Bitcoin is trading just below an important resistance zone that analysts have been watching since February. The short-term rally has brought prices back to this level but has not broken through it convincingly. Weekend resistance sits between $80,600 and $82,000. Weekend support is between $79,640 and $76,500. The immediate upside targets if Bitcoin pushes higher …
Crypto analyst Zach Rector says the next XRP bull run is not a question of if but when, and the early signals are already visible. The stock market just added $10 trillion in market cap over 39 days. The NASDAQ hit 29,000 for the first time in history. The S&P 500 reached a record 7,400. …
According to the latest on-chain data, the Ethereum-native iteration of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin, has just witnessed its largest exchange outflow in recent months. 1.29 Billion USDT Flow Out Of Crypto Exchanges In a May 9th post on the X platform, blockchain analytics firm Santiment revealed that USDT on the Ethereum network recently recorded its largest flow out of exchanges in months. Around 1.29 billion stablecoins (the highest since February) were transferred out of exchanges on Friday, May 8th. This on-chain observation is based on the change in the Exchange Flow Balance indicator, which measures the net amount of tokens moving into and out of centralized exchange addresses. Related Reading: This 1 Chart Explains Why Bitcoin Is Winning And Ethereum Is Losing Right Now A spike in the Exchange Flow Balance metric indicates that more tokens (USDT, in this case) are flowing to centralized exchanges. On the other hand, when the indicator declines, it suggests that investors are withdrawing assets from these trading platforms. Santiment explained the significance of investors moving their USDT away from exchanges, noting that this would ordinarily mean they are withdrawing their buying power from trading platforms where they can use it for instant cryptocurrency purchases. On the surface, this reduction of buying power (or capital) on exchanges is a bearish signal for crypto markets. However, the analytics firm believes that the significant USDT outflows (of this reported magnitude) suggest that institutional investors are moving capital to self-custody wallets, DeFi protocols, or OTC (over-the-counter) desks ahead of larger planned transactions. Therefore, capital is believed to be flowing out of the ecosystem, not entirely, but being repositioned for even larger purposes. Santiment also highlighted the pattern often surrounding exchange outflow spikes of this magnitude. For instance, as observed in the chart below, the Bitcoin price witnessed a mini-pullback over the subsequent two weeks following the 3.72 billion USDT outflow on February 9. What’s more interesting is that this pullback birthed the buying opportunity that has seen the Bitcoin price jump by more than 30% in the past few months. Santiment concluded in the social media post: Whether this current capital re-enters exchanges as buying pressure in the near term is the key variable to monitor. If USDT begins flowing back onto exchanges in the coming days, it would signal that deployment into crypto assets is imminent. Crypto Market Capitalization As of this writing, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at around $2.66 trillion, up nearly 4% over the past week. Related Reading: 14,600 Bitcoin Sold in Profit in One Day: Here Is How BTC’s Own Structure Broke It Below $80K Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView
Four days before the Senate Banking Committee votes on the CLARITY Act, major banking trade groups have submitted a joint letter demanding changes to a stablecoin yield compromise they had already accepted. The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, and three other major banking lobbies sent the letter to Senate Banking Committee leadership after the …
XRP is drawing renewed attention in the crypto community after an analyst raised a key question about the driving force behind demand for the asset in a global settlement system. The discussion focuses on how XRP would function if the XRP Ledger (XRPL) were widely adopted for payments, and whether the cryptocurrency’s value comes from usage, liquidity routing, or deeper institutional structures built around it. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bulls Need One More Signal To Confirm Market Bottom – Details Analyst Questions XRP’s Demand Source In An XRPL Economy Crypto analyst Iso Ledger posted a compelling question in an X post on May 7, 2026, sparking debates across the crypto community. The analyst argued that if the entire world used the XRP Ledger and settled with the RLUSD stablecoin, XRP would primarily function as a gas token. If this is the case, he questions what actually creates real and sustainable demand for XRP within that system. Iso Ledger explained that the answer lies in “bridging.” In his view, XRP gains demand when it is used as a liquidity bridge between two currencies or assets that do not have direct trading pairs. He used the example of a Japanese pension fund paying a Brazilian supplier, in which XRP would route value between OUSG and a BRL stablecoin when no direct liquidity exists. In this structure, XRP is not just a fee mechanism but a neutral bridge asset that enables settlement between disconnected markets. According to Iso Ledger, this is where demand is created through transaction flow rather than simple usage. However, he also raised a more complicated issue about what happens when liquidity becomes too deep across all assets on XRPL. If direct pairs exist between most major currencies and stablecoins, XRP may no longer be needed for routing. In that case, it could be sidelined in favor of direct settlement paths. Iso Ledger suggested this creates a tension in the cryptocurrency’s long-term value model. According to him, XRP either has to become expensive enough to remain practical for large institutional settlement or stay low-priced around $2 and collect fractions of a penny with low demand forever. XLS-66D Seen As Solution To XRP’s Demand & Supply Issue He pointed to the upcoming XLS-66D, a proposed lending protocol on XRPL, as a potential solution that could lock up XRP supply. By reducing circulating supply, XRP’s price could increase, which in turn could strengthen its role as a settlement asset and support more adoption in a feedback loop. He believes this loop could eventually lead to a continuous demand and price appreciation in the long run. Related Reading: XRP Flashes Historic Rally Signal, Fueling $12 Price Speculation He concluded his debate by raising a key question. Iso Ledger asked why institutions would build a lending protocol or a $550,000 security audit around a “gas token.” He questioned why companies would create XRP ETFs or why Goldman Sachs would invest $152 million in XRP if it were just a simple gas token. According to him, the market is underestimating XRP’s evolving role in global settlement systems. He said that its price just hasn’t caught up with the bullish developments surrounding it. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Wall Street’s appetite for AI-linked crypto products clearly isn’t cooling off yet. Grayscale just announced that its Grayscale Bittensor Trust, trading under the GTAO ticker, is now open for private placement to eligible accredited investors. And honestly, the timing isn’t random. The Bittensor ecosystem suddenly got a lot louder this week. Bittensor Expansion Pushes GTAO …
CC price just woke up from months of sideways boredom, and traders finally have something besides chop to stare at. After a fresh batch of Canton Network updates hit the market, the token posted a 10% intraday surge and broke out from a tightening symmetrical triangle pattern that had been squeezing price action for weeks. …
The Internet Computer crowd finally has something to celebrate besides survival. ICP price just ripped nearly 35% higher to touch $4.0 before cooling near $3.70, and for once, this wasn’t some random candle fueled by some kind of meme-level delusion. The breakout actually came with a proper narrative to which traders could sink their teeth …
Aave says its rsETH recovery process has entered Phase II after major progress in resolving the exploit tied to Aave V3 on Ethereum and Arbitrum. According to the protocol, the attacker’s eight identified Aave V3 positions were successfully liquidated on May 6, with the recovered rsETH collateral transferred to the Recovery Guardian under an Aave …
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said crypto may be entering a new phase shaped by AI agents, tokenized real-world assets, stablecoin competition and a more favorable regulatory backdrop in the United States. Speaking on ARK Invest’s FYI podcast with Cathie Wood and Lorenzo Valente, CZ argued that the industry is moving faster than many traditional financial firms may be prepared for. CZ said some parts of crypto have developed differently than he expected. Payments, in his view, have been slower to reach mainstream use, even as crypto cards have made digital assets easier to spend indirectly. By contrast, institutional participation in the US has accelerated faster than expected, helped by what he described as a “180 degree turn” in the country’s crypto stance. “I was very surprised by the 180 degree turn in the US,” CZ said. “I think this speaks to the strength of the constitution, right? So you can change presidents every four years and then even if there’s a period where there’s a suppressive regime, you can change pretty quickly.” He argued that the previous US regulatory environment pushed many builders away from utility-focused applications and toward memecoins, leaving the market with fewer strong new crypto products than he would have expected. With a more pro-crypto policy backdrop, he said the industry could begin filling that gap. AI Agents And Stablecoins Could Drive New Crypto Demand One of CZ’s strongest claims centered on the overlap between crypto and artificial intelligence. He said AI agents are likely to transact far more frequently than humans and will naturally favor crypto rails over slower traditional systems. Related Reading: Economic Disaster Is Coming? Top Author Says Hold These Cryptos Or Pay The Price “AI agents are going to transact 10,000 times more transactions than humans can do,” CZ said. “And AI is going to use crypto. They’re not going to use Swift or Visa cards.” He also said AI could accelerate crypto development itself, from application design to wallet security and blockchain performance. While he stopped short of saying AI can already replace developers entirely, he said the technology can “assist dramatically in the speed of writing code.” Stablecoins were another area where CZ said the market exceeded his early expectations. He described them as initially appearing to be a temporary bridge for traders seeking fiat-pegged value during volatile periods. Instead, stablecoins have become one of the central components of crypto market structure. CZ said he personally believes stablecoin issuers should be able to pass yield to users, though he acknowledged regulatory resistance in some markets. He also argued that stablecoin issuers and crypto exchanges should preserve one-to-one reserves rather than replicate the fractional-reserve model used by banks. “Crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers should maintain one-to-one peg and it should maintain 100% reserve,” he said. “But there are ways to generate yield even when you do that. And then for those yield that we generate, I actually encourage companies to pass that to their users.” Tokenized Assets Ant The “Everything Exchange” CZ also pointed to the rapid growth of tokenized traditional assets on crypto exchanges. He said Binance had listed gold roughly two months earlier and had already become “the largest gold trading venue outside of the traditional markets,” with gold representing about 10% of the platform’s futures trading volume. Binance has also listed oil, which he described as part of a broader convergence between traditional finance and crypto venues. The former Binance CEO said he now expects exchanges to compete toward becoming “everything exchanges,” covering crypto, commodities, prediction markets and potentially other asset classes. He said Coinbase and other platforms are likely to pursue similar strategies. Related Reading: $150M Crypto Ponzi Crumbles: $41.5M Frozen In DSJ Exchange Collapse “I think everyone wants to be the everything exchange,” CZ said. “Binance trades oil and gold now, which I didn’t see even a year ago. I think Coinbase most likely will do the same thing and then other exchanges will do the same thing.” At the same time, CZ said the balance between centralized and decentralized exchanges remains unresolved. If crypto adoption expands quickly among less technical users, centralized platforms could benefit first. If self-custody tools become easier and safer, decentralized exchanges may grow faster. CZ Remains Optimistic on Bitcoin Asked about Bitcoin’s market outlook, CZ said two forces are currently in tension: the historical four-year cycle and a more supportive backdrop from equities, institutions and geopolitical uncertainty. He said Bitcoin’s decline into 2026 fits the cycle pattern, but argued that institutional ETF participation could stabilize the market because large allocators tend to move slowly and hold for years. “I’m hoping that the worst part is over,” CZ said, while adding that his comments were not financial advice. For markets, the broader message was clear: CZ sees crypto’s next phase as less narrowly defined by native tokens alone. In his view, AI transactions, stablecoin incentives, tokenized assets and Wall Street’s adoption of blockchain rails could all become central battlegrounds in the next cycle. At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $ Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
The latest excitement in the Cardano ecosystem comes from crypto analyst Eilert, who revealed that Grayscale could potentially launch a dedicated Cardano ETF, referred to as “GADA,” before October 23, 2026. According to the analyst, the SEC’s approval of new generic listing standards for spot crypto ETFs has created a much smoother path for future …
The Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) praised Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins on Friday for what it described as an ambitious effort to improve clarity for on-chain markets. SEC’s On-Chain Guidance Agenda Atkins’ remarks centered on four key areas where he said the Commission should provide more guidance on how regulatory principles translate into the context of on-chain activity. He said that participants should have a clear sense of how on-chain trading systems can function within the regulatory perimeter. Looking ahead, he noted that while the SEC may consider a limited “innovation pathway” soon, he also argued the agency should think about what a future-proof framework could look like. In his view, that framework would take the form of notice-and-comment rulemaking, and it would specifically address how the SEC’s “exchange” definition applies to on-chain trading systems. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Q1 Report—The ‘House Of All Finance’ Is Nearer Than Ever, Here’s Why The SEC chair also pointed to the need to clarify how the broker and dealer framework would apply to these activities. He said the Commission should examine issues raised in a recent staff statement on software interfaces, and he suggested that this policy initiative could involve notice-and-comment exemptive rulemaking. A third area of emphasis was the definition of a “clearing agency” as it applies to on-chain clearing and settlement. Atkins said rulemaking may be necessary to confirm which general-purpose activities fall outside that definition. Finally, Atkins called for additional clarity surrounding what are commonly referred to as “crypto vaults.” He described crypto vaults as on-chain software applications that allow users to earn yield passively by deploying their assets into yield-generating opportunities on-chain. He said the Commission should address the relevant Securities Act and Advisers Act touch-points as it considers these policy initiatives. Why Hyperliquid Policy Center Finds It Promising Atkins concluded by saying the SEC will keep moving forward to accommodate markets moving on-chain. At the same time, he reiterated his call for Congress to send the CLARITY Act to President Trump’s desk. He argued that while the SEC intends to “future-proof” its efforts through notice-and-comment rulemaking, there is “no more powerful” future-proofing mechanism than enshrining well-designed statutory language in law. The Hyperliquid Policy Center, led by Jake Chervinsky, said it was encouraged by Atkins’ approach of mapping on-chain clearing and settlement systems to existing legal frameworks “on their own terms,” rather than forcing them into legacy categories built for legacy architecture. Related Reading: JPMorgan Says Strategy Could Buy Up To $30B In Bitcoin This Year– TD Cowen Lifts Target To $395 The Hyperliquid Policy Center also called on-chain clearing and settlement “one of the most significant financial infrastructure innovations of our generation,” and it said it views the chairman’s stance as a constructive step toward regulatory alignment as on-chain systems continue to evolve. At the time of writing, the Hyperliquid platform’s native token, HYPE, was trading at $42.98, marking a 2% increase over the last 24 hours. Currently, the Hyperliquid token is trading at almost 27% below its all-time high of $59, which was reached last year. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Coinbase (COIN) opened the quarter with a rough financial showing. After the exchange reported major losses in its first-quarter earnings, Barclays responded by cutting its price target for COIN, while Bank of America trimmed its target more modestly. Two Wall Street Takes On Coinbase Barclays lowered its Coinbase price target to $107 from $140, maintaining an Underweight rating following the company’s release. Bank of America, by comparison, reduced its target to $218 from $234 while keeping a Buy rating. Barclays anchored its downgrade on what it said was a significant miss across both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. It noted that even though certain segments of Coinbase’s activity came in above expectations, overall quarter-to-date transaction revenues still fell well below Street estimates. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Q1 Report—The ‘House Of All Finance’ Is Nearer Than Ever, Here’s Why The message from Barclays was that the upside in specific trading pockets wasn’t enough to offset the broader weakness in Coinbase’s core performance. Bank of America’s reasoning focused more on the pressure on expenses, as well as the demand environment Coinbase is facing. The firm flagged higher tech and development spending and said that consumer volumes declined 36% quarter over quarter, a drop it linked to depressed asset prices. Despite that, Bank of America stayed positive, pointing to the company’s strategic push toward crypto-as-a-service and arguing that those efforts could create more durable revenue streams over time. Net Loss, Crypto Investment Losses The financial results themselves showed the seriousness of the quarter. Coinbase reported a net loss of $394.1 million, or $1.49 per share, compared with a profit of $65.6 million, or $0.24 per share, in the year-ago period. It also showed softness beyond pure trading activity: revenue from the subscription and services unit—which includes businesses outside of trading—fell 13.5% to $583.5 million in the first quarter. Related Reading: JPMorgan Says Strategy Could Buy Up To $30B In Bitcoin This Year– TD Cowen Lifts Target To $395 Overall adjusted EBITDA dropped to $303.3 million from $929.9 million a year earlier, underscoring how steep the earnings decline was compared with the prior-year baseline. Trading-related revenue also weakened. Coinbase said transaction revenue fell 40% year over year to $755.8 million. In addition, it recorded a loss on crypto assets held for investment, reporting a loss of $482.4 million on those crypto assets versus a loss of $596.7 million in the prior year. Following the release of its Q1 report, Coinbase’s stock, COIN, saw a 5% drop to $192 per share. However, the stock closed this week’s trading session at $201, marking an 8% surge in the last 24 hours. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
The suits finally stopped pretending crypto was just a casino for internet gamblers. Institutional crypto adoption has officially crossed into the “too big to ignore” phase, and the latest Bitwise industry report makes that painfully obvious. Banks, asset managers, custodians and basically every financial giant that spent years side-eyeing blockchain are now elbow-deep in digital …
Many traders had written off XTZ as a “ghost chain,” but Tezos surprised them with a genuine technical upgrade rather than a recycled roadmap. The launch of the Tezos X Previewnet on May 5 is suddenly putting the spotlight back on XTZ, especially as the token sits deep inside a historical demand zone around $0.35-$0.50. …
The CLARITY Act is moving faster than expected. The Senate Banking Committee is preparing to vote on the landmark crypto regulation bill as early as May 14, according to multiple sources, who confirmed that draft legislative text has already been circulated to select industry participants. JUST IN: Senate Banking Committee preparing to vote on crypto …
Just when traders had nearly forgotten Starknet existed, STRK price suddenly woke up with a violent 50% intraday move. The trigger? Starknet confirmed that its “strkBTC” vision officially goes live on May 12 after governance proposals SNIP-38 and SNIP-39 received near-unanimous approval. Apparently, wrapping Bitcoin with a federated design and making it stakable on Starknet …
Speaking at the close of the XRP Las Vegas event, Jesse from Apex Crypto Insights told host Paul that Ripple is significantly further along than its public statements suggest. Brad Garlinghouse, David Schwartz, and Jack McDonald all spoke at the event. On Ripple’s Real Bank Count Jesse said Ripple has been connecting banks to RippleNet …
A statement from veteran crypto participant Justin Wu is making headlines across crypto social media. Wu, known online as Hackapreneur, posted a simple but provocative take: if you have been in crypto for five years and do not hold Pi Network, you have failed. “If you are in crypto for 5 years and you don’t …
The U.S. The Treasury bought back $4 billion of its own debt this week as part of a broader effort to improve market liquidity and stabilize bond trading conditions. For crypto investors, the move matters because rising liquidity has historically supported major rallies in Bitcoin and other digital assets. Could this become another bullish catalyst …
The United States Department of the Treasury conducted a $4 billion debt buyback as part of broader efforts to improve market liquidity and stabilize trading conditions. The operation follows another $4 billion repurchase targeting 10- to 20-year bonds on May 7, with total buyback activity for the week reaching roughly $6 billion. The Treasury has …
Cathie Wood and Changpeng Zhao recently discussed Bitcoin, market cycles, and the October 11 crypto flash crash during a podcast conversation that quickly gained attention across the crypto community. For the unversed, the October 10–11, 2025 flash crash was one of the biggest sell-offs crypto had ever seen, wiping out more than $19.5 billion in …
Pi Network is pushing ahead with its decentralization plans as the team issued an important reminder for all Mainnet node operators. According to the latest update, every Mainnet node must complete the Protocol 23 upgrade before May 15, 2026, or risk losing connection to the network. The team also warned that the upgrade process may …
On Thursday, the Hyperliquid Research Collective (HRC) released the first-quarter (Q1) blockchain report on Hyperliquid (HYPE). The report highlights strong progress in several core areas, as well as weaker performance in others. The document also points to a broader narrative for the platform, arguing that Q1 brought Hyperliquid closer to its “House of All Finance” vision—even as wider market conditions made the quarter tough by historical standards. Hyperliquid Records 70% Outperformance Vs Bitcoin According to the report, Hyperliquid generated $215 million in gross revenue during Q1. That figure was paired with a buyback of 4.9 million HYPE tokens, underscoring the firm’s emphasis on token value support. Despite the declines seen in some operational metrics, the HYPE token delivered standout results, climbing 444% across the quarter. The report says this allowed HYPE to outperform Bitcoin (BTC) by 70% over the same period. Related Reading: VanEck Forecast: Bitcoin Could Climb To $1,000,000 By 2031, Research Head Says At the same time, not every measure moved higher. The report notes that holder revenue fell 33%, perpetual (perp) volume dropped 15%, and average open interest compressed 23%. The report attributes these changes to the environment the market was in, describing Q1 as the worst quarter for the market since 2018. In that context, Bitcoin fell 26%, and total crypto market capitalization recorded outflows of more than $900 billion, which the report frames as a major drag on activity and income. The Hyperliquid report also breaks down how the quarter unfolded. Hyperliquid’s quarter low was $1.16 billion in January, marking a 20% decline compared with the end of 2025. It says that February and March helped stabilize the picture, with March emerging as the strongest month for locked liquidity. Specifically, total value locked (TVL) rose from $1.4 billion to a peak of $1.8 billion, before settling by quarter-end at $1.69 billion. “House Of All Finance’ Gains Traction Activity on the Hyperliquid side remained an important bright spot. The report shows HIP-3 deployer volume grew sharply—from nearly $25 billion in January to $68 billion in March—and finished the quarter at 33% of daily perp volume. Looking at broader DEX activity, Hyperliquid reported that total HyperEVM DEX volume declined 40% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), landing at $9.2 billion compared with $15 billion recorded during the fourth quarter of last year. Beyond the numbers, the Q1 Hyperliquid report emphasizes that this quarter felt different in terms of the company’s strategic positioning. HRC says Q1 was the moment when Hyperliquid’s “House of All Finance” thesis became “undeniable.” Related Reading: Bitcoin At $82K, But Metrics Don’t Smile: Network Activity Down, Spot Demand Negative—What’s Next? The Hyperliquid Research Collective report ties that claim to developments that landed around the same time, including a benchmark update: S&P Dow Jones Indices, through an officially licensed benchmark, signed with Tradexyz, identifying the Hyperliquid HIP-3 deployer dominance as a key part of the ecosystem. The report also points to institutional and investment momentum, noting that Grayscale, VanEck, and Bitwise submitted filings for HYPE exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The report further highlights expanding institutional support, including the addition of Ripple Prime support to Hyperliquid for institutional clients. At the time of writing, Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, was trading at $42, having recorded losses of 1.7% over the previous 24 hours. Nevertheless, it is one of the best performers of the second quarter so far, having gained 17% over the past thirty days. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Anthony Pompliano says most of the crypto industry is already dead and that the market has not fully admitted it yet. In a May 6 video posted on X, the Bitcoin investor and commentator argued that the sector’s long tail of unused chains, illiquid tokens and speculative projects is being cleared out as the parts with real utility merge into the broader financial system. Pompliano said the reaction to his initial post on X was immediate and hostile. He had written that “most of the crypto industry is dead and it’s never coming back,” a message he said followed him through the Consensus conference in Miami. “I have been called an idiot, I’ve been told I was wrong, and I must have been asked over 50 times about the tweet while I was at the Consensus Crypto Conference yesterday down in Miami,” Pompliano said. “But after spending the day at the conference, I’m more convinced today than I was yesterday. Most of the crypto industry is dead and it is never coming back.” Crypto Ghost Chains And Zombie Coins Pompliano’s core argument rests on what he sees as a broken business cycle inside crypto. In traditional industries, failed companies are shut down, capital is redeployed and talent moves toward stronger ideas. In crypto, he said, that clearing mechanism rarely works because blockchains can keep running with minimal participation and tokens can linger far above zero even after liquidity and relevance have evaporated. Related Reading: Economic Disaster Is Coming? Top Author Says Hold These Cryptos Or Pay The Price He described the result as an ecosystem filled with “ghost chains” and “zombie coins.” Ghost chains are networks that remain technically operational but have little meaningful activity. Zombie coins are tokens whose communities or markets have collapsed, while remaining holders are often unable to exit without taking severe losses. “There are millions of coins and there are thousands of blockchains,” Pompliano said. “Just those two things alone would make my original claim that most of the crypto industry is dead accurate. Because you have to ask yourself: does anyone actually believe that millions of crypto coins are going to thrive in the future?” Pompliano said he asked that question from the stage at Consensus and “literally zero people raised their hand.” Beyond unused networks and dead tokens, Pompliano argued that crypto has lost much of the ideological conviction that once defined its early base. The industry, in his view, has shifted from “hardcore missionaries” who prioritized the success of Bitcoin and the underlying technology toward “mercenaries” who chase whichever trade offers the largest financial reward. That shift, he said, is visible in short-lived meme tokens, scam coins, market manipulation, rising yield-farming incentives and product launches designed more for attention than utility. Pompliano’s criticism was not aimed at speculation alone, but at an industry culture he believes has become detached from solving real user problems. “If you have mercenaries outnumbering the missionaries, the broader crypto industry is now run by people who don’t understand or believe in the original vision for the industry,” he said. “As the saying goes, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. And I think that’s what’s happening across the industry.” Wall Street Is Absorbing Crypto Pompliano also pushed back against what he called the “we hate investors class,” pointing to online criticism of venture capital, large financial institutions and regulation. He argued that venture firms funded much of the early infrastructure that allowed users to buy, store and send Bitcoin, while major institutions are now becoming the dominant distribution layer for crypto exposure. Morgan Stanley’s plan to launch Bitcoin trading through E-Trade was his central example. Pompliano noted that E-Trade has 8.6 million clients and said Morgan Stanley intends to offer Bitcoin trading with lower fees than Coinbase and Charles Schwab, using ZeroHash as infrastructure. He framed that as a major “narrative violation” for crypto-native firms. At the same time, Pompliano said crypto-native companies are moving in the opposite direction by adding equities, prediction markets, options, commodities and other non-crypto products. The distinction between crypto platforms and traditional brokerages is becoming less clear. Related Reading: $150M Crypto Ponzi Crumbles: $41.5M Frozen In DSJ Exchange Collapse That convergence also shaped his reading of Michael Saylor’s recent comments that Strategy could sell Bitcoin or Bitcoin derivatives to fund preferred dividends if doing so served the company’s interests. Pompliano said such an idea would have been treated as “blasphemy” years ago, but now looks more like standard capital allocation inside a financialized Bitcoin business. The crypto industry is dying. That is a good thing. The resilient and valuable aspects of the industry need to compete on the biggest stage, not stay pigeon-holed in a boutique industry with declining capital and talent. pic.twitter.com/TlVJAG6zFz — Anthony Pompliano ???? (@APompliano) May 6, 2026 Crypto Becomes Finance Pompliano said he still sees major value accruing to four areas: Bitcoin, stablecoins, infrastructure and tokenization. His thesis is not that all crypto disappears, but that the speculative long tail does while the useful parts are absorbed into mainstream finance. “We do not need more carnivals. We do not need more nonsense,” he said, referring to a “Crypto Carnival” booth he saw at Consensus. “We are in a competition with the legacy financial firms that have a lot of money and very smart people. We need more people focused on building real things for real problems.” At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.65 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Strategy—formerly known as MicroStrategy—could meaningfully accelerate its Bitcoin-buying pace this year, according to analysts at JPMorgan. The firm, led by well-known Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, is already one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury companies, and JPMorgan believes its next move may be a larger, faster round of acquisitions. Strategy Could Outpace Past Bitcoin Buying Strategy currently holds more than 818,000 Bitcoin, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. Purchases have been active throughout 2026: the company reportedly added over 145,000 BTC in just five months, which is estimated at roughly $11 billion. JPMorgan analysts, however, said that amount could rise substantially. Under their view, Strategy’s Bitcoin purchases this year could reach $30 billion over the course of the year. At today’s implied annualized pace, that would put 2026 purchases far above the roughly $22 billion acquired across 2024 and 2025 combined. Related Reading: VanEck Forecast: Bitcoin Could Climb To $1,000,000 By 2031, Research Head Says JPMorgan pointed to a change in momentum in April, saying Strategy “appears to have re-accelerated its bitcoin purchases.” The analysts tied the behavior to what they described as an increasingly opportunistic buying pattern. The optimism around Strategy’s plan also showed up in analyst price targets. On Thursday, TD Cowen raised its target price for the company’s stock, MSTR, from $385 to $395. As of the time of writing, MSTR closed at $179, translating to an 18% gain since the beginning of the year. If TD Cowen’s forecast were to play out, the implied move would represent about a 120% jump from current levels. Net Loss Vs. Big Forecast Analysts also highlighted the financing approach by Strategy behind the acquisitions. They say the firm’s increased use of STRC (variable-rate perpetual preferred stock) to fund Bitcoin purchases could improve capital efficiency, making it more attractive relative to prevailing market pricing. Still, the company’s latest financial picture includes major losses. Strategy reported a net loss of $12.54 billion for the quarter, driven largely by an unrealized decline in Bitcoin fair value of $14.46 billion. Related Reading: This New Move Just Opened XRP To 44 Million New Users Looking ahead, the base case and scenarios for Strategy reflect a bullish outlook. The firm’s base case is that Bitcoin could reach approximately $140,000 by the end of 2026, with an upside scenario of about $175,000. Separately, Joseph Vafi at Canaccord Genuity reiterated a Buy rating on May 7, lifting his MSTR price target from $185 to $224. Canaccord noted that since Bitcoin has rebounded—moving up from its roughly $62,000 low to more than $80,000—Strategy has continued to “weather another perceived storm. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
The CLARITY Act passing would be good for crypto and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes that. Garlinghouse said Ripple has actively leaned into supporting the CLARITY Act. “If we want the largest economy in the world, the United States, to lean into crypto in the way that helps, it’s good for Ripple if that happens,” …
Just when most traders had already thrown HBAR into the “ghost chain” category, Hedera quietly landed something crypto loves to brag about but rarely delivers: actual enterprise utility. And not the fake “partnership” kind either. The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative is integrating HashSphere and the public Hedera network into a $1 trillion insurance market, pushing HBAR …
The AVAX price has spent months doing what crypto traders hate most and thats absolutely doing nothing. Since early 2026, Avalanche has been trapped around the $8.60 zone, grinding sideways after bouncing from the lower border of a falling wedge on the weekly timeframe back in February. But here’s the thing. This doesn’t exactly look …
The Solana RWA narrative just keeps getting bigger. While most blockchains are still busy pitching “future potential,” Solana is quietly stacking real numbers and now its real-world asset holders have officially reached 200,044 for the first time. That’s a 6.50% jump in just 30 days. Solana RWA Ecosystem Keeps Expanding Rapidly Well, this isn’t just …