutional attention grew. 

With an infrastructure connected to something far larger than ordinary retail speculation, Remi Relief believes XRP could do the same. He recently projected XRP’s climb toward the $1,200 to $1,700 range if its role within global finance expands rapidly in the years ahead. 

Part of his outlook centers on an incoming period of regulatory and market clarity that he expects around July 4. He believes that moment could trigger a major push.

With that in mind, he warned the community against becoming careless during a major rally. Instead of encouraging endless holding, he advised traders to take profits gradually at different stages of the market cycle to improve the chances of preserving gains. He also pointed to May through September as a potentially decisive period. According to him, clearer rules and stronger institutional confidence could become a catalyst for a sharp XRP rally and wider momentum across the crypto market.

The Institutional Edge Behind XRP

XRP’s biggest selling point remains its connection to payments and liquidity movement. Ripple has spent years positioning the technology toward banks, remittance firms, and payment providers searching for faster and cheaper cross-border transactions.

That institutional angle is why analysts like Remi Relief believe the cryptocurrency still has room for a dramatic repricing event. Supporters argue that if financial institutions begin relying more heavily on blockchain settlement systems, assets linked to real-world utility could see demand rise sharply.

The analyst also tied XRP’s future to broader economic pressure. In his view, a major downturn in traditional markets could boost crypto adoption as governments and institutions search for more efficient financial systems. He even suggested that a severe economic collapse could eventually push the altcoin toward far more extreme valuations, potentially reaching $10,000 if global financial infrastructure increasingly depends on the asset for liquidity and settlement.

Whether XRP reaches the massive numbers being discussed remains uncertain. However, the growing focus on utility, institutional finance, and global payment infrastructure is changing how many investors view the asset. That shift is exactly why some market participants now believe XRP could eventually become one of crypto’s biggest wealth-generation stories.

Ethereum Forecasted To Nearly Double In Value Soon

A pseudonymous TradingView crypto analyst known as Mrlaimfx09 has shared a compelling, strongly bullish outlook for Ethereum’s price. At the top of his report, the expert boldly predicted that ETH is preparing for its greatest turnaround yet. 

Sharing a price chart, Mrlaimfx09 showed that Ethereum was trading around $2,071 at the time of the analysis. The analyst noted that price action has been holding firmly within a key weekly demand zone following a sharp market sell-off that kept the ETH price stuck in an extended downtrend. 

With selling pressure now seemingly fading, the analyst stated that buyers are finally returning to the market, helping to keep prices from falling even lower. He noted that this sudden shift in momentum suggests a bullish reversal could be forming for ETH, particularly if its price continues to defend the critical support area around $2,000. 

Notably, Mrlaimfx09 predicted that if Ethereum can maintain strength above $2,000, it could eventually stage a successful recovery toward $3,000. Before that move, the analyst predicts a sharp rally toward the first liquidity target around $2,400. From there, he expects momentum to extend ETH’s bullish run back toward the $3,000 psychological level, before potentially pushing higher toward the upper target around $3,300. The analyst explained that each bullish level represents a key liquidation zone where the price could react during a recovery phase.  

Even more interestingly, Mrlaimfx09 predicts that all of these upside moves could unfold in the coming weeks. He emphasized that Ethereum’s momentum is steadily shifting toward a more bullish outlook as its market structure stabilizes. The analyst also expects his projected reversal for Ethereum to form on the high-time frame (HTF). 

A Possible Invalidation And Drop Below $2,000

On the more bearish side, Mrlaimfx09 has acknowledged the possibility of Ethereum completely invalidating its bullish structure and crashing downwards. He noted that if ETH’s price closes the week below the demand zone around $2,071, then the market should expect a major breakdown. 

The analyst’s chart clearly shows this downside scenario, tracing a potential move toward the downside price target around $1,734. Notably, a drop to this level could represent a loss of more than 17% from current levels, further weakening Ethereum’s market structure FX. At the time of writing, the price of ETH is sitting around $2,090, reflecting steady volatility over the past few weeks and more than 2% in the last seven days.

A Positive Shift In XRP Whale Vs Retail Delta

After a brief bounce, the price of XRP is trading around the $1.35 level, which may indicate renewed upside momentum. During this period, on-chain data shows that a notable shift in market dynamics is unfolding for the leading altcoin.

CW, a data and crypto analyst on the CryptoQuant platform, shared in a post on X that the Whale Vs Retail Delta has transitioned toward the upside trajectory. Looking at the chart, the metric has now moved to the 0.45 level following a period of downside activity.

What this means is that positions held by XRP whales are extremely high. The trend is a sign that larger investors are exerting more influence on market movement than retail traders, which might indicate a resurgence of confidence in spite of continued volatility. 

As of today, the proportion of long positions held by retail investors is low, indicating ongoing selling pressure as these players exit the market. This metric is one that is closely watched by market participants due to the fact that it can determine whether institutional-sized players or smaller traders are driving price action.

However, given the high percentage of whales and the low percentage of retail investors, it appears that the impending rally will likely follow the desire of whales. The coming sessions will determine whether this growing imbalance will trigger the early stages of a broader bullish move for the altcoin.

Even with a negative market environment, XRP buying activity seems to be picking up pace, which likely led to its brief bounce on Monday. In another X post, CW outlined a growing balance as buying activity is occurring in both the Spot and Futures markets.

Data shows that net buying is taking place in the futures market, and net buying in the spot market is also strong, reflecting renewed conviction among investors. The heightened buying action is heavily observed on Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, followed by Coinbase. CW claims that the strongest XRP buying pressure in recent times is taking place.

Historical Bullish Pattern Is Re-Emerging

XRP may be struggling to push upward, but the current structure points to a bullish move in the short term. Coinvo Trading, a crypto analyst, has predicted an impending massive move for the altcoin backed by historical price patterns.

In the monthly time frame chart, the token witnessed an expansion of over 600% after a takeout and the formation of a triangular pattern in 2024. The move ultimately kick-started the bull market phase as the crypto market turned highly positive during the period.

Now in 2026, this bullish pattern is repeating with the same breakout, raising the likelihood of a strong bounce. Should history repeat, XRP is expected to skyrocket at any moment from now.

GSR Research Flags Ethereum’s Identity Crisis

In a note titled “Ethereum’s Identity Crisis,” Guzman framed the issue as more than a temporary morale problem. At least nine senior EF contributors have departed in 2026, according to the note, including five in May alone. The list includes protocol cluster leads Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot, veteran researchers Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma, and former co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak.

Several of the exits followed an internal mandate centered on CROPS, shorthand for censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security. The framework was intended to clarify the foundation’s priorities, but Guzman wrote that many in the community perceived it as deprioritizing growth and adoption at a moment when Ethereum is already under pressure from faster-moving rivals.

The personnel churn has amplified a broader debate over whether the EF should remain a narrow research and protocol institution or take a more active role in defending Ethereum’s market position. Dankrad Feist, formerly at the foundation, publicly called for a new $1 billion-plus organization economically aligned with Ethereum to fill what he sees as an institutional void. Bankless co-host and long-time ETH bull David Hoffman also said he had sold all of his ETH, citing frustration with leadership he views as insufficiently focused on growth.

The market backdrop has made the internal debate harder to dismiss. Guzman noted that ETH is down roughly 30% year to date, while the ETH/BTC ratio fell to 0.027 in May, its lowest level since mid-2025. Network revenue has also weakened as Ethereum cedes ground to chains such as Solana, Tron and Hyperliquid. Revenue is not a complete measure of network health, particularly as blockchains deliberately reduce fees to attract users, but the trend has fed the perception that Ethereum’s economic gravity is weakening.

Vitalik Buterin responded with a lengthy post on X that sought to redefine the foundation’s role rather than expand it. Buterin described the EF as “a smaller ship” that should sell less ETH and focus narrowly on CROPS. He also argued that the foundation should be viewed as “one node, with a defined purpose,” not the center of Ethereum itself.

That framing is central to the tension Guzman identifies. Buterin’s argument is that moving talented people into roles outside the foundation may be necessary if the ecosystem is to attract outside capital and develop independent leadership. The foundation, in this view, should not become ETH’s growth department. It should preserve the properties that make Ethereum credible in the first place.

Buterin’s technical vision rests on three pillars that he said could make Ethereum “deeply impressive” in ways competitors cannot easily replicate. The first is provably bug-free software through AI-assisted formal verification, an approach that appeared unrealistic until recently but may now be moving closer to feasibility.

The second is what he called “available chain consensus,” a property Guzman described as unique among proof-of-stake chains because it combines traditional BFT-style safety under network asynchrony with Bitcoin-like safety under synchrony against attackers up to 49%. The third is intermediary minimization, reducing Ethereum’s reliance on centralized relayers and third-party infrastructure for transaction inclusion and privacy through proposals such as FOCIL and EIP-8141.

The core bet is credible neutrality. Guzman argued that this remains a more compelling advantage than Ethereum’s critics often acknowledge. The view that “blockspace is a commodity” misses an important point: users have repeatedly shown a willingness to pay more to transact on one chain rather than another when that chain offers superior assets, applications, liquidity and network effects.

But the note also underscored the limits of that argument. Credible neutrality may attract builders and institutions, but users still need affordable transactions, fast execution, privacy and a workable experience. On several of those fronts, Ethereum remains vulnerable to competitors that are optimizing for throughput, fees and user experience today while promising stronger neutrality tomorrow.

Guzman’s conclusion is not that Buterin’s vision is wrong. It is that Ethereum’s window to execute on it is not unlimited. The question now is whether a smaller, more narrowly focused EF can preserve Ethereum’s deepest differentiator while the rest of the ecosystem builds the growth machinery around it.

At press time, ETH traded at $2,097.

XRP ETFs Record Steady Inflows Even As Price Declines

SoSoValue data shows that the XRP ETFs have yet to record any outflows this month, boasting a net inflow of $116.74 million. These funds now have a total net inflow of $1.41 billion since they launched last year. Meanwhile, they hold total net assets of $1.13 billion, which represents 1.36% of XRP’s market cap. 

These inflows into the XRP ETFs come despite XRP’s downtrend alongside the broader crypto market. The altcoin notably dropped to a new low of around $1.31 last week, but funds have yet to see outflows, signaling strong institutional demand. These ETFs are also notably outperforming the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.

Further data from SoSoValue shows that Bitcoin ETFs have seen net outflows of $1 billion this month and are currently on a six-day streak of consecutive outflows. At the same time, the Ethereum ETFs have seen net outflows of almost $300 million and are currently on a 10-day streak of consecutive outflows. 

Meanwhile, continued inflows into XRP ETFs coincide with XRP’s crowd sentiment turning negative again. The ratio of positive to negative commentary is dropping to just 1.1 bullish comments per 1 bearish comment, according to Santiment. The on-chain analytics platform noted that historically, this kind of fear and skepticism has often acted as a contrarian signal for XRP’s price. As such, this could be the perfect buy-the-dip opportunity in preparation for a potential bullish reversal. 

What Institutional Investors Are Focused On

In an X post, crypto pundit X Finance Bull said that institutions buying XRP through ETF products are not reacting to the weekly price action but are positioning ahead of catalysts. These catalysts include the CLARITY Act, Kevin Warsh as the new Fed Chair, the DTCC tokenization going live in July, Ripple Prime’s $200 million debt facility, and the JPMorgan settlement on the XRP Ledger. 

X Finance Bull remarked that institutional capital is making a statement about which assets they believe in through the downturn, as Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs see outflows while XRP ETFs see inflows. He added that smart money accumulates when the price goes down. Notably, XRP is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the CLARITY Act, especially as Ripple continues to expand its operations. Another bullish catalyst for XRP is that the XRP Ledger continues to see increased tokenization activity. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.33, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

A Shared Home For Different Markets

The platform is built on X Layer, OKX’s Ethereum layer-2 network, and lets users build their own spot, perpetuals, and outcomes markets from the ground up. It draws on the same infrastructure that powers OKX’s main exchange, giving any market created on it access to a shared pool of liquidity.

OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said the current state of crypto trading suffers from deep fragmentation. Trading, settlement, margining, and liquidity functions, he argued, remain trapped inside disconnected venues — even as blockchain made open asset issuance possible.

Exchange OS is designed to pull those functions under one roof, creating what Xu described as a shared environment where different market types can run on the same underlying rails.

Users building on the platform can also create their own assets, oracle systems, revenue models, and compliance frameworks. The setup supports both permissioned and permissionless arrangements, meaning a regulated institution could run a fully KYC-compliant venue on the same infrastructure stack as a permissionless Web3 project.

The First Market To Go Live

The first market to be built on Exchange OS will be tied to the FIFA World Cup, structured as a predictions-style market. It marks the opening move in a three-phase rollout that OKX laid out publicly.

The current phase is limited to select partners who are building on the platform before it opens to the public. A wider public launch is planned for the third quarter of 2026, with protocol upgrades set to follow in the fourth quarter and beyond.

OKX has been expanding well past its origins as a spot and derivatives exchange. Reports indicate the company has moved into tokenization and has rolled out infrastructure to support transactions by AI agents — two areas drawing heavy investment attention across the industry.

The Exchange OS launch positions OKX not just as a trading venue but as infrastructure other builders can use. Xu framed it as a fix for a market structure problem, not simply a new product.

Whether developers and institutions choose to build on X Layer over more established networks remains to be seen. The Q3 public opening will be the first real test of how much demand exists for what OKX is offering.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The partnership, announced via Binance’s official blog, follows BlockShoals’ November 2025 in-principle approval from the Philippine SEC to participate in the StratBox program — a controlled testing framework established under SEC Memorandum Circular No. 9, Series of 2024, that allows fintech firms to pilot innovative financial products in a live but supervised environment before any wider public rollout. The testing period is set to run for 24 months, subject to annual review, per the SEC’s original approval statement.

What BlockShoals Brings To The Table

BlockShoals is not a retail-facing platform. It operates as a technology and infrastructure intermediary for virtual asset services — meaning it handles the regulatory, compliance, and operational plumbing that allows a global exchange to interface with Philippine users and regulators within a locally anchored structure, per the Manila Bulletin’s reporting of the SEC’s original approval. The partnership gives Binance a locally licensed, SEC-supervised vehicle through which to operate in the Philippines without requiring a direct exchange license of its own during the sandbox period.

Because BlockShoals already reports to the Philippine SEC on its sandbox tests, the arrangement gives regulators direct visibility into how a global exchange’s systems interact with local users and market rules — a structural transparency that a gray-area presence cannot provide.

The Regulatory Context

The Philippines represents a significant market opportunity. The country has one of Southeast Asia’s highest rates of crypto ownership and remittance-driven demand for digital asset services, with a regulatory environment that has been actively building out its virtual asset framework under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas alongside the SEC’s sandbox initiatives. BlockShoals’ StratBox entry makes it the fourth entity approved under the program — joining two firms testing US equity services and one focused on tokenized real estate, per the SEC’s original November statement.

Binance’s blog post described the collaboration as supporting responsible digital-asset participation, user protection, and responsible innovation in the Philippines — language that reflects the exchange’s broader post-2023 settlement compliance posture, as it continues to rebuild its regulatory relationships across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.

This development marks a pivotal moment for Binance’s Asia-Pacific strategy and for the nascent sector’s broader relationship with Southeast Asian regulators. A sandbox re-entry through a locally licensed intermediary is a structurally different proposition than the direct market presence Binance previously maintained — more constrained in the short term, but considerably more durable if the 24-month pilot delivers the compliance outcomes the Philippine SEC is looking for.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

The Input Output founder framed the next version of Midnight.city as more than a product test. In a post on X, Hoskinson said the platform would soon bring in “thousands of beta testers” to stress-test and refine its design, utility and user experience.

“I’m super excited about the next iteration of Midnight.city,” Hoskinson wrote. “We will have thousands of beta testers coming online soon and gather incredible feedback about how to improve and refine the experience and utility of the world. It’s the largest and most meaningful focus group ever done.”

He added that the team’s development cadence would be central to how quickly the product evolves. “Combined with two week sprints, within a few months we’ll be well on our way to a new civilization. One that’s crypto native, has privacy at the core, and evolves in weeks instead of decades. I predict Midnight.city will be the most used crypto application by 2030.”

Could This Cardano App Will Lead Crypto By 2030?

Midnight.city is the public-facing simulation layer for Midnight, a privacy-oriented blockchain associated with the Cardano ecosystem. The official Midnight site describes the network as a blockchain focused on programmable privacy, selective disclosure and predictable costs, with developers able to determine what information remains protected and what can be disclosed when required.

The city itself is designed as a live environment rather than a conventional block explorer or wallet interface. Midnight describes it as a simulation populated by autonomous AI agents that work, trade, interact and generate ongoing economic activity, creating sustained transaction volume intended to make zero-knowledge systems more visible to users.

That design matters because privacy infrastructure is difficult to demonstrate in consumer-facing form. The official Midnight blog says Midnight.city lets users inspect the same transaction from different disclosure perspectives, including public mode, auditor mode and a simulation-only “god mode,” showing how selective disclosure can reveal specific fields to authorized parties while keeping other data shielded.

Midnight’s broader pitch is that privacy should not mean opacity by default. The network uses zero-knowledge proofs and a dual-state ledger model to allow public on-chain state and local private state to interact, while its Compact programming language is intended to let developers build privacy-preserving applications without requiring deep specialist knowledge of ZK cryptography.

The project also uses a two-part economic model. NIGHT is the network’s unshielded native and governance token, while DUST is a shielded, non-transferable resource used to pay for transactions and execute smart contracts. Midnight says this model is intended to separate capital assets from operational costs and make application usage more predictable.

At press time, Cardano traded at $0.24.

The charges were announced by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force, which has been investigating Hodlnaut and its directors since November 2022. Zhu, 36, faces six counts in total — three under Section 424A(1)(a) read with Section 424A(3) of Singapore’s Penal Code 1871, and three under the same provision read together with Section 109 of the same code, which covers abetment. If convicted on each charge, he faces imprisonment of up to 20 years, a fine, or both, per the police statement.

What The Charges Allege

The fraud charges center on a specific window: May to July 2022, the weeks immediately following TerraUSD’s catastrophic de-pegging in early May of that year. According to the Singapore Police Force’s official statement, Zhu allegedly directed Hodlnaut employees to make misleading statements on the company’s official Telegram group and in emails sent directly to users — assertions that Hodlnaut had no direct exposure to UST and had not suffered losses from the collapse.

The statements, as documented in Mothership SG’s reporting of court filings, included a post in which Hodlnaut wrote that it had “not taken any losses as a firm” and that only users who personally held UST were affected. Zhu also allegedly directed a separate employee to email 30 recipients stating the company had assumed no losses. Those statements, prosecutors now allege, were false and intended to deceive users during the most critical period of the platform’s deterioration.

The judicial record that emerged after Hodlnaut suspended withdrawals in August 2022 told a starkly different story. An interim judicial managers’ report seen by Bloomberg found that Hodlnaut had lost nearly $190 million through its exposure to the collapsed Terra ecosystem — a figure the platform had actively downplayed to users while the losses accumulated. On-chain analytics firms subsequently confirmed material exposure to UST and TerraForm Labs-linked activity that Hodlnaut had not previously acknowledged.

Court documents filed in Singapore in August 2022, when the platform sought creditor protection, disclosed a $193 million financial shortfall. Court-appointed managers later confirmed an additional $13.1 million in user assets were stranded on the collapsed FTX exchange.

Hodlnaut was subsequently ordered to liquidate by Singapore’s High Court, with EY partners appointed as joint liquidators. Zhu indicated he was not guilty and disputed all charges at his May 26 hearing — a pre-trial conference has been scheduled for June 2026, per Channel News Asia.

This development marks a significant moment for the nascent sector’s long-running accountability reckoning following the 2022 crypto contagion. The Terra collapse set off a chain of platform failures — Celsius, Voyager, Three Arrows Capital, and eventually FTX among them — that collectively cost retail users hundreds of billions of dollars.

That four years have elapsed between Hodlnaut’s collapse and its former CEO’s first day in court is itself a reflection of how slowly the legal system processes crypto’s most consequential failures — and a reminder that the cases are far from closed.

Cover image from Grok, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview

Tether To Launch Stablecoin Based On The Georgian Lari

As announced on its website, Tether has partnered up with the government of Georgia for a stablecoin. A “stablecoin” is a type of cryptocurrency that has its price tied to a fiat currency. Currently, tokens of this type based on a range of currencies are available in the market, but the most dominant ones are those based on the US Dollar.

Tether is the issuer of one such USD-pegged stablecoin called USDT. In fact, based on the market cap, the firm’s asset ranks the largest among fiat-tied cryptocurrencies and third overall in the sector as a whole.

Now, the company is looking to release a new stablecoin in collaboration with the Georgian government. This token, known as GEL₮, will be based on the Georgian Lari, the official currency of the country. “This marks one of the first joint efforts to place a national currency directly onto digital asset rails under a purpose-built stablecoin regulatory framework,” noted the announcement.

The move is one among many being made by governments around the world when it comes to stablecoin regulation. A major win for the sector has been the GENIUS Act enacted in the United States last year. According to Tether’s press release, Georgia’s framework has been designed to achieve compatibility with the GENIUS Act and other US regulation.

Irakli Kobakhidze, prime minister of Georgia, said:

Together with visionary partners like Tether, Georgia is laying the foundations for a more connected, transparent, and digitally empowered financial world

Georgia already has an advanced system in place for digital asset payments, with regulated intermediaries allowing conversion of cryptocurrencies into local currency for real-world settlements.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, noted:

Georgia has moved early to create serious regulatory architecture for digital assets and stablecoins, and that clarity creates the foundation for real innovation and adoption.

Further details related to GEL₮ like its release date and rollout structure are still unknown, with the press release noting that they will be announced at a later date.

The positive regulatory momentum related to stablecoins around the world recently has meant that the sector has held up relatively well during the past few months even as the wider digital asset market has struggled. As data from DefiLlama shows, the combined market cap of the stablecoins has been enjoying an uptrend.

Currently, the market cap of these assets is sitting at $322.7 billion, which is around an all-time high (ATH).

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $77,400, up 0.7% over the past week.

According to security firm Socket, the goal was to trick tools like Claude and Cursor into running what appeared to be routine security scans, which would then quietly discover and send out secrets stored on a developer’s machine.

Socket, a developer security platform, detected the campaign on Friday and published its findings on Sunday. Reports say the operation had already pushed out more than 34 malicious packages and 384 related versions by the time it was uncovered, with attackers continuing to release new updates across multiple software ecosystems.

BREAKING: Active supply chain attack across npm, PyPI, and Crates.​io.

Socket detected TrapDoor, a crypto stealer campaign hitting 34 malicious packages and 384 versions and artifacts, with attackers repeatedly pushing new releases across ecosystems.

TrapDoor targets… pic.twitter.com/0CI758NJ6T

— Socket (@SocketSecurity) May 24, 2026

Wallets, Keys, And Cloud Credentials All At Risk

The malware cast a wide net. Socket said TrapDoor was built to steal data from several major crypto wallets — Coinbase, Binance, Solana, Sui, Aptos, and MetaMask — as well as the Brave browser. Beyond wallet data, the malware also went after SSH keys, cloud credentials, GitHub tokens, browser extension data, and API keys.

TrapDoor supply chain attack hits npm, PyPI, and Crates-io.https://t.co/Q4ZUsUnZWY

34 malicious packages across 384 versions were used to steal crypto wallets, SSH keys, cloud credentials, and developer secrets from crypto, DeFi, Solana, and AI environments.

The malware… pic.twitter.com/GJKcgUK9RK

— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) May 25, 2026

The campaign spread across three major developer package repositories: npm, which serves JavaScript and Node.js developers; PyPI, used widely in Python, data science, and automation work; and Crates, the package hub for Rust developers.

Package names were chosen carefully to look like standard tools — development helpers, project setup utilities, prompt engineering packages, and Solidity or Sui build helpers — making them easy to overlook during a routine install.

Socket’s chief technology officer Ahmad Nassri said on Sunday that the GitHub activity tied to the campaign showed signs of AI-assisted development, pointing to broad security-themed templates, generic lure repositories, and a mix of partially built extraction ideas alongside working malware components.

Signs Of A Larger, Coordinated Operation

The timing of the campaign raised questions given that GitHub had reported unauthorized access to its internal repositories on May 20, just days before TrapDoor was detected. That breach followed the compromise of an employee’s device, according to reports.

Socket described TrapDoor as a coordinated attack aimed squarely at crypto, decentralized finance, AI, and security developers — communities where sensitive credentials and wallet access are common.

The campaign gave attackers broad reach precisely because the targeted developer communities often work across the same tools and ecosystems.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Indonesia Blocks Access To Polymarket

Indonesia recently blocked access to the prediction market platform Polymarket after a widely shared bet on the premature end of Prabowo Subianto’s presidency gained traction on social media last week.

In an official statement, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs announced the ban, affirming that the measure aims to protect the public, particularly the younger generation and users of the digital space.

Director General of Digital Space Supervision Alexander Sabar affirmed that platforms facilitating real-money wagers on event outcomes are considered gambling, even when framed as “prediction markets” and using blockchain technology or crypto assets.

“The government will not tolerate any form of online gambling in Indonesia. Activities like Polymarket involve monetary betting and speculation on events with uncertain outcomes, which violates applicable Indonesian laws,” Alex emphasized.

Therefore, authorities will block access to other prediction market services suspected of “facilitating online gambling practices.” In addition, the government is tracking down social media accounts affiliated with or promoting Polymarket to ensure the ban is enforced across other platforms.

The Ministry also urged the public not to access or engage in digital betting-based speculation activities, including those using crypto, as these activities could violate Indonesian laws and cause financial losses for users.

Global Regulatory Pressure Mounts

Indonesian authorities noted that their decision to restrict access to Polymarket aligns with other global legal frameworks. As the announcement stated, several other jurisdictions have also implemented measures against Polymarket and other prediction market platforms, arguing that they resemble online gambling practices.

Over the past two years, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and India have imposed restrictions on Polymarket under their respective local laws, while Singapore, Colombia, and India have officially blocked the platform.

In March, Argentinian authorities ordered a nationwide blockade of Polymarket after it predicted inflation data. As reported by Bitcoinist, a Buenos Aires court directed internet service providers, Google, and Apple to block access to the platform, arguing that it operated as an unlicensed online gambling platform.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s central bank announced a ban on prediction markets and betting platforms in March, including Polymarket and Kalshi. The authorities affirmed that the platforms failed to comply with local regulations on derivatives trading and raised concerns about investor protections and market integrity.

Prediction markets have also faced scrutiny in the US, with policymakers and State-level authorities putting pressure on the sector. Last week, House of Representatives member James Comer launched a formal investigation into Polymarket and Kalshi following a series of suspicious trades linked to classified US military operations and key geopolitical events.

The lawmaker announced that he had sent a letter to the CEOs of both companies seeking information on how their platforms detect and prevent insider trading. He also asked for details on how they verify user identities and enforce bans on users from restricted jurisdictions. On the same day, the two prediction market giants lost their bids to halt the gambling-related enforcement actions against them in Nevada and Washington.

Strategy Has Paused Bitcoin Accumulation For Now

In a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor revealed that the company didn’t buy Bitcoin during the past week. This post was the latest in the line of Saylor’s regular Sunday posts, which always come with an image of the firm’s portfolio tracker and often, the chairman includes a caption that hints at Strategy’s next Monday purchase announcement. This time, however, Saylor explicitly ruled out more accumulation.

Though this doesn’t mean that Strategy sat idle in the last week. “This week we bought bonds, not bitcoin,” noted Saylor in the post. The pause in buying has come after the treasury company announced a 24,869 BTC mega-acquisition last Monday.

This buy cost the company a whopping $2.01 billion. As the portfolio tracker shared by Saylor shows, the firm’s holdings have grown to 843,738 BTC following the purchase.

Strategy’s cost basis per token is $75,701, so at the current Bitcoin spot price, the company’s holdings are in a profit of about 2.6%. This is relatively minor, but still an improvement from when the firm was underwater between February and April.

While Strategy has skipped out on an acquisition this Monday, it doesn’t mean that the treasury company is halting things altogether. Saylor hinted at this in the post, saying, “The ₿itVac is charging.” ₿itVac here is likely a shorthand for “Bitcoin Vacuum,” which is what the firm acts like when it comes to the cryptocurrency.

Recently, Strategy announced that it has filed to repurchase $1.5 billion of its convertible senior notes due in 2029. The news has come amid Saylor floating the idea of BTC sales, so it’s possible that the treasury firm could participate in distribution to fund this repurchase.

In some other news, the Bitcoin spot ETFs saw their second-straight week of outflows last week, according to data from SoSoValue.

The spot ETFs here refer to investment vehicles that allow investors to gain indirect exposure to Bitcoin. As the above chart shows, the netflow related to such funds based in the United States has been negative during the last two weeks, indicating that a net amount of capital has been leaving the market.

These two weeks of outflows have come after six weeks of inflows. Whether the red netflows are the start of a new trend only remains to be seen.

BTC Price

Bitcoin briefly dipped under the $75,000 level during the weekend, but the coin has since surged back to $77,400.

The proposal, a treasury withdrawal request tied to developer tooling and onboarding, was listed by AdaStat as ratified and approved, with 67.90% Yes support against 32.10% No. The vote involved roughly ₳3.72 billion in Yes stake and ₳1.76 billion in No stake, according to the tracker. The governance action had been submitted on April 22, 2026, and expired on May 24, 2026, in Epoch 633, according to Gov.tools.

IO Secures Crucial Cardano Funding

The result matters because the vote had become more than a routine funding request. Hours before the deadline, Hoskinson wrote that the proposal was “just 0.5% away” from passing and framed the measure as a response to persistent complaints from developers: fragmented tooling, scattered documentation, weak onboarding and a steep learning curve.

IO’s own description of the initiative presents it as a six-month, 3.6 million ada push to make Cardano easier to build on, including a one-command project setup, audit-ready smart contract templates, a unified developer portal and support for community tooling. Hoskinson had repeatedly warned that IO may need to wind down parts of its research operation if the proposal did not secure approval.

IO has argued that the developer base remains a structural weakness. In a May 18 post outlining the proposal, Robertino Martinez wrote that it has “around 17x fewer developers than Ethereum,” with the gap continuing to widen while Cardano’s developer numbers remain largely flat. The same post said fragmented documentation, unmaintained tools and the absence of a clear onboarding path were causing builders to arrive in “a disjointed and scattered ecosystem.”

Hoskinson used the vote’s closing stretch to cast the governance process as evidence that the network’s post-Voltaire system is functioning, even when outcomes are contested. “Cardano is alive. The community is engaged. And that matters more than any single vote,” he wrote. “But this process has shown me something important: Cardano’s governance is real. You are not passive holders. You are owners.”

Hoskinson Confirms Cardano Focus

The post also moved beyond the single proposal. Hoskinson said the process had reinforced the importance of the so-called Pentad — IOG, EMURGO, the Cardano Foundation, the Midnight Foundation and Intersect — as a coordination layer for the ecosystem. He invited those organizations to “sit down and have a real conversation about the future of governance” and how to formalize that coordination going forward.

The timing was notable. Two days earlier, Cowboy State Daily reported that Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic in Gillette, Wyoming, would close on July 31, ending an ambitious rural healthcare project backed by Hoskinson. The publication described the clinic as part of a roughly $250 million effort to build what had been billed as the “Mayo Clinic of the West,” and cited clinic leadership as saying the organization was “no longer financially sustainable.”

That background gave Hoskinson’s post a sharper edge. He did not mention the clinic closure directly in the Cardano governance statement, but he addressed questions about his focus. “I am 100% focused on Cardano and Midnight. Always have been. Let me prove it,” he wrote.

He also said he would attend the Cardano Summit in Singapore and appear on stage, while personally committing to partially top up Cardano and Midnight’s Token2049 sponsorship to Title level. “Being on that main stage is where Cardano and Midnight need to be heard,” Hoskinson said.

The broader treasury round showed that Cardano’s new governance system is willing to split the ticket. Several IO-led proposals passed, including the Developer Experience Initiative, Cardano Upgrades, the Consensus Initiative and Cardano High Assurance Technical Collaboration.

But others did not. IO’s maintenance proposal with Ensurable Systems and its Plutus proposal with VacuumLabs both expired just short of the 67% DRep threshold, while the L2 Scalability Initiative with Midgard Labs, Blockfrost’s indexing proposal and Pogun’s Bitcoin DeFi funding request failed by wider margins.

That makes the result harder to frame as a simple endorsement or rejection of IO. DReps backed some core protocol and developer-experience work while withholding approval from other infrastructure, maintenance and ecosystem-spending requests.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.2446.

A Man On A Mission To Keep Mars Alive

SpaceX announced the two-year mission on Thursday. It will fly past the Moon, continue to Mars, and return to Earth. Wang also secured a seat on a separate weeklong lunar flight set to launch before the interplanetary mission.

“I have no confidence that Mars will still happen within our lifetime,” Wang wrote on X. “And I think I should do something about that.”

His argument is straightforward. Governments, he believes, will eventually return humans to the Moon because competition between the US and China makes it almost inevitable.

Now that Starship V3 has made its debut, we are one step closer to making life multiplanetary.

During Fram2 training, apart from the usual Dragon-related topics, I remember that what we talked about most in the training room was how to reliably tether down on Phobos.

Three… https://t.co/7nukQWUwDd

— Chun (@satofishi) May 23, 2026

Mars is a different story. Without private money keeping it on the table, he fears the goal could slip out of reach entirely.

“I hope that by purchasing a flyby mission to Mars, SpaceX will have another reason not to forget about Mars,” Wang said.

From Bitcoin Mining Pools To Outer Space

Wang is not new to funding space travel. Last April, he bankrolled and commanded Fram2, a SpaceX mission that orbited over Earth’s poles.

The crew of four conducted experiments during the flight, including taking an X-ray in space and growing mushrooms. The Mars mission would take that ambition considerably further.

He founded F2Pool in 2013, one of the first Bitcoin mining pools to emerge from China. According to mempool.space data, it currently holds an 11.85% share of the global mining market, making it the third largest pool in operation.

SpaceX’s broader vision for Mars goes well beyond a single flyby. Reports indicate the company aims to eventually build a self-sustaining city on the planet, a goal it estimates will require more than 1 million people and millions of tons of cargo. Cargo flights for research and exploratory purposes are not expected before 2028.

Wang says the mission carries a message beyond the technical. “I hope this mission can show the public that Mars is not just a point of light in a telescope,” he said. “It is a real place, and humans can fly there and come back alive and come back healthy.”

The Chinese-born citizen of Malta joins a growing group of tech entrepreneurs who have moved from funding space ventures to riding on them, including Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Jared Isaacman.

Featured image from SpaceX, chart from TradingView

Ondo Finance Confirms New CEO

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ondo Finance said, “It is with profound sadness that we announce the unexpected passing of Nathan Allman, Ondo’s founder. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones.” 

Ondo also said the personal and industry impact of Allman’s contributions “cannot be overstated,” and noted that he played a key role in building a durable organization with experienced leaders across multiple areas of the business.

Alongside the tribute, Ondo Finance announced a leadership change. The company said Ian De Bode, its longtime President, will take over as CEO. Ondo said it will continue building what Allman started, calling that effort the “most meaningful way” to honor him.

Nathan Allman Remembered

The news also drew reactions from other figures in the crypto ecosystem. Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said that since 2023, the two sides “achieved so much together,” noting the listing of Ondo Finance’s native token, ONDO, and support of its real-world asset (RWA) strategy.

Chen added that as the industry continues, “we will continue pushing the boundaries of tokenization and carrying that shared vision ahead.”

Nathan Allman co-founded Ondo Finance in 2021. Before launching Ondo, he worked as part of the Digital Assets team at Goldman Sachs, where he developed experience in asset management and blockchain technology. 

Following Ondo Finance’s statement, the price of ONDO dropped by 6.5% to $0.41. Nevertheless, the platform’s native token still records gains of 59% over the last thirty days. 

Featured image from The Street; chart from TradingView.com

ADA Investors In the Top Tier Are Making Moves

Cardano’s price action is not the major thing currently about the leading altcoin, but rather the sentiment and activity of its investors. As the asset continues to endure downside pressure, a crypto pundit known as Cheeky Crypto is shedding light on the behavior of a key segment of Cardano investors.

While everyday retail traders conclude that Cardano is dead, Cheeky Crypto stated that a hidden group of ultra-wealthy whales is quietly front-running the market. His analysis suggests that in the face of waning price momentum and increased market uncertainty, the top tier of ADA holders may be modifying their strategies. 

According to the data, retail investors are currently capitulating over short-term price drawdowns. Meanwhile, the top 1% holders are aggressively scooping up the liquid supply. With prices declining, it may appear that these investors are capitalizing on recent dips, but rather, they are accumulating because they recognize a paradigm shift in institutional infrastructure that the entire public is completely overlooking.

Cheeky Crypto highlighted that this deep dive investigation brings to light the secret plumbing that is holding back the large-scale capital from enterprises. At the same time, the ledger is becoming an institutional powerhouse as a result of the crucial Oracle latency improvements. 

Amid this renewed accumulation from top-tier investors, the network is witnessing a sharp growth as observed in the rise in its Total Value Locked. Data shared by Dave, a market expert and Cardano DRep, shows that the network’s TVL increased by over 1.14% in a 24-hour period.

Cardano’s TVL continues to climb and has been in an upward trend since September 18, 2025, when it was sitting at 382.16 million ADA. As of today, the TVL is valued at over 542.71 million ADA, representing a sharp increase of roughly 42%.

Related Reading: Cardano (ADA) Price Now At A Critical Level Following Strong Whale Activity

Furthermore, the network’s Decentralized Exchange (DEX) volume has experienced notable growth, rising by approximately 39.58% over the past week. After this increase, the DEX volume is now sitting at over $10.26 million.

Transaction Counts On The Network Hits New Milestone

Activity on the Cardano network continues to grow, with transactions rising sharply. OG Blockchain explorer Cexplorer recently revealed a milestone as the number of transactions carried out on the network has surged to a new all-time high.

As seen in the data, the transaction count has crossed 121 million on the mainnet, suggesting growing interest in the leading network. This milestone also reflects sustained confidence among investors in Cardano and its long-term network capabilities.

Bulls Push Out Of The Descending Channel

Bitcoin’s 4-hour chart shows a cryptocurrency still struggling to break through a stubborn resistance area. On Saturday, a bullish surge carried BTC up to $77,439, only for sellers to step in immediately and push the price back down to $74,500. Buying pressure returned with enough force on Sunday again to push the Bitcoin price up to retest the same $77,400 to $77,430 zone. 

Notably, this back-and-forth movement is part of a descending channel pattern structure on the 4-hour timeframe. The Sunday bounce has now carried Bitcoin back above the upper area of the channel, and Bitcoin needs to break and hold.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $77,490, meaning bulls are currently holding above $77,400. That does not mean the bullish case is confirmed yet, as the earlier rejections showed that sellers are still defending this resistance. Therefore, a quick wick above the level would not be enough. Bulls need a convincing close above the zone, followed by enough support to keep the price from falling back inside the channel.

Next Target Is $79,450 CME Gap

According to a crypto analyst on the social media platform X, the next target for Bitcoin bulls is a CME gap around the $79,000 region, with an emphasis on $79,450 as the major level within this gap.

However, there’s a thick resistance band around $79,450. That means filling the gap may not automatically produce a clean continuation, and the Bitcoin price could still meet strong selling pressure there. The first bullish objective is the gap fill, but the larger test would be whether Bitcoin can stay above that region once it gets there.

There is also a clear bearish scenario based on another CME gap. Another rejection at the $77,400 level could push Bitcoin back inside the descending channel and return attention to the recent CME Friday close. According to data from CryptoRank, Bitcoin closed the most recent Friday at $75,535.

CME gaps have a history of being filled more than 90% of the time, and this places emphasis on the current gaps. Below $75,535, the next important price levels are $75,000 and $73,700. Losing $75,000 would diminish the recovery attempt further and could push the BTC price into lower support at $73,700.

The research, published May 21 on Arkham’s intelligence platform, does not claim that Zcash’s underlying cryptography is broken. The zero-knowledge proof technology — specifically zk-SNARKs — at the core of Zcash’s shielded transaction system remains mathematically sound. What Arkham’s findings expose is something more practical and more damaging to Zcash’s reputation: the majority of transactions on the network were never private to begin with.

Why Most Zcash Is Already Visible

Zcash operates with two address types. Transparent addresses — known as t-addresses — function identically to Bitcoin addresses, with all activity publicly visible on-chain. Shielded addresses — z-addresses — exist inside an encrypted pool where sender, receiver, and amount are all hidden. Fully shielded z-to-z transactions are genuinely opaque and cannot be tracked, per Arkham’s research.

The problem, according to the report, is that most exchanges, custodians, and institutional players default to transparent addresses for compliance reasons. This means a disproportionate share of Zcash’s real-world transaction history is fully readable on-chain — regardless of the shielded technology available. Entry and exit points at exchanges further expose the boundaries of even shielded activity, since the movement of funds into and out of the shielded pool is itself visible, per Arkham’s analysis.

The result: Arkham has labeled more than half of all Zcash activity on its intelligence platform — a figure the firm describes as remarkable for a chain explicitly designed to obscure transaction data, per the research.

Among the more striking details in Arkham’s research is a case study involving the US Government itself. The USG wallet on Arkham’s platform holds ZEC seized from an unnamed individual — meaning the world’s most active financial surveillance apparatus is already tracking, seizing, and holding a privacy coin whose primary selling point is untraceability.

The timing of Arkham’s research carries additional weight given the current market context. BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has publicly disclosed ZEC as one of his two largest positions outside Bitcoin — citing a $10,000 long-term price target — and the privacy coin surged more than 40% in the past week before analyst Ali Martinez flagged an overheated technical setup. Arkham’s findings land at precisely the moment the market is reassessing ZCash’s fundamental case.

This development marks a critical juncture for the nascent sector’s privacy coin segment. A blockchain intelligence firm attributing $420 billion in Zcash volume to known entities is not a theoretical threat to the asset’s utility — it is a demonstrated one.

For users whose primary reason for holding ZCash is financial privacy, the research raises a question the community will need to answer honestly: if most Zcash activity is already traceable, what exactly are they holding?

Cover image by Grok, ZECUSD chart from Tradingview

Percentage Of Bitcoin Supply In Profit Continues To Shrink

The Bitcoin price is now struggling within the $77,000 threshold following a recent pullback, which is now hindering its market dynamics. One of the outcomes includes the percentage of BTC supply currently held in profit falling below key levels seen during previous bull market phases.

In his analysis shared on the X platform, Darkfost, a market decoder and verified CryptoQuant author, highlighted that the Bitcoin supply being held in profit has fallen to around 61%, indicating the growing impact of ongoing market volatility. A growing number of investors are either holding unrealized losses or are getting closer to their cost basis after BTC’s downside action.

While the level may appear relatively high after first glance, the expert stated that it remains fairly low in reality. In the past, the share of supply held in profit has often stayed above 75% during bull market phases, indicating a crucial change in market dynamics. The decline in profitable supply reflects ongoing weakening confidence in the market as it moves into a phase of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, bear market periods have been linked to a significantly greater domination of losses, with about 45% of the supply being retained at a loss. When BTC dropped below the $60,000 price level, the market drew close to reaching a balance between profits and losses. During this period, only 51.1% of the BTC supply was left in profit. 

For investors to remain more inclined to hold their BTC, Darkfost stated that it is vital for the market to maintain a sufficiently high level of unrealized profits. Naturally, the market becomes overheated and more susceptible to short-term corrections when extremes are reached, particularly when almost all of the supply is held in profit.

Why The $80,000 Level Remains A Key Resistance

After examining Bitcoin’s price action, Darkfost has revealed that the next crucial resistance level to break is the $80,000 mark. According to the expert, this level, which represents the Short-Term Holders’ Cost Basis, has continued to act as a major resistance range since early October last year. This implies that short-term investors are still under pressure, increasing the likelihood of cautious sentiment and more selling activity in the market.

Related Reading: Bitcoin Opens New Opportunities As The MVRV Ratio Falls Below A Key Threshold

As seen on the chart, BTC was once again rejected from this crucial resistance level as it attempted to break above the $82,000 mark.  However, for now, short-term holders are likely to exit the market and reduce their losses rather than continue to hold strong to their coins.

Analyst Says Bitcoin’s 4-Year Cycle Is Still Active

In an X post on May 23, Mags, a crypto analyst, has raised concerns about whether “the 4-year cycle is over” for Bitcoin. This debate has been spreading across the market for months now, with some experts, such as Strategy CEO Michael Saylor, stating that the four-year cycle has ended, while others believe it is still active. 

Many crypto community members, in response to Mags’ post, also compared this cycle to past ones. They noted that the current BTC market is markedly different from previous cycles, due to the emergence of Spot ETFs, increased institutional flows, and broader adoption.

However, after examining and comparing these cycles himself, Mags noted that each one corresponds almost perfectly to the next. The analyst pointed to the 2011-2014 four-year cycle on his accompanying chart, highlighting how the market moved through distinct stages of investor activity and price movement during that period. 

In 2011, Bitcoin prices were declining, presenting a buying opportunity for investors. In the second year, Bitcoin began to rise, and investors simply held onto their tokens to allow them to grow. By 2013, prices had climbed to near peak levels, which the analyst noted was when most investors began selling their BTC. The fourth and final year of that cycle saw the market crash, and prices fall sharply. Mags described this as the bear market stage, marking the final stage before a fresh bull cycle began.

Notably, the same four-stage yearly trend was observed during the 2015-2018 and 2019-2022 cycles. Mags also stated that the cyclical theory is actively running in the current cycle, noting that Bitcoin has already moved through its Buy stage in 2023, Hold in 2024, and Sell phase in 2025. Based on this, Mags said that BTC is now in its bear market phase, coinciding with the cryptocurrency’s recent sideways movements and ongoing price declines.

What The Theory Says About The 2027-2030 Cycle

In his analysis, Mags went further to predict what the next cycle could look like after the current one ends. He suggested that the 2027-2030 cycle could follow a similar pattern, with Bitcoin potentially experiencing the same Buy, Hold, Sell, Bear market phases across each year. 

He noted that if this structure holds, the next major accumulation window for investors and traders would arrive in 2027, a year ahead of the next anticipated bull run. Mags has pushed back against the speculation that the four-year cycle is dead, declaring that the structure “is still on track and everything is playing out perfectly.”

XRP, XLM, And ONDO Tipped As Next Wealth Drivers

In an X social media post on May 24, X Finance Bull, a well-known pseudonymous crypto analyst, argued that the next wave of wealth in the crypto market will not come from coins that are spent on speculation or hype to grow. Instead, he believes that this wave of adoption and capital inflow will be led by infrastructure projects with proven real-world use cases.  

He shared a long list of crypto networks he says are positioned to power several highly lucrative markets and functions, including payments, feeds data, real-world assets (RWAs), and on-chain connectivity. 

At the top of X Finance Bull’s list is XRP, which he said will be used to settle global payments. Notably, XRP has frequently been described as a global settlement layer and a neutral bridge currency. Rather than routing funds through multiple intermediary banks, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) changes fiat currency into XRP, moves it across the network, and converts it into the destination currency within seconds. The crypto network is famous for its low-cost transfers and ability to settle transactions within three to five seconds. 

Meanwhile, X Finance Bull noted that XLM addresses cross-border settlement. Launched in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, a co-founder of Ripple, Stellar connects banks, financial institutions, and individuals, with XLM serving as a bridge currency for low-cost, near instant transactions. The crypto network’s focus on financial inclusion has made it a popular choice for remittances and small-scale international transfers.

Additionally, Ondo Finance is said to lead the tokenized real-world assets space, a market projected to reach $30.1 trillion by 2034, according to a Standard Chartered report. Ondo Finance’s OUSG and USDY products command the largest DeFi-native share of tokenized government securities. The protocol has also expanded beyond Treasury products into tokenized US stocks and ETFs.  

How These Networks Will Spark Next Wave Of Crypto Adoption

Excluding XRP, XLM, and Ondo, X Finance Bull also mentioned popular crypto networks such as Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), Cardano (ADA), Algorand (ALGO), and others. According to the analyst, each of these networks serves a distinct function and replaces a piece of legacy infrastructure that is worth trillions of dollars today. 

He said that the prices of these types of cryptocurrencies do not rally overnight, but grow through compounding. The analyst explained that the value of these digital assets rises weekly, and with every new partnership and integration milestone. X Finance Bull also noted that until demand for each of these crypto networks becomes structural, that is, when banks and institutions actively depend on them, their prices will have no choice but to reflect this reality. 

The analyst also noted that utility assets are a long-term hold, unlike volatile projects like meme coins. He said that these infrastructure crypto networks will survive every cycle because they are not chasing trends but actively building the rails, pipes, and connections that global finance may eventually run on. 

The 30-day liquidity index for XRP on Binance has fallen to approximately 0.043 — its lowest level since January 2020. That date requires context to feel as significant as the number demands. January 2020 predates the DeFi summer, the 2021 bull market, the FTX collapse, and the entire institutional era that has since transformed crypto market structure. XRP has not been this illiquid on Binance at any point across five years of the most dramatic market cycles the asset has ever experienced.

The practical implication of a liquidity index at this level is direct and immediately relevant. Market depth — the capacity of the order book to absorb large buy or sell orders without significant price impact — has declined to a level where the normal relationship between order size and price movement no longer applies. Orders that would produce modest price changes in a liquid market produce amplified responses in a market this thin.

Arab Chain’s analysis examines what that amplification means for XRP trading near $1.34 — and the answer is more consequential than the price level alone suggests.

The Liquidity That Built XRP’s Previous Moves Has Nearly Vanished

The Arab Chain analysis places the current reading in the historical context that gives it its full weight. Between 2022 and 2024, XRP’s 30-day liquidity index on Binance registered readings above 3 and 4 points — a depth of market activity that coincided with the periods of strongest trading volume, most significant volatility, and most meaningful price discovery the asset produced during that cycle.

The order books were deep, large transactions moved through the market without disproportionate impact, and the infrastructure for sustained directional moves was present.

The collapse from those elevated readings to the current 0.043 is not a gradual normalization. It is a near-total withdrawal of the speculative participation and liquidity inflows that characterized XRP’s most active periods. The market that could absorb large orders without flinching in 2023 and 2024 has been replaced by one where the same order size produces a fundamentally different price response.

The bidirectional nature of that sensitivity is the honest framing the analysis maintains. Low liquidity does not predict direction — it predicts magnitude. A large sell order into a market this thin produces a sharper decline than it would in a deep market. A large buy order produces a sharper advance. The current 0.043 reading describes a market coiled rather than directional — one where the catalyst determines the outcome but the thin order book determines the scale of the response.

XRP near $1.34 in this liquidity environment is not simply a price level. It is a compressed structure where the next significant flow, in either direction, meets a market with almost no depth to absorb it gradually. The Arab Chain analysis identifies that condition as one of caution and anticipation — a market waiting for the catalyst that determines which way the compression resolves, and how far it travels when it does.

XRP Consolidates As Liquidity Conditions Continue To Deteriorate

XRP continues trading in a tight consolidation range below the critical $1.40 resistance zone as momentum weakens and volatility compresses across the broader structure. The daily chart shows repeated failed breakout attempts throughout May, with every rally toward the $1.45–$1.50 region being absorbed by sellers before bullish momentum could expand further.

Technically, XRP is now hovering directly around the 50-day moving average, while the 100-day moving average continues acting as dynamic resistance overhead near the mid-$1.40 range. The 200-day moving average remains significantly higher and continues sloping downward, confirming that the broader macro structure still favors caution despite the recent stabilization.

What stands out most on the chart is the prolonged sideways behavior following February’s capitulation event. Since the sharp selloff that briefly pushed XRP near the $1.15 area, the price has largely remained trapped between approximately $1.30 and $1.50 without establishing a clear trend. That prolonged compression reflects a market lacking strong directional conviction from either buyers or sellers.

If XRP loses the $1.30 support region decisively, downside pressure could accelerate quickly. However, reclaiming the $1.45–$1.50 resistance zone would likely trigger renewed bullish momentum and force sidelined liquidity back into the market.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

How Ripple’s Move Is Strategic For XRP

In an X post, BankXRP noted that Ripple’s backing of the cross-chain router Squid is strategic rather than random, as Squid supports the XRP Ledger as an integrated chain alongside Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, Stellar, and Cosmos. He added that the platform supports native-to-native swaps across over 1,000 apps and DeFi services. 

As such, the pundit declared that Ripple just made the XRP Ledger accessible to the entire crypto ecosystem, thanks to its investment. Crypto commentator Xaif had first drawn attention to the investment, revealing that the crypto firm had backed the $6 million funding round for Squid. The cross-chain router is said to be live across more than 100 networks, with $6 billion in routed volume. 

In line with this, Xaif declared that Ripple isn’t just building on the XRP Ledger but is also funding the infrastructure that connects all chains. Notably, at the Consensus Conference, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted that the crypto space will continue to comprise several networks, indicating that the goal was to make their operations available across these networks in addition to the XRPL.  

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is natively issued on the Ethereum network alongside XRPL. Ripple has also partnered with Wormhole to expand the stablecoin to Ethereum layer-2 networks such as Base, Optimism, and Unichain. Meanwhile, Ripple’s custody services expand beyond the XRP Ledger as it provides custody services for Ethereum and Solana, along with staking services.

How XRPL Was Built For The Privacy Era

In another X post, Xaif highlighted how Ripple and other XRPL developers have built the network for XRP to dominate the privacy era and onboard institutions. He noted that the network has natively integrated zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology. With this, transaction size, counterparties, and balances are all hidden from the public ledger, which is positive for institutional adoption. 

The pundit added that regulators and auditors can still verify everything through selective disclosure, which makes the integration compliance-friendly. He noted that over 300 banks and financial institutions that have partnered with Ripple were waiting for privacy before going all in, and now they have it. 

Furthermore, Xaif noted that the XRP Ledger is already built for payments, boasting 3 to 5-second finality and very low fees, making payments cost-effective using XRP. He added that XRP bridges fiat-to-fiat instantly via On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), with no pre-funded accounts required, making it hard for SWIFT to compete with XRP. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.34, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

One Stablecoin To Rule Them All

Keyrock researcher Ben Harvey, writing in collaboration with Coinbase and blockchain firm Tempo, said the dependence on one issuer’s infrastructure, regulatory standing, and reserve management creates a systemic exposure that nobody in the space is publicly discussing.

A regulatory challenge against Circle, a de-peg event, or even a prolonged outage would leave the agent economy with no alternative settlement option. Harvey said that risk warrants serious attention as transaction volumes continue to grow.

In one year, machine payments have evolved from concept to live ecosystem, with agents settling 176M transactions.

Our research with @CoinbaseDev, @tempo, and featuring @virtuals_io analyses the payment stack’s evolution, how the economics work, and what stands in the way. pic.twitter.com/W6DGGYAUC0

— Keyrock (@keyrock) May 21, 2026

The numbers behind the report are striking. From May 2025 through April 2026, AI agents settled over $70 million across 176 million transactions — an average deal size of about 31 cents.

That figure alone explains why traditional payment networks were never going to work here. A standard processing fee of roughly 30 cents per transaction makes anything below a dollar completely unworkable on rails built for consumer credit cards. An agent paying three cents to call a weather API cannot route through Visa.

Why Traditional Rails Were Left Behind

Stablecoins filled that gap not because they were chosen but because nothing else could do the job. The economics of legacy payment infrastructure simply collapse at sub-dollar volumes, and crypto rails carry no fixed per-transaction fee that would eat the entire value of a microtransaction.

By the end of the first quarter of 2026, more than 104,000 agents had been registered across 15 or more directories and registries worldwide.

Harvey described the shift as going from concept to a developed ecosystem in just 12 months. Incumbents appear to have taken notice — the report says more than $8 billion has been deployed in acquisitions by established players looking to stake a position in what is emerging as a new payment stack built around autonomous software rather than human users.

AI agents are already being used to build Web3 applications, launch tokens, trade, and interact autonomously with protocols and services.

A CoinGecko survey of 2,632 crypto users conducted last April found 87% were willing to let AI agents manage at least 10% of their crypto portfolio.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has predicted that billions of agents will operate with stablecoins on users’ behalf within five years.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

XWIN Research Japan has examined Ethereum’s internal market structure during the recovery and found something that complicates the straightforward interpretation of the recent price weakness considerably. The data that normally identifies a healthy market is present. Spot Taker CVD remains positive — buyers are still outpacing sellers in the order flow. Funding rates are still above zero — derivatives participants are paying to stay long rather than paying to stay short. Exchange Netflow shows ETH continuing to leave exchanges — coins moving into self-custody rather than toward the sell side.

By every conventional bullish signal, Ethereum should not be trading where it is. The asset fell from approximately $2,375 on May 11 to nearly $2,031 on May 23 — a 14% decline that occurred while every internal market indicator was pointing in the opposite direction.

XWIN Research Japan’s analysis identifies the force that explains the contradiction — and it is not visible in any of the metrics that have been signaling strength.

Hidden Sellers, Macro Headwinds and a Market That Looks Strong but Keeps Falling

The XWIN Research Japan report identifies the mechanism behind the contradiction with precision. Hidden liquidity is the structural explanation for how positive CVD, positive funding, and exchange outflows can coexist with a falling price. Large sell orders placed by market makers and whales sit in the order book absorbing aggressive buying without announcing themselves in the metrics that retail participants monitor.

The surface signals look bullish because the buyers are genuinely present. The price falls because the sellers are larger, more patient, and invisible to conventional flow analysis.

The macro environment compounds the structural pressure. Despite the CLARITY Act initially improving sentiment around digital assets, markets have quickly refocused on inflation risks and the higher-for-longer interest rate environment that continues to define Federal Reserve policy. For a high-beta asset like Ethereum — which amplifies both upside and downside moves relative to broader risk sentiment — that macro backdrop remains a persistent headwind that no amount of on-chain improvement can fully neutralize while it persists.

The derivatives picture adds the final layer. Healthy bullish trends require rising open interest, stable funding, and expanding long positioning simultaneously. What the current data shows instead is short covering and deleveraging, driving recent price bounces — mechanical moves rather than genuine demand returning to build new directional exposure.

Technically, Ethereum is approaching support zones at approximately $1,984 and $1,937 — levels that the report identifies as potentially significant if macro conditions stabilize and real spot demand returns. At those prices, the asset could eventually be viewed as genuinely undervalued relative to its network fundamentals. Whether that reassessment arrives before a test of deeper levels depends entirely on whether the hidden selling pressure exhausts itself before the technical support does.

Ethereum Faces Critical Support Test

Ethereum continues to trade in a fragile structure as price struggles to reclaim the key resistance zone between $2,250 and $2,350. After briefly recovering into that supply area earlier this month, ETH faced repeated rejections that triggered a steady decline back toward the $2,100 region. The chart now shows a market trapped between weakening bullish momentum and critical support levels that buyers must defend to avoid a deeper retrace.

Technically, ETH is trading directly around the 50-day moving average, which has flattened after weeks of recovery. This level is acting as immediate short-term support, but the inability to establish acceptance above the 100-day moving average near $2,250 reflects continued weakness in broader market momentum. Meanwhile, the 200-day moving average remains far above current price action and continues sloping downward, confirming that Ethereum has not yet transitioned back into a confirmed macro bullish trend.

The highlighted resistance zone around $2,300 has become structurally important. Every attempt to break above it has been absorbed by sellers, creating a sequence of lower highs that now pressures the market toward the lower support range between $1,820 and $1,880.

Volume has also declined during the recent pullback, suggesting uncertainty rather than panic-driven capitulation. However, if ETH loses the $2,080–$2,100 region decisively, selling pressure could accelerate quickly toward the February demand zone.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Speaking in an interview for the Bonnie Blockchain channel published on May 12, Trump was asked directly about the circumstances that could force American Bitcoin to liquidate its holdings. His answer was unambiguous.

Selling would require something “beyond catastrophic,” per the interview — a framing that places the sell threshold so far outside normal market volatility, regulatory pressure, or even prolonged bear markets that it functions less as a risk management policy and more as a philosophical commitment to permanent accumulation.

The Two Races — And Why Selling Bitcoin Loses Both

The broader context behind Trump’s sell-never posture is the dual competitive framework he laid out in the same interview. According to Trump, the Bitcoin treasury space is defined by two simultaneous races: one for the largest total Bitcoin holdings, and one for the lowest possible acquisition cost. American Bitcoin, he argued, is competing in both — and selling Bitcoin loses ground in the first race immediately while undermining the entire logic of the second.

The company’s north star metric, per Trump’s interview, is growing “satoshis per share” — a measurement of how much Bitcoin each outstanding share of ABTC represents. Every Bitcoin sold dilutes that figure. Every Bitcoin mined and retained compounds it. The accumulation model only works if the coins stay, which makes the “beyond catastrophic” sell threshold not a rhetorical flourish but a structural requirement of the strategy itself.

The Saylor Reference — And The Divergence

Trump acknowledged Michael Saylor’s role in building the Bitcoin treasury category, describing him as a visionary and praising Strategy’s approach, per the interview. But he drew a pointed distinction. Saylor recently suggested that Strategy could sell some Bitcoin to help fund dividend payments — a hint of flexibility in the accumulation model that Trump appears unwilling to replicate.

American Bitcoin, he made clear, is following a stricter retention framework. Where Strategy accumulates primarily through capital markets and has signaled some exit flexibility, ABTC accumulates through mining — at a cost it claims is approximately 53% below spot — and holds without exception, per the interview.

The distinction matters for how investors read both companies. A sell-never posture from a mining-integrated treasury firm is more operationally credible than the same posture from a pure accumulator, because the marginal cost of each new coin is structurally lower and the balance sheet pressure to monetize is reduced accordingly.

For the nascent sector’s growing cohort of Bitcoin treasury companies, Trump’s “beyond catastrophic” framing marks a pivotal benchmark — the most unambiguous long-term accumulation commitment any publicly listed executive has put on record this cycle. Whether the market rewards that conviction or punishes the rigidity will depend on where Bitcoin trades over the next several years.

As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $82,000, with American Bitcoin’s treasury holding over 7,000 BTC as the company continues what its co-founder has now publicly described as an unconditional accumulation strategy.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD Chart from Tradingview

The filing, submitted in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, names ABC Company, XYZ Company and Noah Doe as plaintiffs, with “John Does 1–39,069” listed as respondents. It is not a court order awarding ownership. It is a summons and amended complaint seeking declaratory relief, meaning the plaintiffs are asking the court to recognize their claimed rights to the wallets and their contents.

According to the complaint, Doe allegedly identified three sets of dormant digital wallets between December 2024 and April 2025. The first group included 1,625 wallets, or 1,544 after duplicates were excluded. The second included 546 wallets. The third and largest group included 39,911 wallets. After exclusions and alleged owner responses, the plaintiffs say the case concerns 39,069 remaining wallets they describe as abandoned.

3.79 Million Bitcoin Caught In Bizarre NY Legal Fight

The complaint says Doe reported the wallet lists to the New York City Police Department on three separate occasions using USB drives. The NYPD later returned the drives, according to the filing. The plaintiffs argue that these steps satisfied New York lost-property procedures and that title vested in Doe under New York Personal Property Law § 257 before later assignments moved most of the claimed rights into ABC Company and XYZ Company.

The size of the claim is what has drawn attention across Bitcoin circles. Sani, the operator of TimechainIndex.com, said on X that the addresses listed in the case hold 3,791,121.17697938 BTC and include addresses attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, early miners, Casascius Coins, lost coins, hackers and unidentified entities. That aggregate BTC figure and those attributions do not appear in the complaint’s body. The filing itself lists addresses and lays out the legal theory, but it does not state “Satoshi Nakamoto,” “Casascius,” or the 3.79 million BTC total.

A New York suit by “Noah Doe” and two Wyoming LLCs seeks a court order confirming their ownership of 39,069 long‑dormant Bitcoin wallets, arguing the wallets are legally “abandoned” property they found, reported to NYPD, noticed on‑chain and in the press, and then claimed… pic.twitter.com/34gH1Jqxxx

— Sani | TimechainIndex.com (@SaniExp) May 24, 2026

The legal argument is unusual because it treats dormant Bitcoin addresses as recoverable property, even though the complaint acknowledges that cryptocurrency cannot be withdrawn without the relevant private key. The filing compares wallets to bank accounts, arguing that a digital wallet can be uniquely identified by blockchain protocol, address and transaction history. But that analogy is likely to draw scrutiny from Bitcoin-native observers because ownership of a bank account and control over a self-custodied Bitcoin UTXO operate very differently in practice.

The background to the lawsuit appears to trace back to a broad on-chain notice campaign tied to Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors. The complaint says Doe retained Salomon Brothers in February 2025 as a strategic consultant to help develop a plan for notifying potential wallet owners and identifying wallets incorrectly included in the allegedly abandoned group. It later says a cyber/blockchain expert sent messages to wallet holders using OP_RETURN, while Salomon Brothers hosted a notice webpage.

Salomon Brothers publicly framed the campaign as an effort to address risks around abandoned wallets. In an August 2025 press release, the firm said abandoned wallets could become vulnerable to better-resourced attackers and argued that “securing wallets protects” other wallet holders. The release said notices had been inserted into long-dormant wallets and gave owners at least 90 days to respond, either by conducting an on-chain transaction with the private key or by using a form on a Salomon Brothers webpage.

That Salomon Brothers connection requires careful context. Galaxy Research described the entity involved as not the historic Wall Street firm that became part of Citigroup, but a newer organization that acquired the Salomon name. Salomon Brothers’ current website describes the firm as an “alliance of professional practices” providing services including financial advisory, real estate finance and research.

Galaxy’s analysis of the related OP_RETURN campaign described it as the “Great Bitcoin Dusting.” According to Galaxy, an unknown actor sent 41,523 OP_RETURN messages from 3,738 sender addresses to 39,423 recipient addresses, which together held 2,334,482.52 BTC when the messages were transmitted. Galaxy said the campaign had two phases: initial trial messages without Salomon links, followed by waves of messages that included links to Salomon’s website.

Galaxy also found that 98.82% of the notified addresses were legacy P2PKH addresses and that the average adjusted dormancy was about 2,171 days, or roughly 5.95 years. That detail matters because Sani separately argued that, for many old coin holders, including wallets attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, notices were sent to P2PKH versions of addresses with no or only dust balances, while the real balances sit in older P2PK outputs. If accurate, that distinction could become central to the crypto community’s assessment of whether meaningful notice was ever delivered to the relevant holders.

The case now sits at the intersection of legal doctrine and protocol reality. The plaintiffs are asking a New York court to treat inactivity as abandonment and to recognize claimed ownership over wallets that have not moved for years. Bitcoin users, meanwhile, are likely to focus on a narrower but more fundamental issue: an address can be dormant because its owner is gone, because keys are lost, or because the holder has no intention of moving coins. On-chain, those cases can look identical.

At press time, BTC traded at $77,441.

In a lengthy post via X on Sunday, Buterin framed the shift as a deliberate move away from treating the EF as the “center of Ethereum” and toward a narrower function inside a broader ecosystem. He also stressed that the remarks reflected his own view, not an official unilateral directive.

“First of all, this is only my own view. The board is not just me, and I have no extra special powers on the board that the other board members do not,” Buterin wrote. He added that the board is expanding and that his own influence within the organization “will continue to decrease,” which he said is “honestly what I want.”

A Smaller Ethereum Foundation With A Narrower Mandate

Buterin said the EF’s 2025-era changes had improved execution, efficiency and focus on concrete goals. But with those issues partly resolved, he argued that a different criticism became harder to ignore: that Ethereum’s public values around decentralization, privacy and “sanctuary technology” were not always reflected strongly enough in the foundation’s actions.

The result, according to Buterin, is a transition toward a foundation that does less, but does it with more conviction. He described the EF as “one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes,” rather than Ethereum’s central coordinating body.

That distinction matters financially as well as culturally. Buterin noted that the EF holds only around 0.16% of all ETH, which he said is “less than many other individual ETH holders,” while central foundations in other blockchain ecosystems often hold much larger shares. He also argued that the EF’s original fiscal role was limited: to fund the development of the chain software through the milestones described in Ethereum’s pre-launch materials, a scope he said was “fully completed in 2022.”

“And so today, the EF is choosing to use its remaining resources to pursue longevity over breadth,” Buterin wrote. “Yes, this means we sell less ETH.”

The foundation, he said, will focus specifically on work “critical to the success of ethereum as a censorship/capture-resistant, open, private and secure system” that would not happen otherwise. That means some respected people and projects may sit outside the EF, even when they are aligned with Ethereum’s broader mission.

Ethereum Should Not Chase Speed Alone

Buterin’s technical argument centered on what he called the CROPS dimension: censorship resistance, openness, privacy and security. He contrasted that with the view that Ethereum should define its ambition mainly through ultra-low latency and extreme throughput.

“To some, ‘impressive’ means: 250ms latency and 1M TPS. I think Ethereum trying to go that route is a mistake,” he wrote. “Being as fast and as scalable as possible, and only a small epsilon more decentralized than the others, is a route to mediocrity, and if we try it we will lose.”

Buterin said Ethereum should still scale, but argued that its most defensible edge should be deeper. He pointed to AI-assisted formal verification as a potential path toward a “provably bug-free Ethereum,” a goal he said would have seemed absurd to many cybersecurity researchers until recently. He also highlighted “available chain consensus,” arguing that Ethereum’s direction with lean consensus preserves properties he sees as distinct from both Bitcoin-style and traditional BFT-style systems.

A third priority is intermediary minimization. Buterin called it “honestly embarrassing” that smart contract wallets and privacy protocols often depend on intermediaries to get transactions included onchain. He cited FOCIL, EIP-8141, EIP-7701 and Kohaku as part of the push toward stronger inclusion properties, public mempool access and user-layer infrastructure that does not leak private data across multiple third-party services.

Buterin also linked the technical direction to ETH’s economic role, calling ETH “the most high-value ‘product’ of the ethereum blockchain, financially speaking.” He said Ethereum secures $250 billion of ETH and argued that the properties he described are beneficial for the asset.

He added that nearly 90% of his net worth is in ETH, with most of the remainder in about $40 million of onchain fiat already allocated to open-source biotech, software or hardware initiatives. Still, he said some necessary work to support ETH as an asset sits outside the EF’s scope and will require other organizations and major ETH holders to step in.

The foundation’s new long-term structure, Buterin said, is expected to stabilize over the next few months. His closing description was blunt: EF will be “a smaller ship than in previous years,” more opinionated, longer-lasting and more narrowly suited to ensuring Ethereum “brings something meaningful to the world.”

At press time, ETH traded at $2,108.

Fenwick Denies Knowledge Of FTX Illicit Activities Despite Settlement

According to court filings as reported by Reuters, Fenwick & West served as a lead outside counsel for FTX during the exchange’s rapid expansion into a global crypto trading platform. Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit alleged the firm “helped to craft and implement strategies that facilitated FTX’s fraud,” accusing the lawyers of assisting with regulatory and operational structures later tied to the misuse of customer funds.

The proposed settlement agreement still requires approval from US District Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami. Attorneys representing FTX customers, including prominent litigator David Boies, argued the deal was reasonable and would prevent prolonged and costly litigation.

However, Fenwick rejected allegations that it knowingly participated in fraudulent conduct. In a public statement, the law firm said it “was not aware of the fraud at FTX,” adding that it stood by the integrity of its legal work. The $54 million agreement marks the largest settlement in a second wave of FTX-related class action resolutions.

Other settlements include an $11.75 million payment from former FTX auditor Prager Metis and a $420,000 settlement involving former Miami Heat player Udonis Haslem, who promoted the exchange.

The Journey So Far

FTX collapsed in November 2022 after revelations that an estimated $11- $13 billion in customer funds had allegedly been diverted to its sister trading firm, Alameda Research. The exchange’s bankruptcy triggered widespread panic across the digital asset market and erased $200 billion in global crypto market cap.

In 2024, founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Although he pleaded not guilty and has since appealed the conviction, claiming the initial trial was unfairly prejudiced against him.

Meanwhile, the FTX Recovery Trust has continued efforts to reimburse affected creditors under the company’s Chapter 11 restructuring process. In March 2026, the estate announced a fourth distribution of approximately $2.2 billion, bringing cumulative repayments to eligible claimants close to $10 billion. Several customer classes, including many US-based users, have reportedly reached full or near-full recovery levels under the court-approved repayment plan.

Although Ethereum has an ostensibly bearish structure, a recent on-chain analysis has revealed notable buying activity in its market. Yet, the Ethereum price weakness seems almost unchecked — below are the details of its current on-chain dynamics. 

Spot Buyers Step In, But ETH Continues To Fall

In a recent Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform, on-chain analyst Carmelo Alemán outlined the factors behind Ethereum’s current price weakness. In the analysis, Alemán revealed that the altcoin’s current downward trend is not due to a lack of demand in the spot market.

Alemán stated, as a matter of fact, that the Spot Taker CVD is reflecting that Ethereum’s spot market is still Taker Buy Dominant. This means aggressive market buyers are executing more buy orders than sellers are executing sell orders over a given period.

In spite of this, the Ethereum price doesn’t seem to be gaining significant strength from a broader perspective. As the Spot Taker CVD flashed the aforementioned sign, the price of ETH actually contracted from $2,339 on May 11 to $2,065.8 by May 22.

However, it is worth noting that spot trading activity has also contracted sharply since May 11, with spot volume reportedly falling from approximately 470,770 ETH to 256,963 ETH (a decline of over 45%); this amounts to a 52.65% drop from around $1.10 billion to $521.4 million.

Derivatives And Exchange Activity Show Mixed Signals

Furthermore, the crypto analyst pointed out that Ethereum’s derivatives market has yet to show strong conviction in its bullish traders’ behavior. “Open Interest is moving sideways: from $15.43B to $15.54B, barely +0.69%,” Alemán noted.

While this is the case, Futures CVD still points to a predominance of long positions, indicating that many participants continue to bet on a rebound. Interestingly, Alemán pointed out that Funding Rates have also remained positive since May 11, meaning long traders are paying short traders to maintain their positions.

Adding to the list, the on-chain analyst revealed that Ethereum’s cumulative Exchange Netflow also read negative, near -80,507 ETH. This means that more ETH was withdrawn from exchanges than was sent to them.

Typically, this should be a bullish sign for Ethereum price, as coins moved away from exchanges are often held for storage rather than for sale, which is typical of high net inflows. Yet, the Ethereum price failed to gain bullish strength.

Alemán mentioned that Ethereum’s current trend could only be due to more supply being available for sale relative to current demand. This causes the bullish pressure that would otherwise have risen from both spot and futures markets to be absorbed. 

The analyst concluded:

Until ETH recovers spot volume, breaks resistance, and confirms a healthy expansion in derivatives, bearish pressure is very likely to remain dominant. In the short term, the price appears to be heading toward the $1,984 support, and if it breaks, the next stop could be the $1,937 support.

As of this writing, the Ethereum price stands at $2,114, up by more than 2% over the past day. 

ETH Smart Money Buying The Dip

In a recent post on the social media platform X, Alphractal revealed that a specific set of Ethereum investors known as “smart money” is driving a narrative that most of the market might be overlooking. While the headlines have focused on significant Ethereum ETF outflows and ETH losing $2,200 support, smart money investors have remained active in the market.

According to Alphractal, smart money refers to the cohort of investors that owns the largest non-exchange positions in a particular cryptocurrency (ETH, in this case). Using the Smart Money Flow Index, the analytics firm found that this specific set of investors has been accumulating more Ethereum tokens over the past few days.

Related Reading: Hope For Altcoin Season: The Bitcoin Move That Could Kickstart Everything

Going further, Alphractal also shared that the smart money started bridging ETH to Hyperliquid and Base in size during the price downturn on May 14th. The market intelligence platform clarified that the investor cohort was repositioning in the ETH market rather than selling their assets.

Alphractal noted that this behavior was last observed in October 2023, before the price of Ethereum soared from $1,500 to $4,100 — a 173% move. According to recent on-chain data, these smart money investors have been “net buyers” 9 out of the last 12 days.

The analytics firm resolved that:

This is why single-metric theses fail on ETH. ETF outflows look bearish alone. Smart Money Flow looks bullish alone. Stack them, and the picture is obvious: retail and ETF allocators are selling under $2,200. The cohort that ACTUALLY moved ETH in the last two cycles is buying it from them.

Ultimately, Alphractal concluded that the Ethereum smart money is buying the dip while ETF and retail investors are shaving their holdings, and, if history is anything to go by, it is a divergence that could yield an over-100 % return.

Ethereum Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of ETH stands at around $2,113, reflecting an over 2% jump in the past 24 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, the second-largest cryptocurrency is still down by about 3% on the weekly timeframe.

Bitcoin Spot ETFs Register Six Consecutive Red Days

More details of the last week performance shows the Bitcoin Spot ETFs market recorded a starggering $648.64 million in net outflows on Monday, representing it’s largest daily net withdrawal since January 29. Meanwhile, the following days recorded lesser but significantly negative performance such as $331.05 million on Tuesday, $70.47 million on Wednesday, $100.82 million on Thursday, and $105.19 million on Friday.

Taken together, the Bitcoin Spot ETFs translates to six consecutive trading days of net outflows while 80% of the last 10 days are also red days. Looking at individual fund performances, BlackRock IBIT investors withdrew $1.01 billion more than deposited, as its cumulative inflows reached $64.77 billion. The dominant market leader now maintains total net assets of $61.09 billion, i.e 6x its closest competitor.

Meanwhile, Fidelity’s FBTC and Ark/21 Shares’ ARKB also experienced significant net outflows at $111.5 million and $106.81 million, respectively. ETFs including Bitwise’s BITB, VanEck’s HODL, Valkyrie’s BRRR, Invesco’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC all registered capital outlows ranging between $3m – $10m. Notably, Morgan Stanley’s MSBT, the market’s new comer recorded the only positive performance with net inflows valued at $1.11. Other funds such as Grayscale GBTC & BTC, Hashdex’s DEFI, and Bitwise’s BTCW all registered zero net activity.

Following this performance record, the Bitcoin Spot ETFs have now recorded a combined $1.00 billion net outflows in May. Meanwhile, their total cumulative net inflows stands at $57.08 billion, with their total net assets valued at $98.87 billion.

Ethereum ETF Negative Streak Extends To 10 Days

As the Bitcoin Spot ETFs struggle with steep withdrawals, their Ethereum counterparts are faring no better after recording a cumulative net outflows of $215.19 million in the last week. Notably, data from SoSoValue shows the Ethereum Spot ETFs have now experienced 10 consecutive trading days of net withdrawals valued at $471.1 million. Total cumulative inflows in this ETF market is valued at $11.62 billion, with total net assets of $11.84 billion, i.e. 4.73% of Ethereum market cap.

At press time, Bitcoin continues to trade at $76,735 reflecting a daily 1.75% gain. Meanwhile, Ethereum is valued at $2,119 after a 2.78% increase within the same period.

How Consolidation Often Precedes Expansion In Ethereum Cycles

Ethereum’s recent pullback is being interpreted as a necessary reset within a larger cycle. Crypto analyst Rios noted on X that ETH’s nearly 19% drop could be a cycle reset that helps clear out excessive weak market positioning before a stronger move higher.

Historically, sharp corrections have often occurred during broader uptrends, serving as periods where the market recalibrates before momentum returns into ETH aggressively. At the same time, long-term holders have reportedly maintained their accumulation while interest surrounding spot ETF developments and on-chain network activity remains resilient.

According to Rios, these factors suggest that investor conviction has not materially weakened despite the recent volatility. This move is more like the end of a trend reversal than a volatility reset within a larger bullish structure. However, if the ETH price stabilizes in this region, the next recovery phase could pave the way for a stronger upside momentum than expected.

Concerns Around The Ethereum Foundation Continue To Spark Debate

Massive Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) is currently building up around Ethereum. With concerns ranging from developer departures and Bankless, which has heavily supported ETH and built its entire business and Public Relations (PR) model around it, has sold their ETH and bought the overhyped Zcash. Analyst Papaxem has explained that there’s a lot of FUD about the Ethereum Foundation’s inability to manage the project, and some of these concerns contain elements of truth.

However, the key point often overlooked is that a single entity does not control the Ethereum Foundation. Even as the Ethereum Foundation faces scrutiny, development and ecosystem growth continue through other major contributors such as ConsenSys and a wide range of independent teams. 

This distributed structure is not a weakness, but a reflection of true decentralization in action. From a fundamental value perspective, ETH remains unchanged; its core value proposition, network activity, and role within the broader crypto ecosystem are intact. 

Papaxem stated that from an investor’s point of view, this environment may represent an asymmetric opportunity, a fundamentally strong asset facing solvable challenges, with price action potentially reflecting fear more than reality. If sentiment stabilizes, ETH could once again demonstrate resilience, as it has in previous cycles marked by similar FUD waves.

Analyst Sees Bitcoin Price Going Parabolic Soon

Crypto Fergani, a market analyst, has announced that currently “everyone is bearish” in the crypto market and “everyone is calling for lower targets.” In an X post released on May 21, the expert noted that, contrary to the negative sentiment and foreboding Bitcoin price forecasts flooding the market, there has been no bearish news about Bitcoin. 

Instead, Crypto Fergani said that mostly bullish developments have been occurring. He noted that major institutions have been accumulating BTC as adoption for the leading cryptocurrency grows even faster globally. Because of these, the analyst maintains a firm belief that the market is pointing toward a possible uptrend. 

Crypto Fergani stated that people who think that the Bitcoin bear market is still running deserve to miss the potential upward rally that he believes is coming. According to the analyst, the BTC price will go parabolic soon, targeting new all-time highs. He supports his bullish outlook by comparing Bitcoin’s price action with that of the 2022 cycle, where the cryptocurrency skyrocketed by 54.2% after a period of bearishness and sideways consolidation. 

He expects this uptrend to affect not just Bitcoin but also alternative cryptocurrencies. As such, the analyst projects that altcoins could rally by 50x to 100x on average soon. His accompanying chart also predicts a potential climb in the BTC price from current levels above $74,000 toward $128,000, representing a more than 72% rally. Ahead of this projected price surge, Crypto Fergani has warned investors and traders to lock in gains before they miss out. 

BTC’s True Bottom Confirmed Near The $47,000 Zone

Many analysts remain skeptical about Bitcoin’s price outlook, as numerous bearish forecasts have spread across the market. A recent analysis shared by crypto expert Bee on X suggests that Bitcoin is currently in the final phase of its market cycle before it forms a real bottom. 

According to the analyst, every bounce the cryptocurrency has experienced since it recorded its peak above $126,000 in October 2025 has been met with selling pressure. Furthermore, each recovery following these sell-offs has been weaker than the last, pointing to a gradual reduction of bullish momentum.

Bee also noted that Bitcoin dumping is getting more aggressive. He described the current phase as one where retail investors call for a bottom each week, only for the market to prove them wrong. He warned that BTC could continue its distinct pattern of lower highs and lower lows until a real flush wipes out all the overleveraged positions. 

For his Bitcoin outlook, Bee projects a sharp price crash toward the $47,000 to $52,000 region, which he identifies as a potential final bottom. He believes this is the level at which the current market cycle could finally come to an end, making way for a fresh bull cycle. 

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Major Highlights Of New FDIC Proposed Framework

According to a press release on Friday, the proposed rule by the FDIC mainly mandates PPSIs to comply with applicable Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) program requirements, economic sanctions programs, and reporting obligations, including those issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). 

This latest rulemaking follows an earlier FDIC proposal from April 2026, which established prudential standards for PPSIs covering reserve assets, redemption, capital, and risk management. Under the new parallel FinCEN-OFAC proposed rule, PPSIs would formally be classified as financial institutions under the BSA, requiring them to adopt full AML programs and OFAC-aligned sanctions compliance structures, including internal controls, a designated compliance officer, staff training, independent testing, customer identification, suspicious activity reporting, and on-chain transaction screening capabilities. 

In terms of supervision and enforcement, the proposed rule would require the FDIC to notify the FinCEN director at least 30 days before initiating any formal enforcement action or significant supervisory determination related to a PPSI’s AML/CFT program. However, the FDIC signals that PPSIs with demonstrably effective AML/CFT programs would be shielded from enforcement action in most circumstances, except where there is a “significant or systemic failure” to implement required programs. 

For context, PPSI refers to all entities authorized under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) to issue payment stablecoins as subsidiaries of insured State nonmember banks and State savings associations.

Looking Ahead 

The public comment period on this proposed rule is expected to last until June 9, 2026, which would mark 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register. The final rule will be announced later in 2026, along with implementation details and deadlines. The FDIC estimates that between five and 30 FDIC-supervised PPSIs could seek approval in the first few years following enactment, and that most would leverage existing AML infrastructure from their parent institutions, keeping incremental compliance costs modest. 

Sixteen years after that first recorded transaction, the Bitcoin community marked the anniversary on May 22 with fresh evidence of how far the currency has traveled.

Bitcoin Pizza Day: A Transaction That Changed Everything

Back in May 2010, software developer Laszlo Hanyecz posted an offer online: 10,000 BTC in exchange for two Papa John’s pizzas delivered to his door.

The Bitcoin he spent was worth roughly $41 at the time. At current market prices, that same amount of Bitcoin is valued at more than $767 million — and when Bitcoin hit its all-time high of around $126,000 in October 2025, those 10,000 coins briefly crossed $1.2 billion in value.

Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Sixteen years ago, 10,000 BTC bought two pizzas. Today those coins are worth ~$760M and we’re still debating how to tax the transaction.

Adoption and use cases have grown and crypto is now a $3T industry. We need clear rules, a sensible tax and market… pic.twitter.com/t5iI9Bte8h

— Crypto Council for Innovation (@crypto_council) May 22, 2026

The transaction was more than a quirky footnote. Nischal Shetty, founder of crypto exchange WazirX, said the exchange proved that a decentralized digital asset could facilitate real commerce.

Only a few hundred transactions were being processed on the Bitcoin network each day at the time, with almost no payment infrastructure or institutional involvement to speak of.

From Two Pizzas To Oil Tankers

The scale of ambition surrounding Bitcoin has grown dramatically since then. In April 2026, Iran announced that ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most critical shipping waterways — could pay tolls in Bitcoin, US dollar stablecoins, or Chinese yuan.

The announcement generated significant attention in crypto circles. However, according to Sam Lyman, head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, no onchain evidence exists of any oil toll being paid in Bitcoin as of publication. Tether’s USDT stablecoin has remained the dominant payment method for those transactions.

Back home in the US, lawmakers have been pushing Bitcoin-related legislation as well. A renewed effort to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve was introduced through the ARMA bill, with some states also moving to exempt Bitcoin payments from certain taxes.

Hanyecz’s 2010 purchase remains the symbolic starting point for all of it. His willingness to treat Bitcoin as actual money — at a time when almost nobody else did — helped set the foundation for everything that followed.

What began as a $41 experiment is now a global conversation about national reserves, international trade, and the future of money itself.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Key Bearish Signal Arises From Investor Cost Basis Data

In an X post on May 22, CryptoChan shares data from an historically reliable bottom indicator built from two realized price bands: the 6m–10y Realized Price, representing the average acquisition cost of long-term holders, currently at $60,316; and the 0–10y Realized Price, a broader market average cost basis, sitting at $64,412.  The ratio between these two bands indicates how stressed long-term holders are relative to the broader market. When it drops below 0.936 and then recovers back toward 1.0, it has marked the precise bottom moment in every prior Bitcoin cycle.

历史经验表明，当黑线逼近绿线，往往也正是熊市尾声与历史级大底的标志性信号────────────────────────【#BTC 四年周期系列更新】当前图中指标已升至 0.936

2015年熊底该指标从 0.936 升到 1，花费 59天18-19年熊底该指标从 0.936 升到 1，花费 66天… https://t.co/pOwvk1rsDu pic.twitter.com/kr6P4m7bBy

— CryptoChan (@0xCryptoChan) May 22, 2026

This is because when the ratio touches 1.0, the green line (long-term holder cost) overtakes the black line (full market cost), meaning even the most conviction-driven holders are underwater. That is the moment when selling pressure is fully exhausted, and market sentiment is in extreme panic. In the 2015 bear market bottom, the ratio took 59 days to climb from 0.936 back to 1.0. In the 2018–2019 bear bottom, the recovery took 66 days. In the November 2022 FTX collapse-driven bottom, the journey took 50 days. The ratio is presently at 0.936 again. If the current reading holds and historical data repeats itself, Bitcoin’s definitive bottom window may open sometime around mid-to-late July 2026.

Bitcoin Price Overview

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is valued at $75,269, following a 2.84% loss in the last week. In tandem, the asset’s performance on larger timeframes is also negative, with declines of 4.65% and 3.55% on the weekly and monthly charts, respectively.

According to data from Coincodex, the Fear & Greed Index stands at 28, indicating that fear is significantly affecting the market. Nevertheless, CoinCodex analysts are backing a short squeeze toward $83,354 over the next five days. In a month, they predict a return to $77,741. However, their three-month projection points to a $90,529 price target, suggesting a potential 16% gain over current market prices.

The SEC approved Nasdaq’s proposal to list the options on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, known as Phlx, on an accelerated basis, with the decision published Friday on the agency’s website.

A Different Kind Of Bitcoin Contract

The contracts are European-style and cash-settled, meaning buyers receive the difference between the Bitcoin spot price and the strike price at expiration — no actual Bitcoin changes hands.

That structure also removes the risk of early assignment, which sets these apart from options tied to spot Bitcoin ETFs that have been available to investors.

Source: SEC

The contracts will trade under the ticker QBTC, with a minimum price increment of one cent and a position limit of 24,000 contracts per side, which works out to roughly 0.12% of Bitcoin’s total outstanding supply.

They are tied to the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index, a benchmark that tracks one one-hundredth of the CME CF BTC Real Time Index, which pulls pricing data from major cryptocurrency exchanges every 200 milliseconds.

CME Group filed a comment letter last October arguing the new contracts fall under the CFTC’s exclusive authority. The SEC pushed back, writing in its order that shared jurisdiction between the two regulators is not new, citing mixed swaps and security futures as existing examples, and referencing Section 717 of the Dodd-Frank Act as the legal basis for concurrent oversight.

A Shift In Tone At The SEC

The approval fits a broader shift underway at the SEC under Chairman Paul Atkins. The agency has moved to drop several enforcement cases against crypto firms that were launched under the previous administration, and Atkins has called publicly for clearer rules that support innovation.

Reports indicate the SEC is also preparing what it calls an innovation exemption that would allow tokenized trading of public company shares on decentralized crypto platforms, even without consent from the companies involved.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange will host the new QBTC contracts once both regulators have signed off, marking another step in Wall Street’s growing embrace of Bitcoin-linked financial products.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin Apparent Demand Falls To -40K BTC

In a May 22nd post on the X platform, CryptoQuant’s Head of Research, Julio Moreno, revealed that Bitcoin spot demand has been declining over the past few weeks. This on-chain observation comes as the premier cryptocurrency appears to be struggling under significant bearish pressure.

The relevant indicator here is the Apparent Demand metric, which tracks demand by comparing newly mined BTC to the amount of unmoved coin over a period. The on-chain metric provides insight into investor appetite and can be used to decipher different market phases, especially in the long term.

Using this metric as an anchor, Moreno revealed that the Bitcoin spot demand is falling at the fastest pace since January 10th. When the Apparent Demand indicator contracted in early January, the Bitcoin price dipped to around the $90,000 mark before rebounding to $98,000 (alongside the demand).

However, the Apparent Demand was in a massive downturn for most of the first quarter before turning around in early April. Accompanied by a commensurate rise in the price of Bitcoin, the coin’s demand in the spot market improved for most of the previous month.

As observed in the chart above, the on-chain metric has declined to its lowest level since early January. CryptoQuant data show that the 30-day sum of Apparent Demand is around -40,000 BTC.

While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the recent downturn in BTC spot demand, the poor performance of US-based exchange-traded funds might be a good place to start. Nevertheless, when questioned about the contribution of the spot Bitcoin ETFs to this trend, Moreno answered that the exchange-traded funds account for only a small fraction of BTC’s demand growth.

Coinbase Premium Falls To Lowest Level Since February 

At the same time, the Coinbase Premium Gap, which offers insight into institutional investor appetite in the US, also supports the thesis of waning demand in the Bitcoin spot market. According to CryptoQuant data highlighted by Maartunn, Coinbase, the US’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is witnessing its most significant selling pressure since February. 

This evident decline in demand has coincided with the latest dip in Bitcoin’s price. Hence, it goes without saying that investor appetite in the spot market needs to improve for the premier cryptocurrency to recover in price. As of this writing, the price of BTC sits around $75,600, reflecting a 2.5% slump in the past day.

Crypto Exchange Files For IPO As Ripple Remains On The Sidelines

According to a Reuters report, Blockchain.com has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO with the SEC, officially kickstarting the process for the crypto company to go public. The company joins the likes of Grayscale and fellow crypto exchange Kraken, which are also seeking to go public in the U.S. 

Notably, Blockchain.com could become the fifth crypto exchange to go public in the U.S., joining Robinhood, Coinbase, Bullish, and Gemini. The move to confidentially file for an IPO opens up a regulatory review process that could take at least two to three months before the company moves ahead with its listing plans. 

This could give the company enough time to plan towards a listing when the crypto market recovers. Crypto firms Consensys and Ledger have held off on their IPO plans due to market conditions and are looking to go public once conditions improve. As such, Blockchain.com could make a similar move to secure sufficient funding during the listing. 

Blockchain.com said that it has not yet determined the number of shares that it will offer or the price range for the proposed offering. This information will, however, be available once the crypto company files the registration statement for its IPO with the SEC. It will also include other key information, such as the ticker and the exchange on which it plans to list. 

It is also worth noting that these crypto firms join the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and OpenAI, which are eyeing public listings. SpaceX could go public as soon as next month at a valuation of up to $1.75 trillion, making it the largest public IPO in history. 

Ripple Still Has No Plans To Go Public

Ripple has so far signaled that it has no plans to go public even as other crypto firms eye public listings. Speaking at the XRP conference, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said there are no plans for an immediate listing, with the focus on institutional adoption as they look to onboard more institutions to their services. 

However, in the meantime, crypto prediction market platform Polymarket has launched prediction markets that provide retail investors with a way to gain exposure to private companies like Ripple. These prediction markets are expected to track valuation milestones, IPO timing, and secondary-market activity. Garlinghouse revealed that Ripple is currently valued at around $50 billion, based on its latest share buyback in May.

A fairly strong first full trading week for Bitwise’s HYPE exchange-traded fund (ETF) was identified as one of the catalysts behind the coin’s all-time high rally. Interestingly, the latest development suggests that Grayscale’s Hyperliquid ETF might also be making its trading debut soon.

Grayscale Confirms GHYP Ticker For Hyperliquid ETF 

On Friday, May 22nd, Grayscale submitted the third amendment to its spot HYPE ETF S-1 application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, this latest amendment confirms that the asset management firm’s Hyperliquid ETF will trade with the GHYP ticker upon launch.

After initially submitting a proposal in March, Grayscale has made a series of changes to its Hyperliquid ETF offering, including switching custodians from Coinbase to Anchorage Digital and incorporating native staking yields. Meanwhile, the firm has finally settled on the GHYP ticker after introducing the HYPG ticker in the second amendment.

As Seyffart pointed out, the latest amendment of its SEC filing suggests that Grayscale might be getting closer to launching its spot HYPE exchange-traded fund. This would bring the number of Hyperliquid ETFs on US exchanges to three, including 21Shares and Bitwise’s spot HYPE exchange-traded products.

Interestingly, this development coincides with Grayscale’s reported on-chain activity, with the asset management firm found accumulating significant amounts of the Hyperliquid native token over the past week. On-chain data shows that Grayscale bought 682,190 HYPE (roughly $35 million) over the past week.

HYPE Price Overview

As of this writing, the Hyperliquid token is valued at around $54.7, reflecting a decline of over 5% in the past 24 hours. The past day’s price action suggests the cryptocurrency may be slowing down after a strong bullish run this week, with a move toward a new all-time high above $62.

According to CoinGecko data, the HYPE price is up more than 26% on the weekly timeframe. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency’s value has grown by roughly 115% so far in 2026, riding on the wave of surging volume and institutional validation of the Hyperliquid platform.

Over 50,000 Koreans Sign Crypto Tax Petition

As South Korean authorities prepare to implement the upcoming Income Tax Act, a petition to block the crypto taxation system has gained massive support from South Korean investors and some policymakers.

The “Petition for the Abolition of Taxation on Virtual Assets” surpassed the signature requirement on May 21, just eight days after its registration. Notably, a petition must gather 50,000 signatures within 30 days of public release to be automatically referred to the National Assembly for review.

For context, crypto assets will be subject to an income tax rate of up to 22%, starting January 1, 2027, for profits exceeding 2.5 million won annually. The South Korean government proposed implementing the Income Tax Act by January 2022, but the rule change has been postponed three times.

At the time of writing, the request to abolish the government’s crypto taxation plans has gathered over 53,000 signatures on the National Assembly’s public petition board. Therefore, the petition will be reviewed by the Finance, Economy, and Planning Committee, which will decide whether to refer it to the Plenary Committee.

The petition argued that, with the recent abolition of the financial investment income tax to promote capital market development, it is difficult to justify forcing separate taxation for crypto assets.

“There are significant concerns that current policies are excessively focused on regulation and securing tax revenue, while neglecting consideration for industrial competitiveness and securing global market leadership,” the request affirmed, adding that, “If taxation is enforced solely for the sake of short-term revenue, it could lead to greater long-term losses, such as industrial contraction and the outflow of capital and talent.”

It also criticized the push to implement taxation before measures like short-selling regulations, listing reviews, investor protection funds, and unfair trading monitoring systems are sufficiently established.

Therefore, the petitioner considers that the crypto asset taxation system requires “a fundamental review rather than mere supplementation or postponement,” noting that the current system will only result in increased burdens on the public and a contraction of the industry. “Now is the time for a comprehensive re-discussion, including the possibility of abolition, rather than forcing through virtual asset taxation,” it reads.

However, previous reports suggest the chances of abolishing or postponing the crypto taxation plan are low, since parliamentary petitions rarely result in legislative change, and officials appear set on the 2027 implementation.

NTS Preparing Income Tax Act Implementation

Last month, the People Power Party (PPP) introduced a bill to amend the Income Tax Act to abolish the taxation of crypto assets. In the amendment, PPP’s floor leader, Song Eun-seok, proposed removing all provisions governing the taxation of digital assets in the current version of the Income Tax Act.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the bill argues that imposing a separate income tax on crypto assets raises concerns regarding the fairness and consistency of the tax system. In addition, it cites guidance from US financial regulators, which classified most digital assets as commodities rather than securities.

Despite these efforts, the National Tax Service (NTS) recently announced it had begun preparations to implement the crypto asset taxation framework next year. In late April, Park Jeong-yeol, Director of the Individual Taxation Bureau at the National Tax Service, outlined the agency’s plan to secure data from exchanges and establish a taxation system to ensure the swift execution of the comprehensive income tax.

The NTS is also accelerating the development of its tax infrastructure, including an AI-driven system to track crypto investment gains, which the agency expects to launch at full scale by the end of the year.

New OKX Perpetuals

In an official release, the companies said that ICE’s futures pricing for Brent and WTI would serve as the underlying reference for the new perpetual contracts launched on OKX’s platform. 

OKX framed the move as a bridge between traditional finance and digital trading, arguing that bringing those benchmark prices into perpetual futures could meet demand from market participants who want familiar pricing data in a more modern format. 

Haider Rafique, Global Managing Partner at OKX, said oil markets are central to the global economy and that ICE’s Brent and WTI futures markets act as the reference point energy traders rely on. 

He added that offering these benchmarks in a “regulated, transparent environment” would give retail traders direct access to widely used energy pricing—positioning the launch as part of OKX’s broader efforts to modernize markets.

Trabue Bland, Senior Vice President for Futures Exchanges at ICE, said the new OKX perpetual contracts would let OKX’s customer base access energy benchmark products derived from ICE’s “deep, liquid, transparent, and global” oil markets. 

The emphasis here is that OKX would be anchoring these perpetual products to ICE’s established benchmark markets, rather than relying solely on a decentralized-style pricing mechanism. 

That matters because, until now, Hyperliquid has been the place many traders have gone for these kinds of oil perp trades. By mid-March, cumulative volume across its oil contracts climbed from about $339 million to around $7.3 billion in roughly two weeks. 

Hyperliquid Under Threat?

At the height of activity, crude oil open interest on Hyperliquid crossed $300 million in March, an amount that reportedly exceeded every other crypto pair on the exchange.

One reason Hyperliquid has remained a preferred venue is its operating model. As The Street reported Friday, the platform’s main advantage is that it supports 24/7 trading even during weekends. 

If OKX structures its new perpetual futures around standard market hours rather than continuous trading, then Hyperliquid’s “always-on” edge could remain intact. However, the competitive comparison may shift quickly depending on how OKX schedules trading hours and liquidity for these products.

Where the rivalry could become more intense is on credibility and access. The key difference, according to the description of both approaches, is how the contracts are priced. 

Hyperliquid’s oil contracts are synthetic instruments, priced using the platform’s own mechanisms. OKX’s contracts, by contrast, are intended to be anchored to ICE’s markets, which OKX characterizes as deep, liquid, and globally transparent. 

The distinction may be especially important because regulatory scrutiny around Hyperliquid’s oil futures has reportedly been increasing.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and ICE raised concerns with regulatory agencies and lawmakers in Washington, arguing that Hyperliquid’s decentralized, anonymous trading environment could allow bad actors to manipulate global oil benchmarks or assist sanctioned entities in bypassing US restrictions. 

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The Bitcoin Fund Flow Ratio on Binance has returned to the 0.010 to 0.012 zone for the sixth time since 2018. That specific range — and the fact that the market has now visited it six times across eight years of dramatically different market conditions — is what gives the current reading its analytical weight. This is not a metric touching an arbitrary level. It is a metric returning to a zone that has preceded structural turning points in Bitcoin’s price on five previous occasions.

The mechanics behind the ratio explain why those turning points occur. The Fund Flow Ratio measures BTC flowing through exchanges relative to total BTC transferred across the entire Bitcoin network. When the ratio is elevated, exchanges are driving a disproportionate share of network activity — the signature of active speculation, repositioning, and profit-taking.

When it falls to the 0.010 to 0.012 zone, exchange activity has contracted to a small fraction of total network transfers, reflecting reduced speculative participation and a market that has retreated from aggressive trading behavior.

Five previous visits to this zone preceded what came next. MorenoDV’s analysis examines whether the sixth is following the same pattern.

The Sixth Visit to This Zone Since 2018

MorenoDV’s historical mapping of the Fund Flow Ratio gives the current reading its most precise analytical context. The 0.010 to 0.012 zone has appeared at meaningful junctures across Bitcoin’s entire modern market history — and the pattern that followed each visit is what makes the sixth occurrence worth examining carefully.

The early 2019 instance arrived in the aftermath of the 2018 bear market, when Bitcoin was still trading near its cycle lows and exchange activity had compressed to reflect a market where most of the selling had already occurred. The ratio’s compression was not a sign of disinterest — it was the behavioral signature of a market where sellers had largely exhausted their pressure and the remaining participants were waiting rather than acting. What followed was the recovery that defined 2019’s price structure.

The 2020 instance appeared during the base-building phase that preceded Bitcoin’s most significant bull market expansion. Fund flow activity on Binance remained compressed while price consolidated — and when demand returned and momentum accelerated, the ratio expanded sharply as investors flooded back to exchanges to position for and chase the developing trend. The compression preceded the expansion. The quiet preceded the move.

The current setup presents the same structural question that each previous visit required the market to answer. Either the compression reflects genuine apathy — a market without the demand needed to initiate recovery — or it reflects sell-side exhaustion creating the foundation from which the next phase builds. MorenoDV’s analysis does not declare which interpretation is correct.

It identifies the zone as the decision point where that question gets answered — and notes that five previous visits produced answers worth paying attention to.

Bitcoin Consolidates Above Key Support

Bitcoin continues consolidating near the $77,000 region after failing to sustain momentum above the critical $80,000 resistance zone earlier this month. The weekly chart shows a market trapped between recovery continuation and a broader macro correction, with price now hovering directly above an important structural support region between roughly $69,000 and $72,000 — the same area highlighted repeatedly throughout the recent consolidation phase.

Technically, BTC remains below the 50-week moving average near the $82,000 region, which continues acting as dynamic resistance after rejecting the latest recovery attempt. At the same time, the price still trades above the 100-week and 200-week moving averages, meaning the longer-term macro structure has weakened but has not fully broken down.

The most important feature on the chart is the developing compression between lower highs and defended support. Buyers have repeatedly stepped in around the highlighted support zones, preventing a deeper retrace toward the low-$60,000 range. However, each rebound has also produced weaker upside continuation, showing that bullish momentum remains fragile while macro uncertainty persists.

Volume has gradually declined during the recovery attempt, suggesting the recent rebound lacked aggressive conviction. This aligns with the broader Fund Flow Ratio analysis showing compressed exchange activity and reduced speculative participation.

For bulls, reclaiming the $82,000 level and the 50-week moving average would be the first signal that the correction phase is losing control. Until then, Bitcoin remains in a sensitive consolidation structure where both continuation and breakdown remain viable outcomes.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Lookonchain framed the move as an open question, writing: “Trump Media just sold 2,650 BTC ($205M)?” The account said Trump Media had bought 11,542 BTC for about $1.37 billion at an average cost of $118,522, previously transferred out 2,000 BTC at about $87,378, and then deposited another 2,650 BTC into Crypto.com. On-chain data places the latest deposit between roughly 01:22 and 02:22 GMT on May 22, with Bitcoin trading near $77,300 at the time.

Did Trump Media Really Sell The Bitcoin?

The key caveat is that an exchange deposit is not the same as a confirmed sale. CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. pushed back on the more aggressive interpretation, writing: “Trump Media-linked wallet deposited 2,650 BTC to Crypto_com, sale is unconfirmed.” That distinction is important because the company’s prior 2,000 BTC movement was later described not as a spot sale, but as collateral tied to hedge arrangements.

Trump Media’s own filings previously showed that the company entered collar hedges on 4,000 BTC and posted 2,000 BTC as collateral to a counterparty with rehypothecation rights, requiring derecognition of those assets from the balance sheet. Arkham estimates that visible on-chain holdings after the latest Crypto.com deposit had fallen to 6.889K BTC valued at $533 million.

The optics are still difficult. Trump Media announced its BTC treasury strategy in May 2025 through a private placement involving about $1.5 billion in common stock and $1 billion in 0.00% convertible senior secured notes, saying proceeds would be used to create a Bitcoin treasury. Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital were named as custody providers for the strategy.

That treasury has since become a major driver of reported results. In its first-quarter 2026 update, Trump Media reported $2.2 billion in total assets and about $2.1 billion in financial assets, but also a $405.9 million net loss, with the bulk tied to non-cash losses including unrealized losses on digital assets, pledged digital assets and equity securities.

The transfer drew sharp reaction from Bitcoin-native commentators. On-chain experz James “Checkmate” Check wrote: “Good, sell it all. Flush all the grift out. Bitcoin has a spectacular way of shedding its skin each cycle, and leaving all the scams, and crime behind. Sit tight.”

The tone captured a broader split in market reaction: some viewed the deposit as capitulation, while others argued the prior collateral episode makes it risky to assume a sale before subsequent wallet activity or filings confirm it.

For Trump Media shareholders, the next relevant question is whether the 2,650 BTC was liquidated, pledged, moved for custody reasons or left on the exchange. If sold near the reported deposit-time value, the tranche would crystallize a loss against the company’s stated average entry price. If not, the transaction may simply become another example of how corporate Bitcoin treasuries now face real-time scrutiny from public wallet labeling.

At press time, BTC traded at $77,430.

XRP open interest on Binance has reached approximately $488.3 million — one of the highest readings in the past two months and a level that has been sustained following the peak near $500 million recorded in mid-May, the highest since March. The derivatives market is not thinning out alongside the price weakness. It is holding elevated, reflecting a category of participants that have been adding and maintaining significant futures exposure throughout the period that the price has been struggling to find direction.

The trajectory that produced the current reading is as significant as the level itself. Open interest experienced a clear and sustained upward trend throughout May — climbing progressively toward the $500 million threshold before settling at the current elevated range. That progression describes a derivatives market that has been actively building exposure rather than cautiously positioning, and one that has maintained that exposure even as the price retreated from the mid-May highs.

What that persistent elevation means for XRP’s next move — whether it represents accumulated fuel for a breakout or fragility that amplifies whatever direction the market eventually chooses — is the question the Arab Chain analysis is built to answer.

Nearly $500 Million in Open Interest and No Sign of Anyone Leaving

The Arab Chain report frames the persistence of elevated open interest as the signal that matters more than the level itself. Open interest approaching $500 million would be notable for a single session. Open interest sustaining near that level across an extended period without widespread contract closures or significant liquidity outflows describes something more structurally significant — a derivatives market where participants have built positions and chosen to hold them through price weakness rather than reduce exposure when the thesis was being tested.

That persistence reflects two conditions developing simultaneously. Leverage has returned to the XRP derivatives market as liquidity has gradually recovered across the broader crypto ecosystem, encouraging traders to build larger and more aggressive positions than the subdued activity of previous weeks permitted. And the participants who built those positions have not been shaken out — the absence of widespread liquidations or outflows confirms that the current open interest represents deliberate, maintained exposure rather than trapped positions waiting to unwind.

The forward implication the report identifies is direction-neutral but volatility-specific. Elevated open interest accumulated over an extended period does not predict whether XRP moves higher or lower — it predicts that when the move arrives, it will be amplified. Nearly $500 million in leveraged positioning is fuel that burns in whichever direction the catalyst pushes first. The size of the accumulated position means the resulting move will be larger than the underlying demand or supply would produce in a less leveraged environment.

For XRP struggling below $1.40, that dynamic cuts both ways — a breakout above resistance finds accelerating buyers as shorts cover, while a breakdown below support finds accelerating sellers as longs liquidate. The open interest data does not indicate the direction. It guarantees the consequence.

XRP Remains Trapped In Compression As Momentum Continues To Fade

XRP continues consolidating near the $1.36 region, with the daily chart showing a market that has entered an extended phase of compression after February’s sharp capitulation event. Price action has become increasingly tight over the past several weeks, reflecting a clear lack of directional conviction from both bulls and bears.

The most important technical feature is the repeated defense of the $1.30 support zone. Since the February low, sellers have repeatedly failed to push XRP into a deeper breakdown despite multiple rejection attempts near the $1.45 resistance area. At the same time, buyers have shown limited strength, with every rally quickly losing momentum below the major moving averages.

The 50-day and 100-day moving averages continue trending downward overhead, reinforcing the broader bearish structure. Meanwhile, the 200-day moving average near $1.70 remains far above current price levels, showing that XRP has not yet repaired the macro damage created during the first-quarter decline.

Volume conditions also continue weakening. Compared to the aggressive liquidation phase seen in February, recent trading activity appears muted and indecisive, suggesting the market is waiting for a catalyst before committing to a larger move.

Technically, XRP remains range-bound between roughly $1.30 and $1.45. A breakout above resistance could trigger renewed momentum toward $1.60, while losing support would likely expose the market to another test of the February lows.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

The chart does not show strength yet, but it does show a familiar location where the alt dominance is currently positioned at a long-term bottom where previous rotations began.

Altcoin Dominance Returns To The Floor

Crypto analyst Cryptollica recently published a long-term look at altcoin dominance, specifically, the ratio of total market cap excluding the top 10 assets to Bitcoin. The chart stretches back to 2016 and points to two major alt rotation phases: the 2017 altseason and the 2021 altseason.

The important thing from the analysis is that altcoin dominance has not simply been collapsing in a straight line. It has been moving inside a rising channel since 2017. The upper side of that channel touched the 2018 cycle top and the 2021 cycle top, while the lower side has acted as a long-term floor during periods of alt underperformance in comparison to Bitcoin.

That compression is precisely where the market sits today. The current setup shows the ratio back near that lower boundary again. As shown in the chart below, the 2026 zone is another possible bottom, similar to the bottom that formed before the 2021 alt rotation. This is why the analysis challenges the idea that altcoins are dead.

The Confirmation Layer Alt Bulls Still Need

Bitcoin’s share of the total crypto market is currently at 59.9%, according to CoinMarketCap, and the Altcoin Season Index is at 38, which is well below the 75 threshold that would formally confirm an altseason. The numbers look discouraging.

The move of an altseason will come from Bitcoin dominance rolling over. However, history shows that a stronger altcoin season argument needs more than a long-term floor on altcoin dominance. Two major confirmation signals came before the 2017 and 2021 rotations. The first confirmation signal was ETH/BTC bottoming before broader alt dominance. That first signal is not fully present yet. 

The second signal was stablecoin liquidity growing as Bitcoin dominance began to fall. However, liquidity alone does not create altseason, as it needs direction to flow into. Hence, the current setup of the altseason is not that of a dead one but more of a waiting room than a confirmed breakout.

At the time of writing, the dominance index of altcoins excluding the top 10 altcoins is around 0.10 of Bitcoin’s market cap. The projection from crypto analyst Cryptollica sees the index breaking out and returning to the upper trendline. Such a move would put the total value of the altcoin market outside the top 10 anywhere between 0.6 and 0.8 of Bitcoin’s market cap.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down to roughly $75,834, wiping out about $33.8 billion from its market capitalization. Ethereum (ETH) also slipped to around $2,000, with market cap losses of approximately $8.58 billion.

Crypto Innovation Exemption Delayed

According to Bloomberg, the SEC staff was preparing to release what it calls an “innovation exemption” for tokenized stocks as soon as this week, citing people familiar with the commission’s plans. 

Those sources said a draft framework had already been prepared and reviewed by staff, but the SEC’s timeline has been pushed back as the agency weighs input from stock-exchange officials who have held discussions with SEC staff over the previous few days.

A key sticking point involves the proposal’s openness to trading so-called “third-party tokens.” These are tokens that could be issued without the backing or explicit consent of the public companies associated with the underlying shares. 

The SEC, the reporting notes, has not made any decision to alter its draft proposal, but the lack of finalization appears to be part of the reason the broader crypto market reaction came when the delay became known.

Compliance Risks Mount

Under the SEC’s proposal, crypto platforms that offer these tokenized products would have to ensure that token buyers receive the same rights as traditional shareholders. That includes entitlements such as dividends and voting rights. 

However, former regulators and market experts highlighted that it remains unclear how issuers and platforms would technically meet these requirements in practice when tokens transfer across pseudonymous blockchain networks rather than through conventional shareholder record systems.

The reporting also suggests not all SEC officials agree with expanding the scope to allow third-party tokens. Among those weighing in publicly is pro-crypto Commissioner Hester Peirce.

Peirce posted on X that she expects the innovation exemption to be “limited in scope.” She said it should “facilitate trading only of digital representations of the same underlying equity security that an investor could purchase in the secondary market today.”

There are also compliance and security worries. One cited concern is that token structures could be exploited by bad actors operating overseas, using loopholes in blockchain and crypto-related processes to avoid regulatory oversight within the US.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

F2Pool Co-Founder Joins First SpaceX Human Flight Mission To Mars

According to a SpaceX website announcement, Chun Wang is set to fly aboard Starship’s first human spaceflight interplanetary mission to Mars. Wang was previously the commander of Fram2, the first mission that saw humans fly over the Earth’s poles.

Before his SpaceX fame, Wang was known for being the co-founder of F2Pool, a major Bitcoin mining pool. A “mining pool” refers to a collective of miners who pool together their computing power to have better odds at striking the block reward.

At one point, F2Pool was the largest such pool in the entire world. Today, it’s still quite dominant in the space, ranking third on MiningPoolStats‘ list.

From the table, it’s visible that F2Pool hosts a Bitcoin Hashrate or total computing power of 111.35 exahashes per second (EH/s) right now, equivalent to 10.2% of the network’s total Hahrate. Only Foundry and AntPool are ahead of F2Pool with computing powers of 303.84 EH/s and 183 EH/s, respectively.

While F2Pool is for proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains (that is, networks that involve the process of mining for reaching consensus), the Chinese-born investor also eventually founded something for the proof-of-stake (PoS) networks: Stakefish, a non-custodial validator that allows investors to stake across a number of blockchains, including Ethereum.

Back in 2023, Wang proposed the idea of a polar spaceflight to SpaceX, which culminated into Fram2. The mission was privately funded by him, with SpaceX acting as the operator.

Now, it seems the Maltese-citizenship holder has set his eyes on Mars. “The two-year mission will explore outside the Earth-Moon system before flying-by the Red Planet and returning to Earth,” noted the announcement.

Mars is still far, though; Wang initially has to embark on the first planned SpaceX commercial human spaceflight around the Moon. For this mission, he will be joining the company of Dennis and Akiko Tito. SpaceX explained:

The week-long circumlunar fly-by mission will help advance Starship’s systems for deep-space, long-duration missions and is planned to fly within 200 km of the Moon’s surface.

Speaking of SpaceX, the company filed its S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this Wednesday ahead of its planned stock market debut on June 12th.

The filing revealed something interesting: the Elon Musk-founded firm held 18,712 Bitcoin as of March 31st. This stack, worth roughly $1.45 billion, is significantly larger than some treasury holdings tracker websites estimated for SpaceX.

The company is also holding a notable gain on these holdings as its cost basis per Bitcoin stands at just $35,320.

Bitcoin Price

Bitcoin has been trading sideways over the last few days as its price is still trading around $77,300.

One expert even argued that the incident could have been significantly worse if additional controls in the compromised contract had been used.

The Polymarket Attack

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.

How The Exploit Could Have Been Worse

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 

XRP Touches The $50 Level  On Gemini

CharuSan, a crypto analyst and engineer, has reignited interest in the famous $50 XRP candle that took place on the Gemini platform years ago. At the moment, the cryptocurrency space was engulfed in heated speculation due to the extraordinary price surge, with some seeing this as an indication of its true potential.

To date, the notorious candle continues to be one of the most enigmatic moments in recent cryptocurrency trading history as interest in historical market anomalies increases. In his post on the social media platform X, the expert has shed light on the truth behind this move in August 2023. 

Given the distance from its value at that time, there were speculations that the move was a glitch or a glimpse into hidden market dynamics. However, CharuSan claims that this was not a glitch; rather, it was a 100% real market event and a perfect example of catastrophic slippage.

When the altcoin was relisted on the American-based cryptocurrency exchange, the liquidity around the order books was flat. After that, a market buy order immediately devoured all available sell orders on the exchange, sweeping the book until it executed a rogue sell order sitting at precisely the $50 zone. An interesting part about this move is that it only took about $37,000 in volume to launch the price of XRP to $50.

The Mathematical Theory Behind The Sudden Move

According to the expert, this event is the absolute mathematical proof of why tier-1 banks are unable to just depend on on-demand sourcing during peak volumes. This implies that these banks must hold XRP in their own isolated liquidity pools. 

If a mere $37,000 can lead to a catastrophic slippage on a thin book, the system would be totally frozen by an institutional cross-border transfer worth billions of dollars. However, this is possible if the liquidity required is not already deeply pooled and locked by the banks themselves.

In order to prevent this exact pattern, financial giants cannot just plug into ODL as passive users. Instead, they require pre-funded, locked capital and dedicated XRP liquidity pools under their own management. At the same time, the Gemini candle proved that without deep, bank-held liquidity pools, managing global institutional volume is mathematically impossible.

CharuSan highlighted that investors cannot carry out massive transfers at low price tags like $20 and $30. His analysis is backed by the fact that these transfers could trigger catastrophic slippage, leaving traders completely unable to control both the market and the transactions. “So, by now you should understand what a massive issue slippage is, and why deep liquidity is mandatory to control it,” the expert concluded. At the time of writing, the XRP price was trading at $1.38.

Analyst Calls For Late-Year Bitcoin Price Bottom

In an X post on May 19, Merlijn the Trader warned investors and traders that a Bitcoin bear crash could be imminent. He pointed to a key chart pattern that has appeared in every midterm year, from as early as 2018 through the current market cycle.

According to the analyst, the pattern follows a distinct cyclical structure, where Bitcoin experiences a significant price decline in Q1 before recovering and rallying in Q2. Once this relief rally ends, a sharp crash occurs, marking a late-year bottom for the flagship cryptocurrency.

The first time this mid-term year pattern was observed was in 2018. At the time, Bitcoin’s price fell by a staggering 25% in January, before rallying by over 33% in Q2 around April. Once this brief recovery faded, the cryptocurrency plummeted again by 19% in May, before forming a final cycle low around December of that year.

The same trend was repeated during the 2022 cycle. Here, Bitcoin’s price fell by 17% in Q1, then staged a more than 5% recovery in March, before recording a 16% decline in April and ultimately forming a cycle bottom in November.

Fast-forward to the current market cycle, Merlijn the Trader believes that Bitcoin’s price action could be mirroring this historical mid-term pattern. He noted that BTC has already experienced a massive 23% price crash in Q1, followed by a relief rally of over 14% from March to April 2026. 

Now, the bullish momentum appears to be fading, with May bringing more volatility and a decline in BTC price. If history plays out as expected, Merlijn the Trader predicts that Bitcoin could form a midterm-year bottom between November and December this year. While he has not set a specific bearish target for his forecast, the analyst remains confident that a price crash could occur soon. 

BTC Forecasted To Crash As Low As $37,000

Other crypto analysts like Chiefy appear to maintain a similar bearish stance on Bitcoin. In a recent X post, the expert also pointed to past trends and chart structures, noting that BTC is repeating a key pattern that has consistently destroyed bullish sentiment across past market cycles.

He described this bearish signal as “the Head & Shoulders breakdown,” noting that the pattern has already been confirmed on the BTC chart. Because of its recent re-emergence, Chiefy believes the market is now entering a retest phase and predicts a potential BTC price crash to $37,000. With Bitcoin currently trading above $77,000, a decline to this level would represent a more than 52% loss in value. 

Trump Orders Review Of US Dollar Payment Rails For Crypto Firms

On May 19, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to review its regulations and policies. The order looks at whether fintech and crypto firms should have greater access to the country’s dollar payment infrastructure. According to the official White House website, the heads of each federal financial regulator must review their existing laws and practices within 90 days.

Trump has mandated these regulators to find rules that may be blocking fintech and crypto firms from partnering with federally regulated institutions such as banks, credit unions, and investment advisers. Regulators are also expected to sift through policies that make it harder for these firms to get national bank charters, insurance, and other federal authorizations.

Furthermore, Trump has also asked the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) to take a closer look at who can access the government’s payment accounts and services. The US President has given the Fed 120 days to send a full report covering these findings. Within that report, the regulator must also review whether it has the legal authority to give these crypto companies direct access to its payment system and what risks may come with doing so.

Implications Of Trump’s Order On Ripple’s XRP

Trump’s recently signed executive order could be one of the most important developments for Ripple and XRP in recent years. Ripple has long positioned XRP as a tool for fast and low-cost cross-border payments, often targeting banks and financial institutions as its core customers. However, one major barrier hindering Ripple’s growth was limited access to the Federal Reserve’s payment infrastructure.

Under current Fed rules, direct access to Reserve Bank payment accounts is limited to depository institutions like traditional banks. This has pushed crypto firms, including Kraken, Coinbase, Circle, Anchorage, Paxos, and BitGo, to pursue national trust bank charters just to qualify for this kind of access. Moreover, the regulator only recently approved Kraken’s access to a Fed master account.  

Ripple itself has been working toward a national bank charter to overcome this limitation. The crypto firm was recently granted conditional approval for a national bank charter by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), expanding its role in the US banking system. Should the Fed open direct access to digital asset firms, it could be a game-changer for XRP. Ripple could potentially connect its core technology straight into the US dollar payment system. 

This direct link could allow XRP to serve as a bridge asset in real-time dollar settlements, driving greater demand for the cryptocurrency. For XRP holders and investors, this shift in policy direction signals that the US may finally be ready to welcome Ripple and the payment infrastructure it has been building for over a decade.

Bitcoin Long-Term Holders Tighten Grip On Circulating Supply

Bitcoin long-term holders or seasoned investors are turning up across the market and are demonstrating bullish activity. Despite the fact that the asset is still trading sideways with little price momentum, these key investors are gradually gaining more control over the circulating supply of BTC.

After a period of accumulation by these investors, On-Chain Mind, a crypto and data analyst, revealed that they now hold over 81% of all BTC supply. Such a development points to growing and robust conviction among seasoned investors in the face of short-term market instability and limited price activity.

This growing conviction is focused on BTC’s future price potential, especially in periods of consolidation when weaker hands start to leave the market. With long-term holders consistently adding more BTC, this move is likely to negate selling pressure in the markets, which could create a positive environment for a leg up.

During the period, BTC held by OGs has gone quiet, revived supply has collapsed, and speculative capital is already near bear market floor territory. Given that these factors are converging, Bitcoin appears to be less like a fresh collapse and more like a market running out of sellers.

Institutions Are Selling Off Their Coins

This growing confidence is not observed among other groups, such as institutional investors. Darkfost, a verified CryptoQuant author, has outlined a sharp rise in selling pressure among these investors as indicated by the Coinbase Premium Index, which continues to drop deeper into negative territory.

His examination is based on an adapted version designed for very short-term analysis using a 1-hour timeframe. Additionally, it is a volume-weighted variant, which helps minimize noise by giving the biggest volumes in the gap calculation more weight.

According to the expert, when this key metric turns negative, it often implies that the price of BTC on Coinbase Advanced is lower than on Binance, the leading trading platform. This pattern suggests that the population of institutional and professional investors trading on Coinbase Advanced is selling more aggressively than investors trading on Binance.

In this case, it provides a useful path to evaluate the behavioral divergence between retail and institutional participants and detect which side is currently driving the market. Right now, institutions seem to be moving toward hedging tactics due to the uncertainty surrounding the current macro environment while they wait for more clarification.

Furthermore, this trend is likely to shift rapidly if conditions around the Strait of Hormuz begin to ease, which is precisely why monitoring short-term behavior remains particularly important in the market.

Analyst Calls Out XRP As Scam Crypto Project

In an X post, Ryker again warned that XRP is the biggest scam he has seen in the crypto market. He described the altcoin that has “absolutely nothing” but just a market cap of around $83 billion and is still subject to inflation. The analyst did not further elaborate on this inflation but suggested it was due to Ripple’s escrow holdings, which are released monthly. 

Ryker further called out the “XRP team,” indicating that they have inflated the token’s price because of their years of experience in the crypto market and connections with large market whales. Specifically, he alleged that a few years ago, the team hired many celebrities and media outlets to promote the token after pumping it from $0.5 to $3. 

The market analyst claimed that this mainly occurred in the South Korean market and that many people have lost money due to XRP. He highlighted the “enormous” trading volume on the South Korean crypto exchange Upbit as evidence of XRP’s strong presence in the country. Ryker warned that market participants who continue to listen to these celebrities and buy into XRP will, sooner or later, lose everything.  

In line with this, he advised market participants to conduct their own research before buying a crypto asset. It is worth noting that Ryker highlighted XRP’s price action while calling the crypto token a scam. Notably, the token is down over 27% year-to-date (YTD), being outperformed by other altcoins such as HYPE and ZEC. 

XRP Ledger Just Saw One Of Its Largest Growth

On-chain analytics platform Santiment revealed that XRP has seen 4,300 new wallets created in the last 24 hours, representing the 4th-largest spike of the year. The platform’s network growth is among the leading signals for identifying price reversals, suggesting the token could soon rebound from its current levels. 

It is worth noting that a significant part of the growth has come from the RWA adoption on the XRP Ledger. RWA.xyz data shows that the network has led in net flows over the last 30 days, with a positive flow of $1.3 billion. XRPL is well ahead of the second-placed Avalanche, which has a net flow of $500 million over this period. XRP Ledger validator Vet recently highlighted the network’s growth in the RWA sector, adding that the job is not finished and that the next focus should be distribution.   

Related Reading: Why The XRP Price Can Touch $589 As It Takes On $73 Trillion Industry

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.37, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Why Mark Cuban Sold Most Of His Bitcoin

“This might get some people upset,” Cuban said. “I think Bitcoin has lost the plot.”

Cuban said his original thesis for buying BTC was tied to its role as an alternative to fiat currency debasement. He said he saw BTC as “a better version of gold than gold,” particularly in moments when confidence in traditional currencies came under pressure. But he said that view changed after it failed to rally during a period he described as marked by the “Iran war” and broader stress in fiat markets.

“When all the shit hit the fan with the Iran war,” Cuban said, “Bitcoin was always the best alternative to fiat currency losing its value.”

According to Cuban, that expectation was not met. He contrasted BTCs performance with gold, which he said “blew up” and moved to $5,000, while Bitcoin fell. For Cuban, the issue was not simply that BTC traded lower, but that it failed in the specific macro environment in which he believed it should have shown strength.

“Every time the dollar dropped, Bitcoin should have gone up,” Cuban said, arguing that a weaker dollar should have made the asset more attractive globally because Bitcoin is priced in dollars. “And it just didn’t do that.”

NEW – BILLIONAIRE MARK CUBAN:

I SOLD MOST OF MY BITCOIN. IT’S LOST THE PLOT. pic.twitter.com/9NlILDsKwu

— Neil Jacobs (@NeilJacobs) May 21, 2026

The comments cut directly into one of BTC’s most persistent investment narratives: its role as a hedge against fiat weakness and monetary instability. Cuban’s criticism is not framed around network security, adoption, or long-term scarcity. It is focused on market behavior. In his view, Bitcoin failed to respond like a macro hedge when the setup appeared to demand it.

Asked whether Bitcoin was “not such a hedge,” Cuban agreed. “No, it’s not the hedge that I expected it to be,” he said. “And that was really disappointing.”

Cuban’s remarks also draw a distinction between BTC and ETH. While he said he was “more disappointed in Bitcoin,” he added that he was “not as disappointed in Ethereum.” He did not expand on the Ethereum comparison in the excerpt, but the contrast suggests his disappointment is concentrated on BTC’s failure to deliver against its hedge narrative rather than a blanket rejection of the entire crypto sector.

His comments were harsher toward other parts of the market. Referring to “the token stuff” and meme coins, Cuban dismissed them as “garbage,” placing speculative tokens outside the part of the market he still appears willing to treat seriously.

At press time, BTC traded at $77,257.

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 Evidence That Triggered The Probe

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.

Both Platforms Push Back

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

The crypto exchange and wallet platform quietly filed confidential documents with US regulators for an initial public offering, joining a growing list of digital asset firms pushing toward public markets.

A Window Opens For Crypto Listings

The filing, reported by Reuters, comes as conditions for going public have begun to improve in the US.

Crypto markets took a beating last year, with a massive selloff wiping out billions in digital asset values and cooling investor appetite for new deals. That downturn pushed several companies to shelve or delay their expansion plans.

Bitcoin and crypto platform Blockchain(dot)com has filed for an IPO pic.twitter.com/DdPgeH3sA6

— That Martini Guy ₿ (@MartiniGuyYT) May 21, 2026

Recent policy shifts in Washington appear to be changing the calculus. A bill known as the CLARITY Act, which aims to establish clearer regulations for cryptocurrencies, cleared a Senate committee.

Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty and others in the industry have welcomed the development as a positive sign for the long-term direction of crypto oversight.

Others Are Already In Line

Blockchain.com is not alone in eyeing the public markets. Crypto exchange Kraken filed confidentially for its own IPO in New York, and Grayscale Investments made a similar confidential announcement around the same time.

Neither company has completed its listing yet. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, also filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

A confidential filing gives companies a way to begin the process without immediately disclosing financial details to the public. It allows firms to hold early conversations with regulators and gauge investor interest before committing to a full public announcement.

Blockchain.com was founded in 2011 by Ben Reeves, Peter Smith, and Nic Cary. The company serves users in more than 100 countries and operates as both a trading exchange and a crypto wallet platform.

Bitcoin has shown some recovery in recent months, gaining roughly 20% over the past three months, though the price remains below where it started the year.

The question remains whether the wider market can hold steady long enough for Blockchain.com and others to complete their IPOs.

Featured image from KFintech, chart from TradingView

A Bipartisan Push

The spending on Paxton is separate from another crypto-aligned group making noise this week. The Blockchain Leadership Fund, backed by Chainlink Labs and Anchorage Digital, announced its endorsement of 10 candidates across seven states for the 2026 midterm elections — four running for US Senate and six for the House of Representatives.

The list crosses party lines. Republicans Barry Moore, Kurt Alme, and Jon Husted are among those picked for Senate races in Alabama, Montana, and Ohio. Democrat Angie Craig is backed for the Minnesota Senate race, while Adrian Boafo, Christian Menefee, and Don Davis received endorsements for House runs in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina.

Anchorage Digital said bipartisan engagement is central to its approach. “We remain committed to supporting responsible innovation and constructive policymaking that brings digital assets further into the regulatory perimeter and strengthens trust in the ecosystem,” a spokesperson said.

Small Fund, Big Company

Despite backing from two prominent crypto firms, the Blockchain Leadership Fund has raised relatively little so far. FEC filings show $175,000 in total contributions — $100,000 from Anchorage and $75,000 from Chainlink.

That figure stands in sharp contrast to Fairshake, a separate crypto PAC whose affiliates have already spent millions in some of the same races.

The Defend American Jobs PAC, a Fairshake affiliate, dropped a combined $8.5 million on media for some of the same candidates the Blockchain Leadership Fund is now endorsing.

Another affiliate, Protect Progress, spent more than $4.1 million backing Menefee in Texas and over $2 million supporting Boafo in Maryland.

The Blockchain Leadership Fund said it may endorse additional candidates before November who support responsible digital asset policy.

The Texas Senate race is drawing the most attention — and the most money. US President Donald Trump announced his support for Paxton over incumbent Republican John Cornyn, and crypto money followed.

The Fellowship PAC’s $500,000 commitment to Paxton came after a reported earlier withdrawal of support, which had been linked to pressure connected to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Paxton and Cornyn are heading into a Republican primary runoff. On the Democratic side, State Representative James Talarico, who won his primary in March, will face whichever Republican emerges from that contest.

Featured image from Hindustan Times, chart from TradingView

The WSJ report, citing an internal Binance compliance document, alleged the network was operated by Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani — who has described himself as an “antisanction operator” — and processed approximately $850 million in transactions over roughly two years through a single account on the platform. The activity allegedly continued through December 2025, a period during which US-Iran tensions were escalating sharply following military strikes.

Teng’s Point-By-Point Response

Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, responded directly on X within hours of the report’s publication. His statement, posted to his official account (@_RichardTeng), addressed three specific claims. First, he stated that Binance did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals on its platform, and that the transactions referenced by the WSJ occurred before the individuals involved were formally sanctioned.

Second, he stated that Binance proactively investigated the issues in question before the WSJ made contact — and that this material fact was provided to the newspaper but not published. Third, he reiterated that Binance maintains a zero-tolerance policy for illicit activity and operates what he described as a best-in-class, industry-leading compliance program, adding that the exchange continues to work closely with US and global law enforcement to combat financial crime.

A Dispute That Has Become A Legal Battle

The May 22 report is not the first clash between Binance and the Wall Street Journal on this subject. In February 2026, the Journal published a separate report on alleged $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto transfers, which Teng publicly described at the time as false and defamatory. Binance filed a lawsuit against Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, on March 11, per multiple reports — escalating what had been a public dispute into formal litigation.

Binance has pointed to its own compliance metrics as evidence of material progress since its landmark 2023 guilty plea to US anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, which resulted in a $4.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice and the appointment of an independent compliance monitor.

The exchange has stated that sanctions-related exposure as a share of total volume fell 96.8% between January 2024 and July 2025, and that direct exposure to four major Iranian crypto exchanges declined 97.3% over the same period, per earlier reporting. The exchange also processed more than 71,000 law enforcement requests in 2025.

The US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations separately sent a formal letter to Teng in February 2026 demanding records related to Binance’s role in alleged Iranian money laundering — citing the earlier WSJ and New York Times reporting — a demand that signals congressional scrutiny has not receded alongside the exchange’s compliance improvements.

This development marks a critical and uncomfortable moment for Binance as it works to rebuild institutional credibility following its 2023 settlement. Whether the WSJ’s latest allegations translate into fresh regulatory action, expanded DOJ scrutiny, or accelerated congressional investigation will depend heavily on the underlying facts that neither side has yet fully disclosed in a public forum — and a legal battle that is only just beginning.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

XRP Ledger Jumps To No. 4 In RWA Rankings

RippleX framed the milestone as one of the faster growth stories in tokenized assets. “In less than a year, XRP Ledger has climbed from the top 10 to #4 on the @RWA_xyz league table, making it one of the fastest-growing RWA ecosystems in the space,” the team wrote on X.

“Today, XRPL is home to a growing range of tokenized financial assets onchain, from US Treasuries and money market funds to commercial paper, structured credit, and more. Bringing assets onchain is an important milestone. Expanding what those assets can enable across financial markets is part of the broader opportunity ahead, and one the XRP community is building toward together,” Ripple added.

The RWA.xyz data places XRP Ledger at $4.1 billion in total distributed RWA value, with 302 listed RWAs and a 1.09% market share. The network’s 30-day growth rate stands out sharply among the top ten, rising 45.97% over the period. That compares with declines of 4.92% for Canton, 4.37% for Ethereum and 4.36% for BNB Chain, while Provenance rose 6.37%, Solana climbed 8.24%, Stellar gained 11.33% and Avalanche increased 39.29%.

Canton remains the dominant network in the table by a wide margin, with $313.6 billion in total value and an 83.73% market share. Ethereum ranks second with $19.0 billion and a 5.08% share, followed by Provenance with $18.0 billion and 4.80%. XRP Ledger’s fourth-place position therefore does not yet imply parity with the largest RWA networks by value, but it does show that XRPL has become a visible venue in an increasingly competitive institutional tokenization market.

The broader market data from RWA.xyz shows the sector continuing to expand unevenly. Distributed asset value stood at $33.87 billion, up 1.77% over 30 days, while represented asset value was listed at $340.04 billion, down 2.98% over the same period. Total asset holders reached 800,067, up 8.04% from 30 days earlier. Stablecoin figures were substantially larger, with total stablecoin value at $305.08 billion and total stablecoin holders at 256.21 million.

The composition of distributed RWA values also shows where tokenization activity is currently concentrated. US Treasury debt accounted for $15.3 billion, the largest category shown, followed by commodities at $7.1 billion. Asset-backed credit stood at $2.2 billion, specialty finance at $1.7 billion, stocks at $1.5 billion, non-US government debt at $1.4 billion and active strategies at $1.4 billion.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.3596.

Hayes said Armstrong is acting in the best interest of his shareholders — not the wider crypto community.

Hayes Flags Growing Crypto Divide Amid CLARITY Act Debate

Hayes made the remarks on The Wolf Of All Streets, where he spoke at length about the proposed CLARITY Act and what he sees as a growing disconnect between large crypto companies and everyday users.

He questioned whether big corporate players truly look out for retail investors or open-source developers, suggesting their priorities lie elsewhere.

Hayes drew a sharp line between institutional interest in crypto and what he believes Bitcoin was built for. Banks, he said, are moving into the space because their clients want protection against inflation and the erosion of fiat currency — not because they believe in what crypto stands for.

Arthur Hayes: Trump Should Veto the CLARITY Act

BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes @CryptoHayes said in a May 13 interview with The Wolf Of All Streets that he hopes Trump vetoes the CLARITY Act. He argued that if Bitcoin and crypto need regulation to survive, they are “not worth a… pic.twitter.com/BRTjUMksD6

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 20, 2026

Bitcoin’s track record during periods of heavy money printing is what draws institutional money in, according to Hayes, but that interest comes with strings attached.

When Regulation Becomes The Problem

Hayes wants US President Donald Trump to veto the CLARITY Act if it reaches his desk. His argument is straightforward: regulation was never the thing keeping crypto alive, and it should not be treated as a lifeline now.

Turning Bitcoin into a product managed by traditional financial institutions — wrapped in derivatives and held on bank balance sheets — strips it of the very thing that makes it different, Hayes said.

He challenged the idea that crypto needs a seat at the traditional finance table. If the end result is just another financial instrument sitting inside the existing system, Hayes argued, then nothing has really changed. The crypto industry already has that in other forms.

The debate over the CLARITY Act reflects a split that has been building inside the crypto world for some time. Those in favor of the legislation believe clear rules would bring credibility and attract more institutional money into digital assets.

Hayes sits firmly on the other side, warning that too much integration with mainstream finance could hollow out what makes decentralized systems worth building in the first place.

No veto has been issued. The CLARITY Act continues to move through the legislative process, and the industry remains divided on which path leads to a stronger future for crypto.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

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US Commerce Department To Give $2 Billion To Quantum Computing Firms

As reported by CNBC, the US government is set to award grants to nine companies operating in the Quantum Computing sector. The deals, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, involve a sum of $2 billion handed to these firms in exchange for equity stakes for the government.

Quantum Computing is an upcoming class of computers that will be based on Quantum Physics principles and is theorized to be strong enough to solve problems too difficult for classical computers of today.

Currently, there are many firms part of the Quantum Computing race, a prominent name among which is IBM. The company is one of the oldest and largest technology companies, and its 1981 IBM Personal Computer was so influential that its architecture still makes the basis of most personal computers today.

These days, IBM is known for its computer research and supercomputers, which rank among the most powerful in the world. With the firm also setting its eyes on Quantum Computing, the US government is reportedly allocating the largest share of the grants to it: about $1 billion.

Another major beneficiary of the deal is GlobalFoundaries, a company known for its cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. WSJ reported a grant value of $375 million for the company. Among the remaining seven firms are D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion.

As mentioned before, Quantum Computing may be able to solve problems today’s computers can’t handle. This can include certain cryptographic systems, like blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. As such, the technology is often cited as a threat in the context of Bitcoin.

The US government also announced a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve last year, aiming to use the tokens confiscated by the government to create a treasury reserve for the nation. Work on the reserve stalled a bit, but things seem to have picked back up as Representative Nick Begich has introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA) in Congress, which could formally establish the reserve.

Begich noted in an X post:

The American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA) ensures digital assets in the possession of the federal government will be consolidated across government and protected as a reserve asset for future generations, protecting these assets from the whims of Congress or future administrations.

While the US government may be headed toward a Bitcoin reserve, it’s currently unknown whether it will ever actually buy new tokens. In contrast, the nation is already investing in Quantum Computing, which could potentially end up acting as an adversary to the cryptocurrency.

Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards commented on the development in an X post. “The US government has never bought Bitcoin, but it is buying quantum stocks,” said Edwards. “Strong message.”

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $77,700, down 4.6% in the last seven days.

The legislation would set up a “secure” Strategic Bitcoin Reserve inside the US Department of the Treasury. In addition to Bitcoin, it calls for a separate Digital Asset Stockpile that would hold federally managed non-Bitcoin digital assets. 

20-Year Strategic Bitcoin Lockup

According to the bill’s official description, the measure is designed to bring custody and management of digital assets held across federal agencies under the Treasury’s oversight. 

The aim, the release says, is to improve secure stewardship, boost transparency, and provide consistent supervision of taxpayer-owned assets that were acquired through forfeitures, penalties, and other lawful government proceedings.

The bill would require that BTC stored in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve be held for at least 20 years. The proposed framework also includes an explicit protections section intended to address digital property rights. 

The act further directs a study focused on budget-neutral acquisition methods. The goal of that study is to identify lawful ways to expand strategic reserves without raising taxes, increasing deficit spending, or adding to the national debt.

The Republican positioned the bill as both a modernization and a safeguard for public interests. In his remarks, he said the American Reserve Modernization Act would allow the United States to lead in the digital economy while protecting taxpayer concerns. 

Crypto Policy Momentum

Burgess Owens, another Republican lawmaker, echoed the urgency behind the proposal. He criticized the idea that Washington can continue to dismiss Bitcoin as if it were temporary. 

Owens argued that Americans are already using digital assets, global markets are adapting, and adversaries are moving as well. In his view, the American Reserve Modernization Act would ensure the US responds from a position of strength, with leadership and long-term planning.

The bill arrives after a related and significant development for this idea last year. In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, but that effort is not yet fully operational. 

On the legislative track, the American Reserve Modernization Act is being discussed alongside a broader US crypto policy movement. The Senate Banking Committee has already passed the CLARITY Act with bipartisan support to send the bill to the Senate floor. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at around $77,738, having recorded losses of 5% over the past week. This leaves the market’s leading cryptocurrency 38% below the all-time high of $126,000, which was reached during last year’s bull run. 

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

A New Way To Hide Old Money

Italy’s Economic and Financial Police Unit in Foggia uncovered a scheme in which a suspect allegedly used the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol and the BRC-20 token standard to generate and conceal roughly 1 million euros, or about $1.1 million, in undeclared capital gains.

According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the suspect created tokens using those tools, listed them on marketplaces, sold them for far more than they originally cost, and funneled the profits back into a primary Bitcoin wallet.

The cycle repeated — earnings went straight into new inscriptions, keeping the money moving and off tax records.

Introduced in 2023, the Ordinals protocol works by assigning a serial number to a satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, and embedding data such as images or text into a Bitcoin transaction. The BRC-20 standard builds on that by letting users deploy, mint, and transfer tokens directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Tax Authorities Playing Catch-Up

Tax evasion through crypto is not new. What is changing is how creative the methods are getting. Chainalysis said bad actors are increasingly turning to NFTs, decentralized finance protocols, and emerging token standards in hopes of keeping wealth hidden from authorities. The firm published its findings Wednesday.

Compliance data suggests the problem runs deep. A study released in March found that only 32% to 56% of US crypto owners report their gains to tax authorities. In Norway, that figure dropped to just 12%, based on research published in August 2024.

Meanwhile, the US Internal Revenue Service puts the country’s gross tax gap — the total taxes legally owed but not collected — at around $606 billion.

Despite the technical creativity behind schemes like the one in Italy, Chainalysis said there is a built-in weakness in using crypto to hide money. The blockchain keeps a permanent record of every transaction, and that record cannot be changed or deleted.

Blockchain intelligence tools are capable of rebuilding a complete financial network and comparing it with information crypto exchanges are required to disclose, making it possible to trace transactions back to suspected tax cheats. Officials said the Italian case shows that technical novelty does not equal anonymity.

As new types of digital assets continue to appear and generate income, analysts say the gap between actual on-chain wealth and what people declare on their taxes will draw more attention from investigators around the world.

Featured image from Tax Central, chart from TradingView

Coinbase Is Using AI In High-Stakes Compliance Workflows

In an X post, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong has talked about how the company has seen “great results” from using AI for updating how it handles compliance.

For a cryptocurrency exchange, compliance can naturally be a high-stakes area and involve complicated procedures. Last week, Coinbase’s Dor Levi discussed this topic. “We’ve put a lot of time into redefining compliance, where the stakes are incredibly high, and we have to be extremely thoughtful about implementation,” noted the platform’s VP of product.

Levi pointed out that most people assume that compliance is just the simple part of checking names against a sanctions list, but it actually happens to only be a small segment of the story; the rest of the process involves interpretive judgment under uncertainty.

The Coinbase VP argued that while simply using AI to follow the existing procedures produces faster results, it misses out on the larger opportunity that the technology provides. “Done carefully, with proper controls and human review, models can explore more context, test more hypotheses, and surface more inconsistencies than any single analyst could reasonably do case by case,” said Levi.

Now, Armstrong has checked back in with positive results related to the integration of AI into the platform. According to the CEO, Coinbase has rebuilt essentially every workflow and found huge efficiency unlocks. A metric cited by Armstrong is the restriction resolution time, which has observed a 90% improvement.

The Coinbase co-founder explained:

Humans still validate every outcome to maintain security and optimize models, but AI does most of the heavy lifting on repetitive work, freeing up human time for higher level decisions.

Though while Armstrong insists on humans being involved, Coinbase’s move toward AI has come with a significant reduction in the platform’s headcount. As reported by Bitcoinist, the American cryptocurrency exchange announced the layoff of roughly 700 workers earlier this month, equivalent to 14% of its global staff count.

Armstrong gave two reasons behind the layoffs: the slowdown in the digital asset market and the integration of AI into the platform. Coinbase is expected to largely complete its layoffs by the end of the second quarter of 2026.

Coinbase currently ranks as the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of spot trading volume, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

From the table, it’s visible that with its $1.5 billion in 24-hour spot volume, Coinbase is still significantly behind Binance, which has seen a volume of nearly $8.4 billion inside the same window.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $77,200, down 2.8% over the past week.

XRP Beats Solana And Ethereum In RWA Growth

XRP has overtaken Solana and Ethereum to record the fastest RWA growth in the last 30 days. According to data from RWA.xyz, XRP Ledger’s (XRPL) total RWA value grew by approximately 55.4%, soaring to $3.9 billion after about $1.4 billion was added within that single period. As of this writing, the latest data show that the RWA value is up 57.03%. 

This level of growth is striking because not only did XRP surpass two of the top altcoins, but it also outstripped Canton, a privacy-labeled L1 blockchain network that holds the number one position in global RWA tokenization rankings.

While XRP recorded a 55.4% increase, Ethereum and Canton actually declined by 7.4% to $18.9 billion and 4.8% to $313.7 billion, respectively, in that same period. On the other hand, Solana’s RWA growth rate increased by 13.5%, reaching $2.8 billion. 

A significant portion of the growth in the XRP Ledger was reportedly driven by a single commodity product, the Justoken Megawatt Hour (JMWH), launched by the blockchain infrastructure firm Justoken. The product is issued exclusively on XRPL and currently accounts for roughly half of the network’s total RWA value. 

Within a single day, JMWH’s value had spiked by nearly $900 million, rising from $861 million to $1.76 billion, serving as the primary catalyst behind XRP’s record-breaking RWA growth. At the time of writing, the XRP Ledger has exceeded the $4 billion RWA growth milestone, surpassing BNB Chain (BNB), which currently has a total RWA tokenization value of $3.6 billion. 

XRP Jumps From 8th To 5th In RWA Rankings Globally

About 30 days ago, the XRP Ledger held approximately $2.51 billion in total tokenized real-world assets, making it the eighth-largest chain by RWA value. At the time, the blockchain network had been ranked below ZKSync Era and Solana, with the former growing by about 5.45% to $3.2 billion while XRP skyrocketed by over 57%.

Since then, XRPL has witnessed a massive expansion, ranking fifth globally in total tokenized asset value. The latest figures now place the blockchain network ahead of ZKSync Era, Solana, Stella, and Avalanche in the rankings. Meanwhile, Ethereum still holds the position as the second-largest RWA tokenization network. 

Beyond raw asset value, on-chain activity shows that RWA 30-day transfer volume on the XRP Ledger has risen to $145.1 million, up over 50% from the previous period. Moreover, the most recent data shows that XRPL has also recorded a 120.9% surge in distributed RWA over the last 30 days. Meanwhile, the number of RWA holders on the ledger grew by 151.72% over the past month, bringing the network to roughly 302 distinct RWA products. 

Sellers Now Dominating The Ethereum Market

Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset, is showing signs of mounting weakness following the drawdown across the broader cryptocurrency market. With volatility consistently trapping the market, ETH has now made a bearish breakdown.

CryptoQuant’s author and data expert PelinayPA reported this development, which appears to be shifting market control firmly toward sellers. The decline in momentum has become more concerning due to the move below important support levels, and traders are increasingly preparing for additional downward pressure.

From a technical standpoint, the market structure seems to be deteriorating when looking at Ethereum’s price movement in conjunction with Binance’s long and short liquidation data. Looking at the chart, ETH has made a downside breakout from a triangle formation, a move that is signaling a shift in consolidation in favor of sellers.

A collapse below the triangle’s lower limit is insufficient to definitively indicate a bearish scenario, but the moving averages have also begun to slope downward. This development is providing confirmation of downside momentum. 

Furthermore, the short-term moving average remaining below the long-term average points to continued weakness in momentum, causing relief rallies to face selling pressure. Pelinay highlighted that the downward turn in the blue moving average indicates a decline in the overall trend structure.

Besides this bearish breakdown, another critical factor spotted on the chart is the Binance liquidation data. Since a significant portion of global Ethereum derivatives volume flows through Binance, liquidation clusters formed on the platform are important for overall market direction. 

Leverage Long Positions Are Being Taken Out Gradually

Typically, sharp liquidations coinciding with price weakness are a sign that leverage long positions are being flushed out, and the market is undergoing a downside reset. These periods are mostly characterized by aggressive position unwinding by institutional and large-scale market participants.

Pelinay added that the market’s inability to produce a strong recovery after recent liquidation spikes also reflects continued weakness in price structure. From a technical view, the likelihood of a deeper pullback down the chart’s lower support zone is still present, but the downside breakout is still valid for the time being.

Thus, if Ethereum fails to reclaim the broken triangle structure, selling pressure could intensify, and the price may target the $1,350 support level. At this point, Ethereum whales are beginning to exit the market. Ali Charts highlighted that approximately 60 whale wallet addresses holding at least 10,000 ETH have completely emptied or consolidated their balances over the past 2 months.

When distinct entities with multi-million-dollar positions exit the network within such a short window, it often signals institutional profit-taking and asset reallocation. These large investors are currently taking advantage of recent liquidity to de-risk, which reflects a distinct lack of mid-term confidence.

This reduction in whale counts matches the recent heavy inflows into crypto exchanges. According to the data, the path of least resistance will continue to decline in the near future, with Ali focusing on the $2,000 floor with extreme caution.

Bitcoin Fakeout Theory Signals Major Correction

A pseudonymous crypto analyst known as Bee on X has presented a compelling Bitcoin price analysis, predicting the leading cryptocurrency’s next moves based on historical trends. Looking at his accompanying chart video, the analyst showed that BTC price action from its 2017 cycle, where it formed a peak, tracks to its current levels in 2026, alongside a projected path to a new high.

According to the analyst, Bitcoin is currently playing out a fakeout theory that has repeated twice in the past. The first time this happened was in 2017, when the flagship cryptocurrency formed an all-time high above $20,000. Bee noted that this peak eventually flipped into support for the Bitcoin price after the cryptocurrency propelled to its next top in 2021. The process where a cycle peak becomes a critical support level is what the analyst described as the “fakeout theory.”

Notably, during the 2021 bull cycle, Bitcoin formed another top above $68,000, as seen on the analyst’s chart. A fakeout occurred right after, with the price plummeting below $20,000 once this top was reached. After the decline, the market flipped from bearish to bullish as BTC rallied again, reaching another ATH.

In the current cycle, Bitcoin reached a new cycle peak around October 2025, with its price soaring above $126,000. Following this top, a fakeout occurred once the BTC price crashed below $70,000 in early 2026. Now the analyst is predicting another crash to a final bottom. 

He believes that the market could dip into the $60,000 to $65,000 region first if the fakeout theory holds. After this initial correction, he expects Bitcoin to decline even further toward the $52,000 to $47,000 range, where it may find a final cycle bottom. Notably, the analyst acknowledged that while the historical fakeout theory is compelling, he does not believe that it will survive in the current cycle.

Analyst Projects BTC’s Next Move Above $100,000

Looking at the trajectory of the arrow on the chart, Bee believes Bitcoin is setting up for a major price breakout once it forms a cycle bottom. After hitting the projected downside target around $50,000, the chart points to an upper target near $110,000. 

This suggests that once the market fully resets, Bitcoin could enter a fresh bull market and potentially reclaim territory above $100,000. From the projected bottom price, that move would represent a more than 120% gain. Meanwhile, measured from BTC’s current price above $77,800, a run to $110,000 would signal a rally of more than 41%.

Bitcoin Price Faces Heavy Selling Pressure

The disconnect became more noticeable after the analyst shared data showing large Bitcoin outflows tied to several major crypto firms and exchange-linked wallets. The transactions involved Coinbase Prime wallets, Binance addresses, Wintermute wallets, OKX deposits, and Bybit-associated flows.

According to the analyst, the combined Bitcoin movements crossed hundreds of millions of dollars within a short period, reflecting what appeared to be aggressive selling activity from large market participants while the Bitcoin price was already under pressure.

The claims quickly gained traction because the transactions appeared to involve institutional-grade infrastructure. Coinbase Prime is commonly associated with institutional custody and trading services, while Wintermute is widely recognized as one of the crypto industry’s largest market makers. Binance and OKX wallet activity also fueled speculation that deeper liquidity players may have been repositioning during the downturn.

Although wallet transfers alone do not conclusively prove coordinated selling, traders often interpret large exchange-linked flows as a sign that major holders could be preparing to distribute assets into the market. That perception can rapidly increase volatility when the Bitcoin price is already struggling to maintain momentum.

Positive Sentiment Failed To Support Bitcoin

Persistent selling pressure, highlighted in another chart previously shared by the same analyst, revealed the Bitcoin price breaking below an ascending support trendline that had reportedly held since 2014. According to the analysis, this long-standing structure had withstood major downturns in 2018 and 2022 before finally giving way during the latest decline. The breakdown is being interpreted as a potential signal of a deeper capitulation phase, where confidence tends to deteriorate rapidly after key support levels fail.

What makes this whole setup confusing is the fact that broader market sentiment had not fully shifted into bearish territory at the time. Many investors were still positioned for further upside following the Bitcoin price move to a new all-time high earlier in 2025.

Evidence of this lingering optimism was also reflected in Bitcoin’s current market performance during the dump. Even though it has seen a 2.7% and 4.4% decline over the past 7 days and 14 days respectively, Bitcoin has recorded a positive 24-hour gain. It also remained in the green across both 30-day and 60-day timeframes, suggesting that many traders still view the broader trend as bullish despite short-term weakness.

This relatively stable positioning near historically elevated price levels likely helped delay widespread panic. Instead of immediate fear-driven selling, a significant portion of market participants initially treated the decline as a temporary correction within a larger uptrend.

Overall, the combination of heavy wallet activity and weakening technical structure helps explain why Bitcoin continued to slide even in the presence of long-term optimism and price strength near multi-month highs.

New Bitcoin Buying Opportunities Emerge After MVRV Shift

Given the bearish market environment, the Bitcoin price has failed to recover from its recent pullback. However, this weakening moment has been highlighted by some crypto analysts as a bullish angle for investors to step into the market again.

Ali Charts, a market expert and investor, in a recent analysis, shared that fresh opportunities may be emerging in the BTC market again. This is due to the Bitcoin Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) Ratio dropping below a key historical level closely watched by traders.

It is worth noting that the MVRV metric is frequently used to determine whether BTC is overpriced or undervalued in relation to investor cost basis. It does this by comparing the asset’s market value to its realized value. The expert’s perspective is quite valid since declines into lower MVRV zones have historically been associated with times when possibilities for long-term accumulation start to emerge.

Currently, the MVRV ratio has fallen below the 180-day Moving Average (MA), which implies that the market is effectively flushing out premium and pricing in a deep discount. Historically, these specific periods mark the exact foundation on which smart money tends to build its positions.

According to Ali Charts, the short-term trend will remain compressed as long as the ratio consolidates under the 180-day MA line. Such a scenario is likely to offer a highly strategic accumulation window as the asset prepares to enter another attractive positioning phase for investors.

How The $77,800 Level Plays A Key Role In Upcoming Price Action

While Bitcoin may look primed for a leg up, its next price trajectory hinges heavily on the $77,800 price level, which Ali Charts has specially called out. Currently, BTC is trading around this pivotal level, making the upcoming sessions crucial to monitor.

After persistent sideways price action, a well-defined channel has been formed on the 15-minute time frame chart. With its brief bounce on Wednesday, BTC has surged to the upper boundary of the key channel located around the $77,800 level.

Ali Charts argues that a clean breakout above the $77,800 ceiling will be significant because it will pave the way for the asset to accelerate toward $79,000. However, if the resistance holds, the analyst expects a healthy retracement back into the channel, with the purpose of grabbing liquidity. 

In the event of a rebound after the pullback, the key internal floors to watch are the mid-range at $76,900 and the bottom of the channel at $76,000. As a result, Ali Charts remains waiting for the market to prove its strength by making a definitive candle close above the $77,800 before positioning for the next leg up.

Jane Street Used Terraform Group Chat For ‘Defi Info’

In an amended complaint filed earlier this week, Terraform Labs administrator Todd Snyder accused Jane Street, its co-founder Robert Granieri, and traders Bryce Pratt and Michael Huang of using a Telegram group and other backchannel sources of non-public information to “front-run trading that hastened the collapse” of the company.

In February, Snyder sued Jane Street, Granieri, Pratt, and Huang in Manhattan federal court, accusing them of “misappropriating confidential information and manipulating market prices.”

The court document claimed that Jane Street traders created a secret group chat to obtain insider information. The private group, called “Bryce’s Secret,” was seemingly named after Pratt, a former Terraform intern who had started working at Jane Street.

According to the document, the channel was created on February 22, 2022, and included Pratt and two former colleagues, including Terraform’s Head of Business Development.

Over the months ahead of the UST’s collapse, Pratt allegedly reached out to his Terraform contacts for “defi info,” Terraform’s assets, strategies, and need for liquidity, obtaining a massive advantage in the market.

“Using that insider information, Jane Street sold off its UST at the opportune moment—on May 7, 2022—to maximize its own profits and avoid substantial losses,” the Terraform’s estate claimed.

“Within hours of Jane Street selling its UST holdings, UST was depegged from $1, and the entire Terraform ecosystem, including the UST and Luna cryptocurrencies, was in a death spiral. Jane Street did not stop there: using the confidential information it learned, it then took short positions in UST and Luna to profit from the crash it helped catalyze,” it continued.

As a result, Jane Street exited its roughly $193 million UST position near par and allegedly made an additional $134 million from UST and LUNA shorts.

Insider Trading Fueled UST’s ‘Death Spiral’

The filing affirmed that Jane Street “pulled the rug out from Terraform and its investors when it liquidated its entire holding in a single trading day,” suggesting that if the Wall Street giant had not flooded the market and triggered the initial depeg, “the irreversible UST death spiral that led Terraform to suffer significant losses may not have occurred.”

Therefore, the estate considers that Jane Street’s market manipulation before and during the May 2022 depeg event damaged the ecosystem, and requested that the Court find that the defendants violated the Commodities Exchange Act and “award the amount that Jane Street profited and the losses they avoided as a result of their manipulation of the market and trades supported by material non-public information.”

It’s worth noting that Jane Street filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in April, alleging that the company’s estate attempted to “extract cash from Jane Street to foot the bill for a fraud that Terraform itself perpetrated on the market.”

Jane Street argued that Terraform’s management was responsible for the multi-billion-dollar collapse and affirmed that its controversial transactions came after the damaging information about UST and LUNA had already been made public.

Analyst Delivers Bad News To Solana And XRP Holders

In an X post, Merlijn called Goldman Sachs move to sell its Solana and XRP ETF holdings as bad news for investors in these coins. He stated that the U.S. bank just separated the winners from the losers, seeing as it held on to its Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure. The analyst added that this is not a market signal but a conviction statement. 

However, it is worth noting that Goldman Sachs trimmed its Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure alongside selling its Solana and XRP ETF holdings. The bank cut its holdings in BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF by almost 70% and now holds just over $100 million in the ETF shares. The bank’s Bitcoin exposure through BTC ETFs has dropped to just under $700 million. 

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs was among the largest XRP ETF holders among institutional investors, holding a $153 million position across four funds. At the same time, the bank’s Solana position was over $100 million held across SOL ETFs. The move to sell their holdings in the first quarter of this year came amid the crypto market downtrend, with these coins recording notable declines. 

XRP is currently down over 26% year-to-date (YTD) while Solana is down over 30% as the bear market persists. Bitcoin and Ethereum are also down 10% and 28%, respectively. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs initiated a new position in HYPE treasury firm Hyperliquid Strategies, gaining exposure to the Perp DEX token, which is up over 120% YTD and is the best-performing asset among the top 10 crypto assets. 

XRP Demand Not Concentrated In One Firm

Crypto pundit X Finance Bull noted that XRP ETF flows remain positive despite Goldman Sachs, the largest institutional holder, selling its position. He declared that this means demand is not concentrated in one firm but distributed across multiple institutional buyers who continued to accumulate as the U.S. bank exited. 

The pundit also highlighted how the XRP ETFs have outperformed the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, which he noted continue to see significant outflows. SoSoValue data shows that the BTC ETFs have recorded a monthly outflow of $800 million so far this month. The Ethereum ETFs are also in the red this month, with a $260 million outflow. 

Meanwhile, the XRP ETFs have taken in almost $100 million this month, while the Solana ETFs are outperforming with an inflow of $103 million. X Finance Bull stated that the XRP ETFs’ positive flows are a sign that a floor is being built by a broader base of institutional capital rather than by a single bank.

A Closer Look At The Numbers

SpaceX reported owning 18,712 Bitcoin valued at roughly $1.45 billion as of March 31. That figure caught much of the crypto world off guard.

Companies like BitcoinTreasuries.NET and Arkham had pegged the company’s holdings at around 8,285 Bitcoin — less than half the actual amount.

The coins were purchased at an average price of $35,320 each, according to the SEC filing. At current prices, the position represents a substantial gain.

The disclosure places SpaceX seventh among publicly listed companies by Bitcoin holdings. That ranking is set to become official once the company completes its IPO, which would push it past several well-known names in the corporate Bitcoin space.

Bigger Than Tesla

SpaceX’s stash also puts it ahead of Tesla, the electric vehicle company also led by Elon Musk. Tesla holds 11,509 Bitcoin — roughly 7,000 fewer coins.

Both companies began buying Bitcoin around the same time. Reports indicate SpaceX started accumulating the cryptocurrency in early 2021, right around when Tesla made its own move into digital assets. The parallel timing suggests Bitcoin adoption across Musk’s companies was no coincidence.

The IPO itself carries numbers that are hard to ignore. SpaceX is aiming to raise around $75 billion, with an estimated company valuation ranging from $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion.

If achieved, it would rank as the largest public offering in capital markets history. The company says it is targeting what it described in its filing as the largest addressable market in human history — a $28.5 trillion opportunity spanning artificial intelligence, space exploration, and global connectivity.

Once SpaceX begins trading, its stock will offer investors something beyond aerospace exposure. Owning shares would also mean indirect access to one of the largest corporate Bitcoin positions among public companies.

That combination — rockets, satellites, AI ambitions, and a billion-dollar crypto holding — gives the offering a profile unlike most traditional IPOs.

SpaceX joins a short list of major corporations that have moved Bitcoin onto their balance sheets in a meaningful way.

The company’s filing makes clear the position was not a small experiment. Nearly 19,000 coins held over several years points to a deliberate, long-term strategy — one that was largely hidden from public view until now.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Speaking in a May 21 livestream from England, Hoskinson said Cardano is in “treasury season” and facing a tougher funding environment than last year. According to him, the ecosystem is asking for about $52 million in funding this year, down from roughly $98 million last year, after cuts that have already affected engineers and community teams.

“Many people have had to make profound sacrifices,” Hoskinson said. “Good people have had to go. Engineers have been let go. Community teams liquidating familiar faces and new faces alike.”

But the proposal that drew his strongest concern was research. Hoskinson said he had seen a “disturbing trend” of some DReps voting against funding Cardano’s research group, despite what he described as its foundational role in the network’s development.

Hoskinson Defends Cardano’s Research Core

Hoskinson framed the debate as larger than a budget dispute. In his view, Cardano’s long-running research program is the “spine and backbone” of the ecosystem and a key reason the project has differentiated itself from other major blockchains.

“The spine and backbone of what makes Cardano Cardano has always been and will always be the fact that we’re the science coin,” he said. “We’re the research coin. Over the last 10 years, hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent, and countless hundreds of researchers have been involved in the production of the largest research group in the world for cryptocurrencies.”

He pointed to Cardano’s work on proof-of-stake research, extended UTXO, Plutus, sidechains and Bitcoin-related DeFi research as examples of the group’s output. He also argued that the network’s academic ties, spanning institutions such as Stanford, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Wyoming and others, are not easily replaceable.

Hoskinson said critics of the proposal have argued that research funding should be broken apart, allowing the ecosystem to “pick and choose” which areas or people to keep. He rejected that framing, saying it would force the ecosystem into decisions it is not equipped to make without damaging the research operation as a whole.

“So then I asked the DReps, which scientists would you like me to fire?” he said, before naming several researchers associated with Cardano’s technical development. “And if not people, perhaps institutions. Which institutions would you like to shut down? And because you’re so qualified, which research agendas do you so feel are unnecessary?”

Warning Over Talent Flight

A major part of Hoskinson’s argument was that Cardano’s researchers could be recruited by better-funded rival ecosystems if the project signals that their work is no longer valued. He said other blockchains with large treasuries would likely be interested in the same cryptographers, programming language experts and distributed systems researchers.

“If you treat these people like commodities, they will leave,” Hoskinson said. “They’ll leave to other ecosystems that have a lot more money and are willing to pay a lot more with better stability and certainty.”

He warned that the loss would not be easily reversible. Academic and technical talent, he argued, depends on long-term stability, and once researchers move on to other ecosystems, Cardano may not be able to bring them back. “We can’t recover this. It’s a one-way door. If you lose your best and brightest, we won’t get them back. We don’t get to say we’re sorry.”

Hoskinson also tied the issue to market perception. He asked what Cardano’s investment case would look like over the next three to five years if the ecosystem signaled it was no longer willing to support research. Without that layer, he suggested, Cardano would have to lean more heavily on metrics such as monthly active users, TVL or transaction volume.

The livestream ended as a direct appeal to DReps who have not yet voted and to those who have voted against the proposal. Hoskinson asked them to reconsider, saying research funding is not a discretionary line item but part of Cardano’s long-term competitive position.

“You can’t walk without a spine,” he said. “Please vote for science. Please vote for the research proposal for IOG. It’s a necessary foundational proposal, and we can’t afford to lose it.”

At press time, ADA traded at $0.2499.

The argument addresses a recurring question in the XRP community and among market observers: if RLUSD can move dollars on-chain and settle quickly, what function is still left for XRP?

Shah’s answer is that RLUSD and XRP are not competing for the same job. RLUSD, he wrote, represents a dollar leg in transactions. XRP is the asset that can sit between markets when two parties do not naturally want to trade the same asset pair.

Will RLUSD Replace XRP?

To explain the distinction, Shah used a playground trading analogy in which children try to swap snacks at recess. Direct trading becomes inefficient when one child has Goldfish, another has fruit snacks, and the person with fruit snacks wants pretzels instead of Goldfish. As the number of snacks grows, the number of possible trading pairs expands rapidly. With ten different snacks, Shah noted, there are 45 possible pairs. With 100 snacks, there are nearly 5,000.

That, he argued, mirrors the problem faced by real markets as tokenized assets proliferate.

“The chance that two specific kids happen to want each other’s exact snack at the exact same moment gets smaller and smaller,” Shah wrote. “This is the same problem real markets have. The more assets there are, the harder direct trading becomes.”

In the analogy, the solution is “the swap kid,” a participant who holds a little bit of every snack and allows everyone else to trade through him. Shah said this is the role XRP plays on the XRP Ledger. A trader may see a simple swap from a tokenized Treasury bill into a euro stablecoin, but the actual route could be tokenized Treasury bill to XRP to euro stablecoin.

“The XRP step is invisible to the trader,” Shah wrote. “They see ‘Treasury bill in, euro stablecoin out.’ But the XRP in the middle is what makes the trade possible, instantly, without anybody having to find a specific buyer on the other side.”

Shah framed RLUSD as “something entirely different.” It is a stablecoin, designed to be valued at $1 and backed by reserves held by its issuer. That makes it useful when one side of a trade wants a digital dollar. But it does not make RLUSD a universal routing asset across the ledger, he argued.

“RLUSD isn’t trying to be the swap kid,” Shah wrote. “It’s trying to be a juice box — a specific thing, with a known value, useful whenever both sides of a trade want a dollar.”

The distinction matters most in markets where there is no natural dollar leg. Shah cited examples such as tokenized Treasuries being swapped for tokenized euro money market funds, lending markets denominated in different assets, and other cross-asset activity that does not begin or end with dollars. In those cases, he said, the ledger needs a neutral bridge asset in the middle.

Three Reasons Why RLUSD Is Not An XRP Killer

Shah gave three reasons why he believes RLUSD cannot serve that function. The first is issuer risk. RLUSD exists because a company mints it and holds dollars in reserve. That is standard for stablecoins, but Shah argued it becomes a structural weakness if the stablecoin becomes the mandatory routing asset for all trades.

“If any stablecoin issuer ever ran into trouble — a regulatory issue, a banking issue, a court order to freeze accounts, a problem with their license — the stablecoin could have a problem too,” he wrote, adding that this was a general point about issued stablecoins rather than a claim about any specific issuer. “That’s fine if the stablecoin is one asset among many. It’s a serious design flaw if the stablecoin is the asset every trade routes through.”

The second issue is neutrality. Stablecoin issuers must comply with sanctions, court orders, blacklists and geographic restrictions. Shah said those controls are appropriate for a regulated stablecoin, but problematic if the same token is expected to route trades across a global permissionless ledger.

“The router has to work for everybody across jurisdictions and counterparties, without an intermediary who can decide who’s allowed to trade,” Shah wrote. “Under the current protocol design, no party can freeze XRP or prevent it from settling a trade. That neutrality is a structural requirement for the routing role.”

The third point is market structure. Liquidity pools and automated market makers require two different assets. There can be pools between RLUSD and euro stablecoins, or RLUSD and tokenized Treasuries. But Shah argued the broader question is which non-RLUSD asset becomes the common bridge across the ledger. In Evernorth’s view, that asset is XRP.

“In a world with hundreds of tokenized assets, every pair can’t have its own pool,” he wrote. “There isn’t enough capital or enough market-maker attention. A few assets end up doing most of the bridging work.”

Shah said XRP is positioned for that role because it is among the most liquid assets on the XRP Ledger across a wide range of other assets, because the protocol’s pathfinding routes through it by default, and because market makers concentrate capital on XRP pairs where volume exists. He also pointed to XRP’s lack of issuer, resistance to censorship under the current protocol design, and years of uninterrupted operation as relevant attributes for a bridge asset.

The post also extended the argument beyond trading. Shah said XRP can function as collateral in on-chain lending because it is liquid, broadly accepted and not subject to an issuer that can interfere with the asset during the life of a loan. He also highlighted escrow, where XRP can be locked for release at a future time or upon certain conditions, with the ledger enforcing the rules.

For Evernorth, the broader thesis is that on-chain finance will need both a digital dollar and a routing asset as more assets move on-chain. Shah was careful to frame that as a forward-looking view subject to uncertainty, but said the roles remain separate.

“We’re not making the case that RLUSD is unimportant,” he wrote. “The growth of on-chain finance requires a high-quality digital dollar, and RLUSD is designed to be one. We hold a view that the dollar leg and the routing leg are two different functions, and both grow with the size of the system.”

At press time, XRP traded at $1.37.

6.04 Million Bitcoin Is Estimated To Be Exposed To Quantum Risk

In a new X article, Glassnode has talked about the part of the Bitcoin supply in circulation that’s exposed to the risk posed by Quantum Computing. “Quantum Computing” refers to an emerging class of computers that can, in theory, be powerful enough to break advanced cryptographic systems. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could be examples of such systems.

While Quantum Computing is something that has been “upcoming” for years now, the technology has made some advancements recently that has made many in the digital asset industry talk about its possible consequences for the sector.

For Bitcoin, the main threat from Quantum Computing involves the supply that’s sitting in vulnerable wallets. “The relevant threshold is whether the public key needed to spend a coin is already visible on-chain,” noted Glassnode.

Based on this criteria, the analytics firm has estimated 6.04 million tokens to be vulnerable to potential Quantum Computing attacks. In terms of the supply percentage, these coins make up for more than 30% of all BTC in existence today.

The supply at risk to the Quantum Computing threat can be further divided into two categories. As Glassnode explained:

The first is structural exposure: outputs whose script type reveals the public key by design. The second is operational exposure: coins that may have been protected initially, but where address reuse, partial spending, or custody behaviour has already made the public key visible while BTC remains tied to it.

Below is a chart that shows how the composition of the Bitcoin supply has changed in terms of these two categories over the years.

As is visible in the graph, a major part of the Bitcoin supply was structurally unsafe during the cryptocurrency’s early years. This is naturally due to the fact that early wallets weren’t as secure as those in use today.

As the years have gone by and investors have adopted better wallet standards, the structurally unsafe supply has shrunken to just 9.6%. A notable 20.6% of the supply, however, is still inside the operationally unsafe category. This part of the supply has actually seen some growth in recent years.

In pure numbers, the operationally unsafe supply includes about 4.12 million BTC right now, as the below chart shows.

Meanwhile, the structurally unsafe supply is made up of 1.92 million BTC, while the safe one includes 13.99 million BTC.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $77,000, down more than 3% in the last seven days.

According to the research, 6.04 million Bitcoin, or 30.2% of the issued supply, is exposed under an “at-rest” model that looks for whether public-key material is already visible on-chain. The remaining 13.99 million BTC, representing 69.8% of the supply, is described as showing no public-key exposure at rest

Structural Vs. Operational Exposure

Glassnode breaks the concern into two distinct categories: structural exposure and operational exposure. Structural exposure covers outputs where the script type itself reveals the public key by design. Operational exposure is different. 

It refers to coins that may have been protected originally, but where address reuse, partial spending, or custody behavior has already made the public key visible—while the BTC remains tied to the same address, key, or script structure. 

In the study’s breakdown, structural exposure accounts for 1.92 million BTC, equal to 9.6% of issued supply. Operational exposure is larger, totaling 4.12 million BTC, or 20.6%. Within this operational bucket, exchange-related balances alone come to 1.63 million BTC, or 8.1% of all issued Bitcoin. 

The quantum risk behind the analysis is rooted in a scenario involving a sufficiently capable “Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer” (CRQC) running Shor’s algorithm. In principle, if an attacker knows a public key, Shor’s algorithm could be used to recover the corresponding private key. 

Glassnode’s at-rest framework matters here because the attacker would not need the owner to move the coins. If the public key is already visible on-chain, the coin is considered exposed; if the public key is not visible on-chain, the coin is not exposed under this specific model.

The Bigger Warning

Under Glassnode’s structural exposure definition, the output type itself reveals the relevant public-key information, independent of how carefully the owner manages addresses. 

The report points to early P2PK outputs—associated with Satoshi-era coins—and legacy bare multisig structures such as P2MS. It also includes modern Taproot (P2TR) outputs. 

While these script types come from different eras and were built for different purposes, they share the same property in Glassnode’s framework: the public key, or a public-key equivalent, is visible by default on-chain. That means these coins are targetable while they remain unspent.

Operational exposure is where the situation becomes more complex, and where the report places most of its emphasis. In these cases, the outputs are not necessarily vulnerable by design. 

Instead, they become exposed because the public key has already been revealed at some point during spending, yet Bitcoin remains associated with the same key or script arrangement. Glassnode describes this as an “address reuse problem.” 

Glassnode classifies 4.12 million Bitcoin, or 20.6% of issued supply, as operationally unsafe, and within that bucket, it highlights exchanges as a major labeled subset.

For exchange-related balances, the study estimates 1.66 million BTC, or 8.3% of total supply, falls into the operationally unsafe category. Glassnode notes that this represents approximately 40% of all operationally unsafe BTC. 

Among the largest exchanges, Glassnode reports that Coinbase labeled balances appear largely concentrated in non-exposed structures, with only 5% exposed balance. By contrast, Binance and Bitfinex show dramatically higher susceptible balances—85% and 100%, respectively.

For the countries covered in the report—the United States, the United Kingdom, and El Salvador—Glassnode indicates 0% quantum exposure to their Bitcoin holdings.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The report’s finding reframes the entire recovery in a single diagnosis. The recent Bitcoin advance appears to have been driven primarily by a derivatives-led short squeeze rather than by the kind of organic spot demand that characterizes sustainable bull market advances. Short sellers who had accumulated positions during the correction were forced to cover as the price moved against them — creating buying pressure that pushed Bitcoin higher without the underlying spot market activity that would typically accompany a genuine recovery.

That distinction carries a specific forward implication. Short squeeze-driven rallies are mechanical rather than fundamental — they run as long as there are shorts to force out, and they exhaust themselves when that supply of forced buyers is depleted. The CryptoQuant data suggests that depletion has arrived. Spot market demand has failed to generate the new inflows required to sustain the move independently, and futures demand has begun declining rapidly.

The result is a Bitcoin that reached the upper boundary of its resistance zone on borrowed momentum — and is now facing the consequences of that foundation proving insufficient.

The Historical Playbook Is Not Encouraging

The CryptoQuant report places the current demand deterioration in a historical framework that removes ambiguity about what typically follows. During previous bearish phases, whenever Bitcoin’s total demand — the combined reading across spot and futures markets — fell below zero, the asset either declined further or entered extended periods of sideways consolidation before finding a genuine directional catalyst. The current reading has crossed that threshold, placing Bitcoin in the same structural category as those prior episodes.

The macro environment adds pressure from outside the crypto market simultaneously. Rising sovereign bond yields across major economies are tightening the financial conditions that influence risk asset allocation — a dynamic that reduces the pool of capital available for speculative positioning and increases the attractiveness of fixed-income alternatives relative to assets like Bitcoin. That external pressure does not create the demand weakness, but it makes the recovery of demand considerably harder to achieve while it persists.

The selling pressure increasingly visible on US-based exchanges adds the domestic dimension. When American exchanges show elevated sell-side activity, it reflects the institutional and retail participants most sensitive to macro conditions, reducing their exposure — the cohort whose return would be most meaningful for a genuine demand recovery.

The report’s forward assessment is honest and conditional. A technical rebound remains possible given the scale of the recent short-term decline — oversold conditions create mechanical bounces regardless of underlying structure. But the downward trend pressure is likely to persist until total demand recovers meaningfully above zero. A bounce that occurs without that demand recovery is a bounce that faces the same structural headwinds that produced the current breakdown — and those headwinds do not resolve simply because the price temporarily moves higher.

Bitcoin Tests Critical Support As Recovery Momentum Weakens

Bitcoin is attempting to stabilize near the $77,000 level after losing momentum below the local highs around $82,000. The daily chart shows BTC pulling back directly into a critical support confluence formed by the 200-day moving average near $75,000 and the previous breakout zone between roughly $73,000 and $74,000. That area acted as resistance throughout March and early April before Bitcoin finally broke above it during the latest recovery phase. Now, the market is testing whether former resistance can successfully flip into support.

The rejection from the 200-day exponential moving average near $81,000 remains technically important. BTC briefly pushed into that region but failed to sustain upside momentum, confirming that sellers are still defending higher levels aggressively. At the same time, volume during the recent decline has not expanded dramatically compared to the capitulation phase seen in February, suggesting that the current move resembles a corrective retracement rather than a panic-driven breakdown.

Short-term structure remains fragile. Bitcoin continues trading below the declining 200-day EMA while attempting to hold above the 200-day SMA, leaving the market trapped between bearish momentum overhead and structural support underneath. If bulls lose the $73,000–$75,000 zone, the next major support sits near the $65,000 region highlighted by the February accumulation range.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

A License Gone In 16 Months

The Monetary Authority of Singapore revoked Bsquared’s Major Payment Institution License on Wednesday after an on-site inspection turned up a range of problems.

Regulators found gaps in how the company managed risk and handled conflicts of interest. There were also failures to follow the central bank’s outsourcing rules.

Worse, officials said Bsquared had given false or misleading information to MAS on multiple occasions — starting from when it first applied for the license and continuing through the inspection itself. The firm, also known as BSQ, had held the license for just 16 months.

MAS Not Done With Bsquared

The central bank made clear that revoking the license is not the end of the matter. MAS said it is now reviewing the conduct of the company’s key officers, signaling that individuals within the firm could face separate consequences.

Singapore has licensed 37 entities to offer digital payment token services. Revocations are rare. The action against Bsquared puts other operators on notice that the regulator will move against firms that fall short — or mislead — authorities.

Singapore has built a reputation as one of Asia’s leading centers for crypto business. Coinbase and Ripple maintain regional offices there. Crypto.com has its global headquarters in the city-state.

That standing has come partly from how seriously regulators treat licensing requirements. Last year, MAS rejected an application from AmazingTech, the operator of Tokenize Xchange, and the Commercial Affairs Department later launched a probe into the company.

The Bsquared revocation fits a pattern: Singapore wants the business, but not at the cost of oversight.

The city-state has also been expanding its digital asset ambitions in other areas. Singapore Gulf Bank recently launched a service letting institutional clients mint and redeem stablecoins directly through their bank accounts via the Solana blockchain.

Featured image from KOLN, chart from TradingView

The Taker Buy Sell Ratio for Ethereum on Binance has just reached its most negative reading since September 2023 — a period that sat squarely within the previous bear market and preceded one of the most significant recoveries the asset has produced. The weekly ratio currently sits at 0.91, meaning aggressive sell orders are substantially outweighing aggressive buy orders in Binance’s futures order books. Sellers are not merely present — they are dominant, and the margin of their dominance has not been seen in nearly two years.

The metric Darkfost examines is one of the most direct available gauges of short-term market momentum and investor sentiment. When the ratio falls below 1.0, sellers control the immediate order flow. When it reaches the kind of extreme that September 2023 represented — and that the current reading is now matching — the market has entered a phase where bearish conviction has become the overwhelming consensus rather than simply the prevailing view.

Consensus trades in financial markets have a history. And that history is what makes Darkfost’s analysis worth reading carefully before drawing conclusions about what Ethereum’s current weakness actually means for what comes next.

When Everyone Is Short the Market Becomes Its Own Catalyst

Darkfost places the current sentiment extreme in the price context that gives it its forward implication. Ethereum has corrected approximately 9% over the past seven days and continues trading within the broad range that has defined its structure since the recovery from the cycle lows — roughly $1,500 on the downside and $4,000 on the upside. Within that range, the current price level does not represent a breakdown into new bear market territory. It represents a correction within an established structure, against which an unprecedented level of bearish positioning has now accumulated.

That combination — a correction within a range, not a breakdown beyond it — is what makes the sentiment extreme analytically interesting rather than simply alarming. When markets break decisively into new downside territory, extreme bearish positioning can reflect an accurate assessment of the trend. When markets correct within an established range while bearish positioning reaches a two-year extreme, the positioning itself becomes the risk.

Darkfost is careful about what this observation does and does not confirm. These situations are difficult to anticipate with precision, and sentiment extremes can persist longer than logic suggests before resolving. The mechanism, however, is straightforward: the more aggressively participants position on the short side, the larger the pool of forced buyers becomes if the price moves against them.

A market where everyone is short is a market where a recovery does not simply move the price higher — it forces exits, which accelerates the move, which forces more exits. The current 0.91 ratio does not guarantee that sequence. It does mean the conditions for it have rarely been more fully assembled than they are right now.

Ethereum Trades At Critical Support As Bearish Momentum Continues Building

Ethereum is trading near $2,130 after losing the momentum that briefly pushed price toward the $2,400 resistance region earlier this month. The daily chart shows ETH breaking below the 100-day moving average again while remaining firmly capped beneath the descending 200-day moving average near $2,600, reinforcing the broader bearish structure still controlling the market.

The recovery from February’s capitulation low near $1,800 initially looked constructive, with Ethereum reclaiming key support levels and printing a sequence of higher highs through April. However, bullish momentum faded significantly once ETH approached the heavy resistance cluster between $2,300 and $2,400. Multiple failed breakout attempts created a lower-high structure, signaling weakening buyer conviction before the latest decline accelerated.

Importantly, Ethereum is now testing the $2,100-$2,150 region, an area that previously acted as support during the April consolidation phase. Losing this zone decisively could expose ETH to another move toward the broader demand area near $1,900-$2,000, where buyers aggressively defended price after the February crash.

Volume remains relatively subdued compared to the volatility seen earlier this year, suggesting the current decline is being driven more by deteriorating sentiment and defensive positioning than by panic capitulation. Combined with the extremely bearish Binance taker buy-sell ratio, the chart reflects a market increasingly dominated by short-side conviction while still lacking strong spot demand capable of reversing momentum sustainably.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Governor Henry McMaster signed Senate Bill 163 on May 19, adding it to a growing stack of state-level digital asset laws that have quietly moved through Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.

A Near-Unanimous Vote That Signals Shifting Ground

The bill cleared the South Carolina Senate 38-1, a margin that says more than the law itself. Filed in January 2025, it spent 17 months working through the legislative process — passing the Senate in May of that year, getting reconciled with House amendments in April 2026, and landing on the governor’s desk this month.

Senators Daniel Verdin and Matthew Leber sponsored the bill. It now adds a new Chapter 47 to Title 34 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, laying out one of the more detailed state-level crypto frameworks in the country.

The law prohibits state government agencies from accepting or requiring payments in a central bank digital currency. It also bars those agencies from joining any Federal Reserve CBDC pilot or testing program.

But the definition matters: the bill describes a CBDC as a digital currency issued directly by the US Federal Reserve or a federal agency. Privately issued stablecoins backed by legal tender or government treasuries — such as USDC — fall outside that definition and remain permitted under state law.

What The Law Actually Covers

Beyond the CBDC ban, S.163 covers a wide range of crypto activity. Individuals and businesses are protected from being blocked from accepting digital assets as payment for legal goods and services.

Self-hosted and hardware wallets are formally recognized, allowing users to hold their own assets without government interference. State and local governments are also barred from taxing digital asset payments at higher rates than other payment types.

The law’s definition of digital assets is broad, covering cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, and other digital-only assets that carry economic, proprietary, or access rights.

Crypto mining operations also get legal cover. Local governments cannot impose unfair zoning rules, excessive noise restrictions, or regulations that single out mining businesses.

Node operations, blockchain software development, staking services, and mining activities are exempt from money transmitter license requirements under certain conditions.

Staking-as-a-service and mining-as-a-service providers will not automatically be classified as securities issuers under state law.

At the same time, the South Carolina Attorney General retains authority to prosecute fraud involving anyone who falsely claims to offer those services — a consumer protection measure built directly into the law.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

The May 19 order, titled “Integrating Financial Technology Innovation into Regulatory Frameworks,” frames the issue as one of competition and modernization. “The Federal Government must update regulations to allow integration of digital assets and innovative technology into traditional financial services and payment systems. The Federal Government must also remove overly burdensome and fragmented regulations and supervisory practices that form barriers to entry and primarily benefit incumbent financial services firms,” the order says.

The most important section for crypto firms is the part on Federal Reserve services. The order asks the Fed to evaluate the legal, regulatory and policy framework for access to Reserve Bank payment accounts and payment services by uninsured depository institutions and non-bank financial companies, including those engaged in digital assets. The Fed is requested to submit findings and recommendations within 120 days, including whether existing law allows expanded access and whether regional Reserve Banks can act independently when granting or denying applications.

What This Means For Ripple

For Ripple, the timing is notable. In July 2025, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company had applied for a US national bank charter, while also seeking a Fed master account that would let it access Federal Reserve payment infrastructure and hold RLUSD reserves directly with the central bank. Ripple’s charter application was confirmed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, while the master account bid was positioned as part of the company’s broader stablecoin and payments strategy.

Ripple’s application is not occurring in isolation. Kraken Financial, the exchange’s Wyoming-chartered banking arm, announced in March that it had received a Federal Reserve master account, becoming the first digital asset bank in the US to gain direct access to the Fed’s payment infrastructure. Kraken said the approval followed more than five years of regulatory engagement and would allow direct connectivity to Fedwire without relying on intermediary banks.

That approval has become the template and warning sign for the rest of the sector. Kraken’s account is limited-purpose and initially granted for one year, giving it access to Fedwire and limited overnight balances, but not interest on reserves, emergency Fed lending, FedNow or ACH. Other firms seeking similar access include Ripple, Anchorage Digital and Wise.

Notably, the issue has already been tested in court. Custodia Bank, another Wyoming crypto-focused institution, applied for a master account in October 2020, sued the Fed in 2022 over delays, and saw its application denied in January 2023. In 2025 and 2026, appeals court decisions reinforced the view that Reserve Banks retain discretion to reject master account requests, a legal backdrop Trump’s order now explicitly asks the Fed to examine.

Ripple has also shown interest in a more limited route. In November, Ripple chief legal officer Stu Alderoty said the Fed’s “skinny” account concept was attractive despite restrictions, because it could still improve RLUSD reserve redeemability without granting the full benefits of a traditional master account.

The Fed had already opened that door before Trump’s order. In December, it requested public input on a special-purpose “payment account” for eligible institutions focused on payments innovation. The prototype would be distinct from a master account, would not pay interest, would not provide Fed credit, and would be subject to balance caps.

Ripple’s stablecoin push gives the master account question added weight. The company said in December that the OCC had conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised trust bank that would manage RLUSD reserves under both NYDFS and OCC oversight.

Overall, Trump’s order does not grant Ripple a master account. It does, however, force the policy question into a formal timeline: whether firms building crypto payment and stablecoin infrastructure should remain dependent on bank intermediaries, or gain direct, risk-limited access to the sovereign rails beneath dollar settlement.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.3647.

Brutal Truths About Bitcoin And The Crypto Market

In a YouTube video published on May 19, market expert TheModernInvestor noted that the rising number of Google searches for Bitcoin is a major indicator of what’s coming next. He shared several truths about Bitcoin, noting that the market is currently at the point where institutional investors, firms, and almost everyone are announcing a fresh bull cycle. He said that even some investors suggest the bear market, or crypto winter, has ended. 

TheModernInvestor attributed this surge in optimism to the CLARITY bill, which just concluded a voting session by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. He also said the widespread positive sentiment is likely due to hopes of an interest rate cut, with investors in both the crypto and stock markets strongly believing that asset prices will continue going up. 

Furthermore, TheModernInvestor noted that prominent figures in the crypto market, like Cathie Wood, founder of ARK Invest, have been trending online for weeks after announcing the start of a new bull market. According to the analyst, Wood said that ARKInvest’s research has shown that not only is the market going back up, but Bitcoin could reach a valuation of about $1 million per coin in the next few years. 

TheModernInvestor also noted that asset management firm Fidelity and Michael Saylor, the founder of Strategy, the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury, had previously made similar predictions. Given how bullish everyone in the market is, including top institutional players, the analyst highlighted that it has become very difficult for market watchers not to get excited and follow the trend.  

In addition, TheModernInvestor explained that the crypto market tends to revolve around the movements of institutional players. He said that in 2017, when Bitcoin was seen as just a digital asset with no significant valuation, everyone dismissed it and even laughed at people who invested in it. However, once Larry Fink, the CEO and Chairman of BlackRock, spoke about Bitcoin, it became a thing of interest, with many investors flooding the market. 

The analyst also mentioned a truth about the recent quantum computing trend that has been rampant in the crypto market. He said that many top blockchains, including Ethereum, XRP, and Cardano, have announced plans to make their networks more quantum-ready to improve security. 

However, TheModernInvestor noted an oddity in the narrative. He said that many BTC developers are also trying to make Bitcoin’s network quantum-secure, and one way they intend to do that is by freezing older wallets, which they say makes the blockchain less secure.

This solution to rising quantum threats has caused an uproar in the crypto space, as these developers appear to be targeting the wallet of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, which currently holds roughly 1 million BTC,  worth billions of dollars. Many Bitcoin supporters, including Alex Thorn, the Head of Firmwide Research at Galaxy Digital, have warned that Nakamoto’s original wallet holdings must remain strictly untouched. Thorn said Nakamoto’s coins and BTC’s core property rights must be preserved even if Bitcoin’s price were to crash 50% and altcoins by 90%. 

Analyst Says This Cycle Will Be The Most Difficult

In his video, TheModernInvestor further warned that this could be one of the most difficult cryptocurrency cycles for retail investors who are not yet in the market. He noted that even those already holding crypto assets may be surprised by what plays out as the cycle develops through 2026.

With price expectations continuing to rise across the market, TheModernInvestor is confident that this decade will go down as one of the most remarkable periods for investing the world has ever seen.

Crypto To Move Fentanyl Proceeds

Treasury noted that the Sinaloa Cartel is among the oldest and most powerful drug trafficking groups in Mexico. The United States has identified the organization as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker since April 15, 2009. 

According to the agency, the cartel’s operations include illicit fentanyl sales, which generate proceeds that must then be moved, cleaned, and ultimately transmitted back into the cartel’s network.

A central figure in the Treasury’s announcement is Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles, known as Ojeda Aviles, who the US describes as the leader of a crypto laundering network tied to the cartel’s drug trafficking operations. 

Treasury alleges that Ojeda Aviles coordinates the collection of large amounts of cash in the United States—cash that Treasury links to fentanyl and other illicit drug sales. 

From there, the Treasury says he facilitates the conversion of that bulk cash into cryptocurrency. The agency’s concern is that the resulting digital-asset funds are then transferred for the cartel’s use in Mexico.

Ethereum Addresses Added In Sanctions

Treasury also identified Jesus Alonso Aispuro Felix, described as a close associate and the network’s chief money broker. Treasury’s release says Aispuro Felix is responsible for brokering large transfers of drug proceeds using crypto addresses. 

Another associate highlighted in the release is Rodrigo Alarcon Palomares, who the Treasury alleges facilitated money pickups in the United States on behalf of the network. 

The agency further points to a legal development involving Alarcon Palomares: in April 2024, a federal grand jury in the US District Court for the District of Colorado returned an indictment against him on three counts of laundering drug proceeds through cryptocurrency.

As part of the sanctions action, Treasury said the list of additions includes six Ethereum network addresses. The agency added that five of those addresses are connected to Ojeda Aviles.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Crypto analyst Merlijn The Trader has outlined a six-step framework on X that places BTC’s current price action directly onto the structure of the 2021 market cycle. Three steps have already been completed. The fourth, he says, is next, and it involves another Bitcoin price crash.

Bitcoin Is Now At The Most Important Stage Of The Playbook

Merlijn’s weekly candlestick timeframe chart divides Bitcoin’s previous cycle into six phases: distribution, small consolidation, redistribution, accumulation, re-accumulation, and then the final rally. In the 2021 section of the chart, BTC first formed a distribution range near the cycle top before entering a smaller consolidation, then a redistribution phase, and finally a deeper accumulation zone after the major bear market breakdown.

The analyst is of the notion that the same structure is now playing out again. Distribution, he said, has already occurred. Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $126,060 in October 2025 before turning lower. Since that peak, Bitcoin’s price has been declining in bear market price action.

The small consolidation phase that followed the distribution top has also been completed, and Bitcoin’s price action since late January is all in the redistribution phase. This caveat is why BTC is currently in the most important part of the technical setup. The next projection based on the setup is not another immediate rally phase, but a crash to an accumulation range much lower than current prices.

The $78,000 Line That Changes Everything

Merlijn placed that possible accumulation zone between $45,000 and $59,000. This would imply that Bitcoin still has one major downside leg left if the 2021-style structure continues to play out. 

However, Merlijn’s analysis carries an interesting condition. If BTC holds $78,000, Step 4 is skipped entirely, and the cycle advances directly to re-accumulation and eventually the major run. If $78,000 breaks, the $45,000 to $59,000 accumulation range becomes the next destination before any real bounce. Therefore, the strongest version of the bullish case would be Bitcoin closing multiple weeks above $78,000 and forcing the Bitcoin price to skip the deeper accumulation phase. 

That level is now under direct pressure. BTC broke below the $77,000 price level on May 18, but it is now back to trading around $77,500 at the time of writing. This means a drop to $59,000 would represent a decline of about 23.8%, while a fall to $45,000 would mark a deeper correction of 42% from the current price.

A Shift In Strategy

That’s a departure from how Tether has approached South Korea before. Earlier filings were limited to stablecoin product names. Covering the broader brand signals something bigger — a possible push toward establishing an actual business presence in the country, not just protecting a label.

Timing is everything here. South Korea is in the middle of drafting new rules under the second phase of its Digital Asset Basic Act.

Tether is quietly trademarking itself in South Korea before the rules land@tether filed seven trademarks in South Korea, covering its name, logo, and Tether Gold (XAUT), per Seoul Economic Daily citing the Korean IP office’s KIPRIS database.

It’s a strategy shift. Tether’s… pic.twitter.com/WASjdNc2AF

— BSCN (@BSCNews) May 19, 2026

One proposal under discussion would require foreign stablecoin companies to set up a local branch before they can legally offer their tokens to South Korean users.

Tether’s trademark filings, some observers say, look like early preparation for that kind of requirement.

South Korea is not a small market. The country has one of the most active retail crypto trading populations in the world, which makes it a place no major stablecoin issuer can afford to ignore.

Circle Already Has A Head Start

Tether is not alone in moving on South Korea. Circle, the company behind USDC, filed 11 local trademarks last year and has already seen results — USDC’s market share in the country grew by 10%.

Tether now has seven active trademarks in South Korea, a number that has been growing as competition between the two stablecoin giants heats up.

Earlier this year, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire traveled to South Korea and held meetings with major banks and crypto exchanges, exploring possible partnerships.

That kind of ground-level relationship building puts Circle ahead in terms of local ties, at least for now.

The trademark filings also fit into a wider ambition Tether has for South Korea. The country runs a significant export economy, and businesses there regularly move money across borders.

Tether sees that as an opening. Using blockchain-based payments instead of traditional bank transfers through systems like SWIFT could offer faster, cheaper transactions for South Korean exporters.

That vision — stablecoins as a real payment tool, not just a trading instrument — reflects where the bigger competition between Tether and Circle may eventually play out, well beyond crypto exchanges and into mainstream finance.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Demand Patterns For Bitcoin Are Undergoing A Change

Bitcoin continues to struggle with heightened bearish pressure, and a subtle but crucial shift is currently emerging in the market. Currently, BTC’s downside price action has begun to reflect changes in its demand dynamics.

In an analysis of the Bitcoin Spot and Perpetual Futures Demand Growth, Julio Moreno has shared that BTC’s total demand entered into a contraction phase on Monday, May 18. This shift comes after a steady upside since early March this year, driven by speculative demand. 

With fading buying pressure and cooling speculative activity colliding, this development triggered concerns about whether the market is either getting ready for a wider trend reversal or is about to enter a consolidation phase. Moreno highlighted that speculative demand growth, which is represented by the blue bars on the chart, reached its highest level as prices approached the $80,000 mark. However, this activity has since slowed down significantly. 

Meanwhile, spot demand, indicated as the grey bars on the chart, is contracting slightly faster than the speed of the cooling speculative demand. As demand patterns continue to adjust, this could play a role in shaping BTC’s next major move in either direction.

BTC Held At Loss Matching Past Levels

During this weakening momentum, another development that is drawing attention is the number of Bitcoins held at a loss. According to Darkfost, another CryptoQuant author, the supply of BTC held at a loss by long-term holders is not 5.7 million BTC, matching levels previously seen at the peak of past bear markets. 

In 2015, it was 5.96 million BTC, in 2019, it was 5.8 million BTC, while in 2022, it was 6.8 million BTC. It is worth noting that the most severe discomfort was felt by LTHs during the last cycle. Nonetheless, the recent 52% decline in Bitcoin is still significantly lower than what was observed in earlier bear markets.

Darkfost stated that this suggests a very large number of BTC was exchanged between $80,000 and $126,000, and the losses are probably present among the youngest cohort of LTHs. What’s important here is that the trend is not completely confirmed yet, but a slight distortion caused by the movement of 800,000 BTC from Coinbase on November 21 and 22 was observed.

Furthermore, a spike of more than 740,000 BTC can clearly be seen around April 21 and 22, while on Bitbo, the transaction to long-term holders occurs after 155 days. By adjusting the figure for this movement, the value could still be around 4.93 million BTC, which remains historically significant.

In the following 3 to 4 days, Darkfost noted that a number of LTH-related measures on platforms that use a 6-month threshold may also begin to move quickly. At that point, these BTC, which moved around $84,500, will officially shift from STH to LTH supply.

‘Breadcrumbs’ In Crypto

A FOX Business report released Wednesday points to new figures from a threat-detection data firm estimating that Tehran controls roughly $7.7 billion in digital assets. 

Officials and analysts behind the crackdown argue that, despite claims by foreign adversaries that cryptocurrencies can help them evade sanctions, the technology can still leave clear trails that investigators can follow.

Chris Perkins, the CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management, is quoted in the report describing why crypto can be useful for law enforcement to monitor. 

He said investigators repeatedly found that adversaries using digital assets inadvertently create “breadcrumbs,” making transactions easier to track than some might expect. 

Iran Advances Hormuz Insurance Using Bitcoin

The report also suggests the US could apply even more pressure by leveraging threats to the on-ramps that make crypto movement easier. 

Industry insiders believe Washington may escalate its stance by warning it could cut off crypto exchanges from the American banking system, a move that would raise operational risks for firms handling transactions tied to sanctioned networks.

At the same time, the US crackdown comes alongside reports that Iran has moved forward with a new digital insurance platform for cargo ships operating through the Strait of Hormuz. 

As Bitcoinist reported earlier this week, payments tied to the insurance are being settled entirely in Bitcoin (BTC), linking Iran’s maritime finance strategy directly to the cryptocurrency ecosystem that US officials are targeting.

The Iranian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance had been working on the strait-related insurance plan. The initiative is designed to make management of the strait possible through insurance products, including maritime insurance policies and financial responsibility certificates. 

The scheme could allegedly produce more than $10 billion in revenue for Iran, potentially creating an additional stream of funding that supporters of the plan believe could be harder for international enforcement to interrupt.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

XRP Whales Now Control Over 68% Of Token’s Supply

On May 18, Crypto analyst Zach Humphries posted on X that large holders now control a whopping 68.5% of XRP’s total circulating supply. Santiment’s data has also shown that the whales in question own wallets with at least 10 million XRP. 

Combined together, these whales own approximately 45.83 billion tokens. Humphries said this substantial figure matches levels the market has not seen since May 2018, about four months after the altcoin recorded its all-time high of $3.84. 

Because of this level of concentrated control, Humphries stated that the sell side of XRP could get extremely thin if this accumulation trend continues at such an aggressive pace. The analyst revealed that smart money is now using the current sideways consolidation to absorb supply directly from crypto exchanges. 

To put this into perspective, the altcoin has been in a steep downtrend for months, with the price currently trading in the $1.3 to $1.4 range. The cryptocurrency has failed to recover despite the recent positive developments surrounding Ripple. While prices remain below 2025 highs, large-scale investors appear to be taking advantage of market volatility and declining to buy coins at cheap levels.

Against this backdrop, Humphries has suggested that a clean break above XRP’s current range could completely transform its macro chart. He implied that this recent trend could be the final accumulation phase before a real price breakout occurs, potentially sending it to new highs. Meanwhile, Santiment has said that the recent accumulation could see the token jumping back toward $1.5. 

Analyst Projects Next Big Move Above $1.8

In a recent price analysis, market expert Ali Martinez stated that XRP is gearing up for a major price move. The analyst said that he has been closely watching the tightest Bollinger Band squeeze on XRP’s 3-day chart for over a year now. He noted that at the time, volatility had compressed firmly, signaling that a violent price rally could be imminent. 

Martinez also described the altcoin’s current compression zone as a “no-trade zone,” suggesting that the market has to move first before any trades are confirmed. With this in mind, the analyst said he will remain patient while watching for a clean 3-day candlestick close outside the $ 1.29 to $ 1.50 range. He noted that if this close happens, it could confirm the next major trend direction.  

According to the analyst, a close above $1.50 could spark a major price explosion above $1.8, representing a more than 30% rally from current levels. On the flip side, if XRP were to close below $1.29, Martinez predicts this could invalidate the cryptocurrency’s bullish structure and trigger a steep correction back toward the $1 psychological support level.

How The Attack Unfolded

Bankr is a crypto trading tool that lets users send plain-language instructions — like “swap this token” or “transfer funds” — to an AI that carries out the trades.

The platform also creates a crypto wallet automatically for every X account that interacts with its bot.

That feature had already drawn attention earlier this year, when someone reportedly tricked Grok into telling Bankr to launch a token, then pulled funds from it into a wallet they controlled.

Tuesday’s incident appears to follow a similar pattern. Yu Xian, founder of blockchain security firm SlowMist, said the breach was likely a social engineering scheme aimed at the AI agent.

According to Xian, the attacker exploited the trust connection between Grok and Bankrbot to push through unauthorized transaction approvals.

He identified three wallet addresses linked to the attacker that together held $440,000 in crypto.

Xian also pointed to prompt injection as part of the method — a technique where malicious instructions are fed to an AI to manipulate its behavior.

update: we’ve identified an attacker was able to access 14 bankr wallets.

we’ve temporarily locked things down while we work through the details. we will be reimbursing any and all lost funds.

will provide more updates as we have them. https://t.co/gVMLexiglT

— Bankr (@bankrbot) May 19, 2026

Bankr Pledges Full Reimbursement

Bankr confirmed the breach in a post on X, saying it had identified an attacker who accessed 14 wallets. The platform said it shut down all transaction activity — swaps, transfers, and token deployments — while the investigation continues. It also pledged to cover all losses.

Users were warned not to sign any transactions for now. For those with wallets already hit, Bankr told them to stop using the affected accounts entirely, set up a new wallet with a fresh seed phrase on a clean device, and transfer any remaining tokens or NFTs out immediately.

If assets can’t be moved, revoking existing approvals was advised. Bankr also flagged the possibility of malware, urging users to check their computers and phones for suspicious software or browser extensions.

Some users reported losing as much as $150,000 from a single wallet. The exact total across all 14 breached wallets has not been confirmed.

The attack adds to a rough stretch for the crypto space. Bad actors stole more than $168 million in the first quarter of the year.

April brought two of the biggest hits so far — a $280 million exploit of Drift Protocol and a $292 million breach of Kelp.

Just a day before the Bankr incident, the Ethereum bridge of Verus Protocol was also reportedly hit.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The release was flagged by TFTC (@TFTC21) on X on May 19, describing Nostr VPN as a fundamental departure from the architecture that has defined commercial VPN services for decades. Malmi — known in Bitcoin’s early history as Sirius, the developer who received the first-ever Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi and later maintained bitcoin.org — built Nostr VPN using the Nostr protocol as its signaling and coordination layer, per the TFTC post and the project’s open-source repository on git.iris.to.

The structural flaw at the center of commercial VPN services is straightforward. When a user connects to NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, or any equivalent service, all internet traffic routes through servers owned and operated by that company. The user trusts the provider not to log, analyze, sell, or hand over that traffic to third parties — including law enforcement.

That trust has been violated repeatedly across the industry. Multiple VPN providers marketed as no-log services have subsequently been shown to maintain logs when compelled by legal process, per documented cases cited in the TFTC post.

The promise of privacy in a conventional VPN is only as strong as the company behind it — a company with employees, legal addresses, server infrastructure, and obligations to comply with the jurisdictions they operate in.

Nostr VPN eliminates the central server entirely. The architecture operates as a peer-to-peer mesh network — devices connect directly to each other rather than routing through a corporate intermediary. The Nostr protocol handles signaling between nodes using public-key cryptography, the same cryptographic framework that secures Bitcoin transactions, per the project’s repository. Each user’s identity on the network is a cryptographic key pair, not an account or email address tied to a real-world identity.

The exit node model is where the practical privacy advantage becomes concrete. A user designates one of their own devices — a home server, a rented VPS from a provider like Hetzner, or any machine they control — as the exit point for their internet traffic. Websites and services see only the IP address of that exit node, not the device actually being used. The critical distinction from a commercial VPN is that the user is the operator. There is no third party between the user and the exit node who could be compelled to produce logs, because no third party holds them, per the project documentation cited in the TFTC post.

Malmi’s involvement is not coincidental. The philosophy underlying Nostr VPN maps directly to the same sovereignty argument that animated Bitcoin’s original design — the elimination of trusted intermediaries from a system where that trust represents both a single point of failure and a single point of control. Bitcoin removed trusted third parties from money. Nostr VPN applies the same logic to internet privacy infrastructure.

The Nostr protocol itself was built by and for the Bitcoin community from its earliest days, using the same public-key cryptographic primitives and attracting developers who share a specific set of convictions about censorship resistance, self-custody, and the dangers of centralized infrastructure that can be pressured, subpoenaed, or shut down.

The release arrives as governments across multiple jurisdictions — including the United Kingdom, per recent legislative developments — move to tighten controls over VPN usage and expand surveillance capabilities. For the nascent sector’s community of privacy-focused users, developers, and holders for whom financial privacy and internet privacy are inseparable concerns, Nostr VPN represents a meaningful step toward infrastructure that cannot be compelled to betray its users — because there is no operator left to compel.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

3 Reasons Nazarov Is Bullish On Chainlink

In a lengthy post on X, Nazarov argued that the market is moving toward infrastructure providers that can meet higher reliability standards across DeFi and TradFi. He said this shift is already benefiting Chainlink because the network was “built with security and reliability in mind from the start,” contrasting Chainlink’s 16-node model with “1 of 1 or 2 of 2” systems, which he said can often functionally resemble a single point of failure.

“Our industry has started caring much more about the security and reliability of the infrastructure, standards and oracles/dependencies that it is built on top of,” Nazarov wrote. “This shift in focus towards security is already massively benefiting Chainlink because it is built with security and reliability in mind from the start e.g. 16 nodes vs 1 of 1 or 2 of 2.” He added that this focus “makes a better system for everyone in the DeFi/TradFi industry to transact with less risk.”

Nazarov said the same dynamic is now playing out in cross-chain interoperability, where he pointed to large users migrating to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol after deeper security reviews of bridging providers. He cited Kraken’s stated rationale for choosing CCIP, including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications, secure-by-default architecture, 16 independent nodes and native rate limits.

He also referred to Lido’s cross-chain security review, which said Chainlink CCIP provides decentralization, native safeguards and issuer control as protocol-level guarantees, including protections that insulate wstETH from several attack vectors associated with the Kelp and LayerZero exploit. Lombard Finance, according to Nazarov’s cited example, described CCIP as an “enterprise-grade framework to secure high-value assets.”

“With over $4Billion migrated in just a few weeks and more on the way, I am clearly seeing the industry’s clear preference for security and reliability being a key trend leading to accelerated adoption of Chainlink and CCIP,” Nazarov wrote.

The second trend, Nazarov said, is Chainlink’s ability to keep building through down markets. He framed quieter periods as a productive environment for teams with existing product-market fit, saying less market noise gives builders more room to develop infrastructure for future demand.

“Chainlink has always continued to build and added many of its best features during down markets, when there is less noise to distract top teams from building,” he wrote. “Because Chainlink already has clear product market fit, being able to focus on building the future is a powerful accelerant for future progress and is actually what I and many of the people building Chainlink are here for.”

Nazarov highlighted both use-case-specific features, such as collateral management, and reusable primitives, including verifiable confidential compute in Chainlink Runtime Environment, or CRE. He said those components are being built, refined and launched with major users.

The third trend is the expansion of RWA, TradFi tokenization and digital assets as a market that Nazarov said has “decoupled from crypto prices as a determining factor of its success.” In his view, that creates a more durable opportunity for infrastructure platforms that can combine data, interoperability, identity and compliance, and verifiable off-chain orchestration into end-to-end systems.

He pointed to several recent capital markets examples, including DTCC using CRE and Chainlink Data for production plans around 24/7 collateral management, SGX using DataLink, and Chainlink backend integrations involving State Street and Fidelity International. Nazarov said these are only a few examples of broader work across payments, tokenized equities and tokenized funds.

The broader thesis is that DeFi applications and TradFi institutions may increasingly converge through shared on-chain standards, interoperability connections and oracle infrastructure. Nazarov closed by framing that convergence as the next major phase for Chainlink, saying the goal is not only to solve isolated market problems, but to help DeFi and TradFi “merge into the new global financial system.”

At press time, LINK traded at $9.595.

The withdrawal request, dated May 19, 2026, was addressed to the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and its Office of Crypto Assets. In the filing, the company requested “the immediate withdrawal” of its Form S-1 registration statement, which had originally been filed on June 5, 2025, under File No. 333-287789. The company said the registration statement had not been declared effective and confirmed that “no securities have been sold” under it.

“The Company has determined to withdraw the Registration Statement and not to pursue the public offering at this time,” the filing stated. “The Registration Statement has not been declared effective by the Commission and the Company confirms that no securities have been sold pursuant to the Registration Statement. Therefore, withdrawal of the Registration Statement is consistent with the public interest and the protection of investors as contemplated by Rule 477(a).”

The filing closes a nearly year-long regulatory process that began shortly after NYSE Arca submitted a Form 19b-4 to list the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF on June 3, 2025. That exchange filing described the proposed product as a vehicle designed to reflect Bitcoin’s performance while reducing the “complexities and operational burdens” of direct BTC ownership. Reuters reported at the time that US President Donald Trump was the majority owner of Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social.

The ETF’s S-1 described Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, B.T. as a Nevada business trust whose assets would consist primarily of Bitcoin held by a custodian. Yorkville America Digital, LLC was named as sponsor, while Foris DAX Trust Company, LLC, a Crypto.com affiliate, was listed as Bitcoin custodian in the initial registration statement. The trust was not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and was structured as a Securities Act of 1933 product, the same broad framework used by spot Bitcoin ETPs rather than traditional ’40 Act ETFs.

Trump Media later amended the filing in August 2025, saying Crypto.com would act as the ETF’s exclusive Bitcoin custodian, prime execution agent and liquidity provider. The company said at the time that the launch remained subject to both effectiveness of the S-1 and SEC approval of the related 19b-4 filing, with shares expected to list on NYSE Arca if approved.

Why Was The Bitcoin ETF Withdrawn?

Yorkville America framed the withdrawal as a strategic pivot rather than a retreat from ETFs. In a May 19 press release, the firm said it had “proactively withdrawn its registration statements filed under the Securities Act of 1933” for certain planned ETF strategies and would instead focus product development under the ’40 Act framework.

“After careful evaluation, the ’40 Act structure allows us to bring more differentiated investment strategies to our investors that are not possible under the ’33 Act framework,” Yorkville America President Steve Neamtz said. “Our focus has always been on delivering the right strategies through the right structures. This is a forward-looking decision that reflects our commitment to delivering the best possible investment products to our growing base of America First investors. Yorkville America is not stepping back – we are stepping forward with a stronger product platform.”

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart was unconvinced by that explanation. Sharing a screenshot of the withdrawal on X, he wrote that the reasoning “doesn’t make a ton of sense,” noting that the difference between a ’33 Act exchange-traded product and a ’40 Act ETF was already well understood in the market. Seyffart said he suspected the decision had more to do with the “competitive landscape for spot bitcoin ETFs,” especially with Morgan Stanley’s MSBT entering at 14 basis points.

He added: “They do seem to planning to launch more flexible crypto related ETF strategies in the 40 act wrapper which makes sense. I mean do we really need a 14th spot bitcoin ETF? But something that can be more differentiated makes sense.”

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas agreed via X: “My guess: Yorkville guy told Truth ppl after MSBT that they either gotta come in below 14bp fee or you might as well forget it, bc no one will buy it, and it could be embarrassing. They aren’t used to Terrordome life so prob said “no way are we charging so little” Could be wrong but that’s my theory for now.”

That fee pressure is material. Morgan Stanley’s proposed spot Bitcoin fund was priced at 14 basis points, below products charging closer to 15 to 25 basis points, including BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust at 25 basis points.

At press time, BTC traded at $77,274.

Foreign Stablecoins Recognized As Payment Instruments

On Tuesday, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) announced amendments to the Cabinet Office Ordinance to recognize certain trust-type stablecoins issued by foreign trust banks and similar entities as “electronic payment instruments” under the Payment Services Act, local news reported.

The amendment, scheduled to take effect on June 1, 2026, will exclude qualified foreign trust beneficiary rights-based stablecoins from classification as “securities” under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), allowing them to be handled by domestic operators registered as electronic payment instrument operators.

To achieve this, the Cabinet Office Ordinance established four requirements, including the legal status of stablecoin issuers, the management of underlying assets, measures to prevent criminal use, and currency denomination consistency.

Under the new rules, issuers must be registered or licensed under foreign laws deemed equivalent to Japan’s Payment Services Act or Banking Act and supervised by an authority that can share oversight information with the FSA commissioner upon request. The FSA will verify each issuer’s supervisory cooperation framework during its suitability review, the report noted.

Foreign stablecoin issuers must also manage reserve assets under applicable foreign laws and submit to audits by local professionals equivalent to certified public accountants or audit firms.

In addition, they must maintain systems to detect and respond to criminal misuse, including mechanisms to suspend transactions, and ensure the trust property and reserve assets are denominated in the same currency.

Notably, authorities will assess on a case-by-case basis whether a stablecoin can reliably be redeemed at its issue price to the same degree as Japanese electronic payment instruments. As a result, stablecoins used overseas may be treated differently in Japan depending on their reserve composition and audit arrangements.

Japan Expands Crypto Regulations

Over the past few years, Japanese authorities have been working to restructure the treatment of crypto assets in the country. The latest changes to the Cabinet Order Ordinance have expanded Japan’s legal framework for stablecoins, established through the 2022 amendment to the Payment Services Act.

The government recently amended the FIEA to classify crypto assets as financial instruments and backed a tax reform plan to introduce a separate system for different transactions and a flat 20% tax on crypto income.

Last month, the FSA, alongside the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the National Police Agency, and the Ministry of Finance, issued joint guidance outlining compliance requirements for the use of crypto in real estate deals.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the regulators requested that real estate firms conducting crypto transactions strictly enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and source-of-funds verifications.

The joint guidance outlined reporting obligations for cross-border payments, unlicensed transactions, or suspicious fund flows. Additionally, it warned firms that activities involving the exchange of crypto assets for fiat currency or brokerage services on behalf of clients may constitute crypto asset exchange operations, which carry the risk of legal violations.

Median SOPR In The Altcoin Sector Has Been Stuck Below 1

In a new post on X, Glassnode has talked about the latest trend in the median SOPR for the altcoin market. The “SOPR,” which stands for Spent Output Profit Ratio, here refers to a popular on-chain indicator that tells us whether traders on a given network are transferring their coins at a net profit or loss.

When the value of the metric is greater than 1, it means profit-taking is the dominant mode of transactions. On the other hand, the indicator being under this threshold suggests investors are, on average, realizing a net loss with their selling. Naturally, the SOPR being exactly equal to 1 suggests the profits being realized on the network are exactly canceling out the losses. In other words, the holders as a whole can be considered to be just breaking even on their moves.

Now, here is the chart shared by Glassnode that shows the trend in the median SOPR for the top 500 assets in the cryptocurrency sector by market cap over the last couple of years:

As displayed in the above graph, the median SOPR of the top 500 digital assets rose to a value of 1 during the recent recovery surge in the sector. This suggests that altcoin investors as a whole rushed to use this opportunity to exit at their break-even level. Since this selling, however, markets have reversed course. In terms of weekly returns, Bitcoin is down more than 4%, while Ethereum is in a loss of 7%. Major altcoins like XRP and Solana have also taken a notable hit inside this window.

From the chart, it’s visible that loss realization in the sector has returned alongside the pullback. With another failure to find a break into the profit zone, the median SOPR for the top 500 coins is now extending its already-long stay inside the underwater region. During 2025, there were a couple of very brief surges above the 1 level for the metric, but the last time a proper break occurred was all the way back in late 2024. Thus, it would appear that the average altcoin trader has been in loss-realization mode for 1.5 years.

This loss-taking behavior among investors, interestingly, couldn’t change when Bitcoin and other assets observed a bull run last year. Considering this, it only remains to be seen what will need to happen to change the situation of the altcoin traders, if their situation will change at all.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading around $2,100, down 0.2% over the last 24 hours.

In his May 19 “Bitcoin Morning Brief,” Adler pointed to a mixed setup across two closely watched on-chain indicators: Bitcoin Percent Supply in Profit and Short-Term Holder SOPR. The first metric shows a meaningful structural recovery. The second still suggests that recent buyers are not yet realizing sustained profits with enough confidence to validate the move.

“Supply in Profit has recovered after the capitulation phase, but short-term holders are still not realizing sustained profits,” Adler wrote. “There is still no behavioral confirmation of a reversal.”

Bitcoin Nears Critical Zone as Short-Term Holders Flash Warning

According to Adler’s data, Bitcoin Percent Supply in Profit on a seven-day simple moving average has climbed from a March low of 53.6% to 63.3% as of May 18. The recovery indicates that a larger share of circulating Bitcoin now has an on-chain cost basis below the current market price, marking a clear improvement from the capitulation phase earlier this year.

The move, however, remains incomplete by the analyst’s framework. Adler noted that the current reading is still roughly 10 percentage points below January levels, when the metric stood above 72%, and remains beneath the historical cumulative average of around 76.9%. In his view, that keeps Bitcoin in a recovery phase rather than a fully normalized profitability regime.

“The current level remains below the historical cumulative average of around 76.9%,” Adler wrote. “This means the market is still in a recovery phase. A return above 70% while the current price dynamics hold would be the first signal of normalization in the supply structure.”

The more fragile signal comes from short-term holders. Adler said Bitcoin’s STH-SOPR SMA-7D recovered from a capitulation zone below 0.97 earlier this year but has failed to hold decisively above the neutral 1.0 threshold. As of May 18, the indicator stood at 0.9994, slightly below neutral, with Bitcoin near $76,900.

That matters because STH-SOPR tracks whether coins moved by short-term holders, typically defined as coins held for less than 155 days, are being sold at a profit or loss. A reading below 1.0 indicates that these market participants are selling at a loss on average. For Adler, that makes the recent slip below the threshold more important than the headline improvement in aggregate supply profitability.

“STH-SOPR SMA-7D reached the cycle low in early February 2026 at 0.967,” Adler wrote. “This was a zone of clear capitulation, when short-term holders were broadly realizing losses. The following recovery was gradual.”

The indicator had stabilized in the 1.001 to 1.009 range in April as Bitcoin moved above the $75,000 to $80,000 area. But the pullback to 0.9994 marked the first move back below 1.0 after roughly two weeks above the threshold, according to the brief. Adler framed that as a warning that the recovery still depends heavily on price holding a narrow support band.

“The key question now is whether STH-SOPR can hold above 1.0 again or continue declining together with price,” he wrote. “Losing the 1.0 level with price below $76k would increase the risk of retesting the March lows in Supply in Profit.”

For now, Adler described the market stance as neutral with a cautious bias. The critical zone is $76,000 to $77,000, which he said is sufficient to push STH-SOPR back above 1.0 if buyers defend it. A stronger confirmation would require STH-SOPR to remain above 1.0 for five to seven trading days while Bitcoin holds above $78,000 to $80,000, alongside Supply in Profit moving toward the 68% to 70% range.

The downside scenario is more immediate. Adler flagged a potential pullback to $73,000 to $74,000 as the main risk, saying that move could drag STH-SOPR back into the 0.98 to 0.99 zone and stall the improvement in Supply in Profit.

At press time, BTC traded at $77,015.

Rei Researcher’s analysis draws on CryptoQuant’s Holder Metrics chart to map exactly where Bitcoin currently stands relative to the cost basis of different participant cohorts. The picture that emerges is of a market caught between competing pressures at precisely the level where those pressures are most evenly matched.

Bitcoin recently completed a recovery wave that carried it meaningfully above the April lows — a move that returned a significant cohort of short-term holders to profitability for the first time since the correction began. That recovery brought the price directly toward the Short-Term Holder cost basis — the average entry price of participants who acquired Bitcoin within the past several months and have been sitting on losses throughout the decline.

At that level, the dynamic shifts. Holders who endured weeks of losses and finally returned to breakeven face a decision the data says they have consistently made the same way: they sell. The STH cost basis is not simply a technical resistance level. It is a behavioral threshold, and Bitcoin approaching it from below has met the same supply every time.

Between The Floor Institutions Built And The Ceiling Holders Created

Rei Researcher’s analysis identifies the constructive element that prevents the current breakdown from being read as unambiguously bearish. Despite losing $80,000 and trading near $77,000, Bitcoin is still holding above the cost basis of institutional fund flows — the average entry price of ETF capital that has accumulated since the spot Bitcoin ETFs launched.

That level functions as a crucial support buffer in the current environment, representing the price below which institutional investors who entered through regulated products would begin sitting on unrealized losses.

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The implication of breaking that support is direct and significant. ETF holders who have been absorbing volatility from a position of profit would shift to a position of loss — a psychological and structural change that historically triggers accelerated outflows and reduced institutional appetite for adding exposure. Rei Researcher identifies a break below the ETF cost basis as the specific condition that would trigger a negative trend rather than continued consolidation.

Bitcoin at $77,000 is therefore positioned in the most contested price zone of this cycle — supported from below by the cost basis of the most structurally significant new category of buyer, and weighed down from above by the combined resistance of the STH cost basis and the 200-day moving average.

The medium-term trend will not be established by gradual drift in either direction. It will be established by a decisive break above or below one of those two cost basis zones — a break accompanied by the volume and follow-through that confirms a genuine regime change rather than another test that reverses at the boundary. Until that break arrives, Bitcoin is consolidating at the exact price where the market’s next directional decision is being made.

Bitcoin Weekly Structure Shows Indecision

Bitcoin is trading near $76,700 on the weekly chart after failing to reclaim the major resistance zone between $78,000 and $80,000, an area that now acts as the market’s primary structural ceiling. The rejection reinforces the broader corrective structure that has dominated price action since Bitcoin topped above $110,000 late last year.

The chart shows BTC attempting to stabilize after the sharp capitulation event that briefly pushed price toward the low-$60,000 region earlier this year. Buyers successfully defended the broader demand zone between $64,000 and $68,000, allowing Bitcoin to recover back toward the weekly 50 moving average. However, momentum weakened significantly once price approached the overhead resistance cluster formed by the 50-week moving average and previous breakdown levels near $80,000.

Importantly, Bitcoin continues trading below the weekly 100 moving average, while the weekly 200 moving average remains far below the current price near the long-term macro trend zone. This positioning reflects a market still structurally bullish on higher timeframes but facing meaningful medium-term weakness and uncertainty.

Volume has also declined during the latest rebound attempt, suggesting the recovery lacks the aggressive spot demand that characterized previous bull continuation phases. For now, the market remains trapped between key holder support zones below and heavy resistance overhead. A decisive breakout above $80,000 would likely shift momentum back toward bullish continuation, while losing the $68,000 region could trigger a broader market reset.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

RWA Value On The Solana Network Climbs Sharply

Solana is gaining the community’s attention once again, even with its price pulling back to the $85 mark. Underneath its sideways price action over the past few weeks, the SOL network is rapidly expanding its footprint in the Real World Asset sector.

As tokenization gains major traction in the crypto space, the value of tokenized assets on the SOL network has seen explosive growth. A recent report from Solana’s official page on the X platform reveals that its RWA value has surged to over $2.8 billion, representing a new all-time high.

This figure marks yet another major milestone for the leading network, reinforcing its position in the blockchain sector. The rapid expansion demonstrates the growing interest in bringing conventional financial products such as treasuries and other yield-bearing assets to the blockchain.

SOL attracting this kind of massive value in RWA is largely due to its fast transaction speed and lower costs. As institutional and developer activity around RWAs accelerates, this figure is expected to expand in the future.

SOL Perp Volume Is Trending At Its Highest Level Yet

In other areas, such as Perpetual (Perp) futures volume, the Solana network is also witnessing substantial growth. David Alexander, an on-chain data expert, reported that SOL’s perp volume has climbed sharply, opening the week at an all-time high. Such development has led to a significant rise in trader engagement and speculative activity, with derivatives markets becoming more active in response to SOL’s price fluctuations.

According to the data, the network is now handling about $20 billion in total perp volume, coming second only to Hyperliquid (HYPE), which currently handles over $42 billion. However, open interest across Solana perps is valued at just $223 million compared to the $9 billion of Hyperliquid.

Alexander highlighted that the majority of SOL’s perp volume was led by GMTrade, a leading RWA perp DEX, with $16 billion. Others include Pacifica and Jupiter Exchange, scooping up $2.9 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. 

This milestone comes just a few days after Solana perp volume saw its highest daily perp volume, recording over $4.7 billion in a single day, representing a +500% MoM. At the time of the achievement, SOL accounted for 21% of all perp activity, still only behind Hyperliquid’s 36%. In times of increased volatility and velocity like the current market state, rising perp volume is sometimes seen as an indication of increasing market interest and liquidity.

At the time of writing, SOL’s price was trading at $85, demonstrating a 0.41% increase over the last 24 hours. Its trading volume has also slightly risen by over 1.61% within the same time frame.

The announcement arrives amid intensifying concern across the crypto sector over the security of the cryptographic systems used by major networks like Bitcoin (BTC), as advances in quantum computing raise the possibility that sufficiently powerful quantum machines could eventually threaten the cryptographic foundations.

XRP Ledger Targets Quantum Readiness

As outlined in Project Eleven’s disclosure, the work with XRPL will begin with a comprehensive assessment of key parts of the network. The partnership plans to conduct a full audit covering XRPL’s validator, custody, networking, and wallet layers to identify potential quantum-related vulnerabilities. 

After the audit phase, the parties plan to move toward deployment of hybrid signatures. In practice, that means adding quantum-resistant cryptography on top of existing standards rather than relying solely on older mechanisms. 

The announcement also points to the development of a quantum-secure custody wallet prototype, with Project Eleven expected to contribute working code, real performance data, and an implementation path that can lead to production.

Ayo Akinyele, Head of Engineering at RippleX, said the quantum risk should not be treated as speculative. He described the threat as an engineering challenge with a clear timeline and emphasized that the blockchain is not starting from zero. 

Hybrid Security Path

In his remarks, Akinyele highlighted capabilities already present on the network, including key rotation and a validator network designed to coordinate upgrades at scale. 

He added that working with Project Eleven is intended to accelerate testing and implementation while adding rigor across the stack. The stated objective, he said, is to reach production readiness well before “Q Day,” rather than scrambling when the risk becomes immediate.

XRPL also weighed in on the announcement via X, saying the ledger is “built for the Quantum Era.” The network described its design as running on a native account-based architecture that includes built-in key rotation. 

According to XRPL, this structure allows users and organizations to shift to quantum-resistant signatures without changing the r-addresses their customers already recognize and trust. 

The ledger said it expects Project Eleven to complete the planned audit of the XRPL network, wallets, and validator layer ahead of deploying quantum-resistant cryptography, framing the effort as a step-by-step move toward stronger security across the system.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Trump Expands Exposure From Meme Coins To Bitcoin Firms

New government records show that Trump and members of his family made a series of investments in crypto-linked stocks during the first three months of this year. The disclosures, which immediately caught the attention of investors and analysts, were submitted to the US Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and made public this week.

The document, known as an OGE Form 278-T, revealed thousands of stock trades carried out under the names of Trump and his family between January and March 2026. Among the crypto stocks, the family bought shares in MARA Holdings (MARA), the world’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner, Coinbase (COIN), the largest crypto exchange, and Strategy (MSTR), the world’s first and largest Bitcoin treasury. 

Filing records also show nine trading entries linked to Coinbase, with the biggest single transaction executed on February 10 and valued somewhere between $100,001 and $250,000. Two smaller purchases of MARA Holdings were also recorded, with each trade below $50,000.

Interestingly, Strategy shares saw the most activity, with eight transactions that included both buying and selling. The largest stock purchase came on February 12, valued between $50,001 and $100,000. Meanwhile, the largest sale was recorded on January 12, with an estimated amount between $15,001 and $50,000. 

Thousands More Trades Round Out Trump’s Busy Quarter

Bitcoin-related stock purchases were only a small part of what Trump and his family traded in Q1. In total, more than 2,000 transactions took place during that quarter, with the overall value of trades estimated between $220 million and $750 million.

Beyond Bitcoin, the filing reported that Trump bought shares in some crypto and fintech stocks, including Robinhood (HOOD), Block Inc. (XYZ), PayPal (PYPL), and SoFi Technologies (SOFI). Other major transactions included purchases of major tech companies such as Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), and Boeing (BA), with some of those trades falling in the $1 million to $5 million range.

Notably, Trump’s assets are held in a family trust managed by his children, and some of the trades appear to have been handled through third-party firms rather than directly by the US President. The filing does not give exact amounts of these trades, only ranges. It also does not show whether any trades resulted in a profit or a loss.

Citadel Files 13F On Canary XRP ETF

Market analyst Xaif Crypto disclosed in an X post on May 16 that Citadel has reportedly filed a 13F with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), revealing a major stake in the XRP ETF. According to claims going around, the firm holds $1.7 million in XRP exposure across multiple providers, including Bitwise, Canary, Franklin, and Grayscale.

These claims suggest that Citadel had previously held put options on its XRP ETF, a move that would have protected it if the cryptocurrency’s price fell. Those puts are now said to be completely closed out at 100%, meaning Citadel allegedly removed its entire safety net. 

What makes this move even more interesting, if confirmed, is what the Wall Street firm had reportedly kept after it closed out all its puts. Citadel is said to still hold 34,900 call options on its XRP ETF, bets that could pay off significantly if the cryptocurrency’s price surges higher. Although the size of the bets tied to those positions has not been revealed. 

In large-scale investing, a company removing its downside protection while keeping upside bets is generally read as a sign of growing confidence in an asset. This means that Citadel likely expects XRP’s downtrend to end soon, potentially flipping into bullish territory once more and triggering a fresh rally. 

Although the rumored 13F filing remains unconfirmed, what is certain is that Citadel and Fortress co-led a $500 million round in Ripple in November 2025, valuing the crypto company at $40 billion. This suggests that the hedge fund has shown interest in the XRP ecosystem well before the latest claims emerged. 

XRP ETFs See Highest Weekly Inflow This Year

X Finance Bull, a well-known crypto analyst on X, announced on May 18 that XRP spot ETFs recorded their highest weekly inflow since January 2026, pulling in $60.5 million. This capital brought the crypto fund’s cumulative total net inflow to a whopping $1.39 billion.  Notably, the surge in demand came during a period when XRP’s price remained low and was consolidating. X Finance Bull noted that while retail investors panicked and sold into the dip, institutions continued to accumulate XRP-linked products at an accelerated pace.

The analyst explained that this bizarre opposite movement between retail and institutional investors is due to upcoming events that could significantly impact the XRP price. X Finance Bull points to a series of regulatory and structural developments that institutional players appear to be tracking closely. 

Among them are the CLARITY Act markup, the appointment of Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair, the Ripple Prime $200 million facility, a DTCC working group, and reported settlement activity involving JPMorgan Chase and Mastercard on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). He noted that these are the kinds of developments that large funds tend to position around well ahead of any price movement.

Her latest concern centers on the OCC’s approvals—some granted on a conditional basis over recent months—at a time when the conventional banking sector has already been raising objections throughout the year.

Warren Challenges OCC On Crypto Charters

Bloomberg reports that Warren’s argument is that at least some of the companies appear to be “seemingly ineligible” for the type of charter they are receiving. 

In her letter to Jonathan Gould, the head of the OCC, the Senator said the regulator has approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies that, in her view, “appear to go far beyond the narrow set of activities permitted by law.” Warren went further, describing what she sees as an “apparent violation of the National Bank Act.”

Among the approvals mentioned are those granted to crypto giants such as Ripple, Circle (CRCL), BitGo, Fidelity, and Paxos in December of last year. 

Others, such as Coinbase (COIN), received conditional approval from the OCC to establish Coinbase National Trust Company. Around the same timeframe, Kraken’s parent company, Payward, also filed an application seeking approval for a National Trust Company charter. 

Those approvals would allow these companies to manage and hold assets on behalf of customers—an arrangement that could speed up payment settlement compared with older processing timelines.

However, Warren’s critique is not only about what the trust charters allow today, but also about where she believes some firms may be headed next. 

OCC’s Defense

Per the report, the Massachusetts Democrat argued that some companies are trying to move past traditional custody and into business areas that look more like banking operations. That includes activities such as lending, payments, and running trading platform-type services. 

In her view, easing rules for trust companies this year could effectively enable crypto firms to broaden their financial activities too far, without the same level of constraints and oversight that typically apply to banks.

Warren framed the concern as follows: if crypto firms are permitted to engage in bank-like businesses without “the same regulations and safeguards,” it could create problems for consumer protection and for overall stability in the financial system.

Yet, the Senator is not the only critic of the OCC’s approach. Traditional banks have voiced their own apprehension throughout the year, arguing that the OCC’s approvals stretch the historical intent behind the national trust bank charter. 

The OCC, through Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, has defended its actions. Last year, Gould emphasized that bringing new entrants into the federal banking system could improve competition and deliver additional products and services. 

From his perspective, the OCC’s approach is beneficial for both consumers and the broader banking industry, and it supports modernization rather than regulatory dilution.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Ethereum Takes Center Stage On The Clarity Act

Despite its value, Ethereum’s presence in the cryptocurrency sector is becoming harder for the market to ignore. From dominating stablecoin settlement activity to leading in Decentralized Finance (DeFi), tokenization, and institutional adoption, the altcoin is emerging as crypto’s top contender.

The Ethereum Daily has recently stated that ETH is quietly becoming the biggest winner in crypto. This statement from the analyst hinges on the proposed Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, which is fueling optimism around the network’s long-term position.

According to Ethereum Daily, the new United States bill sets a clear decentralization test, comprising five simple rules that decide whether a token is truly independent or still controlled by its team. Meanwhile, this is where the ETH network comes into play ahead of most other altcoins and networks.

Currently, the Ethereum network passes all five rules with flying colors because it is completely open-source, permissionless, no one owns 49% or more, users cannot be censored, and it operates independently. The only altcoin that comes close is Solana, but the network is borderline at best.

Other chains, such as Sui, Avalanche, Hedera, Tron, and almost every “ETH killer,” fail on multiple points due to insider control, upgrade power, or concentrated token ownership. Under the CLARITY Act, these networks are forced into a lesser equity tier where real revenues and fundamentals set price caps.

Meanwhile, Ethereum secures the top monetary premium tier, which is equivalent to the same category as Bitcoin, the largest digital asset. In this category, there is no artificial valuation ceiling and no more regulatory gray area. With this standard, ETH’s two biggest bear cases, such as the US SEC risk and being replaced by faster chains, have disappeared.

While the market is obsessed over which tokens might fail, ETH has now locked in a structural advantage that no other smart-contract platform has. “CLARITY doesn’t just regulate crypto, it quietly crowns Ethereum as the only real Tier 1 player left,” the expert added.

ETH Remains The Decentralization King

The debate between the Ethereum and Solana networks continues to grow in the crypto space. However, ETH remains the dominant chain in the ever-dynamic blockchain sector, particularly in terms of Decentralization. 

Decentralization has grown extremely on the ETH network to the extent that Solana now looks like a child’s play toy, according to Ethereum Daily. Looking at the chart shared by the expert, ETH layer 1 now has over 897,300 validators, representing increased DeFi activity. Meanwhile, Solana is massively behind the network with a mere 752 total validators.

Pundit Provides Updated Roadmap Of How XRP Will Rally To $300

In an X post, the pundit stated that XRP will reach $300 because the price used by banks for transfers is calculated via ODL, and that the circulating supply does not reflect the amount of the altcoin available at that exact moment. Therefore, CharuSan declared that the price is not calculated based on the circulating supply. 

He further explained that if a bank’s transfer amount is $200 billion and the XRP price is $20, then it would require 10 billion XRP to execute the payment. The pundit added that single transfers of 3, 5, or 10 billion would create a bottleneck in a coin with a circulating supply of 61 billion, especially given that it would be the global banking network using XRP. As such, he believes the token’s price will need to be much higher. 

CharuSan noted that one wouldn’t be able to conduct the transfers of 13,000 banks with small values like $10 or $20. He also alluded to the DTCC and many other institutional firms that will be adopting the altcoin for global transactions. The pundit had earlier predicted that banks would start using it shortly after the CLARITY Act was enacted. He suggested that the rally would happen swiftly as Ripple has already partnered with giant infrastructure providers such as Volante, ACI Worldwide, and FINASTRA. 

Why A Higher Price Is Needed

CharuSan further explained why XRP’s price needed to be higher for this level of adoption, noting that the token velocity doesn’t replace liquidity depth. He explained that one needs to consider the simultaneous volume of global transactions and how, with trillions in value, they could be locked even with a 3- to 5-second settlement across thousands of banks. He added that if the transaction volume exceeds the pool’s depth, slippage is inevitable. 

He gave an example of the token as a super-fast car, and that if 300 cars are moving at the same wavelength into a tunnel that can only accommodate 20 cars, there is likely to be a bottleneck, as an accident occurs at the tunnel entrance. As such, the tunnel has to be large enough to accommodate 300 cars without causing friction. Similarly, CharuSan suggested that XRP’s price needs to be higher to accommodate all these global transactions simultaneously. 

At the time of writing, the altcoin’s price is trading at around $1.38, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

XRP Vanishes From Exchanges

Crypto analyst @Xaif_Crypto has recently highlighted a sharp rise in withdrawals across multiple global exchanges. The CryptoQuant chart attached to his post tracked daily outflows exceeding one million XRP and showed repeated bursts of activity stretching from February into May.

While the blockchain data does not reveal the exact identities of the wallets receiving the XRP, the pattern of transfers, which consistently exceeded one million XRP per day, strongly suggests large-scale buyers rather than retail traders. 

Some of the largest withdrawal spikes appeared during periods when the altcoin traded around $1.80 earlier this year. What caught attention, however, was the fact that the movement continued even after the price cooled into the mid-$1.30 range. Instead of slowing down, exchange withdrawals remained active across platforms, including Binance, Coinbase, Upbit, KuCoin, Kraken, Bitstamp, Bybit, HTX, Bithumb, and Bitget.

When activity appears across several exchanges at once, analysts usually interpret it as coordinated accumulation. The timing of the latest withdrawals is also important. Historically, large accumulation phases tend to happen during quieter market periods when prices move sideways, and public interest fades. The current trend has led some traders to believe that larger buyers may be building positions before a potential catalyst pushes XRP into a new price range. If that is the case, the ongoing withdrawals could become more significant later. 

Following The Big Money

The conversation around accumulation grew even stronger as @Xaif_crypto referenced comments tied to market maker AlexisYellow regarding possible future capital flows into the ecosystem. According to the discussion, XRP could eventually benefit from billions of dollars in fresh ETF-related demand if regulatory conditions continue improving in the United States.

The argument centers around XRP Ledger’s growing reputation as a blockchain designed for compliant financial settlement and tokenized asset movement. If institutions begin viewing XRPL as infrastructure for regulated finance rather than just another crypto network, demand for liquidity could increase substantially.

That narrative has gained momentum alongside ongoing discussions surrounding the proposed CLARITY Act, which many in the industry believe could create clearer rules for digital assets in the United States. A more defined regulatory framework would likely make institutional participation easier, especially for firms that have remained cautious about direct crypto exposure.

For now, the blockchain data only tells part of the story. The wallets behind the withdrawals remain unknown, but the pattern itself is becoming harder to dismiss. Large amounts of XRP continue leaving exchanges while the price remains relatively subdued, suggesting that large-scale investors are accumulating quietly while much of the market is still waiting for confirmation.

The dispute erupted after XRPL validator operator Vet said version 3.1.3 of rippled had been available for more than a week, with 40% of the network upgraded at the time of his post (May 18). He warned that the fix amendment included in the release would become active in nine days and that “every node that hasn’t been updated to 3.1.3 will be unable to communicate to the network.”

In a later update, RippleX head of engineering J. Ayo Akinyele said 44% of the XRPL network had upgraded and urged node operators to move quickly, adding: “Only 8 days left before the fix amendment activates — don’t be left out!”

XRPL Hard Fork Debate Heats Up

According to XRPL.org, rippled is the reference server implementation of the XRP Ledger protocol. The 3.1.3 release introduces the fixCleanup3_1_3 amendment, a package of fixes for NFTs, Permissioned Domains, Vaults and the Lending Protocol. Because of the importance of those fixes, XRPL.org said the amendment’s default vote is set to “Yes.”

The “hard fork” framing came from critics who argued that, as of the early upgrade figures, a majority of network nodes were still on the path to being cut off. X user ScamDaddy wrote: “The XRPL will hard fork in 9 days. As of this moment, 60% of the network will be forked off.” The post then turned the argument into a governance challenge: “But who’s to say 3.1.3 should be XRP mainnet, Ripple? Vet? 60% is the majority after all!”

That framing drew pushback from XRPL community members who argued the mechanism is better understood as amendment blocking, not an accidental or contentious chain split. XRPL’s amendment system uses validator voting to approve protocol changes that affect transaction processing. According to XRPL.org, an amendment passes if it receives more than 80% support from trusted validators for two weeks, after which the change applies permanently to future ledger versions.

The technical consequence for outdated servers is still material. XRPL.org says amendment blocking is a security feature intended to protect data accuracy when old software no longer understands the active rules of the network. Servers running earlier versions without the amendment code cannot determine ledger validity, submit or process transactions, participate in consensus, or vote on future amendments; upgrading to a newer rippled version unblocks them.

Daniel Keller, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Eminence, a blockchain infrastructure company that runs a Full History Node for the XRP Ledger, argued that raw node counts may overstate the operational risk. “The only question is: how many of them actually matter to XRPL operations?” he wrote. “How many are abandoned? How many would just update a few hours late? How many are actually relevant infrastructure?”

Keller framed the cutoff as maintenance discipline rather than a decentralization failure: “Decentralisation does not mean dead weight gets carried. Running a node is a responsibility, not a participation trophy. If you can’t maintain infrastructure, you should get filtered out. That is network hygiene.”

Krippenreiter made a similar case, saying the negative connotation around “forking” can obscure XRPL’s design. “Forking has a negative connotation because it sounds like the network is less secure because of it, when in reality, at least on the XRP Ledger, the amendment block mechanism itself, ironically, is a security feature,” he wrote. “It is a security mechanism so that no transaction data or rules on XRPL are interpreted wrongly by any node that didn’t already update.”

At press time, XRP traded at $1.38.

The first public alarm came from on-chain analyst DCF GOD, who wrote that Echo “may be hacked on Monad.” He added: “Someone minted 1k ebtc out of nowhere, max borrowed wbtc against it on Curvance, bridged, and tornado away.” A follow-up post pointed to a Monad transaction showing a 1,000 eBTC transfer on May 18 at 21:21:32 UTC.

$76M Crypto Mint Sparks Alarm

Lookonchain later mapped the reported sequence in more detail. According to the account, the attacker minted 1,000 eBTC, valued at about $76.64 million, deposited 45 eBTC worth roughly $3.45 million into Curvance, borrowed 11.3 WBTC worth about $867,000, bridged the WBTC to Ethereum, swapped it for 385 ETH worth about $821,000, and deposited the ETH into Tornado Cash. Lookonchain said the attacker still held 955 eBTC, valued at about $73.2 million.

Phylax Systems founder and CEO Odysseas Lamtzidis said the transaction trail pointed away from a Curvance lending flaw and toward a role-management compromise on the eBTC side. “Monad eBTC/Curvance trace: not a Curvance lending bug,” he wrote. “The eBTC admin granted DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE to 0x6A0109, who revoked admin, self-granted MINTER_ROLE, minted 1,000 eBTC, posted 45 eBTC as collateral, and borrowed ~11.296 WBTC.” Lamtzidis said the pattern “looks like admin-key/role compromise,” citing key transactions for the admin grant, mint and borrow.

Echo confirmed the incident without publishing a root-cause analysis. “We are currently investigating a security incident impacting the Echo bridge on Monad. All cross-chain transactions remain suspended while the investigation is underway. We will continue to provide timely updates through our official channels as more information becomes available.” The suspension makes the bridge the immediate operational focus, not simply the lending market that processed the collateral.

Curvance’s exposure appears to have come through the affected Echo eBTC market. Curvance paused that market while the teams investigated, and cited Curvance as saying there was no indication its smart contracts had been compromised and that its isolated-market architecture meant other markets were not affected. Also, Monad’s network itself was not affected.

Monad CEO Keone Hon wrote via X: “To clarify, the Monad network is not affected and is operating normally. Security researchers in their review have determined that ~$816,000 appears to have been stolen as a result of this exploit of Echo Protocol’s eBTC.

The incident illustrates a familiar bridge-to-lending failure pattern. Once a bridged or synthetic asset is treated as valid collateral, even a partial conversion path can turn a supply-side failure into real liquidity loss. In this case, the eBTC mint was used to borrow WBTC, move it off Monad, convert it into ETH, and route the funds through a mixer before the broader notional position was fully monetized.

Echo’s next update will need to answer several market-facing questions: whether the unauthorized eBTC has been neutralized, whether Curvance faces bad debt from the WBTC borrow, which bridge permissions or contracts were involved, and when cross-chain transactions can safely resume. Until then, the eBTC market on Monad remains the key pressure point for users trying to assess whether the incident was contained or merely slowed.

The Echo exploit also lands during a rough stretch for crypto infrastructure. On May 15, THORChain has lost more than $10 million across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain and Base, including 36.75 BTC and roughly $7 million in other assets. Days later, the Verus-Ethereum Bridge was drained for about $11.5 million, with reports saying the attacker took 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH and 147,000 USDC before consolidating the haul into roughly 5,402 ETH. Echo now gives markets another reminder that bridge design, collateral acceptance and liquidity routing remain one of DeFi’s most exposed attack surfaces.

[UPDATE from X:] Echo Protocol confirmed: “Earlier today, Echo Protocol identified unauthorized activity involving eBTC on Monad that resulted in unauthorized minting and associated fund loss. Our investigation indicates the issue originated from a compromised admin key affecting the Monad deployment. Based on current findings, approximately $816K was impacted on Monad. The Monad network itself was not impacted and continues to operate normally.

Since detecting the incident, we have been actively investigating potential cross-chain exposure, coordinating with ecosystem partners, and implementing additional precautionary measures. We have successfully regained control of our admin keys and burnt the remaining 955 eBTC that was in the attacker’s possession.”

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.54 trillion.

Strategy Has Added 24,869 Bitcoin To Its Holdings

In a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has shared the details related to the latest purchase completed by the treasury company. In total, the firm has expanded its reserves by 24,869 BTC with this acquisition, which is a pretty significant amount.

In fact, this is the second-largest buy made by Strategy this year, behind only the 34,164 BTC mega-purchase from April. The firm has funded the huge acquisition using sales of its STRC and MSTR at-the-money stock offerings, according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Out of the two, STRC sales provided the biggest part of the proceeds.

Strategy spent about $2.01 billion to acquire these coins, which comes down to an average cost basis of $80,985 per BTC. Currently, Bitcoin is trading below this level, so it would appear that company’s new acquisition is already underwater.

Strategy’s full holdings remain in profit, however, as the firm spent $75,700 per coin or $63.87 billion in total to assemble its 843,738 BTC stack. Though, the green status is only just due to the pullback that the cryptocurrency has seen over the last few days.

The company has interestingly made this humongous purchase announcement just a couple of weeks after Saylor said that Strategy would probably sell some Bitcoin to fund dividends, just to prove the point that they could do it. So far, the treasury firm has made no such sale, and if this buy is anything to go by, it remains committed to accumulating the asset.

With over 4.2% of the BTC circulating supply in its wallets, Strategy is by far the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency in the world, according to data from BitcoinTreasures.net.

The firm is also the largest digital asset treasury company in general. The closest competitor is Bitmine, which is a Bitcoin-mining company that adopted an Ethereum treasury strategy last year. Led by chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee, the firm has aggressively been accumulating ETH, announcing regular Monday buys just like Strategy.

Last week, Bitmine skipped on any new acquisition, but this Monday, the firm is right back at it. According to a press release, the company loaded up on 71,672 ETH over the past week. “We view the recent pullback of ETH to below $2,200 as an attractive opportunity,” noted Lee.

Following this acquisition, the firm holds 5,278,462 ETH, equivalent to 4.37% of the cryptocurrency’s entire supply in circulation. “Bitmine is expected to reach the ‘alchemy of 5%’ sometime in 2026,” said the chairman.

BTC Price

Bitcoin recovered to $82,000 last week, but the asset has since retraced as its price is now trading around $76,300.

KB Stablecoin Pilot Cuts Fees, Speeds Transfers

On Sunday, KB Financial Group, the parent company of South Korea’s largest bank, announced that it had completed a payment pilot for a won-denominated stablecoin, with electronic payments KG Inicis, Layer 1 blockchain platform Kaia, and digital asset solutions company OpenAsset as partners.

According to local news reports, the PoC integrated the entire financial process into a single workflow, from the issuance of a won-pegged stablecoin to offline payments, merchant settlements, and international remittances. The project allows customers to continue using financial services as before, while the internal settlement system has been migrated to blockchain.

Notably, the real-world payment model was deployed via offline kiosk transactions at a Hollys coffee shop. The system is engineered so that a consumer pays with a QR code without installing a digital wallet, and a blockchain smart contract is automatically executed at settlement.

For international money transfer verification, the model involved converting a won-pegged stablecoin into a dollar-denominated stablecoin using Kaia’s on-chain liquidity, then routing the funds through a local partner in Vietnam to the recipient’s actual bank account.

Unlike the traditional SWIFT method, the entire transfer process was completed within three minutes, and transaction fees were reduced by approximately 87% compared to previous methods, the report noted.

A KB Financial Group official affirmed that the company will work to “provide digital financial services closely integrated into daily life that customers can tangibly experience by combining financial infrastructure—based on proven stability and trust—with blockchain technology.”

The company also revealed that it plans to secure the necessary operational capabilities to launch its services immediately after South Korea’s digital asset legislation and regulations are established.

Digital Asset Act Faces Delay

Stablecoins have played a central role in the country’s digital transformation and dominated South Korea’s policy discussions over the past year. However, the long-awaited legislation set to address won-pegged token rules has been stalled for nearly six months.

For context, the second phase of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, known as the Digital Assets Act, was initially expected to pass before the end of 2025, but a disagreement between South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Bank of Korea (BOK) has delayed the framework since December.

The financial regulators have been unable to agree on the extent of banks’ role in the issuance of stablecoins, with the central bank pushing for a consortium of banks owning at least 51% of any issuer seeking approval in the country. The FSC, however, has raised concerns about the proposal, arguing that a majority stake for banks could reduce tech firms’ participation and limit market innovation.

In April, lawmakers urged the National Assembly to prioritize stablecoin legislation and approve the Digital Asset Act, warning that while politicians argue over governance structures, the global market is moving forward.

Similarly, Professor Ahn Soo-hyun of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies stated last week that while global financial leaders complete and revise crypto legislation, South Korea, which accounts for 10% of global digital asset transactions, “is falling behind.”

At a Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry forum on digital assets, multiple lawmakers, regulators, and experts discussed the state of South Korea’s stablecoin framework, with some participants calling it a “critical juncture” for the country’s efforts to regulate the sector.

Meanwhile, Bank of Korea Deputy Governor Chang Cheong-soo stated, “I believe the won-pegged stablecoin could serve as a complementary and competitive payment method in future monetary systems, playing a role in virtual asset transactions and cross-border payments.”

Despite this recent weakness, market analyst Ali Martinez posted on X (formerly Twitter) that a technical setup is forming on XRP’s 3-day chart that could result in a significant rally for the token. 

XRP Key Break Levels

According to Martinez, XRP is showing what he calls the “tightest Bollinger Band squeeze on its 3-day timeframe in over a year.” In his view, when volatility compresses that tightly, it often acts like a prelude to a sharper expansion in price, with bigger directional movement following once the squeeze resolves.

Martinez emphasized that this compression zone is essentially a “no-trade zone.” The idea, he said, is to wait and see how the market breaks before taking directional exposure. Instead of guessing, he wants confirmation through the structure of the next candles. 

Specifically, he is watching for a clean 3-day candlestick close either outside the established range or back inside it. His key levels for that confirmation are the bounds of the squeeze zone, which Martinez described between $1.50 and $1.29.

If XRP is able to produce a 3-day close above $1.50, Martinez believes it would signal an upward expansion. In that scenario, he flagged $1.80 as his primary target, suggesting the next phase could push the coin meaningfully higher from current trading levels of $1.37 at the time of writing. 

On the other hand, a close below $1.29 would change the tone. Martinez stated that such a breakdown would invalidate the immediate bullish structure he is monitoring and could open the door for a deeper correction, with the altcoin potentially dropping toward the $1 level.

Regulatory Catalyst Ahead

While technical levels can guide near-term trading expectations, XRP’s path could also be influenced by regulatory developments in the United States. 

In a recent report, market expert Sam Daodu referenced the CLARITY Act, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee by a 15–9 vote on May 14. He explained that XRP reacted positively to that progress, rallying to $1.54 in response to the news.

In his assessment, a full Senate vote in June could strengthen expectations that the bill may receive presidential approval before the White House deadline on July 4. If that clearer regulatory timeline plays out, Daodu suggested it could help the token overcome resistance that has limited its performance for months. 

The expert identified the $1.44–$1.45 level as the sell wall—an area where selling pressure has capped upside. In Daodu’s view, breaking above that wall would be a meaningful step, and he pointed to a further rally toward $2 as a confirmation of the coin’s upside trajectory.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

A Year Of Shifting Plans

The company had been quietly working toward a public listing for months. Kraken filed confidentially with US regulators late last year, then put those plans on hold in March as crypto prices fell.

Co-CEO Arjun Sethi acknowledged the filing at a recent conference but stopped short of giving any dates. Now, according to reports, the IPO is unlikely before 2027.

The layoffs were driven by the company’s growing use of artificial intelligence across its operations. The source told Bloomberg that AI is being used more broadly throughout the business, though no further job cuts are currently planned.

Crypto Sector Feels The Pressure

Kraken is far from alone. Crypto companies have shed more than 5,000 jobs so far this year, with AI adoption cited repeatedly as a key driver. Coinbase cut 700 employees, about 14% of its workforce, on May 5.

Rival exchanges Gemini and Crypto.com let go of about 200 and 180 staff, respectively, earlier in the year. Block Inc. made the steepest cut of all, eliminating around 4,000 positions in February, roughly half its total headcount.

Crypto data firm Dune also announced layoffs this week, trimming a quarter of its staff as it refocused on core products.

A weaker market has added to the strain. Prices have been sliding since late 2025, and several publicly traded crypto firms reported losses in their first-quarter earnings.

@arjunsethi CEO, @krakenfx reveals that the company has privately filed to become public.

“Are there plans to take Kraken public soon?

Uh, we confidentially filed.

Oh, is that news?

I believe that’s news.” pic.twitter.com/QJRH8YStMA

— Semafor (@semafor) April 14, 2026

The company has not publicly confirmed the layoffs or the revised IPO timeline. Reporters reached out to Kraken and did not receive a response before publication.

For now, Kraken appears to be tightening its operations while it waits for better conditions. Whether the market recovers fast enough to make 2027 a realistic window for a public debut remains to be seen.

The exchange is one of the largest in the US, and its listing has been closely watched across the industry.

Featured image from DL News, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin Binance Retail Inflows Have Dropped To Just 314 BTC

As pointed out by CryptoQuant author Darkfrost in an X post, the Bitcoin inflows going from retail investors to Binance have hit historic lows. “Retail investors” here refer to the smallest of hands on the network who tend to move small amounts with their transactions. As such, their exchange deposit activity can be filtered for by considering the data of only moves smaller than 1 BTC in size.

Below is the chart shared by Darkfrost that shows the trend in the retail Bitcoin deposits specifically heading to Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange based on trading volume.

As is visible in the graph, the amount of Bitcoin that retail-sized entities have been sending to Binance spiked during the 2017 and 2021 bull runs. Generally, investors interact with centralized exchanges when they want to actively participate in trading, so these inflow spikes indicate increased interest in the market from small hands.

During the lows of the 2022 bear market, there was another spike in inflows from retail traders, corresponding to panic distribution. Following this spike, however, the indicator started following a downward trajectory that is yet to be broken.

From the chart, it’s visible that the decline in the metric maintained even as Bitcoin hit new all-time highs (ATH) during this cycle’s bull run. Today, the monthly average retail Binance inflow has dropped to a value of just 314 BTC. For comparison, 2017 and 2021 saw peaks of 5,400 and 2,600 tokens, respectively. The analyst noted:

Retail participation has continuously declined over time, almost as if this category of investors is gradually disappearing from observable on-chain activity.

A notable factor for this trend could be the introduction of the United States spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) back in January 2024. These investment vehicles allow investors to gain indirect exposure to Bitcoin; whenever a trader invests into a spot ETF, the fund buys and custodies the tokens on their behalf, so they never directly end up interacting on-chain.

The spot ETFs quickly gained traction among the more traditional investors and today, these funds hold a non-negligible part of the cryptocurrency’s total supply. It’s possible that some of the retail investors have simply switched to these vehicles. “Retail investors are less active than ever,” said Darkfrost. “This is a clear sign of the transformation of the Bitcoin market, whose evolution has progressively reshaped the profile and behavior of investors.”

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $77,400, down 4.7% in the last seven days.

The data begins with a finding that immediately reframes the Bitcoin weakness as part of something broader. The selling pressure that drove Bitcoin below $77,000 was not isolated to a single asset or a single moment. It was aggressive, it was large-scale, and it appeared across multiple assets in a compressed timeframe that points to coordinated de-risking rather than organic price discovery.

For Bitcoin specifically, Binance Taker Sell Volume — which measures aggressive sellers choosing to exit immediately at market prices rather than waiting with limit orders — crossed the $1 billion threshold twice in the latest market window. The first spike arrived on May 15, when aggressive sell volume reached approximately $1.5 billion in a single session. The second came as Bitcoin broke below $77,000 for the first time since the beginning of May, with taker sell volume surging above $1.1 billion.

Two separate billion-dollar sell spikes in a compressed window describe a market under genuine, organized pressure — not a market drifting lower on thin volume and weak sentiment.

Two Assets, Two Billion-Dollar Sell Spike: One Market Moving Together

The CryptoQuant analysis extends the picture beyond Bitcoin to confirm that the selling was not asset-specific. Ethereum’s Binance Taker Sell Volume climbed above $1.1 billion as ETH moved toward levels below $2,100 — matching the scale and the timing of the Bitcoin sell spikes with a precision that removes coincidence as an explanation. Two of the largest crypto assets by market capitalization faced billion-dollar aggressive selling events on the same venue within the same market window.

The cross-asset synchronization is the signal that matters most. Taker Sell Volume measures participants who choose to exit immediately — hitting available bids rather than placing limit orders and waiting for buyers to arrive. When this metric spikes during a price decline, it reflects urgency: sellers who needed or chose to exit regardless of the price they received. That behavior, appearing simultaneously across Bitcoin and Ethereum, points to forced de-risking at institutional scale rather than organic retail selling responding to price weakness.

The CryptoQuant assessment is honest about what the data confirms and what it does not. Synchronized billion-dollar sell spikes establish that sellers were clearly in control during the move, not that a deeper downtrend has been confirmed. The distinction matters for how the recovery should be evaluated.

The conditions for bullish momentum returning are specific. Aggressive sell volume needs to cool. Price needs to stabilize above key support levels while that cooling occurs. Until both conditions appear simultaneously, every bounce in the current environment faces the same supply structure that produced two separate billion-dollar sell events within a compressed window — and bounces that meet that kind of overhead tend to resolve the same way the previous attempts have.

Bitcoin Breaks Below Key Support As Selling Pressure Accelerates

Bitcoin is trading near $76,800 after losing the critical $78,000 level, a breakdown that significantly weakens the recovery structure that had been developing since the February capitulation event. The daily chart shows BTC now trading back below the 100-day moving average while continuing to face strong rejection beneath the descending 200-day moving average near the $82,000 region.

The recent rally carried Bitcoin from the low-$60,000 range toward local highs above $81,000, but momentum began fading once the price approached long-term resistance. Multiple failed breakout attempts created a lower-high structure near the top of the range, signaling weakening buyer conviction before the latest selloff accelerated.

Importantly, the decline is now pushing BTC back toward the highlighted demand zone between $72,000 and $74,000, an area that previously acted as the foundation for the April recovery. Losing that region could expose Bitcoin to a deeper retracement toward the broader support range near $64,000-$65,000, where buyers aggressively stepped in after February’s crash.

Volume during the latest decline has remained elevated, confirming that the move lower is being driven by active selling rather than passive lack of demand. Combined with the recent surge in Binance taker sell volume, the chart reflects a market currently dominated by defensive positioning and short-term de-risking from larger participants.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Japan’s Financial Services Agency is already reviewing crypto assets more seriously as financial instruments, according to reports. The development signals a shift in how major Asian financial institutions are treating digital assets — not as fringe speculation, but as a category worth institutional attention.

A Culture Built For This Moment

The story of XRP in Asia did not start with crypto. It started with interest rates. Japan spent decades in a near-zero or negative rate environment, leaving ordinary savers with little to show from traditional bank accounts.

That created a generation of retail investors willing to take on risk. Japan grew into one of the world’s largest retail foreign exchange trading markets, with households actively trading global currencies through online platforms in search of returns they could not find at home.

SBI IS BRINGING XRP TO THE TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE

SBI Group: planning a BITCOIN + XRP ETF listed on TSE and a $32 BILLION AUM target within 3 years of launch. Japan’s FSA is already reviewing crypto as a FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT. $XRP $BTC pic.twitter.com/ardNDDKiMb

— Xaif Crypto (@Xaif_Crypto) May 17, 2026

When crypto came along, many of those same investors found it familiar territory. South Korea followed a similar path — sluggish local returns pushed retail money toward high-yield alternatives, and digital assets filled that gap.

Fiona Murray, Ripple’s vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, pointed to that history when discussing the crypto’s strong following in both countries.

“In countries like Japan and Korea, we see retail holders of XRP as a store of value and looking for that next piece,” Murray said.

She attributed Japan’s appetite for alternative assets directly to its long period of low returns: “They’ve had a lower negative interest rate environment for decades now.”

Ripple’s APAC VP: “Low interest rate economies push retail into ALTERNATIVE ASSETS

XRP is becoming their STORE OF VALUE.

0% savings rate did this. $XRP https://t.co/gXfcAe5tld pic.twitter.com/Vv6YAdqraw

— Xaif Crypto (@Xaif_Crypto) May 17, 2026

XRP’s Place Between Two Worlds

Part of XRP’s appeal in Asia comes from its connection to established financial institutions. SBI Holdings, one of Japan’s major financial groups, has been closely associated with the altcoin for years.

For many investors, that relationship puts XRP in a middle ground between traditional banking and the broader crypto market — neither purely speculative nor fully conventional.

XRP’s near-instant settlement and low transaction fees have made it attractive to users dealing with the slow pace and high costs of conventional banking transfers.

Featured image from PlanetofHotels, chart from TradingView

The Exchange Netflow data for Binance tells the story of what was building throughout the first half of May before the price broke lower. Across multiple sessions, Binance continuously recorded positive netflow readings — large amounts of ETH being deposited onto the exchange in a sustained, repeated pattern rather than a single isolated event. Each positive reading represents more coins moving from cold storage or external wallets onto the venue where they can be most immediately and efficiently sold.

The supply that accumulated on Binance during those sessions did not disappear. It waited. Exchange deposits represent potential selling pressure rather than confirmed selling — coins positioned at the point of easiest exit, ready to move into the market when the holder decides the moment is right, or when a stop-loss level triggers the decision for them.

What the CryptoQuant data suggests is that the supply arrived before the selling — and that Ethereum losing $2,150 may be the market finally beginning to process the inventory that had been building on Binance throughout the first two weeks of May.

The Supply Arrived, The Price Followed It Down: Now the Market Needs Time

The CryptoQuant analysis connects the inflow pattern directly to the price response that followed it. The sequence is not ambiguous. Large ETH deposits accumulated on Binance throughout the first half of May. The price, which had been holding near $2,400, reacted negatively in the period immediately following those inflows — declining approximately $300 to reach the current level around $2,100.

The supply that arrived on the exchange found insufficient demand to absorb it without a price concession, and the market adjusted downward until sellers and buyers reached a temporary equilibrium.

The constructive element the analysis identifies is the most recent sessions. ETH deposit pressure to Binance has cooled over the past few days — the sustained pattern of large positive netflow readings that characterized the first half of May has not continued at the same pace. The immediate supply pipeline that drove the decline appears to have eased.

But easing is not the same as being resolved. The analysis is precise about what the cooling deposit pressure actually means for the forward outlook. The supply that arrived during the inflow period does not disappear simply because new deposits have slowed. It remains on the exchange, available for sale, and the market requires genuine accumulation activity — buyers willing to absorb that inventory at current levels — before Ethereum can find the new equilibrium point from which a sustainable recovery becomes possible.

The current $2,100 level is where the market is testing whether that accumulation is present. The deposit data says the selling pressure has eased. The price will confirm whether the demand has arrived to meet it.

Ethereum Struggles Below Major Weekly Resistance As Long-Term Trend Weakens

Ethereum is trading near $2,110 on the weekly chart after failing to sustain momentum above the critical $2,300-$2,450 region, an area that now acts as the market’s primary resistance zone. The structure reflects a market that remains trapped between long-term recovery hopes and persistent distribution pressure from larger participants.

The chart shows that Ethereum lost its bullish momentum after sharply rejecting the $4,000-$4,500 range in late 2025. Since then, Ethereum has entered a prolonged corrective structure characterized by lower highs and repeated failures to reclaim major moving averages. The recent rebound from the March lows briefly improved sentiment, but the recovery stalled once the price approached the weekly 50 and 100 moving averages near the $2,400-$3,000 region.

Importantly, Ethereum is now trading below the weekly 200 moving average again, a signal that the broader market structure has weakened considerably compared to previous recovery phases. Volume during the latest decline has also remained elevated relative to recent weeks, suggesting that supply pressure is still active rather than fully exhausted.

The $2,000-$2,100 zone now becomes a decisive support region for bulls. Losing this level could expose Ethereum to another move toward the broader demand area between $1,700 and $1,800, where buyers aggressively defended the price earlier this year after the capitulation event.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

His analysis focuses on the 21 WMA and 21 SMA ribbon, a moving-average structure that has repeatedly separated Bitcoin’s major bull and bear phases across past cycles. The Bitcoin price is slowly pushing back into this ribbon after the 2025 bear market confirmation, but the price is still being rejected at the 21 WMA around $81,974.

Bitcoin Is Pushing Into The Bull-Bear Ribbon Again

Timing the start of a Bitcoin bull market is never straightforward. Every cycle comes with failed breakouts, sudden selloffs, and bear traps. However, a single crossover has reliably separated Bitcoin’s bull markets from its bear markets for over 10 years.

This crossover is known to occur on BTC’s 2-week candlestick chart, where the 21 WMA and 21 SMA have acted as a long-term divider between bull and bear market phases. Crypto analyst Crypflow described the signal as a simple crossover setup, where the 21 WMA moving above the 21 SMA confirms a bull market, and the 21 WMA moving below the 21 SMA confirms a bear market.

The first bearish crossover came after the 2013 cycle top, before the long correction into the 2015 bottom. The bullish flip that followed in 2015 then confirmed the start of a new expansion. A similar structure played out after the 2017 top, where the bearish crossover preceded the decline into the 2018 cycle bottom, followed by a bullish confirmation in 2019.

The same moving-average structure also gave a warning during the 2020 crash, before the bull market resumed when BTC reclaimed the ribbon. Again in the 2021 cycle, the bearish crossover came after the market top and remained part of the broader downtrend into the 2022 bottom. The next bullish flip in 2023 then marked the confirmation phase that supported Bitcoin’s climb into the 2025 cycle top.

BTC Needs To Reclaim This Level

Bitcoin’s most recent signal, which was the bear market confirmation in 2025, came as Bitcoin rolled over from its most recent peak price above $126,000. That confirmation was the start of the current corrective phase.

Now, the important thing is that BTC is trying to push back above the bear market confirmation. The red band on the chart still shows bearish control, and the price action is currently sitting below the moving averages.

The level to watch on the 2-week candlestick chart is the 21 WMA. The indicator is shown around $81,974, while the 21 SMA is higher at about $90,415. Bitcoin’s latest candle is still below both, with the chart showing BTC near $77,980 at the time of the analysis. 

BTC recently pushed above the 21 WMA by touching $82,000 last week, but is now back to trading at $76,914 at the time of writing. This gap explains why the analyst said Bitcoin is pushing into the ribbon again but still getting rejected at the 21 WMA.

HYPE Jumps On Bitwise’s 10% Fee-To-Token Plan

One of the key drivers behind the altcoin’s Monday strength came from Bitwise. In a post on X (previously Twitter), the asset manager said it plans to devote 10% of the management fees from its Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF, BHYP, to holding HYPE on its balance sheet. 

Bitwise also said the newly launched fund provides investors with indirect exposure to HYPE tokens, along with staking rewards, giving the product a linkage to the token’s broader value proposition rather than simple spot exposure.

The result was a noticeable lift in the token’s price action during the session. At the time of writing, the token was hovering near the $50 mark, trading around $46, and edging closer to last year’s all-time highs near $59—roughly 20% away from that peak if momentum continues.

Yet despite these positive developments in the Hyperliquid space, Galaxy Digital’s stock told a different story on the same day. 

Galaxy’s NYDFS Approval

Shares of Galaxy, ticker GLXY, fell by almost 6%, slipping back to around $27.87 to close Monday’s trading session. At the same time, Galaxy also announced an important regulatory milestone earlier on Monday. 

The company received a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), a step that is widely viewed as a sign of expanding institutional access for crypto firms.

Galaxy said the NYDFS granted GalaxyOne Prime NY, the Galaxy entity designed to serve New York clients, both a BitLicense and a Money Transmission License. 

In a statement, Galaxy Founder and CEO Mike Novogratz said New York is home to the deepest pool of institutional capital in the country, emphasizing that digital assets are no longer “sitting at the edge” of those allocations. He also noted that Galaxy was built to meet that demand and now can serve New York’s institutions more directly.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Corporate Demand Pushes Ethereum Reserves Higher

A recent report has revealed an underlying persistent demand for Ethereum even as its price continues to face downside pressure. In the face of volatility, institutional investors have continued acquiring ETH as the amount of ETH held in corporate reserves climbs sharply to fresh levels.

According to Crypto Patel, a researcher and on-chain analyst, the number of ETH collectively held in corporate reserves has recently reached 7.33 million ETH, valued at a whopping $16 billion. This figure marks its highest level yet.

The milestone shows that businesses across the crypto and financial sectors are becoming more open to treating Ethereum as a strategic part of long-term treasury and digital asset plans rather than just as a speculative asset. When institutions are buying, it often points to rising confidence in Ethereum and the network’s expanding role across the blockchain sector.

With roughly 6% of ETH’s total supply now sitting on corporate balance sheets, Crypto Patel has labeled this a rapidly growing institutional accumulation. Overall, the increase in corporate ETH reserves underscores ETH’s role as one of the leading assets for long-term investments in the broader and ever-dynamic cryptocurrency sector.

Small And Medium-Sized ETH Whales Are On A Selling Spree

It is important to note that sentiment toward Ethereum is not uniformly bullish. CW, a market expert and verified author at CryptoQuant, has outlined a negative shift in sentiment among small and medium-sized ETH whales.

In the expert’s post shared on the X platform, it is shown that the groups of key investors are steadily offloading their ETH holdings, indicating growing caution amid the current bearish market environment. These investors are likely selling their coins in order to secure more gains and prevent more losses.

While small and medium-sized whales continue to sell their ETH, large whales are doing the opposite as their balance has steadily increased. CW stated that this suggests that large whales are snatching up the coins being sold by these cohorts. In the meantime, this trend could play a critical role in shaping momentum, particularly when large holders begin positioning for potential upside. 

Currently, the price of ETH is trading at $2,119, showing a more than 3% decline over the past day. However, after examining its price action on the 4-hour time frame, CW noted that Ethereum has now entered a buy wall zone, which is acting as a key support zone for the altcoin. While ETH is in a buy wall zone, a region where robust demand might promote price stability and possibly spur a recovery, a sell wall has also emerged around the $2,250 price level, which also paints a potential bearish outlook for the token.

Speaking with Scott Melker in an interview released May 17, Witt confirmed once again that the reserve effort has continued behind the scenes even as broader crypto-market structure legislation has dominated Washington’s digital-asset agenda. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, he said, was never dropped; it was simply moving through a slower interagency process triggered by the earlier executive order.

“There’s still progress there. There’s still work going on behind the scenes,” Witt said. “We never stopped working on it.”

US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Update Nears

Witt credited Harry Jung, his deputy, with leading much of the internal process, including coordination across agencies and White House policy teams responsible for ensuring that executive orders are carried out. The work, he said, has involved the less visible but critical mechanics of government implementation: legal memos, agency authorities, asset safeguards and the question of whether existing powers are sufficient.

“We’ll have an announcement. And I wish I could say more at this time,” Witt said. “It’s a breakthrough as far as getting everything in place, legally sound, properly safeguarding the assets.”

That phrasing matters. The market-sensitive question around the reserve remains whether the US government will eventually move beyond retaining seized Bitcoin and pursue additional accumulation. Witt did not confirm that. Instead, his comments pointed to the architecture of the reserve itself: how Bitcoin already held by the government is identified, secured, transferred, accounted for and separated from the broader US Digital Asset Stockpile.

Witt tied the urgency partly to the government’s existing exposure to digital assets. He referenced the theft of assets from US Marshals Service holdings involving “tier 2 assets,” calling it a proof point that federal digital-asset custody requires a different level of care.

“These assets have to be safeguarded. They are unique,” Witt said. “It’s going to require the government to do this in a bit of a different way and obviously take it very, very seriously because we have more of these assets on the balance sheet.”

The reserve has also become a legislative question. Witt said executive orders are “very reversible,” citing the way incoming administrations often undo prior executive actions. For that reason, he said the administration wants the reserve framework codified into law rather than left dependent on presidential authority alone.

Witt pointed to Senator Cynthia Lummis’ BITCOIN Act and a House effort led by Representative Nick Begich, the American Reserves Modernization Act, or ARMA. According to Witt, the House bill has incorporated stakeholder feedback and could potentially move through a committee markup before seeking a path alongside must-pass legislation.

The broader policy logic is geopolitical as much as domestic. Witt said other jurisdictions are watching Washington’s digital-asset agenda closely, particularly the CLARITY Act and related legislation. In his framing, a US Bitcoin reserve is not isolated from market-structure reform, stablecoin rules or bank-permissible-activity provisions; it is part of a wider attempt to define the financial infrastructure the US wants to lead.

“There’s no more powerful institutional sponsorship than the US government saying we give this a thumbs up and we think that this should be part of the financial architecture,” Witt said. He added that if the US fails to set the rules, “we will be following somebody else’s rule book.”

At press time, BTC traded at $76,825.

Pundit Says “It’s Over For XRP Bears”

XRP’s price is hovering around the $1.38 level following a pullback on Sunday. While the altcoin continues to struggle around this key level, Cheeky Crypto, a market expert and investor, argues that the recent price structure could spell trouble for bears.

According to the expert, the signal is already flashing that “it is over for XRP bears.” XRP is starting to exhibit indications of a strategic setup that is frequently linked to increased momentum and a potential shift in market control in favor of buyers. “The charts look flat and the ‘to the moon’ crowd has vanished, but this heavy silence is actually a strategic setup,” the expert stated.

Although average retail traders are making use of low volume as an excuse to quit, a methodical, silent reset is slowly forming that signals a fundamental market restructuring. This setup could clearly lead to the end for bears as momentum steadily builds underneath the surface.

As of May 2026, Cheeky Crypto highlighted that XRP has surpassed Binance Coin (BNB) to become the number four asset in the world with an over $84 billion market valuation. This resilient price action is likely to spur renewed interest among investors, which could lead to a drop in bearish pressure across the market.

Cheeky Crypto stated that this is not a funeral for the bears. Rather, it is a coiled spring prepared for a massive move. Adding to this trend is the rising interest in the altcoin among institutional investors, which would play a key role in triggering a move to the $1.80 zone.

Currently, institutional players are using the quiet period to build massive positions in XRP via Spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), while preparing for the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act. As the weekly TD Sequential flashes a significant buy signal and the ghost in the ledger displays high-frequency trading activity, the route to the $1.80 target is becoming evident. 

A Historical 700% Move Incoming For The Altcoin?

The price may have pulled back, but CoinForge claims that the XRP structure is looking insanely bullish right now. CoinForge’s analysis is based on historical levels and trends that previously preceded massive rallies for the altcoin.

According to the expert, the altcoin is currently sitting at a critical level that triggered a leg up of over 700% the last time. At the same time, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) has done a deep Golden Cross, a setup that is primed for an expansion. 

Should the trend repeat, the goal is slightly below $5, which would represent a 240% increase. “If you’ve been waiting, you’re about to get rewarded,” CoinForge added, while urging investors to remain patient.

How Much Goldman Sachs Has Invested In XRP ETFs

A crypto and blockchain researcher known as BankXRP on X has revealed Goldman Sachs‘s massive investment in XRP. According to its Q1 2026 13F, filed on February 10, 2026, the US bank held more than 1.94 million shares of the XRP ETF as of Q4 2025, from Bitwise Asset Management. At the time, this investment was worth nearly $40 million but fell to $31.2  million due to lower market prices.  

Notably, BankXRP said that this large amount of XRP ETF exposure is just a fraction of Goldman Sach’s total holdings. The bank currently holds a total of about $154 million across four XRP ETFs. The analyst noted that this stake represents about 73% of all disclosed institutional XRP ETF holdings, making Goldman Sachs the top institutional holder.

Beyond its position in the Bitwise XRP ETF, Goldman Sach’s has invested about $38.5 million in Franklin’s XRP Trust, $38 million in Grayscale XRP ETF, and $36 million in 21Shares XRP ETF. BankXRP argued that the sheer size of the bank’s XRP ETF stake shows that institutions are becoming incredibly serious about XRP and no longer treating it as a speculative bet. They are actively accumulating the digital asset ahead of any possible market shift. 

BankXRP further noted that, despite XRP’s price declines and muted performance over the past few months, Goldman Sachs has not reduced its exposure to the cryptocurrency. This shows that institutions are likely investing for the long run, reflecting strong confidence in XRP’s future performance. 

Royal Bank Of Canada Invests In XRP ETFs

In another post, market experts Xaif Crypto revealed that another major bank has also revealed a stake in XRP. The crypto analyst said that the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) currently has over $30,000 worth of XRP exposure through the Bitwise XRP ETF. The bank had registered its holdings in a 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 15, 2026. 

Xaif Crypto noted that RBC’s stake in XRP ETFs, at just about 2,000 shares, is incredibly small relative to its $570 billion portfolio. However, he pointed out that the total stake does not matter. He said that what is important is that a top-5 Canadian bank now officially holds XRP ETFs on record. 

Just having one of Wall Street’s most prestigious firms, like Goldman Sachs, listed as a top holder brings huge reputational credibility. Now, with a top Canadian bank joining as a major investor, XRP’s position in the crypto space is strengthening, steadily establishing it as a core institutional asset.

Cardano Founder Accused Of Derailing XRP’s Growth

In an X post, Ripple community member Wino opined that the Cardano founder was involved in the ETHgate, which negatively impacted XRP’s growth. The ETHgate involves allegations that the U.S. SEC favored Ethereum over XRP by declaring that the former wasn’t a security. The Commission also eventually sued Ripple, arguing that XRP was a security. 

This notably impacted XRP’s growth as the altcoin stagnated for most of the lawsuit and failed to record any significant gains even during the 2021 bull run. XRP and Ethereum were notably ranked as the largest altcoins by market cap at the time, making them direct competitors and fueling speculation that the ETHgate was aimed at bringing XRP down. 

Meanwhile, in response to claims that he was involved in the ETHgate, the Cardano founder noted that he was “pushed” out of Ethereum in June 2014. He added that since then, they have spent 12 years attacking him. As such, he questioned how it was possible that he decided, years later, to coordinate with them to help Ethereum attack XRP. 

It is worth noting that the Cardano founder was one of Ethereum’s co-founders but left in June 2014 over differences with Vitalik Buterin and the other co-founders. Since then, Hoskinson has criticized Ethereum on several occasions, including once predicting that the network wouldn’t survive the next ten to fifteen years. 

Wino, who had accused the Cardano founder of being part of ETHgate, later revealed that his accusation was based on hearsay and that he was hoping the truth would come out someday. He added that he was rooting for the CLARITY Act to pass, so that ADA and XRP could both record parabolic rallies. 

Focus Is On The CLARITY Act

Wino’s accusations stemmed from a discussion of the CLARITY Act, in which the Cardano founder had warned that the crypto bill was far from perfect. He further remarked that, under the bill, there was a risk that the SEC would classify new crypto projects as securities. However, pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton had before now mentioned that failure to pass the crypto bill risks a ‘Gensler 2.0.’

The CLARITY Act advanced to the full Senate last week as the Senate Banking Committee voted in favor of the bill. The crypto market structure bill will provide regulatory clarity for crypto assets such as XRP and Cardano, classifying them as commodities. However, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse opined that XRP will be okay whether or not the crypto bill passes, as Judge Analisa Torres already ruled that the crypto isn’t a security.

Schwartz Donates XRP To Deaton Senate Bid

The exchange played out publicly on X after Deaton appealed for donations on May 15, arguing that his campaign was built around small-dollar contributors rather than PACs, lobbyists or “special interests.” Schwartz, posting under his long-running “JoelKatz” account, replied two days later with a brief message: “Sent some XRP.” Deaton answered: “Thank you David!”

Deaton is again running for Senate in Massachusetts after winning the Republican primary in 2024 and losing to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the general election. His new campaign targets the seat held by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, who is seeking another term.

In the video attached to his fundraising post, Deaton framed the campaign as a challenge to entrenched political power in Washington. “I put in as much money as I could for my own campaign, but I don’t take big money. I don’t take PAC money. I don’t take money from lobbyists,” he said. “I just take money really from regular people and most of my donations are small donations. We’re talking 50 bucks, 25 bucks, 100 bucks.”

I hate asking for money, but I need your help.

Unlike career politicians, I don’t take PAC money. I don’t take lobbyist money. I don’t answer to special interests. This campaign is powered by hardworking people giving 25 bucks, 50 bucks, 100 bucks at a time because they believe… pic.twitter.com/sNBDWgsQaS

— John Deaton (@DeatonforSenate) May 15, 2026

The appeal leaned heavily on Deaton’s positioning as an outsider candidate rather than a conventional party figure. He said voters needed “somebody to Washington that actually cares about people,” adding that he would “put people before politics” and would not be “loyal to a person or a party or an agenda.” Deaton also cited policy priorities including energy, housing and healthcare, saying he had “an energy plan that will reduce electricity prices,” “a housing plan that’ll build 5 million homes nationwide in five years,” and a healthcare reform plan aimed at large vertically integrated insurers.

For the crypto market, the donation is notable less for its size, which was not disclosed, than for the messenger. Schwartz is one of the best-known technical figures associated with Ripple and XRP. Deaton, meanwhile, built a national profile in digital-asset circles through his advocacy around XRP holders and his criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approach to crypto enforcement.

The overlap between Deaton’s political campaigns and the crypto sector was already visible in 2024. Federal Election Commission records show Deaton’s 2024 campaign committee reported $2.24 million in total receipts, including $1 million in loans made by the candidate and $1.15 million in individual contributions.

The donation also comes as Deaton is trying to distinguish between his campaign’s direct fundraising model and the broader role of crypto money in US elections. His message to supporters was explicit: “The only way I win is if people like you listening to this donate whatever you can afford.”

Whether that support meaningfully changes Deaton’s electoral position is a separate question. Massachusetts remains difficult terrain for Republicans, and Deaton’s 2024 run ended in defeat against Warren.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.38.

When the filing became public, the company’s shares, BTM, dropped an additional 20% in overnight trading. The NASDAQ-listed company had built its business around giving everyday people quick access to Bitcoin through physical kiosks — a model that regulators eventually made impossible to sustain.

The company filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 18 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Its entire network of more than 9,000 Bitcoin teller machines has been taken offline.

A Company Squeezed From Every Direction

CEO Alex Holmes said the decision came after weighing all available options. “After evaluating all options, we determined to initiate this court-supervised process to facilitate an orderly wind-down of operations and a sale of the company’s assets,” Holmes said in a press release.

Both US and Canadian entities are included in the bankruptcy proceedings. The company also plans additional restructuring in Canada and a wind-down of non-US operations under applicable laws.

Holmes pointed to a wave of regulatory pressure as the main driver behind the collapse. Bitcoin ATM operators across North America have faced increasingly strict compliance requirements, including new transaction limits, outright bans in some jurisdictions, enforcement actions, and lawsuits.

Bitcoin Depot responded by tightening its own controls — adding stronger identity verification, customer fraud warnings, and lower transaction caps — but those measures could not reverse the financial damage already done.

Revenue had been falling sharply. Data shows the company posted a 49% year-over-year revenue decline in the first quarter of 2026 and recorded a net loss of $9.5 million in the same period.

Leadership had also been shifting before the collapse. Scott Buchanan stepped down as CEO in March, and Holmes was appointed to lead the company and chair its board. Founder Brandon Mintz moved from executive chair to a non-executive board seat around the same time.

A Wind-Down, Not A Rescue

The bankruptcy filing is not aimed at restructuring the business and keeping it alive. Based on the company’s own statements, the goal is an orderly sale of assets and a full wind-down of operations. No buyer has been publicly named.

Bitcoin Depot’s fall is one of the most visible signs yet of how hard the regulatory environment has hit physical crypto infrastructure businesses. The company once operated one of the largest cash-to-Bitcoin networks in North America. That network is now dark.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The exploit was flagged in real time by blockchain security firm Blockaid, with details subsequently amplified by on-chain intelligence account @coinxtreme_en on X.

According to the post, the drainer wallet — 0x65Cb8b128Bf6e690761044CCECA422bb239C25F9 — received approximately 1,625 ETH worth roughly $3.43 million, 103.57 tBTC worth approximately $7.96 million, and 147,000 USDC in a single outbound transfer. Most of the stolen assets were subsequently converted to ETH through Uniswap, per the X post.

The attack lands with particular force given how Verus positioned its bridge. The project’s homepage carried language stating the bridge was “validated by protocol rules, not custom code” — a direct appeal to users fatigued by smart contract vulnerabilities that have defined DeFi’s most damaging exploits.

The Verus architecture relied on cryptographic proofs, notary witnesses, and protocol-level validation rather than the custom contract logic that attackers have repeatedly targeted across other bridges, per the @coinxtreme_en post. The irony, as the post frames it, is that the “no code to exploit” marketing became the bridge’s most damaging liability once the exploit materialized.

The sequence of events in the 48 hours before the attack raises questions the post describes as smelling like a targeted, sophisticated play rather than opportunistic scanning. Two days prior to the exploit, Verus pushed an emergency update labeled version 1.2.14-2, described by the team as urgent and mandatory, citing an unspecified vulnerability.

According to the @coinxtreme_en post, the attacker’s wallet was funded through Tornado Cash approximately 11 to 13 hours after that announcement — a timing pattern consistent with an actor who had prior knowledge of the vulnerability and used the emergency update window to prepare the attack infrastructure before execution.

The pattern is not new to DeFi. Emergency patches that reveal the existence of a vulnerability without fully closing it have historically provided sophisticated actors with a narrow window to act before the broader community understands the exposure.

Cross-chain bridges remain the most structurally vulnerable layer of decentralized finance, responsible for a disproportionate share of total DeFi losses since 2021. The Verus incident reinforces a principle the nascent sector has paid for repeatedly in nine-figure losses: protocol-level design assumptions, however elegant in theory, are no substitute for formal verification, independent audits, and the operational discipline to pause systems when a credible threat is identified. Another bridge fell. The gap between “unhackable by design” and “unhacked in practice” remains as wide as ever.

As of this writing, the Ethereum price shows signs of further downside after a soft weekend. The cryptocurrency is down around 10% over the past week, and around 3% over the past 24 hours.

Cover image from ChatGPT, ETHUSD chat from Tradingview

Iran Officially Turns To Bitcoin

Fars reported that the platform, called “Hormuz Safe,” has begun offering insurance for maritime cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The outlet said a document obtained by its reporter showed Iran’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance had been working since early Ordibehesht, the second month of the Iranian calendar, on a plan to make management of the strait possible through insurance. The same report said the scheme could issue maritime insurance policies and financial responsibility certificates, potentially generating more than $10 billion in revenue for Iran.

The most crypto-relevant element is the settlement layer. Fars said the platform’s rules provide “fast, cryptographically verifiable” insurance policies for cargo moving through the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waterways. “Payments are settled with Bitcoin,” the report said, adding that cargo is covered “from the moment of confirmation” and that owners receive a signed receipt.

That wording makes the story more specific than a generic Bitcoin-payment initiative. The Fars report names Bitcoin directly, rather than referring only to crypto assets, stablecoins or blockchain-based payment rails. It also frames the product not as a consumer-facing wallet or exchange service, but as infrastructure for a maritime insurance and compliance process around ships and cargo.

Related Reading: Bitcoin Social Euphoria Hits Yearly High Amid CLARITY Act Buzz

The launch comes amid heightened scrutiny of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea. The US Energy Information Administration has called Hormuz the world’s most important oil chokepoint, noting that oil flows through the strait averaged 21 million barrels per day in 2022, equal to about 21% of global petroleum liquids consumption.

The geopolitical context has become even more acute in recent months. Iran had begun allowing some Chinese vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz after an understanding over Iranian management protocols for the waterway. Iran had severely restricted transit following the start of US and Israeli strikes on February 28, while a US blockade on Iranian ports after an early-April ceasefire had prolonged the crisis in a corridor through which one-fifth of global oil and natural gas transit.

Fars did not provide technical details on how Bitcoin payments are received, whether the platform uses on-chain settlement directly, third-party custody, internal accounting, or conversion into local or foreign currency. It also did not identify counterparties, underwriters, wallet infrastructure, or any external insurers connected to the platform.

At press time, BTC traded at $76,685.

Data from Santiment shows that bullish Bitcoin commentary on social media has climbed to one of its greediest readings of the year, with 1.55 bullish comments for every 1.00 bearish comment. The on-chain data, however, indicates that the crowd may be getting ahead of itself.

Bitcoin Sentiment Points To Greed After CLARITY Act Vote

The passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act through the Senate Banking Committee moved both price and crowd psychology simultaneously. The move came after the US Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act in a 15-9 bipartisan vote, sending the important market-structure bill to the full Senate.

Interestingly, Santiment’s data shows that Bitcoin social sentiment has moved back into a FOMO zone. On May 15, Santiment’s social sentiment ratio for Bitcoin reached 1.55 bullish comments for every 1.00 bearish comment, placing it within a FOMO Zone.

That reading mirrors a prior peak recorded on April 25, when the ratio reached 1.58 bullish-to-bearish. Any time the ratio of positive to negative commentary on social media crosses this FOMO zone, then it is an ideal temporary profit-taking moment. 

This does not mean Bitcoin has to crash because the crowd has turned optimistic. The same Santiment chart shows that the better contrarian setup came on April 18, when the bullish-to-bearish ratio dropped to 0.59. This was deep in the FUD Zone, before Bitcoin mounted a recovery.

Bitcoin Ratio Of Positive vs. Negative Commentary. Source: @SantimentData On X

CLARITY Act Still Bullish For Bitcoin In The Long Run

The caution around short-term sentiment does not cancel the long-term importance of the CLARITY Act. The bill is designed to create a clearer federal framework for digital assets, including a more defined division of authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The bill was championed by major crypto companies, including Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple, all of which have sought a degree of regulation for the crypto industry. Senior figures linked to these companies also reacted positively on social media after the Senate Banking Committee advanced the legislation.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, for instance, stated in a post on X: “looking forward to a bipartisan law that cements the US as the world’s crypto capital. Let’s get CLARITY done.”

The bill still needs to be available for a vote from the full Senate, where 60 yes votes will be required. Projections from SoSoValue show a key window between mid-May and early August, with the House recess beginning July 27 and the Senate recess beginning August 10. 

If lawmakers fail to complete full Senate consideration and reconciliation before that period, the bill could be pushed deeper into the fall agenda, and the difficulty of passage will rise significantly.

Clarity Act Legislative Process. Source: SoSoValue

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

VanEck Issues 5th BNB ETF Revision As ETF Race Heats Up

In a recent post on X, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart shared that VanEck had filed Amendment No. 5 to the S-1 for its VanEck BNB ETF, looking to launch under the ticker VBNB. The original application for this ETF came in May 2025, amid a period of filings and anticipated approvals for several altcoin spot ETFs, in line with US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto agenda. 

Since his inauguration in January 2025, the SEC has approved spot ETFs tied to XRP, Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), Chainlink (LINK), and Litecoin (LTC), among other cryptocurrencies. Alongside VanEck, Grayscale has also issued a second amendment to its Grayscale BNB ETF, as the asset manager looks to add another product to its existing nine-spot ETFs. Grayscale issued its first amendment in April 2025, following discussions of its initial filings in January 2025.

Yup. Definitely movement at the SEC with regards to a potential binancecoin:native ETF launch. @vaneck_us just filed an amended prospectus for their binancecoin:native ETF. This is their FIFTH amendment. Yes 5th. https://t.co/jdVjPZ3f72 pic.twitter.com/LvAhNZ7hkf

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) May 15, 2026

Generally, Subsequent amendments to ETF filings indicate ongoing dialogue between applicants and the SEC. These changes represent modifications requested by the regulator through formal staff comment letters, covering issues such as redemption mechanics, custody arrangements, staking disclosures, fee structures, and investor protection concerns. 

With both revisions from VanEck and Grayscale coming at the same time, it is likely that both asset managers are responding to similar feedback from the  SEC, perhaps with near-term approval plans. Following these developments, Seyffart speculates that BNB could emerge as the next cryptocurrency to get a US spot ETF. 

The Next Altcoin Spot ETF 

Alongside Binance Coin, other cryptocurrencies with a prospective Spot ETF launch in view include SEI (SEI), Cardano (ADA), and Tron (TRX). Notably, Canary Capital had also recently filed Amendment No. 1 to its S-1 for its Canary Staked TRX ETF. The ETF structure remains a critical means of driving institutional adoption of virtual cryptocurrencies by eliminating custody complexity and aligning with existing compliance frameworks.

Since their launch in 2024, Spot Bitcoin ETFs have emerged as among the best-performing ETFs globally, with total cumulative net inflows. And the next asset is $ 58.34 billion, with net assets of $104.29 billion.  For assets such as BNB, ADA, and SEI, a similar dynamic could repeat, naturally at a smaller scale, given their relative market capitalizations.

Speaking at Consensus Miami, Hoskinson said the window to prepare may be closing faster than the industry has assumed.

A Deadline The Industry Cannot Ignore

Hoskinson put the odds of a capable quantum computer arriving before 2033 at above 50%. That kind of machine, he said, would be powerful enough to crack the cryptographic systems that currently protect digital wallets, private keys, and transaction signatures across most major blockchain networks.

If that happens, bad actors could potentially access wallets without authorization, forge transaction signatures, or disrupt how blockchains reach agreement. He was direct: this is no longer a problem for the next generation to solve.

Hoskinson Says There’s Over a 50% Chance Quantum Systems Could Threaten Digital Security by 2033

According to Crowdfund Insider, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said at Consensus Miami that there is a more than 50% chance commercial quantum systems capable of challenging… pic.twitter.com/UOB5htKCwr

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 16, 2026

Most blockchains today — Bitcoin included — rely on traditional encryption methods that were never designed with quantum computing in mind.

Those systems work by making certain math problems extremely difficult for classical computers to solve. A sufficiently advanced quantum machine could blow through those same problems in a fraction of the time.

Cardano’s Quantum Defense Plan

Cardano is not waiting around. According to Hoskinson, the network already has a research program focused on quantum security, with partners involved and specific technical goals in place.

The main focus is lattice-based cryptography, a form of encryption that quantum systems would find far harder to break than older models.

Cardano also plans to adopt federal quantum-resistant standards — known as FIPS 203 through 206 — which were developed to protect digital systems against future quantum-powered attacks.

Hoskinson noted that rolling out these changes on Cardano would be relatively straightforward. The network runs scheduled hard fork upgrades annually, which gives it a built-in mechanism for adopting new security standards without major disruption.

For Bitcoin, the path is less clear. BIP-361 has been proposed as a way to phase in quantum-resistant wallet addresses over several years, but Bitcoin’s upgrade process is slower and more contested than Cardano’s.

Hoskinson acknowledged the difficulty but said a migration of that kind is achievable. He suggested Cardano could carry out a similar transition with relative ease given its existing upgrade structure.

Whether Bitcoin moves fast enough remains an open question — one the broader crypto industry may not be able to put off much longer.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin MVRV Mirrors 2018 Bear Market

The Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) metric is used to gauge the current market condition: a ratio above 1 suggests an asset may be overvalued, while a ratio below 1 indicates an undervalued market. In an X post on May 16, Crypto Chan explains that the Bitcoin MVRV metric is currently showing a bearish structure similar to that seen in the 2018 bear market. In that cycle, BTC experienced its final capitulation phase after the MVRV ratio initially declined to around 1.15, then rebounded to 1.63, ultimately preceding the market’s last downswing and the eventual price bottom.

18年熊市最后一跌前，比特币 MVRV 最低跌至 1.15，之后最高反弹 1.63

本轮熊市截至目前，比特币 MVRV 最低跌至 1.14，之后最高反弹 1.51 https://t.co/angWCNrv04 pic.twitter.com/Kvkv3OvFZQ

— CryptoChan (@0xCryptoChan) May 17, 2026

Similar to that time, the Bitcoin MVRV metric had dropped to 1.14 when prices reached the current cycle bottom of $60,000. Since then, the premier cryptocurrency has registered steady gains, rising to its recent peak of $82,000, while the MVRV ratio has rebounded to 1.51. Based on historical data, this on-chain pattern could signal another sustained price decline for Bitcoin.

How Low Could BTC Go?

Alongside Crypto Chan, other analysts are also betting on a downside move amid the asset price struggle with the $82,000 zone. In a separate X post, market pundit Kabuki predicts that the leading cryptocurrency is now reacting to the completion of the bearish head-and-shoulders formation on its weekly chart. Kabuki’s analysis forecasts Bitcoin to retreat to $70,000 in the coming days and drop to $41,000 in June. The projected path outlines a series of key support levels, beginning at $61,000 and $47,000, before a brief relief bounce toward $55,000. This temporary recovery is then anticipated to give way to a final sell-off, ultimately forming a market bottom around $41,000. At press time, the premier cryptocurrency is valued at $78,044 following a minor 0.51% decline in the last day. With a market cap of $1.56 trillion, Bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency and 12th largest asset in the world.

Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to cross the aisle for the legislation to clear the full chamber.

CLARITY Act Advances

The CLARITY Act advanced out of the US Senate Banking Committee last Thursday after a vote that split mostly along party lines. All 13 Republican members voted in favor, joined by two Democrats.

Nine Democrats voted against it. The bill, which aims to give the crypto industry clearer rules around market structure, has been a subject of intense debate since its introduction in July 2025.

Grayscale pointed to the GENIUS Act as a possible guide for what comes next. That stablecoin legislation passed the Senate with 66 votes, including 18 Democrats.

https://t.co/5HWCyID7R0

— a16z crypto (@a16zcrypto) May 15, 2026

Based on that track record, Grayscale said it believes similar bipartisan backing for the CLARITY Act is achievable, though it acknowledged that several hurdles remain before it can be signed into law.

Broader Economic Stakes

Venture capital firm a16z crypto argued Friday that the implications of the bill go well beyond the crypto sector. According to the firm, giving builders in the US a clear legal framework would drive wider domestic innovation.

It cited the GENIUS Act’s passage as a precedent, saying that legislation produced strong growth and adoption that it described as beneficial not just for the US economy but for the long-term position of the US dollar globally.

The US dollar index, which measures the dollar’s strength against a basket of major currencies, stood at 99.26 at the time of publication, up 1.25% over the prior 30 days, according to TradingView data.

Sharplink Gaming CEO Joseph Chalom added another dimension to the conversation, saying the bill is being watched far beyond US borders.

While many see the legislation as a domestic matter, Chalom said other countries are treating it as a signal for how they might approach their own crypto regulations.

A16z framed the broader stakes plainly: when US legal frameworks balance innovation with consumer protection, the country tends to lead and the rest of the world follows.

Whether the Senate delivers that framework is now a question of vote counting.

Featured image from MadebyBaurley, chart from TradingView

Why The BTC Market Might Be Overheating

In a new post on the X platform, crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed that the Bitcoin price is overheating and is at an increased risk of a return to the downside. This postulation is based on the Realized Profit/Loss Margin, which measures the actual return on a closed position in the cryptocurrency market.

This on-chain indicator helps evaluate general investor sentiment, offering insight into whether the market is heating up or cooling off. Typically, a high profit margin could signal an impending price top, while a negative value is often correlated with panic sell-offs and the formation of a market bottom.

According to CryptoQuant data highlighted by Martinez, the average Bitcoin trader’s realized profit margin has reached 17%, which could be seen as a warning signal. The analyst noted that, for the first time since October 2025, the average Bitcoin investor is sitting on significant returns and could be looking to lock in those gains.

From a historical perspective, this profit margin level doesn’t look like good news for the Bitcoin price, as it has coincided with a market top in the past. More specifically, Martinez noted that the last time this metric reached 17% was in March 2022, when the flagship cryptocurrency was testing the 200-day moving average resistance.

The analyst explained:

That specific alignment signaled the exact moment the local top was in before the downtrend resumed in earnest.

Hence, if history is anything to go by, the current confluence of on-chain signals suggests that the Bitcoin price might have reached a local top and may be on its way down.

Bitcoin Price Overview

All in all, the $78,000 mark might be one to watch, as the price level has proven to be a good support cushion in recent weeks and falling beneath it could open the door to further downside movement. As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at around $78,070, reflecting no significant movement in the past 24 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, the flagship cryptocurrency is down by more than 3% on the weekly timeframe.

A Shift Toward Blue-Chip Crypto

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s biggest bank, grew its crypto holdings from roughly $100 million at the end of 2025 to around $235 million by March 31, according to a report by Italian crypto outlet Criptovaluta.it.

The expansion was not a simple case of buying more of the same. The bank added Ethereum exposure for the first time through BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust and built up its Bitcoin positions across two separate ETFs — the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. It also opened its first derivatives position in the space, taking a stake in iShares Bitcoin Trust call options.

At the same time, the bank pulled back sharply from Solana. Its holdings in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF dropped from 266,320 shares to just 2,815 — a near-complete exit. The move signals a preference for better-established digital assets over higher-risk alternatives.

Equity Moves Round Out The Picture

On the stock side, Intesa added 165,600 shares of BitGo and raised its Coinbase position from 1,500 to 10,357 shares. It closed out put options on Strategy and trimmed its stake in Cantor Equity Partners II, a vehicle tied to tokenization firm Securitize.

The bank also sold off its entire Bitmine position. According to reports, Intesa has confirmed its crypto holdings are kept for proprietary trading. Whether any of those assets are used to back products offered to professional clients has not been disclosed.

Shares of Intesa closed at 5.74 euros on Friday, down 1.50% on the day and off 3.14% for the year, based on data from Yahoo Finance.

Intesa’s moves fit a wider pattern across Europe. Spain’s BBVA now offers round-the-clock Bitcoin and Ether trading through its mobile app, making it the first major Spanish bank to do so.

France’s BPCE launched in-app crypto trading through a regulated subsidiary called Hexarq, with plans to reach 12 million customers by 2026. Belgium’s KBC has also gone live with retail crypto services.

Meanwhile, 12 major European banks — including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, and Deutsche Bank — have formed a consortium called Qivalis.

Their goal is to issue a euro-backed stablecoin that complies with MiCA, Europe’s crypto regulatory framework, with a planned launch in the second half of 2026.

Featured image from Intnews, chart from TradingView

Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund Increases Its IBIT Holdings, Harvard Downsizes

Friday, May 15th, was the deadline for institutional investors and asset managers to disclose their investment holdings as of the end of 2026’s first quarter. One of the most interesting disclosures on the day came from Mubadala Investment Company, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth vehicles.

According to the Form 13F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the sovereign wealth fund revealed a significant increase in its exposure to crypto through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) exchange-traded fund (ETF). The fund increased its stake in the largest BTC ETF from 12,702,323 shares previously to 14,721,917 shares (worth roughly $566 million) as of March 31st.

Some traditional financial institutions also increased their crypto exposure while hedging their downside risk. For instance, the Royal Bank of Canada disclosed adding to its IBIT holdings while applying contingent options (calls and puts) to cover its positions.

The Bank of Nova Scotia, another Canadian institution, purchased 214,370 IBIT shares in the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Barclays revealed a layered position in the BlackRock Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, along with large put and call options (with the IBIT ETF as underlying).

Interestingly, most major university endowment funds (except Harvard) disclosed no significant changes in their exposure to the crypto market. Harvard University, which holds one of the largest crypto ETF positions among academic institutions, has continued to reduce its holdings in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

After cutting its IBIT position by 21% in the fourth quarter of 2025, Harvard endowment further decreased its holdings of the IBIT ETF and completely liquidated its Ether ETF position. The university disclosed 3,044,612 IBIT shares as of March 31st (worth about $117 million), a 43% reduction from its 5.35 million-share position at the end of 2025.

Other Ivy League universities, Brown and Dartmouth, revealed no changes in their 212,500-share and 201,531-share holdings in BlackRock’s IBIT in the previous quarter. However, Dartmouth disclosed shifting its Ether exposure from the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust into Grayscale’s Ethereum Staking ETF, while opening a new 304,803-share position (valued at $3.67 million) in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF.

Increased activity of institutional investors in the crypto market is often seen as validation of the digital asset industry as a whole. Hence, these disclosures suggest that the large-scale investors might have viewed the earlier underperformance of the crypto market as a buying opportunity rather than as an indictment of its long-term potential.

Crypto Market Cap Overview

As of this writing, the crypto market capitalization stands at around $2.57 trillion, reflecting an over 1% decline in the past day. While the market has somewhat recovered over the past two months, it is still down by more than 12% so far in 2026.

How Historical Bitcoin Data Supports A Positive May Outlook

The Bitcoin monthly structure continues to follow a historically reliable pattern that may favor another strong close for May. Crypto trader Ardi has highlighted that as of Friday, BTC was trading roughly 5% above its monthly open, a positioning that has historically provided one of the strongest clues for how the rest of the month is likely to finish.

Data shows that when BTC is above its monthly open by the 15th, the market has historically closed the month in positive territory approximately 77% of the time. This trend provides a statistically significant edge, suggesting that May is likely to finish at or above its monthly open near $76,000, making a clean breakdown of the current range less probable in the short term.

This pattern has shown remarkable consistency over recent market cycles, with 11 of the last 13 months following the same trend. If May ultimately follows through, BTC would print three consecutive green monthly candles, which has never happened during any previous BTC bear market.

Bitcoin’s recent retest of key levels was initially successful, but BTC has now returned to the same region for another critical retest. Crypto investor Rekt Capital explained that this repeated consolidation suggests the retest process may continue through the remainder of the week as the market searches for confirmation on its next major directional move.

BTC needs to secure a weekly close above the 21-week Exponential Moving Average (EMA) green to maintain positioning for additional short-term upside momentum. However, on a broader timeframe, the outlook remains more cautious. As long as BTC continues to respect its multi-month pattern of lower highs, the macro bias leans bearish.

Why Trapped Shorts Could Fuel Bitcoin’s Next Move Higher

According to JDK Analysis, the recent downside move in Bitcoin was primarily driven by long liquidations rather than strong selling pressure. Spot market activity remained relatively muted, suggesting that the drop lacked real conviction from sellers and was instead a mechanical flush of overleveraged positions.

At the local bottom, the dynamics began to shift. Fresh short positions entered the market, but instead of pushing the price lower, they were met with passive buying interest that absorbed the selling pressure. As a result, many of these newly opened shorts are now trapped at the lows, creating the conditions for bullish absorption.

JDK Analysis noted that the key next step is whether aggressive buyers step in with conviction. If they do, price could begin to move higher, forcing those trapped shorts to cover their positions, which would add fuel to the upside and confirm strength.

Sentiment Turns Extremely Bullish Following Senate Committee Vote

In a May 15th post on the social media platform X, on-chain analytics firm Santiment Intelligence reported a sharp rise in Bitcoin’s crowd sentiment. According to the chart shared by the market analytics firm, the crowd has reached one of the greediest levels towards Bitcoin this year.

This notable spike in the emotions of Bitcoin’s market participants apparently followed news of the CLARITY Act’s advancement (in a 15–9 Bipartisan vote). For context, the CLARITY Act is a proposed US crypto regulation bill designed to create clearer legal and regulatory rules for the digital assets industry. 

As Santiment Intelligence explained, the CLARITY Act’s progress should be seen as long-term bullish news for Bitcoin. This is because clearer rules create greater certainty among investors, which in turn increases their inclination to participate in the crypto market.

However, this development could signal bearish pressure on Bitcoin in the near term. This is due to the excessive euphoria caused by the aforementioned news. 

As the analytics platform stated, “historically, when we see 1.55 bullish comments for every 1.00 bearish comment toward cryptocurrency’s top market cap, we advise caution.” This is because markets typically move in the opposite direction of the frenzied expectations of their crowds. 

Bitcoin Miners Sell $64 Million BTC In 96 Hours 

In a separate May 16 post on X, popular market analyst Ali Martinez reported a noticeable decline in Bitcoin miner reserves over the past four days, suggesting miners have been increasingly transferring their holdings for potential sale.

The activity of this class of market participants is important for BTC’s supply dynamics, as they generate new BTC through block rewards, which they then sell periodically to cover minor operational costs. These are unlike the mostly inactive long-term holders. 

Martinez highlighted in his post that miners have sold about 800 BTC in the past 96 hours. While this is not a large amount, sudden spikes in miner selling could influence short-term market sentiment, ultimately causing a bearish injection.

Elevated miner outflows have historically preceded periods of short-term price weakness or consolidation phases. Coupled with the expected effect of a market-wide euphoria, it is apparent that Bitcoin’s price might undergo some corrective movement in the near term.

As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $79,136, down 2.9% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

A new outlook shared by an XRP community member on X argues that the bill’s passage may do more than trigger a short-term bounce. The calculation suggests that if XRP becomes part of regulated settlement and liquidity flows, even a thin adoption scenario could place its minimum price at $50, with deeper integration pushing the model into price targets as high as $1,400.

Why $50 Could Be The Minimum Price For XRP

The expected passage of the CLARITY Act has now been worked into several interesting price cases for XRP.

The entire price framework is built on the quantity theory of money expressed as MV=PQ, a model that, in this context, links the required market value of XRP to the volume of transactions it must process, the velocity at which tokens turn over, and the circulating supply available to handle those flows. 

The first case assumes XRP starts to handle a small share of cross-border cash legs when the CLARITY Act is passed. The model assumes $15 trillion in annual volume, 6 billion XRP as the productive monetary base, and a a velocity of 50 times. That gives a price of at least $50. The same framework also applies a square-root liquidity depth model for $100 million transaction tickets, producing a floor range around $40 to $80 for XRP.

The second scenario puts the XRP price around $280. It assumes XRP bridges repo cash legs and collateral AppChain margin, with $100 trillion in annual flow, 6 billion XRP as the monetary base, and a velocity between 50 and 60 times. This gives an MV=PQ estimate around $303, while the liquidity depth model places the floor between $125 and $170.

The “Structural Base Case” raises the estimate to about $415 by adding supply compression. In this case, derivatives margin locks up 20% of the productive float, reducing available XRP from 6 billion to about 4.8 billion. The same $100 trillion in flow is then spread across fewer available tokens, pushing the required price higher.

The “Full Integration” scenario gives the widest range, from $700 to $1,400. It assumes XRP is used across all five settlement positions, including DVP and securities financing transactions. Under this scenario, the annual flow rises above $200 trillion and the available XRP falls to about 4.2 billion.

The CLARITY Act Is Closer Than It Has Ever Been

The Clarity Act’s progress has taken longer than many stakeholders had originally expected. The CLARITY Act formally passed the House of Representatives on July 17, 2025, but the Senate version has proved more complex.

However, the timeline of passage is now within reach. The CLARITY Act has now cleared the Senate Banking Committee, and the next step is a possible summer vote on the Senate floor. The White House is targeting July 4 as a target date for passage, and crypto investors are watching to see how the bill’s final approval could affect crypto prices, especially XRP, once it is signed into law.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Who Found It First

The person who spotted the attack before anyone else did was on-chain investigator ZachXBT. He reported suspicious movement tied to THORChain’s router infrastructure, describing how attackers shifted roughly $7.2 million in assets — including USDT, USDC, and wrapped Bitcoin — across several blockchains before converting them into ETH.

His initial estimate of losses above $7.4 million was later revised upward. The total stolen, according to ZachXBT, may now exceed $10 million.

Can tell because they did not check the numbers themselves / chains listed.

I finished accounting again now and it looks to be $10M+ stolen at least.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) May 15, 2026

THORChain is a cross-chain trading protocol that lets users swap crypto assets across different blockchains without relying on a centralized exchange. That design also means its infrastructure touches multiple networks at once — and in this case, that became a vulnerability. The attack hit Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Base simultaneously.

Security firm PeckShield independently confirmed the breach. Based on their estimates, attackers walked away with around 36.75 BTC worth close to $3 million, along with roughly $7 million more pulled from the Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Base ecosystems.

Markets React, Team Goes Quiet

RUNE, THORChain’s native token, dropped close to 14% in the hours following news of the breach, sliding toward the $0.50 mark as traders moved to cut their exposure. The price drop was fast. The official response was not.

As of reporting, THORChain had not issued a public statement explaining the scope of the exploit or what steps were being taken to address it.

That silence has added to the anxiety in the market. The protocol survived earlier security incidents by tapping into treasury reserves and recovery mechanisms, but without clarity from the team, it is difficult to know whether a similar path is possible this time.

Cross-chain infrastructure has repeatedly been the site of major losses in decentralized finance. Bridges and routing systems that connect different blockchains require complex code — and complex code creates more opportunities for something to go wrong. The THORChain attack fits that pattern.

The stolen assets remain in the flagged wallets for now. Whether they stay there is another question.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Analyst Predicts Bitcoin Price Freefall Until June

Kabuki, a crypto market analyst who previously forecasted Bitcoin’s last price top and 2022 bear market bottom, is now sounding the alarm, warning that the leading cryptocurrency has not yet seen its lowest point this cycle. The analyst believes that prices are about to enter a freefall all the way down to $40,000 before this cycle is over. He marks this level as a final cycle bottom, expecting the drop to be steep and relentless. 

In a recent X post, Kabuki said that Bitcoin’s current price structure perfectly mirrors a downward zigzag pattern known to signal a cycle bottom. He showed this pattern clearly on his accompanying chart, with Bitcoin forming a bull trap around the level labeled ‘y’ and the analyst projecting a steep decline toward the area marked as ‘z,’ around the $40,000 region.

According to the analyst, Bitcoin’s bull trap formation and recent relief rally are signs that history is repeating itself and the cryptocurrency is playing out as he anticipated. While he believes that the flagship cryptocurrency is set to dump to $40,000, he does not expect the crash to happen immediately. 

Kabuki has outlined a projected bearish path from BTC’s current levels around $79,000. From this point, he expects the cryptocurrency to decline to $61,000, then drop again to $47,000, representing a more than 40% loss from present prices. Once this lower level is reached, the analyst believes that Bitcoin may stage a short-term recovery back up to $55,000. However, he sees this as a temporary bounce before a final price crash to $41,000 wipes out any gains made during the rebound. 

For the projected timeline of this decline, Kabuki expects Bitcoin to first decline toward the $70,000 region within the next few days. From there, he sees a sharp price crash toward $40,000 playing out around June 2026. 

Notably, Kabuki has pointed to his strong track record to back his bearish forecast. The analyst claims to have called the Bitcoin top above $126,000 in October 2025 and the $15,000 bottom in November 2022. 

Bitcoin Bull Trap Signals Bear Crash

In a separate analysis, crypto expert Chiefy said on X that Bitcoin is currently stuck in the longest and final bull trap of its present bear market cycle. The analyst predicted that the real correction could begin as early as next week, with BTC possibly dumping to $51,000 over the next 12 days, starting May 17. 

Chiefy backed his warning with a price chart highlighting past bull traps where Bitcoin staged a rally only to sharply reverse, wiping out traders who had entered the market believing the move was sustainable. With a similar formation now taking shape, the analyst believes the same outcome could happen soon. 

Will Strategy Sell Bitcoin To Repurchase Its Debt?

In a May 15th post on the social media platform X, Strategy’s chairman, Michael Saylor, confirmed that the firm has filed to repurchase $1.5 billion principal amount of its convertible senior notes due in 2029. This decision comes as part of the outcome of privately negotiated transactions with holders of this debt security.

In the Form 8-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 14th, Strategy disclosed that it agreed to retire approximately $1.50 billion in aggregate principal amount of the 2029 Notes for an estimated aggregate cash repurchase price of approximately $1.38 billion.

The official filing read:

The final aggregate cash repurchase price for the Repurchased Notes is subject to adjustment, and will be based in part on the daily volume-weighted average price per share of Strategy’s class A common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Class A Common Stock”), during an agreed upon measurement period (the “Measurement Period”).

The Bitcoin treasury firm also revealed that these repurchase transactions will be funded with available cash reserves, proceeds from sales of securities under its at-the-market offering program, and/or proceeds from the sale of Bitcoin. Quite interestingly, this filing comes barely a week after the company’s CEO, Phong Le, highlighted scenarios in which the firm might shed some of its Bitcoin holdings.

According to the executive, this included situations that would increase shareholder value, such as dividend payments. It remains to be seen whether the firm debt repurchase falls into the category of activities that warrants the sale of a portion of its Bitcoin.

Merely looking at the action, retiring these convertible notes could be positive for equity investors, as it means that the hybrid debt instrument holders won’t be able to convert to common stock (and potentially dilute the shareholders). Instead, the repurchase gives Strategy a perfect opportunity to reorganize its balance sheet and capital structure.

Strategy’s STRC Registers Record High Daily Trading Volume

Interestingly, the news of this debt repurchase comes merely a day after STRC, Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, posted its highest daily trading volume of $1.53 billion on Thursday, May 14th. This represents a significant jump from the previous record of $1.1 bill reached on April 13.

This trading explosion in STRC, which has been Strategy’s capital-raising instrument for purchasing Bitcoin, could help the firm raise about $735 million to buy BTC. As of this writing, the firm maintains its position as the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with a stash of 818,869 Bitcoin, worth about $66 billion.

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Investors Move To Accumulate rsETH As KelpDAO Resumes Operations 

On April 18, attackers exploited a vulnerability in KelpDAO’s LayerZero-cross chain bridge, carting away 152,577 rsETH, valued at $292 million. According to a report from analytics firm Santiment, this day also experienced a net inflow of 563 rsETH, worth $1.1 million, into exchanges. Santiment analysts explain that the market reaction is expected, as the exploit has generated concern about KelpDAO’s safety and rESTH. Therefore, investors moved their holdings to exchanges to sell or swap them for other assets, e.g., stablecoins, thereby reducing their exposure to the negative effects of the hack.

On April 18th, the infamous day of the Kelp DAO exploit, Santiment data showed a large spike of $rsETH moving onto exchanges, with a net inflow of roughly +563 rsETH. This reaction made sense because traders were understandably feeling uncertain around the safety of the… pic.twitter.com/2ADQe6iskn

— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) May 16, 2026

Following the hack, there have been multiple recovery efforts, including coordinated seizures by the KelpDAO, Abritrum, and Aave of the hackers’ positions on their respective platforms. In particular, the Aave DAO also issued donations alongside the DeFi platforms such as EtherFi, Lido, and Ethena. On May 15, KelpDAO announced a resumption of reETH activities, including withdrawals, bridging, and protocol operations. Santiment observed that this announcement was shortly followed by a net outflow of approximately 435 rsETH ($936,000) from exchanges.

In line with typical market dynamics, this outflow signals growing investor confidence in rsETH following the recovery process and the lifting of restrictions. There is now a clear shift of rsETH away from exchanges and into self-custody wallets, staking platforms, and DeFi protocols.

THORChain Suffers $11 Million Hack

In other news, the decentralized liquidity protocol THORChain has suffered an attack resulting in losses of $10.8 million, according to an independent on-chain investigator, ZachXBT. The exploits occurred across four blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Base. 

As a cross-chain exchange, THORChain enables direct swaps between various blockchains and has previously been used as a laundering rail by bad actors and hackers. Following the recent exploit, WuBlockchain reports that the protocol’s management has halted trading and issued a global emergency alert.

Exploits and hacks remain a major security concern for crypto users. According to DefiLama today, total losses from these malicious activities in 2026 are now $823.9 million. At press time, the total crypto market cap is $2.57 trillion, down 2.74% over the past day.

To trade global markets with it, the traditional route goes like this: convert to fiat, pay a conversion spread, wait for the transfer, fund a separate brokerage account, and then execute. Conversion fees and delays vary by provider, but they all eat into your timing and your margin. By the time you are in position, the opportunity you spotted may have already played out. For active traders, that friction does not just cost money. It costs access.

This is where crypto-funded trading changes the equation. PrimeXBT, a multi-asset broker and crypto service provider, was among the first to let traders use crypto as margin for FX, gold, indices and other markets, without converting, without transferring, and without leaving the crypto ecosystem.

Your crypto is already capital. Start using it that way.

The mental model most crypto holders carry is that Bitcoin and Ethereum are assets to be managed separately from everything else. Trading stocks means a brokerage account. Trading FX means another account. Crypto sits in its own silo.

PrimeXBT was built on a different premise from the start. Since 2018, the platform has treated crypto as the base layer of trading activity. It is the collateral that funds your entire trading operation across asset classes. You do not move it out to access global markets. You use it where it already is.

With its new native platform, PXTrader 2.0, you can open your account in BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC or USD and trade across 350+ instruments, including forex pairs, commodities like gold and oil, global indices including the Nasdaq and S&P 500, individual shares, and crypto futures, all from that single account. When the Nasdaq moves on a Fed decision, you can be in position within seconds. When oil spikes on a geopolitical headline, your crypto margin is already there.

What PXTrader 2.0 gives you in practice

The platform is built around the reality that active traders rarely stay in one market for long. That thinking is reflected across the entire trading experience.

Leverage goes up to 1:1000 depending on the market, with cross or isolated margin giving you precise control over exposure. You decide how much of your balance backs each trade, not the platform. Hedge mode and netting mode give you further flexibility over how positions interact, depending on your strategy.

Spreads are tighter on PXTrader 2.0 than on the previous PXTrader platform. On CFDs, spreads start from 0.2 pips, with VIP tiers offering discounts of up to 25% as trading activity increases. On crypto futures, fees start from 0.01% maker and 0.045% taker, while with VIP tiers you can reduce taker fees to as low as 0.015%. For traders who are active across multiple markets daily, tighter pricing compounds into a real cost advantage over time.

The charting tools are powered by TradingView, with 100+ indicators, no indicator limit, and multi-chart layouts that let you track several markets simultaneously. Execution happens in the same interface. One-click trading, a clean order form with limit, stop and market orders, and a customised buy/sell on-chart tile for fast entries in volatile conditions. You are not switching between analysis and execution. You are doing both in one place.

MetaTrader 5 is also integrated for traders who prefer that environment, all within the same PrimeXBT ecosystem.

The practical side

There is no minimum deposit for trading accounts and no withdrawal fees. If you need to convert between crypto and fiat, you can do it inside the platform without touching any external exchange.

PrimeXBT was crypto-native before that phrase existed. The idea that digital assets and global markets belong in the same environment was not a product pivot or a response to a trend. It was the original premise, built in 2018 and still running the same logic today. That same foundation now powers PXTrader 2.0.

Being positioned to act fast

This year repeatedly showed why cross-market access and capital flexibility matter. When tensions around the Strait of Hormuz escalated, oil, currencies, gold and crypto all reacted within the same session. The traders who captured those moves were not the ones scrambling to transfer funds between platforms. They were already in position, because their capital was already there. 

This is where PrimeXBT continues to make a difference, offering a trading environment where crypto and global markets operate within a single ecosystem.

Start trading with PrimeXBT.

About PrimeXBT

PrimeXBT is a global multi-asset broker and crypto asset service provider trusted by traders in more than 150 countries. The platform bridges traditional and digital markets within one integrated environment, redefining versatility and innovation in online trading. Clients can access Forex, CFDs on indices, commodities, shares, crypto, and Crypto Futures, as well as buy, store and exchange cryptocurrencies. This unified experience extends across both the native PXTrader 2.0 platform and MetaTrader 5, supported by advanced risk-management tools and a wide range of funding options in crypto, fiat and local payment methods. Since 2018, PrimeXBT has focused on empowering traders through broad multi-asset access, fair and transparent conditions, professional-grade technology and dedicated human support. By combining expertise, trust and a client-first approach, PrimeXBT sets a benchmark of excellence in the financial industry and provides traders with the tools they need to trade, grow and succeed with confidence.

Disclaimer: The content provided here is for informational purposes only and is not intended as personal investment advice and does not constitute a solicitation or invitation to engage in any financial transactions, investments, or related activities. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The financial products offered by the Company are complex and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. These products may not be suitable for all investors. Before engaging, you should consider whether you understand how these leveraged products work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money. The Company does not accept clients from the Restricted Jurisdictions as indicated on its website / T&Cs. Some products and services, including MT5, may not be available in your jurisdiction. The applicable legal entity and its respective products and services depend on the client’s country of residence and the entity with which the client has established a contractual relationship during registration.

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Why Ripple’s XRP Has A Competitive Edge Over SWIFT

In an X post, CharuSan said that SWIFT is cumbersome and slow, and will completely lose its competitive edge against XRP’s ODL technology, which frees up trillions of dollars for banks in seconds. He further noted that XRP addresses these banks’ pain points by enabling faster, cheaper payments, prompting them to reconsider their use of SWIFT.   

In line with this, he opined that XRP will take over the market rapidly rather than gradually. The pundit also mentioned that the main software used by banks is already integrated with Ripple, which means that the technical path is ready. CharuSan added that there is no need to meet with 13,000 banks one by one, as a single update will integrate all banks into the system. 

CharuSan noted that the real issue for SWIFT is whether it will add XRP to its system as a liquidity layer to keep up with the modern world or remain as a simple messaging service, which could cause it to lose its financial authority and eventually pack up. As such, he believes that SWIFT’s adoption of XRP’s technology at some point is a strategic necessity for the firm’s survival. 

However, it is worth noting that SWIFT is developing its distributed ledger on Ethereum layer-2 Linea in partnership with ConsenSys and up to 30 banks. This is part of the firm’s move to expand from solely the messaging layer to an execution layer, enabling 24/7 cross-border payments. 

Why The Linea Move Cannot Compare to Using XRP

CharuSan also opined that SWIFT cannot compete with XRP even with its move to develop a distributed ledger on Linea. He explained that Linea is a layer-2 infrastructure, and SWIFT’s experimentation with these networks is limited to messaging and asset-transfer trials. The pundit added that Linea is not a liquidity tool. 

As such, CharuSan noted that although Linea aggregates transactions on its own, it still sends this data to the Ethereum network for verification, incurring a cost in the process. He indicated that such a process is not viable for cross-border payments, and so, SWIFT cannot compete with or be compared to XRP. The pundit reiterated that if SWIFT does not reach an agreement with Ripple and integrate XRP as a liquidity layer on its platform, it is “doomed” to fade away. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.41, down over 4% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The case, filed in Manhattan, could set a significant legal precedent for how courts treat centralized stablecoin issuers.

A Decades-Old Debt

The plaintiffs are survivors and family members of victims from Iran-linked terrorist attacks. They hold court judgments against Iran that were awarded years ago — judgments that have never been paid.

Now they are targeting a pile of frozen cryptocurrency as a way to collect what they are owed.

Attorney Charles Gerstein filed the lawsuit Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

His clients say they have a legal claim to two Tron blockchain wallet addresses holding roughly 344 million USDT. Those wallets were frozen earlier this year by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which identified them as linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The plaintiffs are not asking Tether to simply release those specific wallets. According to reports, they want a court order directing Tether to transfer an equivalent amount of USDT to their legal team’s wallet address.

Why Tether Can Be Compelled

Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, USDT is controlled by a central company. Tether can freeze wallets, block transactions, and move funds when ordered to do so. That centralized structure is at the heart of Gerstein’s legal argument.

Because a prior order already froze the wallets — something only possible because Tether has direct operational control — he contends the company can also be ordered to move the funds.

The ownership question, he argues, is already largely settled: OFAC has already declared the wallets to be IRGC-controlled assets, which clears a path for seizure under US terrorism statutes.

This is not Gerstein’s only case of this kind. Based on reports, he has filed similar actions involving North Korea-linked cyber operations against the Arbitrum platform. He is also handling a separate case involving Railgun DAO, a privacy-focused crypto protocol.

The Manhattan filing is part of what appears to be a coordinated legal push to test whether courts can compel crypto platforms with centralized control to act on frozen assets held in sanctioned wallets.

Featured image from CEPA, chart from TradingView

A Company Running Out Of Room

The Atlanta-based crypto kiosk operator disclosed in a Form 10-Q filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that management has “substantial doubt” about whether the business can keep running.

Chief financial officer David Gray cited more than $20 million in legal judgments accrued in the fourth quarter of 2025, alongside a wave of lawsuits from state regulators and a sharp drop in transaction volume.

Revenue fell by $80 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier. The company also posted a net loss of $9.5 million over those three months.

Officials pointed to tightening regulations and enhanced compliance controls as the main reasons customers are using the machines less.

States Are Closing The Door

The legal pressure started before the Canadian proposal. In January, Bitcoin Depot paid close to $2 million to Maine’s Consumer Credit Protection Bureau to settle a complaint.

Massachusetts, Iowa, and other states have since filed their own actions against the company. Individual cities and towns have also moved to restrict or ban crypto kiosks, with local officials citing concerns about residents falling victim to scams.

Shares of Bitcoin Depot, which trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker BTM, dropped more than 40% over five trading days, sliding from $5 to $2.90.

In March, the company replaced CEO Scott Buchanan, who had held the position for just three months, with Alex Holmes.

Holmes ran MoneyGram from 2016 to 2024 and is known for his background in regulatory compliance — a skill set Bitcoin Depot clearly needs right now.

The company’s SEC filing described the revenue decline as being driven by a combination of regulatory impacts and enhanced compliance controls.

Reports indicate Bitcoin Depot is trying to manage existing legal exposure while adapting to a market that looks very different than it did a year ago.

Whether the new leadership can stabilize the business remains to be seen. The machines are still running. The lawsuits are not stopping. And the regulatory walls are getting closer on both sides of the border.

Featured image from ICIJ, chart from TradingView

Large Holders Withdraw 403M XRP From Binance

In a QuickTake post on May 16, Amr Taha reveals that XRP’s whales have again initiated a wave of large-scale exchange withdrawals. Taha notes that about 403 million in XRP has left Binance, i.e., the world’s leading exchange by trading volume, since 3rd May.

This conclusion is based on data from the “[XRP] Multiple Exchanges Daily Outflow Above 1M” metric, which tracks the total daily amount of XRP withdrawn from exchanges in transactions exceeding 1 million XRP. This size filter helps identify whale- and institutional-sized outflow activity.

According to Taha, Binance has recorded near-daily XRP outflows exceeding 1 million XRP over the past two weeks. Considering these outflows were not single, isolated withdrawals; instead, they reflect the same intentional and persistent withdrawal pattern on Binance.

Historically, substantial withdrawals from centralized exchanges are often interpreted as a sign of accumulation. This is because when investors move coins off exchanges, it can signal a short-term decline in selling intent, as assets transferred to private wallets become less readily available for exchange.

Binance Withdrawal Activity Replaces Pattern Seen On Coinbase

Interestingly, Taha highlights that the recent Binance-led trend marks a shift from earlier whale activity observed on Coinbase. In the latter scenario, the analyst notes that large withdrawals occurred more on specific days, including March 27, March 30, and April 13 — periods when XRP’s price was near $1.34. 

These periods where XRP was withdrawn in large amounts on Coinbase could be attributed to Whales distributing their holdings as the price reached low zones. On the contrary, withdrawals from Binance have been consistent — however large — since May 3. 

Hence, this could be the typical scenario where Whales are indeed accumulating XRP. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that this is not a bullish signal in itself, as it could merely indicate that the selling intent among this investor class has been significantly reduced. As such, traders are advised to employ confirmations before making any financial decisions.

At the time of writing, the XRP price stands at approximately $1.43, down 4.48% from the previous day. Yet, the XRP price records a minute gain on the weekly timeframe, with data pointing to a 0.8% increase.

A Deadly Business

Myanmar’s military government has now responded with one of the harshest proposed laws of its kind anywhere in the world.

The Anti-Online Fraud Bill, made public Thursday, would send anyone convicted of digital currency fraud to prison for anywhere between ten years and life.

In the most serious cases, offenders could face the death penalty.

The law specifically targets operators of scam centers who cause the death of workers coerced or trafficked into committing fraud on their behalf — those individuals would be sentenced to death under the proposed legislation.

Myanmar’s parliament, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, said it drafted the bill in response to online fraud that threatened the country’s sovereignty and stability.

Not The First Execution In The Region

Myanmar is not alone in taking a hard line. China executed 11 people in January tied to Myanmar-based scam operations, according to reports. Those operations had been responsible for trafficking Chinese nationals into forced labor inside the compounds.

The US has also stepped up its response. In April, American authorities worked alongside officials in China and Dubai to arrest more than 200 people and shut down nine scam centers.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing officials to go after scam compounds and cybercrime.

The FBI’s Scam Center Strike Force has since focused its investigations on senior figures running compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, including affiliates of Chinese organized crime networks.

Online scam centers across Southeast Asia have become a growing problem for law enforcement worldwide. Schemes range from pig butchering and romance scams to fake investment platforms — many of them relying on crypto to move money.

Myanmar’s military took power in a coup in 2021. The country’s parliament did not meet again until March 2026, following elections that independent observers said were neither free nor fair. The government is scheduled to convene during the first week of June, when lawmakers may take up the bill.

Beyond crypto fraud, Americans lost more than $20 billion in total to online scams in 2025, FBI data shows. The agency’s task force has been working to identify and prosecute leaders of the most dangerous scam operations in the region.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin Supply On Exchanges Has Been Flat Recently

As highlighted by on-chain analytics firm Santiment in an X post, Bitcoin and Ethereum have differed in their trend of the Supply On Exchanges. This indicator measures, as its name suggests, the total amount of a given asset that’s currently stored in the wallets associated with centralized exchanges.

When the value of the metric rises, it means investors are depositing a net number of tokens to these platforms. As one of the main reasons why holders transfer to exchanges is for selling-related purposes, this kind of trend can have a bearish impact on the cryptocurrency’s price.

On the other hand, the indicator witnessing a decline suggests the exchange outflows are overwhelming the inflows. Such a trend implies the investors may be participating in accumulation, which can naturally be a bullish signal.

Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Supply On Exchanges for Bitcoin and Ethereum over the past year:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Supply On Exchanges observed some decline during March and has since followed a mostly flat trajectory. Currently, around 5.6% of the BTC supply is sitting inside exchange-connected wallets. “It has stayed consistent around this level for the past month, and it is the lowest ratio of BTC supply on exchanges since 2018,” noted the analytics firm.

While Bitcoin has witnessed its exchange supply remain flat at 8-year lows recently, the trend has been a bit different for Ethereum. From the chart, it’s apparent that ETH observed a much more dramatic decline in the Supply On Exchanges compared to BTC for most of the past year, but recently, the trajectory has flipped for the network.

Over the past 10 days, Ethereum has seen the indicator go from 4.2% to 4.6%, which is a notable increase. “Nevertheless, this is also still near the lowest levels we’ve seen since $ETH’s public trading inception back in 2015,” explained Santiment.

Interestingly, the flat exchange netflow for Bitcoin has arrived while BTC has observed a recovery surge. This means that despite the profit-taking opportunity, holders haven’t made deposits to sell.

Something to note when it comes to the Supply On Exchanges is that while exchanges held a central role in the digital asset sector earlier, the paradigm has shifted recently as a result of the emergence of off-chain investment routes like the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As such, the exchange reserves alone no longer capture the full picture of the market.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $79,400, down 0.9% in the last seven days.

FSC Eyes July Tokenized Securities Framework

On Friday, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) revealed it is preparing to publish its framework for tokenized securities in July during the second meeting of the public-private joint “Token Securities Council,” launched in March.

Earlier this year, the National Assembly passed the Token Securities Institutionalization Act, which will take effect on February 4, 2027, to amend the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act.

The changes are set to allow qualified issuers to launch tokenized securities using distributed ledger technology and enable the products to be traded as investment contract securities on brokerages and other licensed intermediaries.

FSC’s Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young highlighted that the “upcoming token securities ecosystem must strike a balance between innovation and trust.” Therefore, the regulatory agency is reviewing measures to subordinate regulations and guidelines for the Tokenized Securities Act.

In addition, the regulator is expected to develop a phased roadmap for tokenizing existing standardized securities, such as stocks and bonds, as well as for on-chain settlements, drawing on international practices.

Discussing the best practices for eligibility and underlying assets, Kwon stated that the FSC will “We will uphold the fundamental principles of market order and investor protection, but we will not take a one-sided regulatory approach.” Notably, the regulator plans to allow the issuance of fractional investment securities by pooling underlying assets of the same type within a certain range.

He also explained that the government’s stance was to design a market structure that enhances trading efficiency, ensures fair competition, and protects users. The FSC’s Vice Chairman added that the regulator will add trading limits on OTC exchanges “in a way that allows the expansion of initial market liquidity while systematizing investor protection, so that the limits do not become a barrier stifling innovation.”

South Korea Prepares For Crypto Rules Implementation

The upcoming rules for tokenized securities come amid South Korea’s push to regulate digital assets and the local crypto market. Over the past few years, the country has worked to develop a framework to supervise the crypto industry and protect users.

Alongside the Token Securities Institutionalization Act, the government is expected to implement the Income Tax Act in 2027, with the tax authority fast-tracking the development of a tax base and tracking system to end years of delays.

As reported by Bitcoinist, South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) announced last month that it had begun “full-scale preparations” to implement the long-delayed crypto legislation in January of next year.

Under the Income Tax Act, crypto assets will be subject to a 20% income tax rate, up to 22% including local taxes, starting January 1, 2027. The financial authority plans to create a tax base by formally receiving pertinent data from crypto exchanges, establish a guidance framework for taxpayers subject to virtual asset income tax, and outline criteria for capital gains calculations.

Despite some efforts to abolish the crypto tax, including a People Power Party (PPP)-led bill and a petition with over 30,000 signatures, recent reports noted that the odds of abolishing or delaying it seem slim, as parliamentary petitions rarely lead to legislative action and authorities are committed to the 2027 rollout.

Meanwhile, South Korean lawmakers have repeatedly urged the government to prioritize stablecoin legislation, which has been delayed since late 2025 due to a disagreement between the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the FSC.

A Scandal Shapes The Debate

Prime Minister Donald Tusk pointed to Zondacrypto, a Polish crypto exchange now under a prosecutor’s fraud probe, as evidence of what happens when investor protections are not in place.

Thousands of the exchange’s users reportedly could not access their funds, and Tusk alleged the platform had ties to Russian capital and influence dating to its early years.

He argued that Poland’s inability to finalize a regulatory framework had slowed any official response to the crisis.

The exchange scandal cast a long shadow over this week’s sitting of the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, where lawmakers debated four separate crypto bills simultaneously.

On Friday, they approved the government-backed bill — numbered 2529 and supported by the Ministry of Finance — by a vote of 241 to 200. It was the third time the government had pushed this kind of legislation through parliament after President Karol Nawrocki vetoed two earlier versions.

The approved bill hands broad authority to Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority, known as the KNF, to monitor crypto market participants, impose administrative penalties, and block accounts and transactions when deemed necessary.

Sejm uchwalił ustawę o rynku kryptoaktywów. Ustawa daje Komisji Nadzoru Finansowego kompetencje do kontrolowania podmiotów rynku, nakładania sankcji administracyjnych oraz czasowego blokowania rachunków i transakcji. pic.twitter.com/WGzmTA8wez

— Sejm RP (@KancelariaSejmu) May 15, 2026

Critics Point To Unchanged Provisions

Not everyone in the crypto community welcomed the outcome. Market participants and commentators noted that the account and transaction blocking provisions — the same ones that prompted Nawrocki’s previous vetoes — remained largely intact in the final text. Proposed changes such as stronger judicial oversight of enforcement actions were not included.

With those concerns unresolved, many observers expect the president to veto the bill again. That prospect worries industry players, since a third rejection would deepen regulatory uncertainty at a particularly inconvenient time.

Poland is required to bring its rules in line with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCA, with implementation deadlines approaching in July.

The vote came after lawmakers reviewed competing proposals from four separate sources: the government, the president, the Confederation party, and a parliamentary group. A committee merged the texts before the final vote, and the government version ultimately prevailed.

Featured image from Hotels.com, chart from TradingView

The latest thread is not ZachXBT’s first warning on LAB. On May 7, he publicly accused LAB founder Vova Sadkov of crypto market manipulation through centralized exchanges and said he had offered a $10,000 bounty for contracts, chat logs and insider documents tied to LAB market-making activity on Bitget spot, Bybit perpetuals, Binance perpetuals and OKX perpetuals.

ZachXBT Points To Unknown Float And Insider Supply

LAB was founded by Sadkov and Mark as a crypto trading platform and held its token generation event in October 2025, according to ZachXBT’s account. He also tied the founders to Eesee, or ESE, a prior project he said left some investors feeling abandoned after the team moved on.

A central issue in the report is the lack of a clear token distribution. ZachXBT said CoinGecko, RootData and CoinMarketCap report different float figures, while LAB’s own documentation provides “zero details” on the supply breakdown. He listed Lemniscap, OKX, Animoca, GSR, Gate, KuCoin, Mirana and Amber among LAB’s backers, adding that several of those entities are also connected to venues where the token trades.

“Based on my analysis of onchain activity, insiders likely control >95% of supply currently,” ZachXBT wrote. The accusation follows a sharp move in LAB earlier this month. Prior coverage of ZachXBT’s May 7 warning noted that LAB had surged more than 537% in one week, reaching above $4.65 after previously trading below $1, with up to 99% of supply potentially controlled by insiders or market makers, according to that report.

ZachXBT also alleged that LAB’s team unilaterally changed public sale terms on Legion from a three-month cliff to a nine-month cliff. He said other creators had publicly reported waiting months for marketing campaign payments without clear follow-up from the team.

The thread then turns to private financing arrangements. ZachXBT cited one draft loan contract from the first quarter of 2026 offering 7.5% per month for six months, with The Lab Management Ltd., a BVI shell, listed as borrower and Sadkov signing as director. In the event of default, repayment would be made in LAB at “market price,” according to his description.

He also alleged that the borrower wallet from the loan contract was the same wallet used for public LAB buybacks and tied it on-chain to a separate Wildcat borrower address. Funds related to LAB, he claimed, flowed to Sadkov’s alleged personal crypto exchange accounts, including accounts that had previously received deposits tied to Eesee.

ZachXBT said additional private OTC and loan deals had circulated since January 2026, including loans at 5% per month, OTC allocations at a 60% discount with a five-month cliff, guaranteed discount tranches and a more recent KOL Capital pitch at an 80% discount. Under that pitch, he said, KOLs were required to post multiple times in support before unlock or risk being blacklisted.

“These create hidden supply unlocks retail cannot see,” ZachXBT wrote. “As price has gone up, the OTC discounts have widened.”

Crypto Exchange Flows Put Bitget In Focus

The most concrete market-structure allegation concerns large crypto exchange flows. ZachXBT said insiders deposited 226 million LAB, which he described as a large percentage of float, to Bitget deposit addresses in March and April.  ZachXBT had identified LAB-linked wallets transferring 226 million tokens to Bitget, raising insider-trading concerns.

According to ZachXBT, those deposits remained dormant until roughly 100 million LAB was withdrawn in recent days. He said that from May 11 to May 12, nearly 100 million LAB, worth about $482 million, was withdrawn from Bitget to ten addresses. He also argued that an unknown market maker operating through Chinese crypto exchanges appeared to be using a playbook similar to RIVER, RAVE, SIREN, MYX and SKYAI.

“It seems everyone has private info except retail. Team knows the unlocks, MM knows the positioning, OTC buyers know their cliffs. Retail only sees LAB price.”

ZachXBT called on Bitget, Binance and Gate to freeze alleged insider profits and redistribute them to users, or to delist earlier without waiting for public pressure. He also warned traders against interpreting the thread as a short signal: “This is NOT a recommendation to short. With this much supply control, shorts potentially give insiders more fuel to manipulate the price higher.”

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.6 trillion.

A Filing That Moved Markets

The disclosure came through a 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Marex reported holding 356,865 shares of the Canary XRP ETF, valued at roughly $5.1 million as of the first quarter of 2026.

That position grew 51% from the previous quarter, when the firm held 173,298 shares. On top of that, Marex bought 286,021 new shares in the Bitwise XRP ETF, worth nearly $4.3 million.

The combined holdings pushed the firm among leading institutional ETF holders. MEX shares closed up 4.20% on Wednesday at $58.25. Year-to-date, the stock is up more than 50%.

The firms ahead of Marex are not small players. Goldman Sachs leads the pack with $152.16 million in XRP ETF exposure. Millennium Management holds more than $27 million across multiple spot XRP funds. Marex sits well behind both, but its aggressive buying in a single quarter set it apart from many of its peers.

Strategy Stock Gets A Boost Too

Beyond XRP, Marex also added to its position in Strategy, the Bitcoin-focused company formerly known as MicroStrategy and traded under the ticker MSTR. The firm increased its share count from 2.9 million to 3.4 million.

At the same time, it trimmed its call options from 108,100 down to 65,500. It also expanded its stake in Strategy’s perpetual preferred shares, known as STRK, from 4,400 to 16,401.

Strategy stock closed down 3.4% at $178.03 on Wednesday and dipped another 0.20% in premarket trading Thursday. Marex also cut exposure in several other digital asset holdings, including TON Strategy and Bitmine Immersion Technologies.

XRP was trading at $1.43 at the time of the report, with a 24-hour range between $1.41 and $1.47.

The Marex filing adds to a growing list of institutional disclosures showing Wall Street firms taking positions in spot XRP funds.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has publicly made the case for XRP’s unique role in financial markets, and reports indicate that growing partnerships tied to Ripple have contributed to rising interest from large money managers.

Sustained buying hasn’t been confirmed yet, though Q1 disclosures appear to signal growing confidence.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView

On-chain analysis by crypto analyst Sherlockwhale identifies the $84,000 to $88,000 zone as arguably the largest supply cluster in Bitcoin’s current market structure, a region stacked with breakeven sellers and one where the short-term holder cost basis is sitting overhead. 

Bitcoin Is Rallying Back Into A Heavy Supply Zone

Bitcoin’s recovery from its early February lows has been enough to generate different outlooks, but technical analysis of the weekly candlestick timeframe chart shows that the rally is now pressing into a stretch of the chart that many market participants have been waiting months to reach. 

The analysis is based on what happened after Bitcoin lost the $84,000 region in January. According to the analyst, that breakdown pushed about 1.2 million BTC into an unrealized loss, meaning many holders who bought near that level were left trapped as the price moved lower.

Short-term holders, defined as investors who acquired their Bitcoin within the past 155 days, carry an average cost basis sitting between $86,900 and $88,000. That makes the current rally more complicated. If BTC were to continue this rally move back into the $84,000 to $88,000, it will give those trapped buyers a chance to exit near their entry price.

As shown in the chart below, the BTC price is currently trading at $80,662 on the weekly timeframe, just below a thick gray resistance band stretching roughly from $84,000 to $86,000. Above that is the short-term holder cost basis of around $86,900 to $88,000 that creates another layer of overhead pressure. Together, these levels form one of the biggest supply clusters on the chart.

What Technical Analysis Says About BTC’s Next Move

The technical analysis presents two possible paths for Bitcoin from the current price. The first path is a direct push into the $84,000 to $86,000 supply area, followed by a rejection and a pullback to support around $70,000. This would fit the analyst’s concern that Bitcoin is moving into an area where trapped buyers may sell into strength.

The second path is more volatile. Bitcoin could first dip from $80,000, reclaim momentum, push into the supply cluster, and then still face rejection near the short-term holder cost basis. In both cases, the chart suggests that $70,000 is the most important downside level if the rally fails at the overhead supply cluster resistance.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $80,430, and buyers are still active. BTC briefly touched $82,000 in the past 24 hours amid optimism tied to CLARITY Act developments before pulling back below $81,000. A weekly close above $84,000 would weaken the case of an immediate rejection, but the larger confirmation would come from a clean move through $86,900 to $88,000.

The sequence begins on May 10, when Binance recorded its largest net Ethereum inflow of the past six months — 225,558 ETH deposited in a single day. In isolation, a deposit of that scale to an exchange would typically be read as a precursor to selling: large holders moving coins toward the venue where they can be converted to other assets or cash. The alarm that reading generates is genuine and historically justified.

What arrived two days later changes the interpretation. On May 12, Binance recorded an extreme stablecoin outflow of $1.32 billion — capital leaving the exchange in the opposite direction simultaneously. Large entities were not simply depositing ETH and preparing to sell. They were removing their buying power from the exchange at the same time.

CryptoOnchain identifies that combination as a structural handover — a whale-scale portfolio rebalancing event rather than a straightforward distribution. Understanding what large participants were actually doing with those flows is what the analysis is built to explain.

The Spot Market Is Turbulent. The Derivatives Market Is Surprisingly Calm

The CryptoOnchain analysis identifies the divergence that makes the current Ethereum setup structurally unusual. While the spot market has been processing the large ETH inflows and stablecoin outflows of the past several days, the derivatives market on Binance has been moving in a quietly constructive direction that the spot activity alone would not predict.

Ethereum funding rates on Binance have definitively flipped from negative territory — where they sat at -0.007 in early May — to positive at +0.004. The direction change matters more than the magnitude: funding that was persistently negative reflected months of bearish derivatives conviction. The flip to positive signals that long positions have become dominant in the perpetual market. Simultaneously, open interest has expanded by approximately 13% — new positions being added as confidence returns rather than simply existing positions being maintained.

The detail that makes this derivatives picture genuinely significant is the liquidation data. Despite the leverage buildup and the open interest expansion, liquidations have dropped to 99.6% below their three-month average — hovering near absolute zero. Growing leverage without forced exits describes a market where the participants adding positions are doing so with sufficient collateral and conviction that adverse price movements are not triggering cascade events.

The dual narrative the report identifies is the honest synthesis of both signals. Spot markets are rotating aggressively — large capital moving in both directions simultaneously. Derivatives markets are accumulating cautiously but with growing confidence. The combination suggests maturity rather than speculation. The risk the analysis preserves is external: localized leverage built on improving sentiment can absorb internal pressure, but a sudden macroeconomic shock arrives from outside the structure entirely.

Ethereum is trading around $2,250 on the weekly chart, consolidating directly around a historically important price region that has repeatedly acted as both support and resistance throughout the current cycle. The structure reflects a market caught between recovery and continuation risk, with neither bulls nor bears fully controlling momentum.

The chart shows ETH recovering from the sharp correction that followed the rejection from the $4,000-$4,500 region in late 2025. After briefly losing the $2,000 level earlier this year, buyers managed to stabilize price above a major long-term support zone near the weekly 200 moving average. That recovery prevented a deeper structural breakdown and returned Ethereum into the broader consolidation range that has defined much of the past two years.

However, upside momentum remains limited. Ethereum continues trading below the descending long-term moving averages, particularly the weekly 100 and 50 moving averages, which now converge near the $2,400-$3,000 region and continue acting as overhead resistance. The repeated inability to reclaim those levels reflects persistent hesitation from market participants despite improving macro structure.

Volume has also moderated significantly compared to the capitulation phases seen in previous selloffs, suggesting aggressive distribution has cooled. For now, Ethereum remains trapped in a compression phase that could determine the direction of the next major cycle move.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Improving Cardano Investor Outlook Collides With Bullish Momentum

Several optimistic predictions from analysts are starting to show up for Cardano as its price makes a bounce back above key resistance levels. A seasoned market expert and trader, Ali Martinez, has outlined a highly bullish outlook for ADA, in which the altcoin could continue its upward trajectory.

In the post shared on the X platform, Ali Martinez has predicted that Cardano’s price could be getting ready to kickstart a new bull rally, suggesting that the current sideways performance will come to an end. Numerous indications are starting to suggest that confidence in the altcoin’s prospects is growing after a period of consolidation and muted price movement.

Martinez’s forecast is mainly backed by the SuperTrend Indicator, which appears to have been a reliable tool for predicting ADA’s shifts in the long term. The indicator has been on the analyst’s radar since it flashed a sell signal on September 25, 2025, that perfectly identified the start of a 73% price decline.

Following months of this heavy correction, the key indicator has just flipped on the daily chart. This flip simply means that the indicator is signaling a buy signal once again. In the expert’s view, this shift points to the conclusion of a local exhaustion phase and a trend reversal finally taking place.

As a result of the setup, Martinez is confident that a surge toward the $0.33 resistance is likely to occur soon. If ADA is able to maintain this momentum, the rally is expected to continue toward the $0.42, which Martinez labels the secondary target. As long as the $0.25 support holds, this bullish prediction remains valid. However, if it falls below the level, the optimistic outlook is not lost, only delayed.

Key Stakeholders Are Slowly Scooping Up The Altcoin

Amid the price flip toward the upward direction, investors’ sentiment around Cardano has clearly shifted. On-chain activity suggests that confidence seems to be steadily returning after months of erratic market performance.

A report from Santiment reveals that Cardano’s key stakeholders have slowly but surely accumulated. These investors have consistently added more of the existing supply to their portfolio since December 2023. With this accumulation, wallet addresses holding at least 1 million ADA have now acquired over 25.09 billion ADA, which represents 67.47% of the current existing supply.

Although the asset has lost -71% of its market cap within a 9-month period, the millionaire” tier of sharks and whales appear to be content with adding more ADA while prices are at a discount. Should this trend continue, it is likely to influence and shape ADA’s momentum, potentially triggering a steady upward move.

A Gift Before The Campaign

The property, with a market value of roughly 1.4 million British pounds, was acquired in May 2024. The timing was significant. According to Sky News, the deal closed just weeks before Farage publicly disclosed he was running for parliament in the general elections.

The gift — 5 million pounds — came from Christopher Harborne, a British crypto billionaire. Farage has described it as a personal gift, not a political donation.

Farage and the Reform Party say no rules were broken. Their argument rests on timing: because the money changed hands before Farage took office, they say it falls outside the reporting requirements that apply to sitting members of parliament.

Critics aren’t buying it. They argue the gift should have been declared and registered regardless of when it was received.

The probe now underway is examining whether that position holds up.

Crypto Money In Politics Draws Scrutiny

This case is unfolding against a backdrop of growing concern in the UK about cryptocurrency and political funding.

Lawmakers have been pushing for restrictions on crypto donations to political figures and parties for months, citing worries about transparency and the potential for foreign interference.

In February 2025, Matt Western, chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, called on parliament to temporarily halt crypto donations.

His concern was direct — foreign governments, he warned, could use anonymous or hard-to-trace digital assets to shape UK political positions on issues like Ukraine or US-European relations.

The government responded. In March 2026, a legislative proposal to temporarily ban political crypto donations was put forward.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed it publicly, saying the government would act to protect democratic integrity.

The bill must still clear both chambers of parliament and receive approval from King Charles III before it becomes law.

Farage has not stayed quiet. Reports indicate he has made clear that the Reform Party intends to fight any ban or moratorium on crypto political donations.

This is not his first brush with scrutiny over crypto-related activity. Separate reports note that UK Liberal Democrats have also called for a Financial Conduct Authority probe into his promotion of a Bitcoin product called Stack BTC.

The parliamentary ethics investigation into the Harborne gift remains open. No findings have been issued.

Featured image from My London, chart from TradingView

CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) are reportedly lobbying the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and US lawmakers to push for federal oversight of the platform, arguing that its current operating environment could be vulnerable to issues such as market manipulation and sanctions evasion.

CME And ICE Urge Hyperliquid CFTC Registration

The exchanges’ concerns, as framed in the reporting, center on how Hyperliquid trades and where those trades take place. CME and ICE reportedly worry that the platform’s growing trading volumes in crypto and commodity-linked markets could begin to affect price discovery in industries where benchmarks matter, including oil. 

They argue that anonymous trading settings may allow actors with private information—or participants tied to insider or state-linked influence—to distort prices that are used across markets.

CME and ICE’s stated ask, per Bloomberg, is straightforward: Hyperliquid should register with the CFTC. That registration would typically require the platform to adopt customer identification programs and implement trade surveillance measures. 

However, those requirements appear to clash with Hyperliquid’s current approach, which relies on an anonymous trading model by design.

In response, the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), led by CEO Jake Chervisnky, pushed back publicly. On social media site X (formerly Twitter), the recently established organization affirmed the criticisms are “unfounded.” 

The ‘Anti-Manipulation Shield’

The HPC argued that Hyperliquid offers a higher level of transparency than traditional venues precisely because it publishes a complete on-chain record of every transaction in real time. 

In the policy center’s view, that level of visibility makes it a hostile environment for insider trading or price manipulation, while also giving regulators and law enforcement clearer material for surveillance, detection, and investigation.

The policy center also emphasized that Hyperliquid runs 24/7 trading, describing this as an efficiency upgrade rather than a disruption. Because trading is continuous, prices move even when conventional exchanges are closed, reducing the gaps and discontinuities that can occur between traditional market sessions. 

The Hyperliquid Policy Center also said Bloomberg is broadly right about one key point: US law is not yet tailored to derivatives markets operating on public blockchains like Hyperliquid. The group said it plans to keep working with policymakers in Washington to bring on-chain markets inside the regulatory perimeter. 

Other reporting, including a piece by The Defiant, has described the lobbying move as potentially self-interested. The report notes that CME is pursuing expansion of its own 24/7 crypto trading capabilities, including Bitcoin Volatility Futures scheduled to begin trading on June 1, and Nasdaq CME Crypto Index Futures—covering BTC, ETH, XRP, and other assets—set to launch on June 8. 

At the time of writing, Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, was trading at $44.60. This represented gains of 1.6% and almost 4% in the 24-hour and seven-day time frames, respectively. 

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

The deal, disclosed in a regulatory filing the same day the Hana Bank board approved it, will make Hana Financial the fourth-largest shareholder in Dunamu, per Korea Herald reporting. The current shareholder structure places founder and Chairman Song Chi-hyung at 25.51%, Vice Chairman Kim Hyoung-nyon at 13.10%, and Woori Technology Investment at 7.2%. Kakao Investment, currently the third-largest shareholder, will retain approximately 4% after the transaction closes.

The investment is not a passive financial bet. Alongside the share purchase, Hana Financial and Dunamu signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a new generation of services combining traditional banking infrastructure with digital assets, per the Korea Herald.

The joint roadmap covers four areas. The first is blockchain-based foreign currency remittances — the two firms have been building a system to run SWIFT-style international transfers over Dunamu’s proprietary Giwa Chain network since late 2025, completing a proof of concept in February 2026 and signing a three-way commercial testing agreement with POSCO International in April. The second is won-backed stablecoin infrastructure, covering issuance, circulation, and redemption. The third is a hybrid wealth management service that links Upbit’s digital asset infrastructure directly to Hana’s existing fund, pension, and trust platforms. The fourth is international expansion, combining Hana’s global banking network with Dunamu’s blockchain technology to pursue new digital asset businesses and service partnerships abroad, per the Korea Herald and Yonhap.

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo described the investment as a strategic move to accelerate financial innovation in digital assets, with the group aiming to help shape Korea’s blockchain ecosystem and bring the country’s digital asset industry to global standing, per the Korea Herald’s report of his statement.

The Hana-Dunamu deal arrives as South Korea’s financial sector moves with unusual speed to establish positions inside the country’s crypto exchange infrastructure. Mirae Asset Consulting’s approximately $96.7 million acquisition of a 92.06% stake in Korbit and the separate discussions between OKX and Korea Investment & Securities to each acquire approximately 20% of Coinone — reported by Yonhap the same day — reflect a broader institutional reconfiguration of who controls South Korea’s regulated digital asset venues.

Dunamu itself reported assets of 13.17 trillion won at the end of last year, generating 709 billion won in net profit on 1.56 trillion won in sales, per Korea Times. Upbit handles more than 80% of South Korea’s domestic crypto trading volume, per Yonhap, making Hana’s new position one of the more strategically consequential equity stakes in the Asian digital asset market.

This development marks a pivotal moment for the nascent sector’s integration with traditional finance in Asia. A trillion-won commitment from a systemically important Korean bank is not a pilot program or an exploratory allocation — it is a structural repositioning that signals the country’s largest financial institutions now view digital asset infrastructure as core to their long-term competitive strategy.

As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $80,000, consolidating above its 200-day moving average as institutional positioning across Asia continues to deepen.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Strategy’s Bitcoin Value At 30% Yearly Growth

Saylor has said that the Bitcoin price could surge 30% each year for the next two decades, showing strong confidence in the flagship cryptocurrency’s outlook. The Strategy founder is known for his highly ambitious BTC projections. While he made his bold 30% call, he also forecasted that the digital currency could eventually reach $1 million per coin within a four to eight-year time frame.

Following its latest purchase, Strategy now holds about 818,869 BTC, valued at $66.5 billion at an average cost of $75,540 per coin. The company has bought over 56,770 BTC since the beginning of April, with its largest purchase of 34,164 BTC since 2024 made on April 20. 

Now, if Bitcoin were to increase by 30% each year, that would mean that Strategy’s BTC holdings could grow at a similar pace over that period. Assuming Strategy keeps the same amount of BTC for 20 years and Bitcoin rises 30% annually, with no volatility or price swing taken into account, it could mean that by 2027, the company’s stash would have risen to $86.45 billion. 

In the next 3 years, which marks 2030, Bitcoin could have risen by another 120% from the 2027 figure, meaning Strategy’s holdings would be worth around $189.82 billion by that time. Fast forward to 2035, representing about 8 years of the total two-decade timeline, the value of the company’s Bitcoin stash would have skyrocketed to $705.20 billion, reflecting a gain of about 716%. 

Finally, for the full 20-year projection, which would likely be around 2046, Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings could have exploded to a whopping $16.43 trillion, representing a total increase of 18,905%. At this scale, the treasury’s growth curve becomes increasingly exponential, with most of the gains concentrated in the later years due to compounding. Given the size of this profit projection, it would make Strategy the most valuable Bitcoin holder in history.  

Saylor Sells STRC Stock To Buy More BTC

New reports show that Strategy has also continued to buy more Bitcoin through its STRC preferred stock fundraising program. As of May 14, Strategy reported it had acquired an additional 10,339 BTC at an estimated cost of $847 million. According to analysts, this is more than 20 times the daily mined supply for Bitcoin, highlighting the growing scale of institutional demand for the flagship cryptocurrency. 

Around the same period, Strategy also increased its BTC acquisition to 14,155 coins at an estimated cost of $1.16 billion. This means the company sold about $1.16 billion in STRC to fund the purchase. 

The company said SATA will begin paying cash dividends every business day from June 16, 2026, while maintaining a 13.00% annualized dividend rate for monthly periods beginning on or after May 16. Strive also reported that its Bitcoin treasury has grown to 15,009 BTC, after acquiring 6,001 BTC in the first quarter and another 1,381 BTC between April 1 and May 12.

Strive Pushes Bitcoin Treasury Stock SATA

Strive framed the change as a capital-markets first. “SATA will be the first listed security in the history of US capital markets to pay cash dividends every single Business Day, beginning June 16, 2026, at a current annualized rate of 13.00%. This is a true zero-to-one innovation,” Chairman and CEO Matthew Cole said. “Today, Strive stands debt-free, with zero margin requirements, and zero encumbered Bitcoin; a balance sheet purpose-built to thrive through Bitcoin volatility. We’re thrilled to unveil the next chapter for Strive: The Daily Dividend Company.”

The pitch is deliberately close to Strategy’s STRC, but with a sharper cash-flow cadence. Strategy describes STRC, or Stretch, as a perpetual preferred stock currently paying an 11.50% annual dividend, payable monthly in cash, with the rate adjusted monthly to encourage trading around its $100 stated amount. Strategy’s own STRC page lists notional outstanding at $8.54 billion, giving it far more scale than SATA.

That scale remains a central advantage for Strategy. Saylor posted that STRC saw “all-time high volume,” with “$1.53B of liquidity,” “two cents of volatility” and a close at par. STRC.live said the security posted its biggest volume day ever, with 15.3 million total shares traded, topping the prior April 14 record.

Strive, however, is trying to compete on structure rather than size. Strive CIO Ben Werkman said on X that SATA will pay “each and every Business Day” beginning June 16, adding: “No more waiting. This marks a major step forward in aligning dividend paying securities with the speed of modern markets.” He also said Strive is “DEBT FREE” and that amplification is now provided “solely by SATA.”

Strive’s investor materials show the math behind that argument. At a 13.00% stated rate, monthly compounding implies a 13.8032% APY, while roughly 250 business-day payments imply a 13.8790% APY, a lift of about 7.57 basis points. Strive also illustrates a $100 par example in which the old monthly payment would be about $1.08333 per share, while a 22-business-day month would translate into roughly $0.04924 per share per business day.

The more important claim is behavioral. Strive argues that daily payments create more reinvestment touchpoints and may spread dividend-related trading across sessions rather than concentrating activity around monthly ex-dividend dates. Its materials say SATA will have about 250 daily cash-flow events per year versus 12 monthly events.

STRC Vs. SATA

Strategy has been moving in the same direction, though not as aggressively. The company has proposed shifting STRC from monthly to semi-monthly dividends, with outside coverage noting that the proposal was intended to reduce reinvestment lag, support liquidity and help stabilize price around par. That change remains separate from SATA’s business-day payment model.

There is an irony in Strive’s new positioning: the company itself owns STRC. Strive reported that, as of May 12, it held $87.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and a $50.5 million fair-value position in Strategy’s STRC. Strategy previously said Strive had allocated $50 million, more than one-third of its corporate treasury at the time, to STRC.

The balance-sheet comparison is also not one-sided. Strive emphasized that it has no short- or long-term debt outstanding as of May 12, after repurchasing the remaining notes payable. But it also reported a GAAP net loss of $265.9 million for the first quarter, with $295.8 million tied to the fair-market-value decline in Bitcoin holdings.

For investors, the emerging contest is between STRC’s scale and liquidity versus SATA’s higher stated rate and daily payout design. Strategy still owns the deeper market. Strive is betting that income frequency can become a product feature in its own right.

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $80,643.

Betting On Institutional Demand

Fredrik Haga, Dune’s co-founder and chief executive, said the company plans to invest heavily in products and services aimed at institutions, pointing to what he described as a growing shift of currencies, stocks, bonds, and commodities onto blockchain infrastructure.

Haga also said Dune is going all-in on artificial intelligence, highlighting the company’s Model Context Protocol — a tool that lets AI systems interact directly with Dune’s platform.

According to Haga, the technology now allows teams and automated agents to build dashboards and data workflows without any knowledge of SQL or data infrastructure.

We’re restructuring Dune to sharpen our focus around the core data products thousands of customers across the crypto industry rely on. That unfortunately means we’ve let 25% of the team go this week. These are exceptional people I can wholeheartedly recommend — ping me if you’re…

— hagaetc (@hagaetc) May 14, 2026

Haga did not say how many people were affected. Dune’s LinkedIn page lists around 150 employees, which would put the number of departures somewhere around 37 to 38 people. The company remains well capitalized, Haga said.

One Cut Among Many

Dune’s announcement lands in the middle of a broader wave of job cuts hitting both crypto and tech companies this year.

Coinbase eliminated about 700 positions earlier this month — roughly 14% of its workforce — also citing a shift toward AI-driven operations.

Crypto news outlet DL News shut down entirely on Friday, with leadership pointing to declining web traffic as AI tools increasingly answer questions that users once searched for directly.

Block Inc., the payments and crypto company led by Jack Dorsey, carried out the largest single round of layoffs in crypto so far in 2026, cutting around 4,000 workers — nearly half its staff — back in February.

Exchanges Gemini and Crypto.com each reduced their headcounts earlier this year as well, with both companies citing efficiency gains from AI adoption.

Across the wider US tech sector, the scale of cuts has been significant. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows 137 companies have shed close to 109,000 jobs in 2026 so far.

Haga framed the layoffs not as a financial retreat but as a deliberate sharpening of the company’s direction.

Dune’s core data products are used by thousands of customers across the crypto industry, he said, and the restructuring is meant to protect and build on that foundation.

The company’s total job losses add to what reports indicate is now more than 5,000 positions cut across major crypto firms this year alone.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

“Leios is coming,” Hoskinson wrote on X, quoting Sebastian Nagel, who said: “Cardano, if your governance permits, we’ll ship Leios.” The short exchange framed the next phase of Cardano’s scaling roadmap as both a technical delivery question and a governance decision.

Cardano’s Biggest Scaling Bet

The proposal, authored by Carlos Lopez de Lara and Nagel, asks DReps to approve a treasury withdrawal of ₳27,714,342 to fund six to nine months of development. The work is intended to move Leios from its current prototype and testnet phase toward a release candidate suitable for mainnet integration. According to the proposal, each milestone would be independently assured, while undisbursed ada would be returned to the treasury.

Leios is designed to enhance, rather than replace, Ouroboros Praos, Cardano’s existing consensus protocol. The proposal says the upgrade introduces endorser blocks and committee-based validation to increase transaction capacity while preserving Praos’s security model. IO frames the design as a way to scale Cardano without undermining decentralization or making stake pool operations economically unviable.

“Cardano needs a step change in throughput to meet its 2030 ambitions, and Leios is how it gets there. This proposal funds the path from public testnet to a mainnet-ready release candidate — delivering a 10–65x increase in transaction capacity,” the proposal states. “Why this scale matters: Cardano’s 2030 strategy targets growth from roughly 800,000 monthly transactions to over 27 million.”

That 2030 target is a key justification for the funding request. The proposal argues that sustainable utilization at that level would require at least 6x current capacity, while Leios is expected to deliver 10x or more under validated parameter settings. Elsewhere, the accompanying IO article says Leios could support a phased throughput increase from 2x to 30x current capacity on mainnet, with full capacity demonstrated on testnet before broader rollout.

The work is organized around three objectives. The first is a release candidate, including a substantial rewrite of consensus components, implementation of the Leios block structure for the Dijkstra era, conformance testing against the Agda formal specification, and integration into the primary node by the fourth quarter of 2026.

The second is “high confidence,” built through parameter exploration, continuous load testing, adversarial testing, red-team exercises, and an updated threat model. The third is hard-fork enablement, covering client interfaces, technical documentation, SPO and developer workshops, support for adjacent infrastructure such as DB-Sync, Mithril and Blockfrost, testnet hard forks, governance artifacts and contingency procedures.

The proposal is careful to separate work within IO’s control from external dependencies. A mainnet hard fork would still depend on broader ecosystem readiness, governance action submission and a community vote. The document explicitly describes those as risks rather than promises.

Funding would be administered through Intersect’s treasury reserve smart contract framework, with milestone-based disbursements and third-party assurance. The budget allocates ₳23.83 million, or 86%, to development, with smaller portions assigned to infrastructure, security and audits, legal and compliance, ecosystem support, operations, governance and other costs.

The risk section is direct. It identifies community readiness, hard-fork timing, final cardano-node integration and possible governance constraints as factors that could delay or limit activation. It also notes technical limitations, including potential higher operational costs for SPOs, greater chain growth, and high-throughput assumptions tied to adversarial stake conditions.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.2661.

Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Loss Has Dropped To Just 8%

In its latest report, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has discussed the latest trend in the Relative Unrealized Loss of Bitcoin. This indicator keeps track of the total amount of unrealized loss held by the BTC investors as a percentage of the market cap.

Below is the chart shared by Glassnode that shows the trend in the metric for BTC over the last few cycles.

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Loss shot up to a notable level alongside the price plunge in early February, indicating that pain among investors saw a sharp uptick. With the recovery that has followed since then, however, the indicator’s value has gone down.

Today, the Relative Unrealized Loss for the network stands at approximately 8%. The report described this decline in the metric as “a transition that shifts the prevailing sentiment from fear toward uncertainty rather than capitulation.”

Earlier, when the indicator had spiked, its value reached a high of 25%. This means that the February crash had meant that investor losses ballooned to 25% of the entire market cap of the cryptocurrency. This is a notable amount on its own, but a quick look at the chart shows that the level is in fact significantly lower than highs seen during previous bear markets.

At present, it’s unclear which stage the current bear market is inside right now. It’s possible that the fact that the Relative Unrealized Loss hasn’t touched prior peaks yet points to the drawdown not being over. It’s also a possibility, though, that the current cycle is simply going to be different from the previous ones. Glassnode noted:

If $60k proves to have been the cycle low, this bear market would stand as the shallowest on record, one that registered fear but stopped well short of the broad capitulation that has historically marked durable cycle bottoms.

Another on-chain indicator that suggests improvement in market conditions is the Realized Cap, which basically measures the total amount of capital that the investors as a whole have put into Bitcoin.

As the below chart shared by the analytics firm in the same report shows, the 30-day change in the BTC Realized Cap had plunged deep into the negative zone earlier, indicating that capital was leaving the network.

Recently, however, the indicator has recovered back into the green zone, implying capital is once again flowing into Bitcoin. Glassnode explained, though:

The current reading, while encouraging, remains significantly below that threshold, suggesting the capital inflow underpinning this recovery lacks the conviction seen at comparable inflection points in the prior cycle.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has been stuck in sideways movement recently as its price is still trading around $81,300.

A Quarter Of Two Stories

The Tokyo-listed firm posted an ordinary loss of around $728 million for the three months ending March 31, driven by non-cash valuation markdowns on its Bitcoin holdings after the price of BTC dropped about 24% during the quarter — from roughly $87,000 on January 1 to around $66,000 by quarter’s end.

The loss widened sharply from the same period a year earlier, with the basic loss per share coming in at around $0.63, compared to roughly $0.078 12 months prior.

The bottom-line hit stood in contrast to the company’s operating results. Metaplanet reported Q1 operating income of 2.27 billion Japanese yen, or about $14.38 million, on net sales of roughly $19.5 million.

That works out to an operating margin of 73.6%. Revenue more than tripled year over year, up from about $5.5 million in the same quarter of 2025, with most of that growth coming from its Bitcoin Income Generation unit, which books option premiums and derivative valuation gains. Hotel operations contributed a smaller, steadier slice of revenue.

Borrowing To Buy More Bitcoin

To fund its Bitcoin purchases, Metaplanet drew further on a $500 million Bitcoin-collateralized credit facility. As of May 13, the company had $302 million outstanding under that arrangement.

Total net assets fell from $2.96 billion at the end of December to about $2.60 billion by March 31, as valuation losses outpaced new equity raised during the quarter.

Despite the losses, Metaplanet kept its full-year 2026 guidance unchanged. The company is still forecasting net sales of about $100 million and operating profit of around $72 million for the year. It did not provide ordinary or net income guidance, citing Bitcoin price sensitivity as the reason.

The company’s preferred performance measure, Bitcoin per diluted share, rose from 0.0240486 BTC to 0.0247319 BTC over the quarter, reflecting what Metaplanet calls a BTC yield of 2.8% for Q1.

The company frames this metric as its primary indicator of shareholder value, measuring Bitcoin accumulation on a per-share basis after accounting for dilution from new equity issuances.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

The analyst is instead looking at the stages that may come before any move into triple digits, arguing that the altcoin still has to pass through a difficult sequence of corrections and lower target zones before the larger price target. Technical analysis of the 2-month candlestick chart places XRP inside a long-term compression structure, with the current price still 530% below the first major target zone of $9.

The Macro Chart Most Traders Are Misreading

Many enthusiasts are projecting a straightforward XRP repricing that sees the cryptocurrency trading above double and triple digits. However, according to popular analyst EGRAG CRYPTO, most traders still don’t understand a few things about XRP macro charts. 

EGRAG CRYPTO’s chart is built around XRP’s 2-month timeframe, which gives a much broader view of the asset’s price structure than the daily or weekly chart. The setup shows the token pressing inside a large ascending triangle-like formation, with price action still sitting far below the upper projected targets. 

The analyst’s main argument is that traders may be giving too much importance to the 7-week moving average and the 11 EMA cross, even though these indicators are lagging in nature.

According to the analyst, price leads and indicators follow. That means moving average crosses should not be treated as a standalone confirmation that XRP is already entering a parabolic phase. The weekly chart shared by the analyst shows the altcoin currently trading around the lower end of the larger macro structure, close to the area where the 7W MA and 11 EMA are moving close together.

The chart’s most important visual feature is the broad white triangular pattern that has contained XRP’s macro movement since 2017. The analyst projected a possible “E” phase, implying that the price may still undergo more uncomfortable crashes before the next breakout rally.

A $100 Move Across Multiple Cycles

The $100 price target circulating in the XRP community is not a myth EGRAG CRYPTO dismisses outright, but the analyst’s timeline and roadmap are different from popular expectations. The first clarification is that $100 is not the full measured move from the current triangle pattern, and it is not a target for the present cycle.

The more immediate focus is on a green box in the chart above, which encompasses Fibonacci target zones sitting between $9 and $17. The first price target is around the 1.618 Fib extension at $9.51, followed by the 2.0 Fib extension around $17.23, and then the 2.272 extension around $26.30. These, according to the analysis, are more realistic XRP price targets to keep an eye on first.

XRP may need to first reclaim the macrostructure, clear the green-box zone, and then move into the extended Fib region above $26 before the structure can even begin to price in a future path to $100. Furthermore, these parabolic expansions are expected to come alongside painful retracements and emotional shakeouts, not through a straightforward path.

A Notable Rise In XRP Price-CVD Correlation

While the XRP price has pulled back following a broader bearish market reaction on Wednesday, it is still holding strong above the $1.40 level. Amid this price action, the XRP market is showing signs of shifting trader behavior, particularly on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. 

In an X update, Arab Chain, a data analyst at the CryptoQuant platform, shared that the XRP market on the Binance platform has flipped upward in the correlation index between price and CVD over the past few days. The increasing alignment may indicate stronger conviction behind recent trades as buying and selling pressure in the derivatives market becomes more closely linked to changes in the altcoin’s price.

According to the expert, this increased correlation between the price and CVD emerges before the index reverted to a decline once again during the most recent sessions. At the time of this movement, XRP was trading near the $1.44 mark, and buying and selling flows within the market were still erratic.

Examining the chart from the 30-day time frame, the key index has now increased to around 0.58, reflecting a clear improvement in the relationship between price movements and buying flows in the market.  A setup of this kind often suggests that price increases were backed by real buy orders rather than just low-liquidity speculative activity. It also points to growing trader confidence and a return of liquidity to the market during a period of relative weakness. 

After surging for a while, the index started to decline again as CVD shifted into negative territory, recording around -10.9 million XRP. While this drop was taking place, the token’s price remained relatively stable above the $1.44 level. This divergence signals a change in the structure of market flows. Here, sell orders have progressively started to surpass buy orders despite the lack of a significant price decline thus far.

Investor Hesitation Or Liquidity Redistribution

Arab Chain highlighted that this behavior could be a sign that the market is currently witnessing a period of hesitation or liquidity redistribution, which is typically evidenced after the recent surge in activity. In many cases, a weakening correlation between price and CVD has preceded a slowdown in upward momentum, raising the likelihood of short-term volatility as selling flows continue to grow.

However, the expert noted that the fact that XRP’s price has remained stable in spite of the CVD decrease may indicate that demand is still present and can somewhat offset the current selling pressure. As a result, traders are paying close attention to the trend, watching to see if the index will rise again.

When this happens, it could bolster the continuation of the upward trend. In an alternative scenario, the ongoing weakness in flows is likely to increase downward pressure on the price in the upcoming sessions.

Ripple, XRP And RLUSD Enter The Banking Debate

The claims that banks are trying to stop XRP and RLUSD gained attention after crypto commentator Pumpius shared materials allegedly linked to the American Bankers Association ahead of a Senate Banking Committee discussion on digital asset regulation. The reported message warned that parts of the proposed legislation could allow stablecoin issuers to compete more aggressively with traditional banks for customer funds.

That concern largely centers on the growing influence of regulated stablecoins like Ripple’s RLUSD. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are designed to maintain a fixed value tied to fiat currencies such as the US dollar. Because of that stability, they are becoming increasingly popular for payments, settlements and cross-border transfers, areas that banks have traditionally dominated.

For the banking industry, the issue is not simply about crypto adoption, but also about protecting deposits and maintaining control over payment systems. Financial institutions have repeatedly argued that easier movement of funds through stablecoins could encourage customers to move money away from traditional bank accounts. The materials shared by Pumpius suggest some banking groups are now pushing for stricter safeguards before lawmakers move forward with the legislation.

For XRP supporters, however, the situation looks very different. Ripple has spent years building a blockchain-based payment infrastructure designed to make international transactions faster and cheaper. XRP already plays a role in Ripple’s cross-border liquidity services, while RLUSD introduces a regulated stablecoin that can operate across digital payment networks and crypto markets.

This is why some analysts believe Ripple is increasingly being viewed as a serious competitor to the traditional banking system. Its technology directly challenges slower settlement systems, costly remittance services and intermediary-driven payment structures that banks have relied on for decades.

Clarity Act Debate Fuels XRP Concerns

The controversy surrounding Ripple and RLUSD has become closely tied to the debate over the Clarity Act and wider digital asset legislation in the United States. Materials shared by Pumpius suggested that banking groups linked to the American Bankers Association were concerned that parts of the proposed legislation could give stablecoin issuers greater room to compete with traditional banks.

The reported concerns focused on how regulated stablecoins could attract customer funds and facilitate payments outside conventional banking systems. Banking groups reportedly warned lawmakers that such rules could weaken bank deposits and shift more financial activity toward crypto-based networks.

Still, there is little evidence that banks are coordinating specifically to eliminate XRP or RLUSD. However, within the XRP community, these concerns are often interpreted as signals that Ripple’s growing influence may be beginning to unsettle traditional finance.

Bitcoin Price Set To Bottom Around $42,000

In an X post on May 11, Bee said that Bitcoin is just one leg away from reaching its historical cycle bottom. The market expert shared a video chart analysis highlighting technical patterns and historical trends to support their bearish Bitcoin price outlook. 

The analyst’s chart shows that Bitcoin has been forming multiple ascending channels within a broader descending channel since reaching a cycle peak above $126,200 in October 2025. After recording this all-time high, Btc crashed to $82,167, forming a lower low, where the first ascending channel began. Within this channel, the cryptocurrency traded sideways for months before rallying again to touch the upper boundary of the pattern at around $97,855. 

After that lower high was reached, BTC began crashing again, but this time, the decline was even sharper and more severe. The cryptocurrency had fallen to $59,900 around February 2026, forming a lower low that many analysts still consider BTC’s final cycle bottom. 

Since hitting that floor, Bitcoin has been on a steady upward rally with occasional pullbacks and volatility impacting its price. The latest jump saw the cryptocurrency skyrocketing above $83,000, which Bee marks as the second-lowest high since the 2025 ATH. However, after being rejected at that level, the analyst predicts that Bitcoin’s next move could see its price crash to $43,035. Notably, a decline to this bottom would represent a more than 45% drop from Btc’s price levels above $79,000, at the time of writing. 

BTC Rally To $100,000 Will Only Come After Bottom

In the same analysis, Bee explained that bear market cycles typically last 365 days. At the time of his post, he said that Bitcoin’s current bear market is on its 217th day, reinforcing his bearish outlook on its price. Because of this gap, he believes that BTC still has more room for a final flush.

Once a bottom is reached, Bee expects the market to likely reset and begin a sustained recovery back to $100,000 by 2027. However, he boldly projected that this milestone will not be achieved before a bottom is formed. This shows that the analyst still sees Bitcoin’s market structure as heavily bearish despite recent price increases and shifting sentiment.

In a blog post, Coinbase said it is expanding its role by becoming the official treasury deployer of USDC on Hyperliquid, treating USDC as an Aligned Quote Asset (AQA), while the network’s USDH token is expected to be phased out gradually.

Coinbase Gains Rights To USDH

The Hyperliquid official X (formerly Twitter) account said the technical deployment responsibilities were described as falling to Circle, which will handle key infrastructure such as CCTP and native cross-chain tooling.

Both Coinbase and Circle also indicated that they will stake HYPE tokens as part of the process to turn on AQAv2. Beyond that, the transition includes an agreement involving Native Markets, which has agreed to grant Coinbase terms that give it the right to purchase the USDH brand assets.

A central part of Coinbase’s plan is the way reserve proceeds are expected to flow. In its role as treasury deployer, Coinbase said it will share the vast majority of reserve yield revenue with the Hyperliquid protocol. 

In practical terms, Coinbase framed the change as a way to make USDC the most aligned stablecoin on Hyperliquid. It also said that, as part of a future network upgrade, canonical outcome (HIP-4) markets will use USDC as the quote asset.

Coinbase emphasized that the migration won’t be abrupt for current users. Over the coming months, it said people will continue to be able to redeem USDH for USDC or for fiat without fees through Native Markets’ USDH Dashboard. 

In addition, Coinbase explained that the Hyper Foundation will distribute grants to eligible HIP-3 deployers, HIP-1 deployers, and builders who integrated USDH. 

Hyperliquid Jumps To $44

Circle also addressed the announcement separately, confirming that USDC will become the primary collateral across all Hyperliquid markets, and that it plans to stake 500,000 HYPE tokens as it moves toward validator status on the network.

Coinbase also noted that it has invested in supporting builders on HyperEVM by backing stablecoin liquidity, and it framed its latest step as an extension of that strategy. Coinbase said it is “excited to further our support of the ecosystem and see USDC’s continued growth on Hyperliquid.”

Alongside the protocol news, prices reacted as well. HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, saw a notable increase after the successful vote on the CLARITY Act in the Senate Banking Committee—a development that cleared a hurdle that had kept the bill from reaching a full Senate vote and potential signature. 

At the time of writing, HYPE traded at $44.50, reflecting a 14% gain over the past 24 hours. The move also placed Hyperliquid about 24% below all-time highs of $59, a level it reached during last year’s bull run.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin Price Slides, But ETF Investors Refuse To Sell

As Wednesday approached its end, Bitcoin’s price performance had flipped bearish, triggering questions about its price stability and short-term direction. Even as BTC is struggling, interest in the leading crypto asset is still present in certain key areas of the market.

Bitcoin held in exchange-traded funds has demonstrated impressive performance despite a significant decline from its all-time high, indicating institutional investors’ sustained commitment. On-Chain Mind stated that Bitcoin is still trading around 35% below its all-time high, yet the BTC stash held in ETFs has barely moved. 

Although the market as a whole has been shaken by price volatility, BTC ETF holders seem to be relatively unmoved, with little indication of aggressive selling or panic-driven withdrawals. Data shows that ETF-held BTC has only dropped from around 1.38 million BTC to 1.36 million BTC during this period of heightened negative price action over the past months. This figure represents a decline of just 1.45% in BTC terms.

Based on the stability of ETF-held BTC, it appears that many investors, especially long-term holders, still see Bitcoin as a strategic asset with significant return potential rather than a short-term trade. Such growing confidence from seasoned investors could trigger renewed bullish sentiment and momentum across the market as long as it persists.

If ETF buyers were just short-term tourists, On-Chain Mind claims that the market would have experienced a far bigger unwind. Instead, this increasingly resembles sticky portfolio allocation funds moving into Bitcoin via conventional financial channels.

Large BTC Transactions Emerging On Binance

Bitcoin whale activity is undergoing a shift while the price has struggled with ongoing volatility. Looking at the BTC Whale flows on Binance, the metric is showing a notable increase in large transactions over the recent period. As a result, whale flows to the exchange index rose more than $4 billion, marking its highest level since mid-March this year.

According to Arab Chain, this coincides with BTC trading near the $80, 000 level, reflecting a clear uptick in movements from large wallets toward exchanges in recent weeks. Data shows that the index has followed a string upward trend since the beginning of May, reaching its highest reading since mid-March. 

Prior to the rise in May, the index saw a period of relative decline in April, when whale flows dropped to around $2.47 billion, signaling reduced major investors’ activity and pace of transfers to exchanges. However, the index’s recent rise could indicate an increase in whale behavior as Bitcoin gets closer to comparatively high price points.

Arab Chain also highlights sustained demand near the $80,000 level, which could absorb some of the current selling pressure. Meanwhile, should the whale flows to exchange continue, it may enhance the probability of higher volatility in the near future, particularly if it coincides with a decrease in purchasing volumes or waning upward momentum.

XRP open interest on Binance has reached approximately $475.4 million — above the 30-day average of $440.7 million by a meaningful margin. The Z-Score, measuring the deviation of current open interest from its historical norm, has climbed to approximately 1.65, a reading that reflects new liquidity entering the XRP futures market at a pace significantly above recent baseline levels. When the Z-Score crosses above 1.0, it typically signals a noticeable acceleration in trader activity and leverage usage — participants are not simply maintaining existing positions, they are adding new ones.

The timing creates an important context. Speculative activity returning to XRP derivatives on the same day the Senate Banking Committee votes on the framework that could define XRP’s regulatory future in the United States describes a market that is positioning rather than waiting. Whether that positioning reflects confidence or hedging — and whether today’s vote delivers the clarity or the uncertainty that determines which interpretation is correct — is what the next several hours will reveal.

Half a Billion in XRP Open Interest. Not Yet a Directional Signal

The Arab Chain analysis frames the open interest recovery with the calibration that prevents it from being misread as a straightforward bullish confirmation. XRP derivatives activity approaching $475 million on Binance is notable precisely because of where it is coming from.  A prolonged period of relatively weak derivatives participation that made the asset’s futures market one of the quieter venues in the broader crypto ecosystem. The recovery toward half a billion in open interest reflects a genuine return of trader engagement after months of subdued activity.

The historical context that the analysis provides adds an honest perspective. XRP’s derivatives market has seen considerably higher peaks during previous speculative waves — the current level, while representing meaningful recovery, remains well below the extremes that characterized the most aggressive positioning phases. The current reading describes a market gradually rebuilding liquidity rather than one approaching the kind of overcrowded positioning that historically precedes sharp liquidation events.

The Z-Score’s role in the analysis is precise and worth understanding correctly. A reading of 1.65 confirms that activity has meaningfully exceeded the recent historical norm. But it does not specify the direction of that activity or its ultimate price implication. Rising open interest with strong buying flows behind it tends to support upward momentum. Rising open interest, building on defensive or short-side positioning, can equally increase the probability of sharp volatility when those positions are forced to unwind.

The derivatives market is telling a story of returning engagement rather than confirmed direction. The catalyst that determines which way that engagement resolves may arrive before today’s session closes.

XRP Holds Key Support While Momentum Remains Unresolved

XRP is trading near $1.44 and continues moving inside a narrow consolidation structure that has defined price action for most of the past two months. The daily chart shows XRP stabilizing after the sharp February decline, but buyers still have not generated enough momentum to produce a decisive trend reversal. Instead, price remains trapped in a range where both bulls and bears continue competing for control.

Technically, the $1.35–$1.45 region has become the market’s key battleground. XRP repeatedly revisited this zone throughout March, April, and May, suggesting the area has evolved into an important equilibrium level where demand continues absorbing selling pressure. The fact that the price remains above support despite multiple retests is constructive and indicates that sellers have struggled to force continuation lower.

However, broader trend structure still favors caution. XRP continues trading below the major long-term moving averages, with the declining 100-day and 200-day averages positioned overhead near the $1.60–$1.80 region. Those levels continue acting as dynamic resistance and define the barriers XRP must reclaim before confirming a larger recovery trend.

Volume also remains subdued compared to February capitulation levels. Lower participation suggests conviction has not fully returned. For now, XRP appears to be compressing beneath resistance, with volatility likely building toward a larger directional move.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

The selloff comes as Congress has also confirmed a new Federal Reserve (Fed) chair—Kevin Warsh—raising expectations for how monetary policy could evolve next. 

Warsh’s Confirmation

In a recent report, market expert Sam Daodu pointed to Warsh’s unusual position among Fed leaders: Daodu noted that Warsh would be the first Fed chair who owns crypto personally and has referred to Bitcoin as “the new gold for people under 40.” 

But Daodu also emphasized an important counterweight. He described Warsh as one of the more hawkish voices in the Fed—particularly on the issue of quantitative easing (QE)—and said that President Trump wants Warsh to cut rates right away.

Markets, however, are not fully aligned with the political push for faster easing. After today’s hot inflation reading, trading models are pricing roughly 39% odds of a rate hike instead of cuts. 

Against that backdrop, Daodu laid out multiple factors that could shape how BTC responds to Warsh’s appointment—especially since Bitcoin could move in very different directions depending on how Warsh signals policy intent.

Daodu framed it as a split between two broad paths for the Fed, both affecting the market’s expectations for the rest of 2026. 

Bitcoin Risk Hinges On Two Fed Paths 

In the “realistic scenario”—described as hawkish—Edward Jones economist James McCann said, “spiking inflation will leave the Fed firmly on the sidelines for his first few meetings and potentially through the rest of 2026.” 

Under that view, if Warsh signals that 3.8% inflation is unacceptable and that the Fed will hold longer, Bitcoin could slip below $78,000, the level marked by the 200-day moving average (MA). 

In the other scenario, Daodu said a more constructive message could emerge from Warsh’s argument that artificial intelligence (AI) productivity justifies cutting rates even with a hot Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading. If that happens, the expert says Bitcoin could rebound toward the $82,000 –$85,000 zone.

What happens at the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting may not be the main catalyst. Daodu noted that markets have largely already priced in that the Fed will likely do nothing at the next meeting. 

CME FedWatch places the probability of a hold at the current 3.50%–3.75% rate at about 70% for June, with a 25 basis point cut priced at roughly 28%. Yet, the larger issue, according to Daodu, is whether anything Warsh says changes the expected rate path further out.

According to Daodu, two outcomes could move BTC. One is a surprise cut scenario that is still priced at about 28% odds. If that materializes, Daodu said Bitcoin could surge toward $85,000 –$88,000, with the implication that Warsh would be cutting rates without waiting for inflation to cool. 

The second outcome involves hawkish messaging combined with a revised dot plot. Daodu said the June meeting includes an updated Summary of Economic Projections and its associated dot plot, which shows where each Fed member expects rates to land. 

If Fed officials shift the dot plot toward fewer cuts for 2026, Bitcoin could fall below $78,000. Daodu described this as riskier because it could lock in tighter policy expectations regardless of Warsh’s personal preferences.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The story behind the recovery is as unusual as the outcome. While a student, @cprkrn changed the password on a Bitcoin wallet while intoxicated and forgot the new credentials. He still possessed an old mnemonic phrase — the seed phrase used to generate the wallet — but it no longer opened the current wallet file. Years of attempts followed.

He spent roughly $250 on professional recovery services, exhausted brute-force software testing an estimated 7 trillion password combinations, and eventually gave up on conventional methods entirely, per his X thread. He held out until Bitcoin crossed $100,000 before mounting one final serious attempt.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT OMG CLAUDE JUST CRACKED THIS SHIT, THANK YOU @AnthropicAI THANK YOU @DarioAmodei NAMING MY KID AFTER YOU https://t.co/gObNirRDpS https://t.co/ByTdIM4d20 pic.twitter.com/xB5LUJb6Pe

— (@cprkrn) May 13, 2026 

Bitcoin Found: How Claude Actually Did It

The recovery was not a case of AI breaking Bitcoin’s encryption. Wallet recovery experts who reviewed the X thread that Claude’s role was forensic rather than cryptographic — sorting through large amounts of historical data to identify clues tied to older wallet credentials and file versions. The distinction matters and @cprkrn’s own account confirms it.

His approach was straightforward. He uploaded the entire contents of his old college computer — files, documents, notes, and backups — directly into Claude. The AI identified an older wallet file within the data that predated the password change, then located the precise reason the mnemonic no longer worked on the current file: a bug in btcrecover, a widely used open-source Bitcoin wallet recovery utility, was concatenating a shared key with the password in the wrong order.

Claude identified the bug, corrected the decryption logic, ran the process, and extracted the private keys in Wallet Import Format. Claude’s output, which @cprkrn screenshotted and posted to X, read: “PRIVATE KEYS DECRYPTED! WE GOT IT!!! THE 5 BTC IS YOURS!”

Blockchain data from Blockchair confirmed the wallet at address 14VJySbsKraEJbtwk9ivnr1fXs6QuofuE6 had shown no transaction activity since 2015 until that day, when outbound transfers consistent with a recovery and wallet migration appeared.

@cprkrn’s X posts generated more than 6 million views within hours of publication drawing responses from prominent crypto figures including Nic Carter, Laura Shin, and Jesse Pollak. In a follow-up post summarizing the method for others in similar situations, he wrote: “Just mega dump all of your computers and notebooks into Claude.” He also publicly thanked Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei directly.

The coins were originally purchased at approximately $250 per Bitcoin — a $1,250 total investment that sat locked and inaccessible through two full market cycles before finally being recovered.

As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $79,300, meaning the recovered 5 BTC now represents a return of approximately 32,500% on the original purchase price — eleven years later.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

More Than 332,000 Wallets Now Hold 10,000+ XRP

In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Santiment has talked about the latest trend in the population of the mid-to-large holders of XRP. The indicator of relevance here is the “Supply Distribution,” which tells us, among other things, the number of wallets that belong to a given group.

Addresses are divided into these cohorts based on the number of tokens that they are carrying in their balance. The 1 to 10 coins group, for example, includes all holders who own between 1 and 10 BTC. In the context of the current topic, the range of interest is the 10,000+ coins one (with there being no upper bound).

At the current exchange rate, the cutoff for this range converts to around $14,300. While this isn’t terribly high, it does act as a filter against the small entities. As such, the range can showcase the combined behavior of the mid-sized and large investor cohorts.

Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows how the Supply Distribution for the 10,000+ coins group has changed on the XRP network over the last few months:

As displayed in the above graph, the total number of XRP wallets holding more than 10,000 tokens observed a plunge alongside the price crash from January-end/February-start. This means that some of the prominent investors of the cryptocurrency cleared out their balance amid the market panic.

While the decline was sharp, it lasted only briefly, and before long, the indicator was back to following a similar trajectory as before the crash: a gradual uptrend. The new uptrend maintained throughout March and April, and so far, it has also sustained in May.

After the latest continuation to this trajectory, the indicator has completely retraced the earlier plummet and reached a value of 332,230, which is a new all-time high (ATH). The analytics firm noted:

The continued rise in XRP Ledger wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP is an important long-term signal because it shows that larger holders have kept accumulating even during periods of volatility and uncertainty.

In some other news, XRP continuing to struggle recently has meant that treasury company Evernorth has continued to hold deep losses on its holdings. As analyst Maartunn has highlighted in an X post, the firm was only in profit for about a couple of weeks before its reserves fell into the red.

From the chart, it’s visible that Evernorth’s XRP treasury, which spent $950 million to assemble its holdings, is currently down $389 million.

XRP Price

At the time of writing, XRP is trading around $1.43, down 1% over the last 24 hours.

The Size Of The Donation

According to reports, the money came from Harborne, a British cryptocurrency investor based in Thailand who gave £9 million to Reform UK in a single donation last year — the largest gift to a UK political party by a living person in British history.

His total contributions to Reform reached £12 million in 2025. The separate £5 million payment went directly to Farage in early 2024, months before Farage won a seat in Parliament.

Farage says the money was given to cover his personal security costs and describes it as a private, unconditional gift with no political strings attached.

His office confirmed it is in contact with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and said they expect the inquiry to clear him. “No rules were broken,” a Reform spokesman said.

It is right that Nigel Farage should be investigated for receiving a £5m gift from a crypto billionaire.

So far Farage and Reform have not given any satisfactory answers regarding this questionable donation.https://t.co/au9VBUNOuh

— Andy McDonald MP for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East (@AndyMcDonaldMP) May 13, 2026

What The Rules Actually Say

Commons rules require newly elected MPs to register financial interests and any benefits received in the 12 months before their election. Farage was elected in July 2024. The gift was made in early 2024, which places it squarely within that window.

The rules do allow exemptions for purely personal gifts, but they also state that both the giver’s possible motive and the intended use of the money must be weighed. Where doubt exists, registration is expected.

This is not the first time Farage has run into disclosure issues. Earlier this year, he was found to have registered £384,000 in interests late. Standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg ruled that breach was accidental and allowed Farage to update his records without facing formal punishment.

Labour and the Conservatives have both called for answers. Labour Party chair Anna Turley said Farage has been dodging questions since the gift first came to light and called the investigation appropriate.

The Conservatives, who filed the complaint that triggered the inquiry, also raised the matter separately with the Electoral Commission, which said it is reviewing the information.

A Conservative spokesman put it bluntly: £5 million is more than most people earn in a lifetime, and Farage owes the public an explanation for how and why he received it.

If the Commissioner finds Farage violated the code of conduct, possible consequences range from a formal apology to suspension from Parliament. Expulsion remains an option in the most serious cases.

Featured image from Mark Thomas/Alamy, chart from TradingView

Schwab Launches Spot Trading For BTC, ETH

On Tuesday, the $11.7 trillion brokerage giant Charles Schwab revealed that it officially launched its spot digital asset trading platform, Schwab Crypto, to a select group of retail customers.

According to the X announcement, the first group of clients can trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) directly on its platform alongside their other digital asset-related investment products.

The crypto trading platform is available in all US states, excluding New York and Louisiana, and will charge a 75-basis-point fee on the dollar value of each trade, which is among the lowest in the industry.

Last month, the firm revealed the platform would be introduced in phases, starting with an internal employee pilot, moving to a client waitlist, and then opening to eligible customers throughout the rest of 2026.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the company explained that Schwab clients will maintain separate accounts under the new platform, which will be linked directly to their brokerage accounts.

Notably, Charles Schwab Premier Bank (CSPB) will serve as the custodian for customers’ assets, handling safekeeping and record-keeping. Meanwhile, blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos will handle trade execution and sub-custody, using a federally overseen trust model and enterprise-grade technology

The brokerage giant also revealed plans to add additional digital assets to the platform and introduce transfer capabilities for both deposits and withdrawals, allowing clients with existing digital asset investments to bring them to Schwab alongside their other accounts.

Jonathan Craig, Head of Retail Investing at Charles Schwab, previously noted that with Schwab Crypto, the firm seeks to allow clients who want direct access to the asset class to benefit from the service, educational resources, and research tools they expect from the company.

Traditional Institutions Expand Crypto Offerings

This move marks a major expansion from Schwab’s previous digital asset-related offerings, which included indirect exposure to investments through spot crypto Exchange-traded products (ETPs), futures, options on spot crypto ETPs, crypto-related ETFs, and mutual funds that invest in the broader digital asset ecosystem. Schwab clients hold approximately 20% of spot crypto ETPs, the firm noted.

Moreover, the launch comes as major banks and brokerages race to add digital‑asset products and integrate crypto into mainstream investing, with several firms expanding retail digital asset offerings in recent years.

Last week, Wall Street behemoth Morgan Stanley also launched a crypto trading pilot on its E*Trade platform to a limited number of users, seeking to challenge major players, including Schwab, with competitive pricing.

The banking giant is charging E*Trade users a 50-basis-point fee on the transaction value, placing its prices below Robinhood’s 95 basis points, Coinbase’s 60 basis points, and Schwab’s 75 basis points.

While the pilot is currently available only to a limited group, Morgan Stanley expects to expand access to all of E*Trade’s 8.6 million clients later this year. The bank’s executives are reportedly preparing an offering to directly convert digital assets into shares of ETPs without selling the assets, and planning to add the ability to trade tokenized equities in the second half of 2026.

Jed Finn, Morgan Stanley’s head of wealth management, affirmed that the launch is “much bigger than trading crypto at a cheaper rate,” explaining that their strategy is “disintermediating the disintermediators.”

The Math Behind The Mining

The kingdom began mining Bitcoin in 2019, tapping surplus electricity from its glacier-fed rivers. State-owned Druk Holding and Investments ran the operation, and at its peak in late 2024, the reserve reached nearly 13,000 BTC.

The April 2024 block reward halving cut mining output significantly. The last on-chain deposit above $100,000 into Bhutan-linked wallets occurred more than 12 months ago, raising questions about whether active mining continues at all.

On Tuesday, Bhutan moved 100 BTC — worth about $8.1 million — out of its holding wallets, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence.

The country has now offloaded roughly $230 million in Bitcoin since January, averaging about $50 million a month. Current holdings sit at approximately 3,100 BTC, valued near $252 million.

Bhutan is selling Bitcoin.

Bhutan just moved 100 BTC ($8.1M) out of its holding wallets.

At their current rate of selling, they will run out of BTC before the end of September. pic.twitter.com/z8P7yf0kzS

— Arkham (@arkham) May 12, 2026

A Sell-Off With No Fixed Timeline

Arkham projects Bhutan will exhaust its reserves before the end of September if sales continue at the current pace.

Not everyone buys that timeline. Markus Levin, co-founder of XYO, said the projection assumes a steady rate of selling — but that is not how Bhutan has operated.

Sales started with 2,077 BTC worth $163 million in late 2024, followed by a $100 million tranche in September 2025, with quieter stretches in between.

Earlier this year, transfers picked up again. Reports indicate Bhutan moved over $120 million in Bitcoin during March alone, including a single transfer of 519.7 BTC valued at $36.75 million at the time. Coins are often routed through Singapore-based trading firm QCP Capital, according to reports.

Analysts say the pattern reflects a deliberate treasury approach. Lacie Zhang, a research analyst at Bitget Wallet, described the activity as an active sovereign strategy aimed at monetizing gains while keeping some long-term exposure.

Since the Bitcoin was mined at near-zero cost, every sale generates profit regardless of timing.

The sell-down has not slowed Bhutan’s broader push into digital assets. Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special administrative region in southern Bhutan, has been designated to hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB as strategic reserves.

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck pledged up to 10,000 BTC — then worth around $1 billion — toward the city’s development in December 2025.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

The bill—described by participants as a crypto market structure package that has already been delayed by more than five months—is widely viewed by negotiators as close to a version they want to move forward. 

Even so, some senators, including well-known crypto critic Elizabeth Warren, are signaling they plan to keep pushing changes into the draft.

Warren’s XRP Banking Move

A post from market expert and crypto researcher Bull Winkle claims Warren “stayed up all night” on Tuesday drafting 40 amendments intended to block XRP from the US banking system. 

According to the post, the most consequential proposal would limit the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) ability to grant “master accounts” to crypto firms—an approach the amendments reportedly aim to apply broadly, including to institutions and companies such as Ripple, Circle, Anchorage, and Custodia Bank.

However, Bull Winkle’s assessment reminds that Kraken already holds a Federal Reserve master account and that Ripple has received approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to operate as a bank. 

In that framing, Warren’s effort is characterized less as preventing new access and more as attempting to reverse momentum that is already moving through the system. 

The amendment focus is not limited to XRP-related banking concerns. Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America reported on Wednesday that one standout proposal attributed to Senator Jack Reed includes an amendment that would prohibit crypto from being used as legal tender, including for paying taxes. 

‘Anti-DeFi’ CLARITY Act Amendments

Terrett also reported that after more than 100 amendments were submitted to the CLARITY Act draft by members of the Senate Banking Committee, the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) is monitoring what it describes as “anti-DeFi amendments.” 

According to that tracking effort, the group says the proposals could damage decentralized finance (DeFi) technology, its users, and developers, and is urging supporters to lobby senators ahead of tomorrow’s markup.

In DEF’s description, the DeFi-targeted amendments in the CLARITY Act appear to come from Democratic senators including Cortez Masto, Andy Kim (NJ), Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, and Jack Reed. 

The group’s stated concern is that the proposals would weaken or remove core protections. Those areas include the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), protections for non-controlling software developers, tokenization provisions, and what the group calls expanded BSA/AML obligations for developers.

With the Senate Banking Committee set to mark up the CLARITY Act on Thursday, negotiators are watching not only what gets added or removed, but also whether the final shape of the amendments will allow the bill to move forward without another round of disruption.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading at around $1.41, having recorded a 1.4% loss over the previous 24 hours. This amid a broader crypto market retracement, which saw Bitcoin (BTC) drop to $78,000 once again.

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

A Costly Lesson in Crypto User Behavior

Legend, a mobile-first DeFi aggregator founded by former Compound Finance executives, will go offline on July 12 after roughly two years in operation. The app will continue running normally for 60 days before the shutdown takes effect.

Hobby said the product found an audience but failed to grow to the scale needed to keep the company financially viable. Closing, he said, was the right call for the team and its investors.

The app let users earn, trade, borrow, and swap assets like stablecoins and Ether through integrations with major DeFi protocols including Aave, Compound, and Uniswap — all from a single interface.

The idea was to spare users from juggling multiple wallets and applications. Legend operated as a non-custodial aggregator, meaning it never held user funds directly.

https://t.co/geLqLg7SuY

— JSON (@jaysonhobby) May 12, 2026

Backed By Big Names, Still Not Enough

In February 2025, Legend closed a $15 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures. The backing gave it credibility. It wasn’t enough to overcome the growth gap.

No active user counts or total value locked figures were disclosed, partly because the aggregator model makes those numbers harder to pin down.

What users want, according to Hobby, is simple: better yield, faster payments, more control over their money. Whether those outcomes come from a blockchain or a traditional bank account is beside the point.

“The product that wins,” he said, “is the one that hides it completely. The benefits are felt, not explained.”

The broader DeFi market has not made things easier. Total value locked across the DeFi ecosystem has fallen 50% since October, weighed down by a prolonged crypto bear market.

Legend is far from alone. More than 20 DeFi, NFT, crypto, GameFi protocols have announced shutdowns so far this year.

ZeroLend closed in February after three years, calling its model unsustainable. Solana aggregator Step Finance wound down the same month following a $40 million treasury wallet breach.

DeFi derivatives platform Polynomial also ceased operations in February. Balancer Labs shut down in March after mounting pressure following a $116 million hack late last year.

And in April, Base-based lending protocol Seamless Protocol cited volatile market conditions as the reason for its closure.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

In a post on X titled “America Must Fight to Win Crypto,” Novogratz framed the debate as both a policy test and a political one for the Democratic Party, which he said risks “hand[ing] the future away” if it allows the bill to stall in the Senate. He said the issue is no longer whether crypto demand exists in the US, but whether American lawmakers will write rules that keep that activity inside the domestic regulatory perimeter.

“I have voted for Democrats most of my adult life, and I will again,” Novogratz wrote. “I am writing this because I root for my party, and because, on the technology that will shape American power in this century, the loudest voices on our left are about to hand the future away.”

Democrats Must ‘Show Up’ On Crypto

The post centers on the CLARITY Act, a House-passed crypto market structure bill designed to establish a clearer federal framework for digital asset markets. Novogratz noted that the legislation passed the House last July with “overwhelming bipartisan support,” including 78 Democrats, but remains stuck in the Senate ten months later.

He argued that the delay is not primarily about policy substance, but political “posture,” pointing to an internal Democratic split over whether legislation that allows crypto firms to operate onshore should be treated as market infrastructure or as a concession to industry.

“A vocal slice of our caucus has decided that any rule letting American crypto companies operate onshore is a corporate giveaway,” Novogratz wrote. “The result is an offshore market.”

To support that claim, Novogratz contrasted the market share of Binance and Coinbase. Binance, which he described as having no formal headquarters but being licensed in Abu Dhabi, clears nearly 40% of global spot volume, while Coinbase, the largest US-based exchange, clears roughly 6%, according to his post. He also cited estimates that 55 million Americans, or one in five adults, own crypto, and that the US accounted for $2.4 trillion in crypto activity in a single year, nearly four times the next country.

For Novogratz, those figures underscore a mismatch between domestic demand and domestic regulatory capacity. His argument is that without legislation, the US will continue to export market structure, liquidity and company formation to rival financial centers such as Singapore, Dubai and London.

But he cast the legislative stakes as larger than exchange activity alone. Tokenization, he argued, could allow American equities, funds, Treasuries and brands to reach global users who may never open a US brokerage account. In that framing, the CLARITY Act is not merely a crypto bill, but a channel for projecting US financial infrastructure abroad.

“Tokenization on public blockchains lets American equities, American funds, American Treasuries, and American brands reach billions of people abroad who will never open a US brokerage account,” he wrote. “CLARITY could make it possible. It is a projection of American power that both Democrats and Republicans should want.”

Novogratz also tied the issue to voter realignment. He said the voters most enthusiastic about crypto include young men, Black men and Latino men, groups he argued Democrats are already struggling to retain. He pointed to Senator Ruben Gallego and Representative Ritchie Torres as examples of Democrats engaging with crypto policy because their constituents are asking about it.

The broader critique was aimed at what Novogratz described as a tendency among parts of the party to litigate rather than build. Citing Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s “Abundance,” he argued that Democrats cannot claim to believe in government while failing to make it function on technologies central to economic competition.

“The center of the ring is being contested in real time, by builders and regulators and rival capitals,” Novogratz wrote. “We do not get to opt out. Pass the CLARITY Act. Show up.”

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.64 trillion.

XWIN Research Japan has drawn attention to a CryptoQuant dataset that contextualizes exactly what is at stake. The All Stablecoins ERC-20 Active Addresses chart shows a sharp rise in stablecoin usage since late 2025, with active addresses briefly approaching 600,000 in 2026 — a level that reflects not simply more stablecoin supply circulating, but genuine growth in real on-chain dollar usage. People are using stablecoins as a functional payment and settlement layer at a scale the network has not previously seen.

Into that growing ecosystem, the CLARITY Act introduces a regulatory distinction with significant structural implications. The bill’s current draft draws a clear legal line between payment stablecoins — which it appears designed to protect and legitimize — and yield-bearing stablecoin products, which face considerably more restrictive treatment.

Building on the already-passed GENIUS framework that prohibits issuers from paying interest simply for holding stablecoins, the CLARITY draft extends those restrictions to exchanges, custodians, brokers, and wallet providers — targeting the deposit-like APY model that has attracted millions of users to products promising 3% to 5% simply for holding USDC.

The CLARITY Act Is A Boundary. And The Boundary May Actually Help

The XWIN Research Japan analysis draws the distinction that prevents the CLARITY Act from being misread as a broad regulatory assault on the stablecoin ecosystem. The bill does not ban stablecoins. It does not target DeFi as a category. What it appears designed to do is considerably more precise: formalize stablecoins as regulated payment infrastructure while drawing a legal boundary between that infrastructure and the bank deposit model that yield-bearing products have been approximating.

The boundary is not absolute. Rewards tied to genuine economic activity — liquidity provision, staking, governance participation, and collateralized lending — may remain permissible under certain conditions. The distinction the CLARITY Act draws is between passive yield for simply holding a stablecoin and yield generated through actual participation in financial activity. The former is the target. The latter appears to have a viable path forward.

Related Reading: Top Investor Breaks Down The CLARITY Act: Bitcoin Gets Legal Clarity, Stablecoins Get Restricted

The structural focus of the legislation falls on centralized intermediaries — exchanges, custodians, brokers, and wallet providers offering bank-like APY products. Genuinely decentralized protocols and self-custody activity are not identified as the primary regulatory concern.

The forward implication the analysis identifies is constructive and extends beyond stablecoins. Regulatory clarity around payment infrastructure tends to accelerate adjacent development — tokenized US Treasuries, real-world asset products, and on-chain financial infrastructure all benefit from a defined legal environment. And since stablecoins function as the core dollar liquidity layer of crypto markets, expanding regulated stablecoin usage creates the capital flow conditions that historically strengthen long-term inflows into Bitcoin as well.

Thursday’s vote will determine whether that framework becomes law or returns for further negotiation. The on-chain usage data suggests the market has already been moving in the direction the legislation is trying to formalize.

Stablecoin Dominance Declines As Capital Gradually Returns To Risk Assets

Stablecoin dominance is trading near 12.1% after declining steadily from the February peak above 14%, a move that reflects capital gradually rotating back into higher-risk crypto assets following the first quarter correction. The chart shows that stablecoin dominance accelerated sharply during the February selloff as investors moved aggressively into dollar-pegged assets for protection while Bitcoin and altcoins experienced heavy liquidation pressure across the market.

That spike above 14% marked one of the highest stablecoin dominance readings of the cycle and coincided closely with the period of maximum fear and forced selling. Historically, rising stablecoin dominance tends to reflect defensive positioning, as traders reduce exposure to volatile assets and hold liquidity in stablecoins while waiting for clearer market conditions.

Since March, however, the structure has started to reverse. Stablecoin dominance has fallen back below the 50-day moving average and is now testing the 100-day moving average near the 12% region. That decline suggests part of the sidelined capital that accumulated during the correction is gradually re-entering the market.

At the same time, dominance remains well above the levels seen during peak speculative phases in previous bull cycles. This indicates that a large amount of liquidity still remains parked in stablecoins rather than aggressively chasing risk.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

The analysis, shared on X, is based on a simple pattern: Bitcoin has not formed its major bear-market bottom in recent cycles until it printed nine red monthly candles.

The Bottom Call May Be Too Early

The analysis, which was posted on X by a crypto market commentator, looks at a monthly candlestick pattern visible on Bitcoin’s long-term price chart. The observation is that Bitcoin has never established a bear market bottom before printing nine consecutive red monthly candles.

The first trend of nine consecutive red monthly candles can be seen in the 2018 cycle. Starting from the January 2018 peak that followed Bitcoin’s first major mainstream rally, the cryptocurrency printed nine consecutive red monthly candles before finding its bottom around $3,200 in December of that year. 

The 2022 cycle repeated the sequence with near-identical precision. From the November 2021 all-time high, Bitcoin closed nine straight red monthly candles before bottoming around $15,500 in November 2022, a decline of about 77%.

Bitcoin reached its current all-time high of $126,080 on October 6, 2025, before the monthly candle that followed closed in the red. That bearish sequence continued through February, giving the analyst’s red-candle theory some weight. However, the structure has since started to change, with Bitcoin closing March and April in the green. May is also on track to produce another green monthly candle, although it is still too early to tell.

What Does This Mean For Bitcoin?

This outlook does not mean Bitcoin must copy its past cycle candle-for-candle. However, the pattern is being used as a warning against assuming very early that the current bounce above $80,000 is the start of a new bull phase. Bitcoin still needs to register weekly closes above some levels before the price action can be called the start of a new bull phase. It’s just a theory. But it’s happened twice in a row.

That view also aligns with the broader market mood. Bitcoin has recently climbed back above $80,000, but the recovery has not been strong enough to erase caution from the market. It also matches other technical outlooks from crypto analysts who argue that Bitcoin bear markets usually take about a year to fully play out before a durable bottom is formed. 

Based on that reading, the current corrective price action may still extend further, possibly stretching into Q4 2026 before Bitcoin finds a stronger long-term floor.

Crypto America host Eleanor Terret has reported a development that reveals the intensity of the lobbying battle now unfolding in Washington. Since last Friday, members of the American Bankers Association have sent more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices urging lawmakers to fix the stablecoin yield compromise embedded in the bill’s current draft. The effort is focused and coordinated — Terret noted on X that the campaign does not include a separate phone call effort, meaning the letter volume alone represents the banking industry’s current pressure strategy.

The target of that pressure is specific. The stablecoin yield provisions in the CLARITY Act would restrict issuers, exchanges, custodians, and wallet providers from offering deposit-like yield products — the “earn 3% to 5% just by holding USDC” model that has drawn millions of users into stablecoin products. Banks, who would benefit structurally from those restrictions, are pushing to ensure the final language holds.

Thursday’s vote will reveal whether 8,000 letters were enough.

The Amendments That Will Define Thursday’s Vote — and the Industry’s Next Decade

The pre-markup maneuvering has produced a series of amendments that reveal exactly where the fault lines are. Political and financial journalist Brendan Pedersen reports that Senators Reed of Rhode Island and Smith of Minnesota have filed an amendment that will force a direct choice between the crypto industry and the banking sector, specifically by incorporating the banks’ preferred changes to the stablecoin yield restrictions. The 8,000 letters from American Bankers Association members appear to have found legislative form.

Eleanor Terret has identified additional amendments that extend the battlefield considerably further. A Reed amendment would prohibit crypto from being used as legal tender — including for tax payments. The provision arrives as a pointed counter to a bill introduced last year by Representative Davidson that would have enabled Bitcoin to be used for exactly that purpose.

The most aggressive set comes from Senator Warren, who has filed more than 40 amendments ahead of Thursday’s markup. The most consequential would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing master accounts to crypto companies — a restriction that would effectively close one of the most significant pathways toward crypto firms gaining direct access to the US banking system.

Thursday’s markup session is no longer simply a vote on the CLARITY Act as written. It is a live negotiation between competing visions of what role crypto will be permitted to play in American financial life — with amendments designed to draw lines that, once drawn, will be extremely difficult to redraw.

Crypto Market Reclaims $2.6 Trillion As Recovery Structure Strengthens

The total crypto market cap is trading near $2.68 trillion after recovering sharply from the February correction lows that briefly pushed the market close to the $2.2 trillion region. The chart shows that the broader crypto market has stabilized considerably during the last several weeks, with buyers successfully reclaiming several important technical levels that now define the current recovery structure.

One of the most important developments is the market’s ability to move back above the 200-week moving average, currently near the $2.55 trillion area. Historically, this level has acted as a major long-term trend indicator separating expansion phases from deeper corrective environments. Holding above it suggests that the broader market structure is transitioning away from capitulation conditions and back toward accumulation.

At the same time, the market remains below the declining 50-week moving average near $3 trillion and the 100-week moving average around $3.2 trillion. Those overhead levels continue to represent major resistance zones that buyers still need to overcome before confirming a broader bullish continuation.

Volume has also declined significantly compared to the panic-driven activity seen during the February selloff. That reduction suggests forced selling has largely cooled, but it also indicates that aggressive new capital inflows have not fully returned yet.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Growing Network Strength Pushes Ethereum Back Into Focus

Ethereum’s recent upward momentum in the past few days is not only seen in its price action. This renewed strength is being observed across the ETH ecosystem as the network’s performance surges, which is triggering fresh momentum in the market.

During the period, there has been rising transaction activity, stronger on-chain engagement, and continued growth in key sectors that appear to be strengthening investors’ conviction in the network’s long-term value.

After examining the ETH chart in the monthly time frame, Leon Waidmann, a market expert and head of research at Lisk, revealed that the altcoin is currently exhibiting a trend that has caught the attention of the market. The chart shows a three-year sideways consolidation in a clean range supported by a breakout. Specifically, the momentum indicator at the bottom just broke out of its multi-year base. 

ETH has been ranging since 2023, and building energy at the base of the structure. After a period of building strength, the altcoin has broken above the multi-year resistance, which has created a classic accumulation before a major move. 

Consolidation phases are sometimes a positive reaction as they can precede upside movement. Waidmann noted that the longer the consolidation phase, the bigger the move out of it will be. What makes this period interesting is the increased network performance that is coinciding with the current momentum.

As stated by the expert, over 7.33 million ETH, representing 6% of all ETH supply, are locked on corporate balance sheets. Furthermore, inflation across the ETH ecosystem is currently lower than that of Bitcoin since the introduction of the Merge update.  Other significant achievements include the surge in transactions on the ETH mainnet and layer 2 solutions, reaching new all-time highs. “The fundamentals are catching up, and the chart is setting up,” Waidmann added.

ETH Dominating DeFi And Lending

Etherealize has shared a recent report from Galaxy Research regarding Ethereum. In the report, the platform’s VP Research noted that ETH’s TVL market share has held remarkably steady at roughly 55% to 60% since mid-2022. The ETH network is witnessing notable liquidity, reinforcing its dominance in lending and DeFi. 

This is due to the depth of its collateral markets, oracle infrastructure, and surviving multiple market crashes. Such development leads to the creation of a trust premium that newer chains cannot quickly replicate, particularly for the largest allocators whose risk tolerance is the lowest.

Also, stablecoin issuance on the network has skyrocketed to 50% of all stablecoin market cap, and over 60% of all tokenized real-world assets are issued on ETH. According to the platform, this is possibly some of the stickiest capital on Ethereum because institutional RWA issuers select a chain after months of legal examination, custodian integration, and compliance sign-off.

Why XRP Won’t Be Cheap Forever

In an X post on Monday, crypto market analyst BarriC issued a pointed warning to investors, stating that the window to buy XRP at “cheap” prices may be closing faster than most realize. His argument hinges on a fundamental market shift he sees coming for the altcoin. 

According to the analyst, right now, the altcoin is largely traded as a retail asset, meaning its price is driven primarily by everyday investors’ speculation about its movements and value. However, BarriC believes that that dynamic will likely change soon. 

The analyst noted that as XRP becomes an integral part of the global financial infrastructure, covering cross-border payments, institutional settlements, and interbank transfers, demand for the asset will no longer come from just retail investors. Instead, it will be driven by global banks, financial institutions, and payment networks that need XRP to function. 

Once that shift takes place, BarriC believes that the altcoin will be forced to reprice at significantly higher levels, reflecting its utility within the global financial system rather than its current status as a speculative token. From there, the analyst sees the token easily climbing to potential price targets somewhere in the $1,000 to $10,000 range. He has set an even more ambitious projection at around $50,000, which would represent more than half of BTC’s current price of roughly $80,000. 

After this happens, BarriC says it would be “game over” for investors who failed to buy the crypto at lower prices. He noted that once it reaches these levels, it will never be “cheap” again.

Whales Continue Buying And Holding

New reports from the on-chain analytics platform Santiment show that whale wallets on the XRP Ledger have now reached an all-time high. This shows that more whales are holding the token, suggesting increased accumulation at lower price levels. 

Analysts at Santiment noted that about 332,230 wallets now hold at least 10,000 XRP, extending the sustained growth trend that has been building since June 2024. They said that this consistent increase in whale wallets shows that large-scale investors have continued to buy and hold even during periods of volatility, price declines, and negative market sentiment. 

Additionally, their accumulation behavior shows they prefer to buy during periods of fear, likely taking advantage of lower prices to increase their positions ahead of a possible bullish reversal. 

How Iran Moves Money Through Crypto

The map centers on two Tron-based wallets that were added to the US Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals list on April 24. Treasury identified both addresses as property of Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran — the country’s central bank — citing ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah.

Around $344 million in crypto was frozen as part of the action, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, describing the goal as cutting off Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and bring home funds.

Stablecoin issuer Tether confirmed it had frozen the funds at the request of US authorities, citing activity tied to unlawful conduct, without naming Iran directly in its public statement.

Arkham published its research on May 11, grouping the sanctioned addresses under a Central Bank of Iran entity page that it says can be used as a starting point to trace connected wallets and transaction flows.

The firm said the wallets hold TRC-20 tokens — a token standard that runs on the Tron network and includes USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin.

A Layered System Built To Hide

The money trail is not simple. According to Chainalysis, Iranian oil revenues passed through brokers, intermediary wallets, cross-chain bridges, and decentralized finance protocols before ending up in accounts linked to Iran’s central bank and IRGC-connected entities. The pipeline was built for concealment, layered step by step to obscure its origins.

A TRON spokesperson said the network itself cannot monitor or block individual transactions, but pointed to the T3 Financial Crime Unit — a joint effort between TRON, Tether, and TRM Labs launched in 2024 — as its main tool for flagging abuse.

The unit works with law enforcement to freeze hundreds of millions in funds tied to sanctioned groups and terrorism financing, the spokesperson said. Tether declined to comment separately.

The exposed wallets are just one piece of a much larger picture. Based on estimates from TRM Labs and Chainalysis, Iran’s total crypto transaction volume reached roughly $11.4 billion in 2024 and $10 billion in 2025.

Meanwhile, Iran is said to be looking into charging crypto-denominated tolls to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz — a sign that digital assets are being considered as a revenue channel well beyond sanctions evasion.

Featured image from Bitcoin Policy Institute, chart from TradingView

Institutional Bitcoin Holdings Reach New Scale

Despite being labeled as a highly volatile asset, Bitcoin continues to see major interest and adoption across the dynamic cryptocurrency sector. One interesting part about this development is the notable interest from big firms in the crypto and financial sectors, who steadily purchased the leading asset.

Over the years, institutional participation in Bitcoin has grown significantly, turning the asset from a specialized digital experiment into a well-known part of contemporary financial portfolios. This accumulation by corporations, asset managers, and financial institutions points to growing conviction in the asset as a reliable store of value and a strategic financial asset. 

After years of steady accumulation, On-Chain Mind, a crypto data analyst on X, reported that the institutional Bitcoin stack has now reached a staggering 3.24 million BTC, valued at approximately $261.2 billion at current price levels. According to the expert, this BTC stash is equivalent to almost the entire new issuance of BTC in the last 20 years.

As seen in the chart, the Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) hold about 1.39 million BTC, reflecting around 42.9% of the entire holdings of institutions. Furthermore, Corporate firms hold 1.23 million BTC, representing 38.0% of the institutional stack. Meanwhile, approximately 619,500 BTC, which marks over 19.1% of the stash, is being held by Sovereigns.

According to On-Chain Mind, this stash is expected to grow higher than this in the next few years. A few years ago, the expert highlighted that the institutions had zero BTC in their portfolios, which strengthens its prediction about additional growth. This sudden adoption by institutional investors demonstrates Bitcoin’s evolution from a risk asset people rent to a reserve asset people fight to own across the sector.

Key Stakeholders Are Buying More BTC

Santiment, a leading on-chain data analytics platform, has outlined a renewed accumulation trend among key stakeholders amid growing momentum. While BTC’s price stayed above the $80,000 mark despite the unexpected CPI report, these investors were observed buying more BTC consistently as retail holders started to exhibit signs of hesitance. This was part of the reason that BTC was able to maintain its newfound upward move.

In the report, it was seen that wallet addresses holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have scooped up over 16,622 BTC, representing an increase of +0.12%. Meanwhile, those holding less than 0.01 BTC have dumped 28 BTC; a drop of -0.05%.

Large stakeholder persistently adding to their bags while store displays FUD are excellent conditions for any coin, making this bullish for BTC in the short term. During most of crypto’s bull markets, this 10-10,000 BTC group has played a major role in igniting pumps while prices move opposite to retail expectations.

Ledger Reassesses NYSE IPO Bid

For Ledger, the decision reflects a broader reassessment of how receptive investors are right now toward crypto listings. The French-based hardware wallet provider said it is “reassessing its public market plans as volatile conditions weigh on investor appetite for crypto IPOs.” 

That shift comes after months of speculation about Ledger’s listing strategy, which reportedly began circulating last November. At the time, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier told the Financial Times that the company was considering either a New York IPO or a private funding round in 2026.

That discussion later became more specific. In January, the Financial Times reported that Ledger was exploring a potential $4 billion IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with major investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays involved as part of the underwriting process. 

Crypto IPO Wave Stalls

Consensys’ move follows a similar pattern. The MetaMask developer has also delayed its planned US IPO, signaling that weakness in the market for crypto-company listings continues to weigh on even established firms. 

CoinDesk reported Wednesday that Consensys pushed back its IPO timetable to at least this fall. The company had previously selected JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs as underwriters for the offering.

Ledger and Consensys are not acting in isolation. Their announcement comes after crypto exchange Kraken also paused its high-profile IPO plans after a concerning first-quarter for the broader crypto market, halting a move which had been described as targeting $20 billion for the year. 

Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin Bear Market Rules As To When The Bear Market May End

In an X post, Bee stated that Bitcoin has three rules in a bear market. First, he noted that the bear market lasts at least 350 days. The analyst also mentioned that the bottom never forms without touching the MA 350, and lastly, the price always drops further than anyone expects. Based on this, he suggested that the bear market is yet to end despite BTC’s recent relief rally. 

His accompanying chart showed that BTC could still drop to around $46,000 before a bottom forms for Bitcoin in this bear market. The analyst also noted that the 350-day moving average is at $47,000, and that level remains untouched. However, Bee remarked that the good news is that the leading crypto is already 65% of the way through the bear cycle. 

For now, the analyst expects another downtrend, with Bitcoin potentially reaching new lows. Bee noted that there are too many things working against this bullish momentum at the moment, which is why he is confident that the leading crypto will still drop further. He declared that the flush is coming and that when the MA 350 gets tagged, he will flip bullish. 

His analysis comes amid Bitcoin’s recent rally above $80,000, with BTC reaching $82,000 over the weekend. However, the leading crypto is now struggling to stay above this level, falling below $80,000 yesterday on the back of the hot CPI inflation data. U.S.-Iran peace talks have also stalled, which puts BTC at risk of another decline. 

Analyst Open To The Bottom Being In

Crypto pundit Colin, who had previously predicted another downtrend for Bitcoin, said he is more open to the idea that the bottom is in than he was a month ago. However, if that is the case, the analyst opined that BTC is still likely to retest the range lows between $60,000 and $70,000 later this year. 

On the other hand, Colin also said he is open to the idea that the cycle bottom isn’t in yet and that BTC could see lower prices toward the end of the year. He noted that the logic is that the longer BTC trades sideways or higher, the less the odds are of a lower bear market floor.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $81,200, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum Price Rally Contingent On Bitcoin Breakout

Sykodelic believes that Ethereum is setting the stage for a new bull run that could push its price back toward the $4,000 range. In an X post dated May 11, the analyst shared a detailed analysis and an accompanying chart outlining conditions that could drive ETH to that level, and why Bitcoin’s next movements will be the critical trigger. 

According to the analyst, Ethereum’s price surge has yet to begin precisely because Bitcoin continues to lead the crypto market. He noted that only after BTC completes its “structure changing move,” will ETH have a real opportunity to rally.

That context matters, given Bitcoin’s recent market performance. Since early April, BTC has been on a steady upward rally, with its latest surge pushing its price to around $82,000. The flagship cryptocurrency has been outperforming the broader market for months, driven by strong demand from derivative traders, easing macroeconomic conditions, and sustained accumulation from institutions like Strategy. 

With that in mind, once Bitcoin concludes its current breakout phase or undergoes a meaningful trend shift, money and momentum will likely rotate into Ethereum, allowing ETH to begin its own major rally. Sykodelic reinforced this view by pointing to a chart pattern he has tracked over the past five years. 

According to him, during that period, Ethereum has consistently traded within a well-defined range marked by repeated deviations and reclaims. Notably, each of these range cycles took 70-77 days to complete. 

The analyst explained that each time Ethereum broke out of this range and reclaimed its structure, the cryptocurrency staged a strong rally back toward the range highs or lows. Given the current chart structure, Sykodelic believes ETH may once again be mirroring this historical pattern and, if so, another move toward range highs could now be in play. 

ETH’s Surge To $4,000 Could Ignite The Next Altcoin Run

In his analysis, Sykodelic pointed to Ethereum’s weekly Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) as further confirmation of the repeating historical chart structure. He noted that ETH is now back within the same range that led to new highs in past cycles and has been solidifying its position over the past 77 days as it prepares to move higher. 

Should Ethereum push back toward range highs around $4,093, Sykodelic believes that surge could serve as the catalyst for the next altcoin run. He stated that this long-awaited altcoin season could last anywhere from 12 to 18 months. He also acknowledged that the rally may be slow, but expressed confidence that it will inevitably begin. 

Speaking at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, Trump declared that Bitcoin is currently in its greatest period ever, pointing to what he described as a transformational shift in the past six months relative to the prior three years — driven by record ETF launches, corporate treasury adoption, and major banks now offering Bitcoin-backed financial products.

The declaration arrived not as an outside observer but as the operating executive of one of the most closely watched Bitcoin treasury companies in the nascent sector.

The Structural Advantage ABTC Claims Over Strategy

The core distinction Eric Trump and Asher Genoot, Executive Chair of American Bitcoin’s board, have drawn between ABTC and Strategy is architectural. Strategy accumulates Bitcoin exclusively through capital markets — equity offerings, convertible notes, and debt instruments — and then purchases Bitcoin on the open market. American Bitcoin mines it first.

Through its majority owner and infrastructure partner Hut 8 Corp. (Nasdaq: HUT), which contributed the vast majority of its Bitcoin mining ASICs in exchange for an 80% stake in the venture, ABTC acquires Bitcoin at what it describes as a discounted rate relative to spot market purchases, per Benzinga’s reporting on the company’s positioning. The framework combines active mining output — currently delivering an estimated eight to ten BTC daily through Hut 8’s facilities — with a dollar cost averaging strategy and a strict policy of retaining rather than liquidating mined coins to cover operating costs.

The company describes the result as the “absolute accumulation machine” — a structure where every operational dollar spent on mining generates Bitcoin that flows directly into the treasury rather than being sold to fund the next cycle of production, per American Bitcoin’s own promotional materials.

The strategy has produced measurable results. American Bitcoin reported a Bitcoin yield of approximately 116% from its September 2025 Nasdaq debut through late January 2026 — a metric measuring growth in Bitcoin holdings from mined or purchased coins, calculated separately from capital raising activity. The company’s holdings stood at 6,899 BTC, valued at approximately $474 million, making it the 16th-largest corporate Bitcoin holder globally, per Bitcointreasuries.net data cited by Benzinga.

In March 2026, ABTC expanded its mining fleet with the purchase of 11,298 additional ASIC miners, increasing capacity by approximately 12% and adding roughly 3.05 EH/s to its hashrate. The miners were deployed at its Drumheller facility in Alberta, Canada.

Strategy, by comparison, held 818,334 BTC valued at approximately $61.81 billion as of the end of Q1 2026, per CNBC — a gap that makes ABTC’s rivalry claim aspirational rather than imminent. But the strategic logic Eric Trump is articulating — that mining-integrated accumulation generates Bitcoin at a structural cost advantage over open-market purchases — represents a genuinely differentiated model within the corporate treasury landscape.

This development marks a pivotal moment for Bitcoin treasury competition in the nascent sector. Whether American Bitcoin’s mining-to-treasury pipeline can close the gap with Strategy’s scale advantage will depend on Bitcoin’s price trajectory, mining economics, and ABTC’s ability to expand its hashrate faster than difficulty adjusts — a race that is only just beginning.

As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $81,500, with American Bitcoin’s treasury now holding nearly 7,000 BTC as the company continues its stated mission of disciplined accumulation at every price level.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD Chart from Tradingview

Bitcoin Retail Investor Demand Change Has Surged To +4%

In a new post on X, CryptoQuant author Axel Adler Jr has talked about the latest trend in the 30-day change of the Retail Investor Demand for Bitcoin. This indicator measures, as its name suggests, the degree of demand for the network that’s coming from retail traders.

Retail investors refer to the smallest of entities on the network who don’t tend to have any notable number of tokens in their wallet balance. As a proxy for their demand, the indicator makes use of the amount of transaction activity that they are participating in.

Naturally, the transfers made by this group are usually quite small in scale, so the metric specifically tracks the transfer volume associated with transactions involving a value of less than $10,000.

Below is the chart shared by Adler Jr that shows the trend in the 30-day change of the Bitcoin Retail Investor Demand over the last few years.

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin Retail Investor Demand saw its 30-day change collapse deep into the negative zone back in March. This means that retail traders shifted their attention away from the cryptocurrency.

Since then, however, the metric has climbed its way back up, with its value returning back into the green zone recently. Earlier, the indicator dropped to -8.2%, but this recovery has meant that it’s now sitting at +4.38%, a notable swing.

While this indicates a relative improvement in retail mood compared to one month ago, the analyst noted that full participation from the cohort has still not returned, with the transaction volume sitting at levels lower than February. It now remains to be seen whether the 30-day change in the Bitcoin Retail Investor Demand will continue its recent trajectory in the near future and if small investors will start pouring back into the asset in full force.

In some other news, the recent price recovery has led to an improvement in the situation of the short-term holders (STH), as analyst Maartunn has pointed out in an X post. The STHs refer to the BTC investors who purchased their tokens within the past 155 days.

Previously, these investors saw the vast majority of their supply dip into losses as Bitcoin went through its drawdown. As the below chart shows, though, the percentage of the STH supply in loss has dropped to just 38% after the recent price rally.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $80,700, down 1% over the past week.

The filing positions the product as a government money market fund seeking current income while maintaining liquidity and stability of principal. Its Token Class carries a 0.16% net expense ratio after fee waivers and reimbursements, with gross annual operating expenses listed at 0.71%. Those waivers are scheduled to remain in effect through June 30, 2028, unless renewed or revised.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas framed the fee structure as a notable part of the launch. “JPMorgan filed for a tokenized money market fund,” he wrote on X. “Big deal bc JPM inching further into crypto and big deal bc fee is pretty low 16bps for a stable NAV (imposs to do in ETF). Cheaper than most money funds altho Vanguard’s is like 11bps.”

JPMorgan Taps Ethereum For Tokenized Treasury Fund

The fund’s strategy is conservative by design. Under normal conditions, it will invest exclusively in US Treasury bills, bonds and notes, along with overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by Treasury securities and/or cash. JPMorgan says the fund will seek to maintain a $1.00 NAV, buy only Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 93 days or less, keep dollar-weighted average maturity at 60 days or less, and invest only in US dollar-denominated securities.

Related Reading: Ethereum Leverage Ratio Sees Sharp Drop: What It Means

The crypto relevance sits less in the portfolio and more in the rail. The filing says the fund will use blockchain technology to let investors submit transaction instructions for fund shares, while the official record of ownership remains the transfer agent’s traditional book-entry register. Token balances attributed to an investor’s blockchain address are intended to correspond one-for-one with fund shares, but JPMorgan makes clear that the Investor Register, not the blockchain balance, is determinative for legal ownership.

That structure reflects the institutional compromise now forming around tokenization: public-chain connectivity, but within controlled market infrastructure. JPMorgan says the blockchain system is designed, deployed and maintained by Kinexys Digital Assets, a business unit within JPMorgan Chase Bank. The system runs as a permissioned framework on top of public blockchains, requiring approved wallet addresses and allow-listing before investors can purchase, redeem or transfer token balances.

Ethereum is currently the only blockchain available for investors, though the filing says expansion to other blockchains is anticipated: “The Ethereum blockchain, a public blockchain network, is currently the only available blockchain for use by investors, although expansion to other blockchains is anticipated in the future.”

That detail drew attention from CEO and co-founder of Etherealize Vivek Raman who wrote via X: “Five months after MONY, JP Morgan is launching a second tokenized money market fund — on the biggest, most institutional public blockchain: Ethereum. Blackrock and JPM issuing on Ethereum in the same week…”

BlackRock is preparing two tokenized money-market funds aimed at investors holding cash in stablecoins, including a digital share class tied to the roughly $6.1 billion BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund. After the success of BUIDL, those tokenized shares are also set to run on Ethereum alongside traditional share classes, reinforcing the chain’s role as the preferred public settlement venue for a growing set of institutional cash-management products.

At press time, Ethereum traded at $2,303.

The weekly figure represents a more than sevenfold increase over the prior week’s $117.8 million, per CoinShares’ data, underscoring how sharply sentiment shifted as Bitcoin climbed back above the $80,000 threshold. Total assets under management across digital asset investment products rose to $160 billion on the back of the inflows, according to the report.

Bitcoin Leads, But The Breadth Is Notable

Bitcoin products captured the dominant share of last week’s flows, attracting $706.1 million and bringing year-to-date inflows to $4.9 billion, per CoinShares. The directional shift extended well beyond Bitcoin. Ethereum products recorded $77.1 million in inflows, reversing the prior week’s $81.6 million outflow. Solana drew $47.6 million. XRP products attracted $39.6 million.

The breadth of positive flows across major assets signals a broader improvement in institutional risk appetite rather than Bitcoin-specific positioning, per the report’s geographic and asset-level breakdown. Short-Bitcoin products — instruments used to bet against the asset — posted their largest outflow of 2026, according to CoinShares, a signal that bearish institutional positioning is unwinding alongside the inflow surge.

The US Led, But Europe Held Firm

Geographically, the United States dominated with $776.6 million in inflows, recovering sharply from $47.5 million the prior week, per CoinShares. Germany followed at $50.6 million, Switzerland at $21.1 million, and the Netherlands at $5 million — a distribution that, according to analysis by TradingNews, points to European institutional participation holding steady even as Washington’s regulatory progression has emerged as the dominant catalyst driving sentiment.

Laser Digital’s derivatives desk attributed Bitcoin’s move above $80,000 to the combination of ETF inflows, anticipated purchases by digital asset treasury companies, and growing optimism surrounding a compromise on the CLARITY Act related to stablecoins, as reported by Bloomingbit citing market commentary from the week.

Six consecutive weeks of positive inflows into crypto investment products marks a pivotal shift in the nascent sector’s institutional demand profile. Whether the streak extends into a sustained re-rating of crypto as an institutional asset class — or fades as macro uncertainty reasserts itself — the $857.9 million weekly figure is the kind of number that makes it increasingly difficult for traditional allocators still sitting on the sidelines to justify staying there.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

According to Politico, committee members submitted more than 100 amendments before the markup vote. Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that Senator Elizabeth Warren alone filed more than 40 amendments, including one that would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing master accounts to crypto companies. Terrett also flagged an amendment from Senator Jack Reed that would “prohibit crypto from being used as legal tender, for example, to pay taxes.”

That language would cut directly against one of the industry’s longer-running policy goals: expanding digital assets beyond investment and trading into payments, settlement and public-sector use cases. Terrett noted the contrast with prior pro-Bitcoin tax-payment proposals, writing that Representative Warren Davidson had introduced a bill last year “to do that very thing” with BTC.

Crypto Bill Enters High-Stakes Senate Markup

The latest clash comes after Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, Senator Cynthia Lummis and Senator Thom Tillis released new market structure text that will serve as the basis for the committee markup. The committee said the text reflects negotiations with Democrats and input from lawmakers, regulators, law enforcement, financial institutions, innovators and consumer advocates. Scott framed the bill as a consumer-protection and national-competitiveness measure.

“Over the past year, we have listened, negotiated, and strengthened this bill because families, small businesses, investors, and innovators all benefit from clear rules of the road,” Scott said. “This bill reflects serious, good-faith work across the Committee and delivers the certainty, safeguards, and accountability Americans deserve.”

The most immediate fault line remains stablecoin rewards. The Senate text would ban rewards on idle stablecoin balances that closely resemble bank deposits, while allowing rewards tied to transaction-based activity, such as stablecoin payments. The SEC, CFTC and Treasury Department would be tasked with issuing joint rules to implement that provision.

Banks are not satisfied. Brendan Pedersen reported that Reed and Senator Tina Smith filed an amendment that would incorporate bank-requested changes to stablecoin yield restrictions, forcing lawmakers to choose between the crypto and banking industries. The amendment would target rewards “substantially similar” to deposit interest, a phrase that goes to the core of the banking lobby’s argument: that crypto platforms should not be allowed to compete with deposits through yield-like incentives while avoiding bank-style regulation.

Terrett reported separately that American Bankers Association members had sent more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices urging lawmakers to revise the stablecoin-yield compromise. The ABA has argued that the current language does not adequately close what it calls a loophole allowing exchanges and other digital asset service providers to bypass the GENIUS Act’s ban on interest or yield on payment stablecoins.

The bill also reaches well beyond stablecoins. Digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers would be treated as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, bringing them into anti-money-laundering, customer-identification and due-diligence regimes. The text would also allow crypto companies to raise up to $50 million annually, and up to $200 million total, without SEC registration, while clarifying that tokenized securities remain subject to securities law.

The political path is still fragile. Terrett said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared engaged in a Democratic member meeting and eager for members to reach a “yes” on the CLARITY Act, but stressed that ethics negotiations needed to move further before Thursday’s markup. Warren, the committee’s top Democrat, has been pressing that issue hard, saying the bill “puts investors, our national security and our entire financial system at risk” and would “turbocharge Donald Trump’s crypto corruption” without stronger conflict-of-interest provisions.

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.67 trillion.

Sejm To Debate Crypto Legislation, Total Ban Proposals

On Tuesday, the Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament, began reviewing various bills to regulate the crypto market in Poland, following lawmakers’ failure to overturn President Karol Nawrocki’s veto of earlier legislation on the sector.

Ahead of the session, the Law and Justice (PiS) withdrew its crypto market bill after four of the party’s MPs pulled their support, and submitted a new bill pushing a total ban on digital asset-related activities in the country.

According to local reports, Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty criticized PiS’s shift, calling the change “astonishing” as the party’s proposal was scheduled for its first reading this week, and one of the bills to be reviewed today was filed by President Nawrocki, whom the party backs.

The other crypto bills submitted to the Sejm include proposals from the government and opposition parties Poland 2050 and Confederation.

The government and presidential bills are broadly similar, the report noted, with the primary differences being the Financial Supervision Authority’s power to freeze crypto accounts and the scale of fines for individuals who commit fraud.

While the Ministry of Finance’s draft proposes a maximum penalty of PLN 25 million, or $6.9 million, for obstructing inspections, the president’s text sets it at PLN 20 million, or $4.5 million.

Czarzasty revealed that the four bills concerning crypto market legislation will be reviewed and debated this week, and the PiS ban proposal will be considered after the process for the other bills is completed. The second reading of the bills is scheduled for Thursday, May 14.

“So the first decision is as follows: first, we will proceed with the four bills entering the Sejm today; once the legislative process for these bills is complete, we will proceed with the PiS parliamentary club’s bill, provided the club does not withdraw it,” the Sejm Speaker stated.

Zondacrypto Controversy Fuels Veto Debate

Czarzasty also renewed questions about the recent Zondacrypto controversy, including its alleged links to Polish political parties and Russian organized crime, and pressed for an explanation as to why President Nawrocki vetoed the Crypto-Asset Market Act twice.

For context, Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused crypto firm Zondacrypto of being backed by Russian money and having sponsored lawmakers who opposed digital asset regulation.

Ahead of the failed vote to overturn Nawrocki’s veto of the law last month, Tusk claimed that the blocking of regulations by some Polish politicians signaled they were serving the interests of the company.

Tusk affirmed that the firm “sponsors political and social events in Poland and promotes very specific political forces,” including by financing politicians from PiS and Confederation parties. He also claimed that the president was fully aware of Zondacrypto’s situation when he vetoed the proposed regulations.

However, Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the president’s office, responded to the accusations, asserting that Nawrocki was not opposing Poland’s digital asset market regulation, but that the government had proposed a “flawed” regulatory model.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the president’s office had stated that the president was trying to prevent “overregulation” and abuse of the “legal mess” proposed by the Polish government.

Sławomir Mentzen, leader of the Confederation party, said the new legislation would have “destroyed the Polish cryptocurrency market.” Similarly, Polish economist Krzysztof Piech praised the president’s decision, affirming that it “violated the Polish Constitution and was contrary to the EU regulation it was supposed to implement in Poland.”