THE LATEST CRYPTO NEWS

Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle (CRLC) climbed on Monday, rising by 15% to $130 for the first time in nearly a month. The move came after the company disclosed it had raised $222 million in the presale of Arc, the native token tied to Circle’s new blockchain. The funding values Arc at a fully diluted network valuation of $3 billion Circle CEO Maps The Road Ahead Speaking to CNBC in an exclusive interview, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire framed Arc as more than another crypto launch. He compared blockchain infrastructure to major technology platforms such as mobile operating systems and cloud services, arguing that it is becoming a foundational layer for how businesses operate.  Related Reading: Dogecoin Price Set To Hit $5 Amid New Influx From Smart Money? “We want to build an operating system that has many, many stakeholders in it,” Allaire said, describing a model that includes major companies helping to run and ultimately govern the infrastructure.  He added that Circle is moving toward becoming “a broader internet platform company,” entering “the operating system business” while also laying groundwork for an eventual push into “the apps business.” The Arc presale attracted heavyweight backing. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with a $75 million investment. Other participants named in the disclosure include BlackRock, Apollo Funds, and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).  The list also includes SBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace, ARK Invest, IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, and cryptocurrency exchange Bullish.  Arc Tokenomics Explained Allaire said Arc is designed to support institutional finance and emphasized that Circle sees it as more than stablecoins and payments. In his comments, he pointed to the idea that the network can “run the actual economy.”  He elaborated that the “economy” isn’t just digital representations of value, but the contracts and governance systems that underwrite financial relationships and the institutions that rely on them. In that framing, the token and the blockchain are meant to provide the infrastructure layer for how economic activity is coordinated, validated, and governed. Related Reading: Bitcoin Flashes Signal With 186% Average One-Year Return Circle also detailed how it plans to participate in the network. With a 25% stake in Arc’s initial supply of 10 billion tokens, Circle can take part in operating validator infrastructure, which it said will generate new fee revenue and allow the company to earn staking income.  The token distribution is designed to support the ecosystem: 60% of the tokens are allocated to participants who build on, use, or contribute to the Arc network, while the remaining 15% goes to a long-term reserve. In addition to Arc and its token economics, Circle said it unveiled a set of services and tools intended to help developers build artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The tools are designed to enable agents to manage transactions, access online services, and make payments using USDC.  Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Global crypto funds have extended their positive streak into a sixth straight week amid growing rally conviction and a boost from improving sentiment around the CLARITY Act ahead of its long‑delayed Senate Banking markup. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Gains Renewed Strength, Market Eyes Bullish Breakout Bitcoin Leads Crypto Funds $858M Inflows Global crypto investment products have extended their positive streak for the sixth consecutive week after posting $857.9 million in inflows over the past week. The funds saw a significant surge from the modest $117 million recorded on the week that ended on April 24. As Bitcoin surged to its highest levels in months, funds based on the flagship crypto led last week’s boom, drawing $706.1 million and bringing year-to-date (YTD) flows to $4.9 billion, according to CoinShares data. Conversely, short Bitcoin products saw $14.4 million in outflows, its largest withdrawals of the year, indicating traders are unwinding hedges amid growing rally conviction. Altcoin-based products also posted positive results, with Ethereum funds recording $77.1 million in inflows, a significant recovery from the $81.6 million in outflows the prior week. Solana and XRP investment products followed, bringing $47.6 million and $39.6 million, respectively. Notably, multi-asset products were the only category to see a negative performance, with $5.5m in outflows. Regionally, US crypto funds dominated last week, drawing $776.6 million in inflows. This marked a strong recovery from the previous week, when they only brought in $21.1 million. It’s worth noting that US crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recently saw their best monthly performance since October 2025, with over $2 billion in inflows across all major categories. As reported by News BTC, Bitcoin ETFs recorded their second straight month of massive gains, posting $1.97 billion in April, while Solana funds continued their seven-month positive streak, with $38.69 million in inflows. Meanwhile, Ethereum and XRP ETFs rebounded last month, with a strong recovery from their March performance. CLARITY Act Fuels US Sentiment CoinShares’ head of research, James Butterfill, attributed last week’s performance to progress on the US crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, which has been stalled on the Senate Banking Committee for nearly four months. He explained that crypto funds’ recovery is likely fueled by improving sentiment around the CLARITY Act after Senator Thom Tillis and Angel Alsobrooks released the final text of the stablecoin yield compromise and “held firm” against recent banking-industry pushback. Over the past week, US banking trade groups have led efforts to push for amendments to the stablecoin yield compromise ahead of the crypto bill’s upcoming markup session. The groups have argued that the current language still leaves room for rewards programs that could effectively replicate yield. However, Senate sources have told journalist Eleanor Terret that the effort was “pretty milquetoast,” adding that “members have already shifted their focus to wrapping up other issues in the bill like ethics.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Flashes Signal With 186% Average One-Year Return Meanwhile, Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini are pushing lawmakers to scrap a key provision requiring exchanges to list only digital assets that are “not readily susceptible to manipulation,” arguing that the provision would be difficult to apply fairly to crypto, especially to smaller tokens that are traded less frequently. The Senate Banking Committee’s long-awaited markup session for the CLARITY Act has been scheduled for Thrusday, May 14. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Trader sentiment in Shiba Inu derivatives market has done a complete 180 over the past week. Net positions — which sat at around -200 million just days ago, reflecting a market tilted toward short bets — have swung to more than +400 million in net longs as of May 11. That kind of shift in a short window is not common. Related Reading: Nearly 80% Of Bitcoin Supply Hasn’t Moved As Long-Term Holders Tighten Grip From Short To Long: A Full Reversal The turnaround began around May 6, when net positions started climbing out of negative territory. By May 9, the indicator had crossed into positive ground, and it kept climbing. According to market watcher CW, buying pressure has grown sharply and is now dominating the market. “The upward momentum of $SHIB is increasing explosively,” he said. The upward momentum of $SHIB is increasing explosively. Upward pressure is very strong. pic.twitter.com/krXs9zhcM7 — CW (@CW8900) May 10, 2026 That momentum shows up clearly on the price chart. SHIB has been rising steadily from the $0.00000615 range, forming a pattern of higher lows and higher highs since May 10 — a sign that buyers have held control without the market getting sloppy or erratic. The price reached above $0.00000660 by May 11, a gain of roughly 6.50% over the past week. Open Interest Climbs Past 6 Billion The derivatives market is also pulling in fresh participants. Open Interest — which tracks the total value of outstanding contracts — rose from just above 5 billion on May 5 to over 6 billion at the time of reporting. That increase suggests traders are opening new positions rather than simply closing old ones. When prices rise alongside growing Open Interest, it typically points to sustained demand rather than a technical bounce driven by short sellers getting squeezed out. Reports indicate that this combination is what analysts often look for when assessing whether a rally has legs. Leverage Cuts Both Ways Still, the same buildup that has driven prices higher carries risk. With Open Interest elevated and long positions stacked up, a slowdown in price movement could set off a chain of forced liquidations. If SHIB struggles to push higher while leverage stays elevated, a quick drop becomes more likely — even if the broader direction has not changed. Related Reading: XRP Market Now Controlled By Whales? Dominance Reaches 91% On Binance For the upside to continue, reports say SHIB needs to hold above the $0.00000665 to $0.00000670 range. That zone now acts as a key level. If buyers defend it, the next leg higher remains on the table. If they don’t, the market may correct sharply before finding its footing again. Featured image from Anne Arundel County Government, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin begins the week near $80,100, with crypto markets facing an unusually dense calendar of macro, policy and institutional-positioning catalysts. The immediate question is whether Washington and geopolitics add fresh support to risk assets or reinforce the dollar, oil and rates pressure that has kept broader crypto liquidity selective. #1 Fed Transition Risk Moves To The Senate The first event is the Senate’s May 11 vote tied to Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve nomination. Importantly, this is not simply a final vote to make Warsh Fed Chair. The Senate schedule shows a roll-call vote on cloture for Warsh’s nomination to become a Fed governor, while his separate nomination to become Chair is also on the executive calendar. Related Reading: Binance Founder CZ Sees Major Changes Ahead For Crypto The White House nominated Warsh in March both as Fed Chair for a four-year term and as a governor for a 14-year term. For Bitcoin, the relevance is straightforward: the Fed chair transition affects the forward path of real rates, dollar liquidity and risk appetite. #2 CLARITY Act Vote Becomes The Main Crypto Catalyst The larger industry-specific event comes May 14, when the Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to meet in executive session to consider H.R.3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025. The committee notice sets the session for 10:30 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building 538. The bill matters because it targets the central US market-structure problem: whether specific crypto assets are securities, commodities or something else. The legislation would clarify regulator jurisdiction and potentially support digital-asset adoption, while also addressing the stablecoin-yield dispute between banks and crypto firms. Under a compromise by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks, rewards on idle dollar-backed stablecoin holdings would be prohibited, while rewards tied to payments or other activity would remain permitted. #3 Trump-Xi Talks Add A Macro Layer The Trump-Xi meeting adds the week’s geopolitical overlay. Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on May 13 (Wednesday), with talks set for Thursday and Friday covering Iran, Taiwan, artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons and critical minerals. US officials also expect discussion of trade and investment forums, possible Chinese purchases of US goods and an extension of a rare-earths truce. For crypto, the transmission channel is macro rather than direct policy. Any de-escalation on trade, rare earths or Iran could ease risk premiums. A harder line, especially around Taiwan or energy flows, would likely support defensive positioning, the dollar and volatility across high-beta assets. #4 13F Filings Will Show Who Bought Or Sold Bitcoin ETFs The institutional signal arrives through the 13F season. The SEC lists the Q1 2026 Form 13F deadline as May 15, with filings due 45 days after quarter-end for managers that meet the reporting threshold. Those filings will show March 31 holdings, not live positions, but they still matter because US spot Bitcoin ETF exposure has become one of the cleanest public windows into institutional allocation. Related Reading: Economic Disaster Is Coming? Top Author Says Hold These Cryptos Or Pay The Price The market will be watching whether banks, hedge funds, advisers and asset managers increased or reduced positions in products such as BlackROck’s IBIT and other spot Bitcoin ETFs during the first quarter. #5 Iran Remains The Risk Premium The Iran war remains the week’s most immediate tail risk. The dollar advanced on safe-haven demand, while Brent crude rose 4.5% to $105.85 after US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s response to a US peace proposal, writing: “I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.” That is the pressure point for Bitcoin and broader crypto: higher oil can complicate inflation expectations, support a firmer dollar and reduce the market’s willingness to price aggressive easing. At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.67 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Following the recent uptick in altcoin prices, conversations about the potential start of an altseason are gaining significant momentum. Interestingly, recent on-chain data about the rising altcoin trading volume has added some weight to the altseason discussions. Altcoin Trading Volume Climbs Above Yearly Average In a recent Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform, CryptoOnchain revealed a critical change in the altcoin market. Citing the “CEX Volume Ratio: Others vs Top 5” metric, the market analyst explained that the altcoin trading volume has been in an uptrend lately.  The “CEX Volume Ratio: Others vs Top 5” metric tracks how much trading volume is flowing into altcoins outside the top 5, relative to the combined volume of the top 5 assets. As such, it plays a key role in identifying the extent of capital rotation and whether altcoins have started to gain strength.  Related Reading: Cardano Holds Critical $0.25 Support: History Points To A Major Rally Setup According to CryptoOnchain, the 30-day moving average of altcoin trading volume has now climbed past its 365-day moving average. This trend, explained the analyst, shows that the volume of this sub-asset class is steadily increasing.  Higher readings in the CEX Volume Ratio: Others vs. Top 5 are telltale signs that traders are leaning towards smaller altcoins rather than into major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and BNB). This, in turn, is interpreted as growing risk appetite, which could positively influence an altcoin rally. The market analyst cited historical data, noting that instances where the signals flashed mostly reflected short-term volume growth relative to the long-term baseline. These cases have also signaled “clear rotation of capital from major caps into mid and low-cap altcoins.” For example, during the 2021 bull cycle, repeated clusters of these signals coincided with explosive rallies across the altcoins’ sector, alongside a major price appreciation in Ethereum. Notably, the chart shared by CryptoOnchain shows the purple “Volume Ratio” line gradually strengthening again after a period of weakness. The analyst noted that a breakout in the ratio could precede high-volatility periods, potentially increasing the likelihood of an altcoin market rally.  Ethereum Stability Could Confirm Imminent Altcoin Rally CryptoOnchain further explained that the reinvigoration of the altcoin trading volume could be a sign that “retail and institutional interest is expanding beyond the top 5 assets.” However, this does not necessarily translate to bullish news for the altcoin market. According to the crypto pundit, confirmation from Ethereum’s price action might be necessary to determine the market’s inner dynamics. CryptoOnchain explained: If this momentum is sustained and accompanied by a stable or rising ETH price, it could serve as a strong confirmation that a broader altcoin rally is underway. As of press time, the Ethereum price stands at $2,329, up 1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.  Related Reading: Ethereum Sees Sharp Decline In High-Leverage Long Positions — See What Happens Next Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView

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

As Bitcoin (BTC) defends a pivotal support level, Tom Lee has called for the end of the crypto winter, setting massive year-end outlooks for the flagship crypto and Ethereum (ETH). Related Reading: DeFi Platform TrustedVolumes Hit By $6.7M Hack As 2026 Exploits Surge Tom Lee Shares $200,000 Bitcoin Target Tom Lee, the chairman of Ethereum’s largest treasury firm, Bitmine Technology, shared bold end-of-year price predictions for the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. During a quick-fire round of questions at Consensus 2026, the executive affirmed that Bitcoin could soar “well past all-time highs” by year’s end, forecasting that its price may trade between $150,000 and $200,000 in late 2026. He also predicted that Ethereum could rally into year-end, potentially reaching new highs between $9,000 and $12,000. Lee said his bullish outlook is based on his belief that the crypto winter is over and that a recovery rally could unfold over the coming months. “Crypto Spring, in our view, has commenced, and like past cycles, investor sentiment and conviction are muted and bearish even as crypto prices strengthen,” he asserted earlier this week, adding that the potential passage, or even failure, of the crypto market structure bill confirms the arrival of crypto spring. The chairman’s bold predictions come as the flagship crypto defends a crucial support zone. Notably, Bitcoin had been trading between $74,000 and $79,000 since mid-April, finally breaking out of this range earlier this week. The flagship crypto soared past the $80,000 resistance on Monday for the first time since January. It then rallied during the first half of the week toward the key $82,500 resistance before rejecting on Thursday. Now, Bitcoin is trading between the $79,000-$80,000 area, which some analysts suggest could make or break BTC’s rally.  BTC At Most Crucial Support Rekt Capital highlighted that Bitcoin has successfully held the 21-week EMA, around the $78,000 level. However, he warned that “this move through this resistance area hasn’t been very sustainable thus far, which opens up the possibility for yet another retest of the 21-week EMA going forward.” As a result, BTC needs to successfully retest the 21-week EMA again to avoid being completely rejected from the resistance area, between the 21-week EMA and the 50-week EMA, and dropping into the mid-$70,000s. Meanwhile, market analyst Ali Martinez affirmed that Bitcoin is currently trading around the most important resistance level as the average cost basis of new whales, the entities that bought in the last 155 days, currently sits at $80,300. He explained that “when Bitcoin trades below this average cost basis, these whales are holding at a loss,” which means that new whales will be “incentivized to sell just to break even and avoid further losses” if BTC fails to hold the $80,300 area as support. Related Reading: Solana Eyes New Leg Up After Triangle Breakout – Is $96 The Next Stop? Martinez warned that this panic to exit would create a wave of selling pressure that pushes prices much lower. On the contrary, if the flagship crypto turns this level into support, it’d signal that selling pressure has exhausted. “Once these whales are back in the green, they stop selling and start holding for higher targets, which is exactly how new uptrends begin,” he concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

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 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 

Buyers on Binance shifted decisively in recent weeks. The exchange’s seven-day net taker volume swung from roughly -$1 billion in late March — a period dominated by sellers — to around $2.6 billion by early May, signaling that demand had returned with some force. Related Reading: XRP Market Now Controlled By Whales? Dominance Reaches 91% On Binance Reserves Hit Levels Not Seen Since Late 2023 That shift in buyer behavior is playing out against a backdrop of shrinking Bitcoin supply on major exchanges. Combined outflows from Binance, OKX, and Gemini have reached nearly 100,000 BTC since February — worth over $8 billion at current prices — pushing reserves to their lowest point in roughly two and a half years. Binance recorded the steepest drop. Its holdings fell from about 670,000 BTC in late February to nearly 620,000 BTC by May 7, dipping below levels last seen in December 2023. OKX shed close to 30,000 BTC over a similar stretch, sliding from 132,000 BTC in early March to around 102,000 BTC. Gemini followed a similar path, declining from 114,800 BTC in early February to 95,000 BTC. According to a crypto analyst, a broad drawdown across multiple platforms carries more significance than outflows from a single exchange. When Bitcoin leaves several major venues at once, it points to a wider shift in how holders are managing their coins — not just routine transfers between wallets on the same platform. OTC Supply Tightens Alongside Exchange Withdrawals The supply crunch isn’t limited to exchange order books. Over-the-counter desk balances — used by large buyers and institutions to move Bitcoin privately, outside of public markets — have also tightened. The 30-day OTC balance change turned negative, posting a net decline of roughly 24,940 BTC. That’s a sharp contrast to early February, when the same measure stood at nearly +25,300 BTC following a dip in Bitcoin’s price toward $60,000. The reversal indicates that fresh Bitcoin supply flowing into OTC channels has slowed considerably since that earlier sell-off. Accumulation Picks Up Among Long-Term Holders Long-term holders stepped up their buying during Bitcoin’s recovery toward $82,800. Data from CryptoQuant shows demand from accumulator addresses climbed to 264,000 BTC on May 6, up 60% from 164,440 BTC just two weeks earlier on April 23. The metric had bottomed near 100,000 BTC in mid-March before rebounding. Related Reading: Bitcoin Eyes $90K As Bears Get Burned Again Amid $30B Open Interest Surge Accumulator addresses typically represent buyers who add to their holdings consistently and rarely sell — a cohort watched closely as a gauge of conviction among experienced market participants. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Another multi-million-dollar attack has hit the DeFi sector after liquidity provider and market maker TrustedVolumes fell victim to a smart contract exploit on Thursday night. Related Reading: Solana Eyes New Leg Up After Triangle Breakout – Is $96 The Next Stop? TrustedVolumes Hit By $6.7M Hack On Thursday, DeFi platform TrustedVolumes, one of 1inch liquidity providers and market makers, suffered a new exploit that drained millions of dollars in multiple assets from the project. According to reports from blockchain security firms PeckShield and Blockaid, the attacker stole approximately $6 million in Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), USDT, and USDT after exploiting a vulnerability in the protocol’s core signature validation logic, which allowed them to bypass authorization checks and forge trading orders. Notably, the hacker quickly exchanged all assets for 2.513 ETH on a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and distributed them across three addresses. In an X post, TrustedVolumes confirmed the incident, sharing the addresses currently holding the stolen funds and updating the estimated loss to roughly $6.7 million. The vulnerability was a TrustedVolumes-controlled custom RFQ (request for quote) swap proxy. Crypto researcher Humphrey explained that “the Custom RFQ Swap Proxy contract contains a function designed to manage the ‘authorized order signer’ whitelist. Such whitelist mechanisms are common in DeFi—only addresses on the whitelist can issue valid transaction instructions on behalf of the protocol.” However, he noted that “this registration function is public and lacks any permission modifiers.” As a result, the attacker exploited this public function within the contract, registering themselves as an authorized order signer. “Since any external address can call this function, it is equivalent to giving everyone the ability to make a copy of the safe’s key,” the researcher continued. Same Hacker, Different Attack The online reports revealed that the attacker was the same hacker responsible for the $5 million 1inch Fusion V1 Settlement contract exploit in March 2025, which TrustedVolumes was the primary victim. Humprey highlighted that while the same individual carried out both attacks, they were significantly different on a technical level. According to the post, the 2025 vulnerability involved low-level EVM memory manipulation in the 1inch Fusion V1 Settlement contract. At the time, the hacker “proactively initiated on-chain negotiations,” offering to return the stolen assets for a white hat bounty. The DeFi platform accepted the proposal, and most of the funds were safely returned. Now, TrustedVolumes affirmed that it is “open to constructive communication regarding a bug bounty and a mutually acceptable resolution.” Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch clarified that there was no impact on its systems, infrastructure, or user funds, explaining that “TrustedVolumes operate independently as a liquidity provider, used by multiple protocols across the industry, and are not exclusive to 1inch.” DeFi Exploits See Historic Surge This attack follows a wave of exploits that has shaken the DeFi sector over the past month. Last week, PeckShield revealed that the crypto space saw 40 major hacks in April, which drained approximately $647 million. Related Reading: $150M Crypto Ponzi Crumbles: $41.5M Frozen In DSJ Exchange Collapse This figure represents a 1,140% Month-over-Month (MoM) increase from March’s $52.2 million. It also represents a 292% surge from the $165 million the DeFi sector lost during the first quarter of 2026. Notably, the top two incidents of the month, Drift Protocol’s $285 million and KelpDAO’s $290 million exploits, accounted for 91% of the funds lost last month. In addition, they now rank among the Top 10 hacks since 2021. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

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

US spot XRP exchange-traded funds recorded net inflows of $11.28 million on Tuesday, marking their second consecutive positive day — a streak that coincides with a sharp shift in who is actually moving XRP off centralized exchanges. Related Reading: Bitcoin Eyes $90K As Bears Get Burned Again Amid $30B Open Interest Surge Whales Take Over The Outflow Picture Large holders now account for 91.4% of all XRP leaving Binance, according to on-chain data compiled by CryptoQuant analyst Amr Taha. Retail traders, by contrast, have been squeezed to just 8.4% of outflow activity on the platform. The gap is striking. And it isn’t limited to Binance — across all centralized exchanges combined, whale-driven outflows have climbed to 90.5%, the highest reading recorded since 2024. Retail participation across those same platforms has slipped to roughly 9%, its lowest point in the same period. The numbers paint a picture of a market where small traders have largely stepped back, leaving the heavy movement to bigger players who rarely show their hand. Exchange Reserves Shrinking Fast Separate data flagged by market watcher Xaif Crypto shows XRP reserves on Binance are falling at a pace not seen since March. Deposit and withdrawal flows over the past 30 days have flipped, with withdrawals outpacing deposits by a growing margin. Something’s happening with XRP on Binance ???? net withdrawals just hit a 30-day reversal coins flying off the exchange at the fastest pace since March ???? the supply shock is loading …….. $XRP https://t.co/VXOQPJf1EX pic.twitter.com/nlJLdUOCA1 — Xaif Crypto (@Xaif_Crypto) May 6, 2026 When tokens leave exchanges at this speed, it typically means fewer coins are available for immediate sale — a condition that can tighten supply and affect pricing if demand stays steady or grows. The ETF inflow data adds weight to that picture. Reports indicate that institutional interest in XRP has been climbing, and two straight days of positive ETF flows suggest that appetite has not cooled. Related Reading: David Schwartz Says Selling XRP Doesn’t Make Him The Villain What The Data Doesn’t Confirm Still, outflows don’t tell the whole story. Data shows that whale withdrawals can reflect several different moves — long-term storage, transfer between wallets, or repositioning across platforms. None of those necessarily means buying. Taha’s analysis acknowledged this directly, noting that exchange outflows alone cannot be treated as confirmation of accumulation. The contrast with mid-2025 is worth keeping in mind. Back then, retail participation spiked to around 2% dominance just as XRP approached its record high near $3.66. That surge in smaller-player activity was followed by a price drop of more than 60%. Today’s market looks structurally different, with large holders driving nearly all movement. Whether that translates into price support remains to be seen. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

As Solana (SOL) breaks out of a multi‑week pattern, some market observers suggest a retest of a key resistance level could be on the horizon. Nonetheless, they also warned that the next leg up could be short‑lived if momentum fails to hold. Related Reading: $150M Crypto Ponzi Crumbles: $41.5M Frozen In DSJ Exchange Collapse Solana Breakout Targets Key Resistance On Wednesday, Solana jumped 4.2% on the daily timeframe, retesting the $90 area for the first time in nearly a month before retracing. The cryptocurrency has been in the $75 to $96 price range since the early February market crash, failing to reclaim the upper zone of this range during this period. Amid today’s surge, analyst Ali Martinez highlighted that Solana was breaking out of an eight-week symmetrical triangle formation, which could lead to a rally toward the local range’s upper boundary. As he explained, a spike in buying pressure could push SOL’s price to $92, a key horizontal resistance over the past three months in the daily and weekly timeframes. If this level is reclaimed, the cryptocurrency’s breakout could extend toward $96, a level not retested since the mid-March market rally. In addition, CryptoRand noted that after its recent price jump, Solana has also broken out of its eight-month downtrend, suggesting that a bullish reversal could be on the horizon if this level holds. However, market observer Daan Crypto Trades pointed out that the altcoin has been consolidating within a 10% range for three months, recording its lowest volatility in years. As a result, the analyst affirmed that a big move would happen sooner than later, but the direction “will entirely depend on which side breaks first. It won’t be a move to fade (…). Likely to see at least a 20-30% leg following the break of this compression.” SOL To Rally Before Next Dump? In an X post, Altcoin Sherpa noted that Solana has underperformed all other majors over the past few months. Unlike Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), SOL has not been able to retest or break out of its three-month range despite the recent market recovery. The analyst affirmed that the altcoin needs bullish conditions and BTC’s price to stabilize to continue climbing higher. Meanwhile, More Crypto Online underscored the importance of SOL’s overall context in a video analysis. He explained that “on the higher timeframe, there is no sign whatsoever that we have a meaningful low in place,” and that “the upside reaction from the February low was just too weak. And the structure that’s even more important does not currently support a long-term rally.” The analyst pointed out that there is “a lot of resistance along the way,” but noted that a counter-trend rally to the $110-$140 area is “a very reasonable expectation” to form a top as long as the February lows hold. Related Reading: Bitcoin Targets $86,000 After Key EMA Reclaim: Is The Next Rally Here? Nonetheless, he considers that “from there, there’s a good chance of going lower, possibly either in a fifth wave down to complete a larger correction in a so-called wave four, or like Bitcoin, the expectation is a more meaningful correction into the mid $30 region.” “So, the market might just need to move up a little bit to complete this correction. Make the crowd bullish again so that the new sellers can come in,” he concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the best-selling personal finance book “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” has issued a stark warning about what he describes as a coming retirement crisis for Baby Boomers, pointing to cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other assets like gold, and silver as the core assets families should hold to protect themselves from the turbulence ahead. Related Reading: Bitcoin Reclaims $80,000 But Something Doesn’t Add Up, Here’s What In a post on X directed at “Boomers” and their families, Kiyosaki traced his concern back to 1974, when he said he first identified the structural conditions that would eventually produce what he now calls the “Baby Boomer Retirement Disaster.” With millions of Boomers facing financial difficulty in 2026 — some, he warned, facing homelessness — the author framed the moment as the arrival of a crisis he has spent decades trying to help people avoid. What Top Cryptos You Should Hold? The prescription Kiyosaki offered was direct. In the post, he pointed readers toward what he described as the foundation of a sound financial future: real gold, silver, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. The framing was deliberate — “real gold” rather than paper or ETF exposure — signaling a preference for physical and decentralized assets over instruments tied to the traditional financial system he has long criticized. The recommendation places Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside the two oldest monetary hedges in history, a pairing Kiyosaki has returned to consistently in recent years as his skepticism toward fiat currency and Wall Street has deepened. The Broader Warning Kiyosaki’s post also referenced two books he wrote specifically for Boomers facing retirement uncertainty — “Retire Young Retire Rich” and “Who Stole My Pension?” — noting that Wall Street has historically resisted both titles. For those who acted on the advice in those books, he suggested, the current environment has validated the preparation. The author closed with a characteristically blunt assessment of what lies ahead, describing a “rough global economy” and urging followers to prepare accordingly. Related Reading: David Schwartz Says Selling XRP Doesn’t Make Him The Villain As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $79,500, with the broader market consolidating near key support levels as macro uncertainty continues to weigh on sentiment. BTC's price trending upwards on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Toncoin extended its rally on Wednesday, climbing to a new local high of $2.215 and bringing its three-day gain to more than 60%, as traders continued to price in Telegram’s deeper role in The Open Network. With the move, TON reaches it highest price since mid-November last year following fresh comments from Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who argued that Telegram becoming TON’s largest validator would strengthen decentralization rather than weaken it. The rally marks TON’s sharpest short-term moves this year. Market data showed Toncoin trading near the $2.10–$2.20 zone on Wednesday, with Kraken listing a 24-hour high of $2.20 and OKX showing TON at $2.215 earlier in the session. The token remains well below its prior all-time high near $8.25, but the latest move has quickly reset near-term market structure after months of muted price action. Durov Post Fuels Toncoin Rally Durov’s latest post on X added a new layer to the market narrative. On May 5, he said Telegram becoming TON’s largest validator “strengthens decentralization.” He wrote: “Telegram becoming TON’s largest validator strengthens decentralization. It lets other major players join the validator pool without centralizing the network — with Telegram as the counterbalance. More and more TON gets locked in validation as everyone competes for 20%+ APR.” Related Reading: TON Jumps 30% As Durov Says Telegram Will Take The Lead That statement came shortly after Durov said on May 4 Telegram would replace the TON Foundation as the main driving force behind TON and become the network’s largest validator. In the same post, he said TON fees had dropped sixfold “to nearly zero,” while a new TON website, new developer tools and performance upgrades were expected within two to three weeks. For the market, the timing matters. TON’s rally did not begin with a generic ecosystem update. It followed a direct Telegram-led roadmap: lower fees, stronger infrastructure, better developer tooling and a validator shift that ties the network more closely to the messaging platform’s distribution. Related Reading: Top Toncoin Whales Silently Accumulate 189,730 TON Despite Market Weakness The key debate now is whether Telegram’s larger role makes TON more credible or more centralized. On paper, becoming the largest validator gives Telegram greater influence over the network’s security layer. In a proof-of-stake system, validators help maintain network stability and security by committing large amounts of the native token. TON’s own documentation describes validators and nominator pools as core parts of the network’s security model. Thus, the optics are complicated. TON was originally created as the Telegram Open Network before later moving into a more independent foundation-led structure. Toncoin as the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network was originally developed in 2018 and later transitioned to the TON Foundation. Telegram now moving back into the central operational role represents a major shift in how the market is likely to assess TON’s governance and execution risk. At press time, TON traded at $2.263. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

On-chain detective ZachXBT has shared details of the massive crypto Ponzi scheme that took over $150 million from unsuspecting victims before collapsing last week. Related Reading: Bitcoin Targets $86,000 After Key EMA Reclaim: Is The Next Rally Here? The Mechanics Behind The $150M Crypto Ponzi In a series of X posts, ZachXBT unveiled the details of a Ponzi scheme that had been operating under the DSJ Exchange (DSJEX), a fake trading platform, and BG Wealth Sharing, a fraudulent investment scheme, since 2025. The scam involved a fake CEO named Stephen Beard, a self-proclaimed professor who represented the platform to the public. According to the Tuesday thread, DSJEX and BG Wealth advertised daily returns of 1.3%–2.6%, with referral commissions and rank-based bonuses. In addition, Beard pushed recruitment and fake trading signals through a group on Hong Kong messaging app BonChat. The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) recently explained that investors used these trading signals on the DSJ exchange and were led to believe that the crypto investments were generating returns. BG Wealth and DSJ claimed to be licensed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the DFI found that neither of the forms filed by these companies indicated that they were registered with the SEC. Thirteen regulators across five continents had issued public fraud warnings about the firms, including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Philippines’ SEC, and Washington’s DFI. On April 23, US law enforcement seized one of BG Wealth’s domains as part of a joint operation conducted by Operation Level Up and the Scam Center Strike Force. However, the scam continued to operate for roughly another week. Last Saturday, Beard posted a video affirming that DSJEX would soon go public and demanded a 12% “tax” on account balances as a prerequisite for the regulatory process. But the scammers had already disabled withdrawals by this point. Tether, Exchanges Freeze $41.5M After the US authorities’ involvement, the malicious actors laundered over $92 million in crypto assets across chains. ZachXBT noted that the scammers regularly rotated between domains and hot wallets to evade law enforcement. Between April 27 and May 3, the crypto funds were laundered through token swaps, bridging via Bridgers, Butter Network, and USDT0, wrapping and unwrapping USDD, and consolidation of transactions across hundreds of addresses. The crypto sleuth traced the millions in outflows through a timing analysis, located Solana/Tron deposits to Binance, and found matching Tron withdrawals. Then, he provided details to the relevant parties, including Tether, the Binance security team, OKX, and US law enforcement. As a result, Tether froze $38.4 million on May 4, while another $3.1 million was frozen at various crypto services and exchanges, bringing the total to $41.5 million. Related Reading: Why is Crypto Up Today? Bitcoin Price Faces ‘Real Test’ At This Key Level Despite the significant recovery, the on-chain detective noted that the scam’s $150 million assessment is “likely significantly higher since the scheme has been operating since 2025, with thousands of victim exchange withdrawals identified.” Ultimately, he advised victims of DSJEX and BG Wealth’s scheme to file a police report in their jurisdiction to aid global investigations and potential restitution from laundered proceeds. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Ondo is gaining significant institutional traction after being selected to participate in a key working group led by DTCC. This move places Ondo in direct collaboration with established financial institutions and infrastructure leaders, working to define how traditional assets can be brought on-chain at scale. What Ondo’s DTCC Role Means For The Broader Crypto Market In a recent post on X, Ondo Finance has revealed that the firm has been selected to join an industry working group led by Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a major initiative aimed at advancing tokenization across the United States capital markets. DTCC currently custodies over $114 trillion in assets and has processed an estimated $3.7 quadrillion in transactions annually. Related Reading: Ondo Finance Brings Tokenized Stocks, ETFs To BNB Chain With New Expansion The initiative focuses on building a tokenization service designed to bring the core of the US capital market infrastructure on-chain, with Ondo among the selected group of firms contributing to its design. With this initiative, Ondo is positioned to work alongside major financial institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Franklin Templeton, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citadel Securities, NYSE Group, Circle, Fireblocks, Robinhood, and more. Furthermore, the DTCC President and CEO, Frank La Salla, emphasized the significance of this transition, noting that tokenization has the potential to transform how markets operate, unlocking new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency for investors. With over 50 years of experience, the DTCC has been at the center of US capital markets. Its decision to build a tokenization service and to bring Ondo to the table alongside the world’s leading financial institutions reflects how far tokenization has come. As the largest tokenizer of stocks, ETFs, and US Treasuries, Ondo is well-positioned to help shape the next phase of financial innovation, one that aims to keep US markets competitive in an increasingly digital and global economy. Institutional Adoption Accelerates Beyond Experimentation In another major move, Franklin Templeton, a $1.7 trillion asset manager, has made a decisive move into blockchain by choosing Ondo Finance as its gateway to the next generation of investors. An analyst known as 2xnmore on X highlighted that instead of building its own infrastructure or relying on traditional financial intermediaries, the firm has opted to leverage Ondo’s existing on-chain rails. Related Reading: Bitget and Bitget Wallet Support Trading of Over 100 Tokenized Assets via Ondo Finance Through the Ondo global markets, five ETFs are now live and tradeable 24/7 directly from crypto wallets. This removes many of the traditional barriers associated with investing, such as brokerage accounts, geographic limitations outside the US, and reliance on intermediaries, offering a more open approach. Ondo currently controls an estimated 70% of the tokenized equity market, while targeting the much larger $30 trillion global ETF market. Also, this massive gap between Ondo’s current footprint and its potential addressable market underscores the scale of the opportunity ahead. Meanwhile, the broader message is clear. Wall Street is no longer approaching crypto as an experiment. Instead, institutions are approaching blockchain as a more efficient infrastructure layer, and Ondo built the rails first. Featured image from YouTube, chart from Tradingview.com

Russia’s Moscow Exchange (MOEX) will begin publishing four new cryptocurrency indexes — tracking Solana, XRP, TRON, and BNB — starting May 13, 2026, marking the first time the country’s leading securities exchange has extended its regulated crypto benchmark suite beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.  Related Reading: Iran Launches Missiles At UAE — Bitcoin Price Barely Blinks The development, first reported by Russian crypto outlet bits.media and confirmed by Wu Blockchain, represents the second phase of what MOEX has framed as a longer-term buildout of its digital asset infrastructure. Russia’s Largest Securities Exchange to Launch SOL, XRP, TRX and BNB Crypto Indexes The Moscow Exchange will begin publishing four crypto indexes tracking SOL, XRP, TRX and BNB from May 13, using pricing data from Binance (50%), Bybit (20%), OKX (15%) and Bitget (15%). Existing… pic.twitter.com/SIUCvugd4D — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 5, 2026  The exchange launched its Bitcoin index (MOEXBTC) in June 2025 and its Ethereum index (MOEXETH) in October 2025. The four new benchmarks — Solana (MOEXSOL), XRP (MOEXXRP), TRON (MOEXTRX), and Binance Coin (MOEXBNB) — follow the same architectural model, with index values updated every 15 seconds during trading hours. How The Indexes Are Built: Solana, TRON, XRP According to the report, the four new indexes will calculate prices using a weighted blend of data from major global exchanges: Binance at 50%, Bybit at 20%, OKX at 15%, and Bitget at 15%. All products will be restricted to qualified professional investors under Bank of Russia regulations and structured as cash-settled instruments, meaning no physical delivery of the underlying cryptocurrency is involved. Futures contracts tied to each new index are expected to follow once sufficient price history has been established — mirroring the path taken by MOEX’s existing BTC and ETH futures products. Dogecoin And Cardano Could Be Next MOEX has stated its intention to grow its total crypto index count to at least 10 assets over time, including Hyperliquid (HYPE). Also, Dogecoin and Cardano have been cited as likely candidates for future additions, suggesting May 13 marks an expansion phase rather than a ceiling. The broader regulatory environment is also moving in tandem. A digital asset bill currently under review in Russia’s State Duma is expected to be finalized by mid-2026. If passed, the framework could allow limited retail participation in crypto-linked instruments under an annual cap of approximately $4,000 — a significant opening for a market currently accessible only to qualified investors. A Signal For The Broader Sector This development marks a pivotal moment for the nascent sector’s global footprint, especially for Solana, TRON, and XRP. As regulated financial products tied to altcoins — indexes, futures, and eventually options — gain traction across exchanges from Moscow to Chicago, the case for digital assets as a legitimate institutional asset class continues to strengthen. Each new market that formalizes crypto exposure within its regulated infrastructure adds another layer of structural demand to the ecosystem, a dynamic that could increasingly influence price discovery and liquidity for top-tier altcoins worldwide. Related Reading: Why is Crypto Up Today? Bitcoin Price Faces ‘Real Test’ At This Key Level As of this writing, Solana trades at around $147, XRP at $2.11, TRON at $0.26, and BNB at approximately $598, with all four assets set to gain dedicated regulated exposure on one of Eastern Europe’s largest exchanges within the week. SOL's price trends sideways on the daily chart. Source: SOLUSD on Tradingview Cover image by Grok, SOLUSD chart on Tradingview

A fire broke out at a petroleum facility in Fujairah after Iran launched four ballistic missiles at the UAE, confirming what many feared — the fragile ceasefire between Iran and the US was fracturing in real time. Related Reading: Satoshi’s 22,000 Wallets Could Make Quantum Attacks On Bitcoin Far More Difficult: Expert Oil Markets Feel The Burn Brent crude futures jumped more than 4%, hitting an intraday high above $114 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate wasn’t far behind, gaining over 3% and briefly crossing $105. The strikes rattled energy markets immediately, given the UAE’s proximity to key shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. The UAE’s Ministry of Defense said its air defense systems intercepted three of the four incoming missiles. The fourth fell into the sea. No major casualties were reported from the interceptions, but the petroleum site fire in Fujairah signaled that the attack wasn’t without consequence. Earlier in the day, reports had circulated that Iran also struck US Navy vessels escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command denied those reports. The back-and-forth of claims and denials added to an already tense atmosphere before the UAE confirmed the missile strikes. تم رصد عدد أربعة صواريخ جوالة قادمة من إيران باتجاه الدولة حيث تم التعامل بنجاح مع ثلاث صورايخ فوق المياة الإقليمية للدولة وسقط آخر في البحر. وأكدت وزارة الدفاع أن الأصوات المسموعة في مناطق متفرقة من الدولة هي نتيجة الاعتراض النجاح للتهديدات الجوية. وتنوه الوزارة الجمهور الكريم… pic.twitter.com/LqHJ5oLzL9 — وزارة الدفاع |MOD UAE (@modgovae) May 4, 2026 Bitcoin Holds As Geopolitical Pressure Mounts Crypto markets, meanwhile, told a different story. Bitcoin held firm through the chaos, rising from $79,200 to nearly $81,000 — a level the coin had not touched since January. The move came even as oil spiked and headlines grew increasingly alarming. The rally had been building on optimism that a US-Iran peace deal was within reach and that the CLARITY Act, a piece of crypto legislation, could pass this year. Both catalysts had pushed investor sentiment higher in the days before the strikes. US President Donald Trump had disclosed the day prior that the US thumbed down Iran’s most recent ceasefire proposal. Iran, for its part, warned that it was fully prepared to respond to what it called any “adventures or foolishness” from Washington. With those tensions already in the background, the UAE missile strikes landed as confirmation that negotiations were going nowhere fast. Related Reading: No CLARITY Act Needed? XRP Could Be Ready For Its Next Big Surge Trump Yet To Respond To The Strikes As of the time of reporting, Trump had not publicly made any comments on Iran’s attack on the UAE. His silence came despite the missile assault posing a direct challenge to US interests in the region — and to any hope of a near-term resolution to the military confrontation. Whether the missile strike represents a one-time escalation or the start of something larger remains to be seen. What’s clear is that the ceasefire, already described as shaky, took a serious hit. Oil markets are pricing in more uncertainty. Bitcoin, for now, is not. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

Toncoin surged sharply after Pavel Durov said Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the main driving force behind The Open Network and become its largest validator, marking the messaging platform’s most explicit operational step back into the blockchain it originally launched. TON climbed from roughly $1.35 to about $1.80 in the move, an increase of around 30%, with CoinMarketCap ranking it among the top 20 crypto assets by market capitalization during the rally. Durov Puts Telegram Back At The Center Of TON The immediate trigger was a post from Durov on May 4, who framed the move as the next phase of TON’s technical roadmap after a major reduction in network fees. “Fees in TON have dropped 6× — to nearly zero. Next step — Telegram replaces the TON Foundation as the driving force behind TON and becomes its largest validator. The focus shifts to tech superiority,” Durov wrote. Related Reading: Top Toncoin Whales Silently Accumulate 189,730 TON Despite Market Weakness He added that the network is expected to receive a “new ton.org, new dev tools, new performance upgrades,” with a stated timeline of “2-3 weeks.” That combination of lower fees, validator participation and developer-facing upgrades gave traders a clear catalyst after TON had spent much of late April trading close to the $1.30 range. The statement also narrows the distinction between Telegram as a distribution platform and TON as a blockchain ecosystem. TON’s strongest strategic asset has long been proximity to Telegram’s user base, but Durov’s language suggests a more direct role for the company in execution, infrastructure and ecosystem signaling. The fee cut had already been telegraphed in late April. On April 23, Durov said TON fees would fall sixfold within a week, to “just 0.00039 TON” per transaction, fixed regardless of network load. He also said most transactions would “soon after” become fully feeless. That fee structure matters because TON’s core commercial pitch is not only speculative settlement, but high-frequency consumer activity inside Telegram. In January 2025, the TON Foundation said TON would become the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for Telegram’s Mini App ecosystem, supporting a platform it described as reaching more than 950 million monthly active users. Related Reading: Toncoin Faces Crucial At The $1 Range, Will It Hold Or Break? The same announcement said Telegram would continue accepting Toncoin as the only cryptocurrency for non-fiat payments across platform services such as Telegram Stars, Premium, Ads and Gateway, while also using Toncoin to pay Mini App developers and channel owners for earned Stars and ad revenue. TON’s history gives the announcement additional weight. Telegram originally developed the Telegram Open Network under Pavel and Nikolai Durov, before the project was halted after US Securities and Exchange Commission action over the sale of Gram tokens. In June 2020, the SEC said Telegram and TON Issuer agreed to return more than $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million civil penalty to settle charges tied to an unregistered digital token offering. After Telegram stepped away, the network continued through community-led development under The Open Network brand. Telegram later rebuilt links to TON through product integrations, payments and Mini Apps. Durov’s latest statement is significant because it presents the next phase not as a partnership expansion, but as a leadership shift. At press time, TON traded at $1.806. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Conference 2026 attendees weren’t just talking about Bitcoin. Ripple had a visible presence at the event, and XRP was drawing attention from investors who had previously kept their distance from the token. Related Reading: XRP Bulls Eye Breakout As Ripple Unveils 13,000 Bank Connections Worldwide A Shift In Sentiment Jake Claver, chairman of Digital Ascension Group, said he saw a clear change in attitude toward XRP at the conference. Longtime Bitcoin holders, who once had little interest in XRP, were starting to look at the token and move money into its ecosystem. Claver made the remarks during an appearance on the Good Evening Crypto podcast, hosted by Abdullah “Abs” Nassif. His broader argument: XRP doesn’t need Congress to act for its price to move. The legal and regulatory groundwork, he said, is already in place. That view runs counter to what some market watchers have been saying. A popular narrative in crypto circles holds that passage of the CLARITY Act — a proposed piece of legislation aimed at defining rules for digital assets — would be the key trigger for XRP’s next major price move. Claver doesn’t buy it. Agencies Already Moving According to Claver, the SEC and CFTC have been doing the work without waiting for new laws. Both agencies have issued guidelines that classify XRP as a digital commodity, he said, and recent developments tied to the GENIUS Act have pushed US crypto regulation further along than many people realize. What the market needs now, in his view, is execution — not more legislation. The legal cloud that once hung over XRP has already lifted. The SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, which dragged on for years and created significant uncertainty for investors, has been resolved. Claver said that resolution has brought a new wave of interest to the token, with more capital flowing in as confidence grows. XRP is currently trading at $1.40, up about 1.55% on the day and roughly 7% over the past month. Over the past year, though, the token is down 32%. Related Reading: Satoshi’s 22,000 Wallets Could Make Quantum Attacks On Bitcoin Far More Difficult: Expert Institutions Take Notice Ripple’s president has described 2026 as a year of institutional adoption at scale, and Claver echoed that framing. He pointed to public statements from executives at Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, who have spoken openly about tokenization and the role blockchain technology could play in traditional financial markets. Reports indicate that XRP and the XRP Ledger are being positioned as infrastructure for payments and settlement — areas where institutional players are actively looking for solutions. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) said Monday it has reached new progress and clarified timelines for delivering its tokenization service—an initiative aimed at bringing tokenized real-world securities into the same infrastructure used by the US capital markets today.  Two-Phase Rollout For Tokenized RWAs DTCC said the service will move in two phases. It plans to facilitate initial, limited “production” trades of real-world assets (RWAs) that have been tokenized using the tokenization service in July 2026. After that trial period, DTCC expects to launch the service more fully in October of this year.  DTCC’s tokenization service, as described in its release, is designed for tokenizing real-world, DTC-custodied assets while preserving the core rights that investors expect from securities held in traditional form.  Related Reading: This Signal Has Predicted Every Bitcoin Bottom, Here’s What It’s Saying Now The company said tokenized assets supported through the Depository Trust Company (DTC) would provide the “same entitlements, investor protections and ownership rights” as conventional custody arrangements.  DTCC further emphasized that the service is built on DTC’s existing resilience and accountability, noting that DTC already custodies assets worth more than $114 trillion. In remarks accompanying the announcement, Brian Steele, DTCC Managing Director and President for Clearing & Securities Services, said the goal is to provide “systemic scale where deep liquidity already lives.”  Steele also framed the effort as a way to develop the service “in lockstep” with both current industry needs and expected future requirements—while the market collectively builds what DTCC calls “a digital ecosystem.” How The DTCC Plans To Bridge TradFi And DeFi DTCC’s digital assets leadership also tied the initiative to broader infrastructure goals. Nadine Chakar, DTCC Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Assets, said tokenization is a “critical step” toward building digital infrastructure for the future.  She added that DTCC aims to stay at the forefront of innovation by supporting a scalable, interoperable, and risk-managed Web3 environment, one that uses digital ledger technology to deliver real value to the broader industry. DTCC said the firms involved in the Industry Working Group represent a wide cross-section of roles, including custodians, asset managers, brokers, trading venues, application providers, and back-office service providers.  The participating firms include Anchorage Digital, Bank of America, BitGo Bank, BlackRock, and Ripple Prime, as well as over 50 other firms from the traditional finance (TradFi) sector and the crypto industry.  Related Reading: XRP Setup Nobody’s Watching Points To Fast Move Higher, Crypto Analyst Says DTCC President and CEO Frank La Salla described the project as a step toward bridging TradFi and decentralized finance (DeFi) through structured, ongoing dialogue.  La Salla said DTCC continues to convene a broad group of industry leaders to support digital assets adoption and innovation, and that the organization sees its tokenization vision as coming to fruition through both launching the service and “successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi.”  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Prediction market traders on Polymarket put the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 at 55% — a jump of nine percentage points in a single day — after two US senators released final language settling one of the bill’s most contested disputes. Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Defenders Launch ‘Evidence Base’ In Battle Against FUD Banks Got Restrictions, Crypto Got Rewards The new text, published Friday by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks, draws a clear line on stablecoin yields. No crypto firm may pay customers any form of interest simply for holding stablecoins — a practice that critics argued mimicked bank deposits and put traditional lenders at a disadvantage. But firms are allowed to offer rewards tied to what the bill calls “bona fide activities,” meaning actual use of crypto platforms or networks. Coinbase chief legal officer Faryar Shirzad called the outcome a win for consumers. “In the end, the banks were able to get more restrictions on rewards, but we protected what matters,” Shirzad said, referring to Americans’ ability to earn rewards through real crypto usage. The final rewards text in the CLARITY Act is now public. We’ve been clear throughout this process: much of this debate was based on imagined risks, not real evidence, nor was it based on a real understanding of how crypto actually works. Nevertheless, the crypto industry showed… https://t.co/XoQ7Zp1Y39 — Faryar Shirzad ????️ (@faryarshirzad) May 1, 2026 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was blunter. His response to the news: “Mark it up” — a direct call for the Senate Banking Committee to move the bill forward. Not everyone was satisfied. Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz offered a sharper take, saying the result simply meant Americans could not earn risk-free yield on their dollars without going through a bank. Image:  MetaAI Senate Markup Could Come As Early As May 11 Galaxy Digital head of firmwide research Alex Thorn said the release of the final text signals that the Senate Banking Committee could schedule a markup as soon as the week of May 11. That would mark a significant acceleration for legislation that had stalled for months, partly because the stablecoin yield question had no agreed answer. ???? CLARITY ACT — text of tillis (R) / alsobrooks (D) compromise on stablecoin yield is out now they previously said they had “agreement in principle” release of text suggests that senate banking will schedule markup imminently, as soon as week of may 11 pic.twitter.com/5COMHE8IJu — Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) May 1, 2026 Thorn also flagged a likely complication. He expects banks to step up their opposition once the markup is on the calendar, a warning that the compromise text may not be the end of the fight — just the start of a new one. The broader timeline had already been set by several senators. Bernie Moreno said he expects the bill to get done by the end of May. Senator Cynthia Lummis put it more starkly in April: “It’s now or never.” BTCUSD trading at $78,205 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView Related Reading: XRP Could See Fresh Demand As Japan’s Rakuten Unlocks Loyalty Point Conversions A Long-Running Dispute Pushed To The Side The stablecoin yield debate had been one of the main obstacles holding up the CLARITY Act, a bill designed to give the US crypto industry clearer regulatory ground to stand on. With that dispute now resolved — at least on paper — attention shifts to the rest of the legislation. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

After a shaky start to the year, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have recorded their strongest performance in months, signaling strong institutional demand despite the recent market volatility. Related Reading: XRP 2017 Breakout Replay? Analyst Drops Bold Target As Multi-Year Pattern Repeats Bitcoin Leads ETF Boom With $2B Inflows As the crypto market recovered from the start-of-year correction, US spot Bitcoin ETFs kicked off a new positive inflow streak, capping the second straight month of massive gains. The flagship crypto saw an 11.8% rise in April, climbing from the $68,000 mark to the $78,000-$79,000 resistance area for the first time since February, BTC’s strongest monthly gain in a year, according to CoinGlass data. Amid this performance, Bitcoin-based investment products recorded their strongest inflows in six months, with a nine-day streak between April 14 and April 24 totaling $2.1 billion. This marked the longest and largest inflows since the category’s $5.33 billion nine-day streak that ended in early October 2025. Nonetheless, this week’s market volatility, which recently pushed BTC’s price to a weekly low of $74,973, snapped Bitcoin ETFs from their daily and weekly positive spells, pulling nearly half a billion dollars from the funds in just three days. As reported by NewsBTC, the category saw $490 million in outflows between April 27 and April 29, its biggest negative net flows in three months. Despite the recent withdrawals, the funds posted $1.97 billion in April after a mild $14.76 recovery on Thursday, surpassing March’s $1.32 billion and recording their best performance of the year, the first two-month streak since Q4 2025. Notably, these inflows have offset outflows from January and February, with nearly $1.5 billion in net inflows Year-to-Date (YTD). ETH, XRP Funds See April Comeback Like Bitcoin, altcoin-based ETFs also saw a strong performance during the April market recovery, with Ethereum and XRP leading the charge. As ETH’s price printed its second green candle in 2026, its investment products logged their first positive performance of the year. SoSoValue data shows that the category posted $356 million in inflows in April, ending a six-month negative streak totaling $2.8 billion. Ethereum ETFs recorded a 10-day positive spell between April 9 and April 22, bringing in $633.5 million during this period. It’s worth noting that ETH funds remain in red despite the recent inflows, with about $413 million in net outflows during the first four months of 2026. XRP funds also rebounded in April, with inflows totaling $81.59 million. This marked a strong recovery from March’s performance, when the category saw the first red month since its November launch. Related Reading: Bitcoin Faces ‘Most Critical Week In Months’ Amid $76,000 Retest – Should Investors Worry? Similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the XRP-based products recorded their best daily streak of the year, seeing 14 days of positive net flows between April 10 and April 29. Following this performance, the funds have seen around $124 million in inflows during the first four months of the year, bringing their total cumulative inflows to $1.29 billion. Meanwhile, Solana ETFs continued their seven-month positive streak, posting $38.69 million in inflows last month and recording $251.8 million net inflows for 2026. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

CryptoCred, the prominent trader and educator behind Breakout, has warned that crypto’s old market structure may no longer offer the broad, reflexive upside that defined previous cycles. In a blunt assessment posted on X, Cred argued that participation alone is no longer enough, with market quality, liquidity, correlation and speculative attention all deteriorating at the same time. “Crypto’s current state is a bit shit,” Cred wrote, setting the tone for a critique that went beyond short-term price weakness. His argument was not simply that markets are down or that altcoins have underperformed. It was that the assumptions traders carried from earlier cycles may now be structurally less reliable. Crypto Has A Brutal New Problem At the center of his thesis is the idea that market capitalization has become a poor proxy for quality. Cred argued that much of the top 50 now consists of “ghost coins or bloated governance slop” that has underperformed and is difficult to treat as investable. That matters because previous cycles often allowed traders to use size and liquidity as rough filters for relative safety. In his view, that shortcut has become less useful. Related Reading: CEO Behind $4.7 Billion Crash Banned From Crypto, But How Will This Work? The problem is even sharper further down the risk curve. Cred said the long tail of speculative crypto assets has shifted from a high-risk, high-reward arena into something more predatory and time-sensitive, where holding for too long can mean getting caught by insiders, mercenary liquidity or violent rotations. The result is a market where speculation still exists, but the distribution of risk and reward has changed. “Everything is extremely correlated and you can’t meaningfully make bets based on sectors as it all converges into a tightly correlated mush, especially to the downside,” he wrote. “Broad brush alt season is an artefact of the past that’s very hard to replicate given that there are simply too many coins and the excess of speculation doesn’t really happen on centralised exchanges anymore.” That point cuts directly against one of crypto’s most durable cycle narratives: that capital eventually rotates from Bitcoin into majors, then into mid-caps, then into the speculative long tail. Cred’s argument is that the market has become too fragmented for that rotation to work cleanly. With too many tokens competing for attention and much of the highest-velocity speculation happening away from centralized exchanges, the classic “alt season” wealth effect becomes harder to reproduce. He also pointed to a reputational shift. Crypto, in his view, is no longer the obvious frontier for speculative capital. Institutional demand has moved toward artificial intelligence, while retail appetite has been absorbed by 0DTE options, single-name equities and other high-beta venues. That does not mean crypto has no bid. It means it may no longer monopolize the appetite for asymmetric risk. Related Reading: April’s Crypto Carnage: North Korea Hit Twice And Snagged 76% Of 2026 Hack Value The most important part of Cred’s post may be his claim that convexity has flattened. Even assets once treated as relatively safe crypto beta, including BTC and ETH, have disappointed some of the old cycle expectations, he argued. The familiar logic of buying deep drawdowns because new highs and explosive upside were assumed to follow has become harder to justify if the magnitude and reliability of those rebounds are weakening. “Convexity has flattened,” Cred wrote. “Even a lot of the historically safe blue chip stuff has underperformed and the historical anchor of ‘buy deep drawdowns because all-time highs are guaranteed and explosive’ has disappointed. All the shit we used to put up with because of the accessibly massive trend and momentum effects is now harder to justify because those same effects are getting neutered or siphoned off into other arenas.” Cred acknowledged the obvious counterargument: cycles. Crypto has repeatedly gone through periods where market structure looked broken before liquidity returned and risk appetite revived. But he said the most recent cycle itself supports his concern, because gains were “extremely concentrated” rather than broad-based, and “something very obviously broke after 10/10.” His conclusion was that trading crypto now requires more precision than it did in earlier eras. Timing alone may no longer be enough if the rising tide does not lift the entire market. Selection matters more. So does actual trading skill. “Participation alone can be an edge if the asset class is early enough and/or mispriced enough,” Cred wrote. “I don’t think that holds either, and we might actually have to learn how to trade.” At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.57 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Crypto analyst Ripple Bull Winkle has shared detailed insights into a new price model that predicts XRP’s valuation using theoretical liquidity metrics from the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The model calculates XRP’s required price under different adoption scenarios and potential growth in institutional money flows. In the near-term target, it predicts XRP could rally to $16 and forecasts a price explosion to $18,000 if the cryptocurrency becomes a dominant global bridge asset.  A Breakdown Of The $18,000 XRP Price Model In an X post published on Tuesday, Ripple Bull Winkle delved deep into a viral XRP price model that has quickly caught the attention of analysts and crypto investors. Market expert Vincent Van Code said the system was “arguably one of the better price modeling systems” he had ever seen.  Related Reading: XRP Ledger Hits New RWA Milestone, But Will This Have Any Impact On The Price? Van Code noted that the model uses real liquidity metrics from XRPL to create scenario-based price calculations for XRP. He also declared that the calculated $18,000 price target is “actually correct,” suggesting that XRP had a high chance of reaching this level if it follows the model’s setup to the letter. Notably, Ripple Bull Winkle said the new model was created by a researcher and calculates XRP’s price without speculation or hype. He explained that the system outlined five scenarios for XRP’s valuation. Each of these possible outcomes is linked to a specific use case and peak transaction volume.  The analyst noted that XRP’s projected surge to $18,000 is expected to occur when the cryptocurrency becomes a dominant global bridge asset. The researcher notes that to reach this level, XRP would have to hit a peak ticket of $50 billion in transaction volume.   Ripple Bull Winkle noted that this model does not predict XRP’s price but calculates the level that is mathematically required for XRP to serve as a leading bridge currency. In other words, the model shows that a price jump to $18,000 is justified if XRP meets the stated conditions. XRP’s Near-Mid Term Price Model Scenario For XRP’s near-term outlook, the model indicates that a price of $16 is needed to expand into Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) and remittance markets. At this stage, the peak ticket is also expected to hit $100 million. The model also notes that this scenario is already being supported by the current price and ongoing developments around XRP.  Related Reading: XRP And Bitcoin Investors Are ‘Trapped’, But Is There A Way Out? Interestingly, XRP’s mid-term outlook sees the cryptocurrency at the center of corporate treasuries and regional bank flows. This scenario calls for a required price range of $138 to $690 and a peak ticket of about $500 million. Ripple Bull Rinkle adds that this stage is where institutional and bank adoption will begin to have real price implications.  Moreover, the model noted that for all of its scenarios to play out, XRP needs to become a dominant neutral bridge with deep institutional usage across all major tokenization venues. For now, however, the cryptocurrency is still in a market driven by speculation rather than one fueled by utility. Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com

Celsius founder Alexander Mashinsky, who was responsible for the $4.7 billion 2022 crypto crash, has been banned from crypto. This forms part of a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) while the crypto founder continues to serve a 12-year sentence.  Celsius Founder Banned From Crypto As Part of $10 Million FTC Settlement  A court order filed by the FTC shows that the Celsius founder is permanently banned from crypto. The order stipulates that Mashinsky is not allowed to advertise, market, promote, offer, distribute, or assist in doing any of these things with respect to products or services used to deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw assets.  Related Reading: Here’s What Happened In The Donald Trump Crypto Meeting With $TRUMP Holders This crypto ban forms part of a $10 million settlement with the FTC. The order included a $4.72 billion monetary judgment against the Celsius founder in favor of the Commission. This sum relates to Mashinsky’s role in the 2022 crash of his crypto lending platform, which left customers unable to access $4.7 billion in deposits.  However, this monetary judgment is suspended, and Mashinsky has been ordered to pay $10 million to satisfy this monetary relief. The order also noted that the crypto founder shall be deemed to have satisfied the payment obligation if he pays this amount to the Department of Justice (DOJ) pursuant to the forfeiture order entered in his criminal case.  It is worth noting that the Celsius founder is currently serving a 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation. The crypto founder had pleaded guilty in 2024 to committing commodities fraud and securities fraud at Celsius and was subsequently sentenced last year. The prosecution revealed that Mashinsky had used customers’ assets to place risky bets and to “line his own pockets.” In addition to his prison term, the Celsius founder was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit $48 million.  Crypto Founder Denied New Trial In Fraud Case Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who was convicted for fraud like Mashinsky, has had his request for a new trial denied. According to an ABC report, a federal judge denied SBF’s request for a new trial, rejecting the FTX founder’s claims that there are new witnesses in his case who could give evidence that would clear him of any wrongdoing.  Related Reading: Crypto Decentralization Myth Busted: ETH And USDT Freezes Unveil A Shocking Truth The judge described this claim as baseless. SBF is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in the collapse of defunct crypto exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried was found to have used up to $8 billion in customers’ funds for his personal projects.  However, he continues to deny any wrongdoing despite being found guilty, stating that his exchange was always solvent. It is worth noting that SBF was also seeking a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, but the White House has revealed that Trump has no plans to pardon him.  Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com

Ripple’s escrow accounts are among the wallets that may not be as protected as they appear. A new breakdown of every account on the XRP Ledger found that multi-signature wallets — including those tied to Ripple — hold 36.60 billion XRP, or over 36% of the total supply, but are not automatically shielded from future quantum threats without proper key management. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst What The Numbers Show The analysis was conducted by XRPL validator Vet, who reviewed all 7,810,364 accounts on the XRP Ledger. Based on that review, 23.16 billion XRP currently sits in wallets considered safe from quantum attack. That works out to 27% of all accounts — roughly 2.13 million wallets. Two factors account for their safety: either the wallets have never signed a transaction, meaning the public key has never been exposed, or the account holders rotated their keys and disabled master keys as an extra security step. The first group covers over 24% of accounts. The second, more deliberate group accounts for 2.65%. The logic is straightforward. When a wallet signs a transaction, its public key becomes visible on the ledger. A sufficiently advanced quantum computer could theoretically use that public key to work backward and derive the private key. Wallets that have never signed anything don’t have that exposure. Did a Full History deep dive on all 7.8M XRP Accounts for Quantum Threat exposure targeting dormant accounts. Genesis XRP accounts, the Satoshi Era equivalent, is 0.02% of all XRP supply that is dormant and exposed. Exposed supply increases as dormancy thresholds are lowered.… https://t.co/AxINT1RaXV pic.twitter.com/QvZD8zBCNg — Vet (@Vet_X0) April 29, 2026 Dormant Accounts Raise Hard Questions On the other side of the ledger, 76.82 billion XRP spread across 5.6 million accounts is considered exposed. But Vet noted that 96% of that amount belongs to users who are still active — people who, when the time comes, can move their funds to safer addresses. The harder problem is dormant accounts. Wallets that have been inactive for five or more years hold 2.94% of the total XRP supply, which amounts to 3.83% of all exposed XRP. At the far end, accounts with no activity since before 2014 represent just 0.02% of total supply. Reports indicate that group includes only 14,710 accounts, compared to 1.33 million in the five-year inactive category. For context, Vet pointed to Bitcoin, where holdings tied to Satoshi Nakamoto make up roughly 5% of total supply — much of which may never be moved. Nobody knows why dormant wallets were abandoned. Lost keys, forgotten accounts, and personal circumstances all come into play. That uncertainty makes them the most difficult part of the quantum exposure problem. A 2028 Deadline Already In Motion The XRP Ledger currently uses Ed25519 and secp256k1 cryptographic standards. Both remain secure today, but could become vulnerable as quantum computing advances. Related Reading: WLFI Selloff Deepens After Controversial Governance Vote Goes Live Ripple has laid out a four-phase roadmap aimed at making the network fully quantum-resistant by 2028. Early testing of new systems is already underway, with updates to the main network planned for later phases. The long-term fix for exposed wallets is expected to involve quantum-resistant encryption that lets users migrate funds to better-protected addresses. That works for people who still have access. For those who don’t — whether due to lost credentials or other circumstances — the exposure may be permanent. Featured image from ForkLog, chart from TradingView