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As Ethereum (ETH) remains trapped below crucial resistance levels, the altcoin seems to be experiencing “one of the most dramatic sentiment reversals in crypto,” with recent data revealing that traders have gone from patience to frustration in recent weeks. Related Reading: Zcash (ZEC) Soars To Six-Month Highs After 110% Rally – Can It Break The $700 Barrier? Ethereum Sentiment Takes A Hit According to data from analytics firm Santiment, Ethereum has taken a hit not only in market value but also in the number of “patient holders” over the past few months, with the King of Altcoin’s sentiment plummeting as the price struggles under crucial levels. The cryptocurrency had been trading between $2,200 and $2,400 since early April, attempting to break out of this price range on multiple occasions. After another failed breakout earlier this month, ETH has declined 11.5%, potentially risking a drop below $2,000 for the first time since March. Amid its recent decline, Ethereum’s social dominance continued to climb, raising concerns about traders’ sentiment. As Santiment explained, rising social dominance is usually a healthy sign when there’s strong bullish momentum. However, ETH’s social discussion volume exploded after the April 17 local top and continued as the altcoin’s price slid. “This is often what happens when traders become emotionally locked onto an asset for negative reasons rather than optimistic ones. Instead of excitement about new highs, the conversation shifted toward frustration, disappointment, and fear of further downside,” the post read. In addition, the ratio between Ethereum bullish and bearish comments collapsed since April, falling from a relatively healthy 2:1 sentiment ratio, with bullish comments outnumbering bearish ones, to roughly 1:1, a sign that positive views have largely faded and negative views now match the positive ones. This kind of deterioration has historically occurred when traders lose confidence in short-term direction, Santiment stated, adding that for Ethereum, the sentiment collapse didn’t come from a catastrophic event, but “several negative narratives piling up simultaneously over a relatively short period of time.” What’s Behind The Negative Sentiment? Santiment outlined several narratives pushing Ethereum sentiment down, starting with the cryptocurrency’s performance. Notably, ETH has struggled to reclaim the leading role it held in previous cycles, with more traders seeing it as “dead money” compared to assets with much stronger momentum this year. Ethereum ETF performance has also intensified concerns, as retail traders often interpret massive withdrawals as proof that institutions are “abandoning” the asset. “That creates a psychological feedback loop where falling prices generate fear, fear causes outflows, and then those outflows generate even more fear. Ethereum’s bearish sentiment has increasingly reflected this cycle throughout the month,” the firm detailed. Moreover, reports of multiple departures from the Ethereum Foundation, prominent ETH advocates publicly distancing themselves from the ecosystem, and major ETH figures allegedly reducing or exiting their holdings have significantly amplified the negativity. At the same time, Ethereum has been facing criticism related to competition from faster-growing ecosystems, with retail traders caring less about developer strength and more about short-term price acceleration. On-chain activity has also noticeably weakened compared to previous ETH rallies, with fewer new wallets interacting with the network, and overall participation slowing alongside price momentum. Related Reading: European Commission Launches Crypto Rules Review As Euro Stablecoin Project Gains Support Nonetheless, Santiment suggested that ETH’s growing bearishness “may eventually become constructive from a contrarian perspective” as markets historically punish the crowd “when consensus becomes too one-sided.” The firm concluded that Ethereum is reaching a point where social media discussion has become overwhelmingly negative, which, from a behavioral standpoint, is “often what forms near major turning points.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Hyperliquid is increasingly evolving from a high-performance trading platform into a foundational layer of crypto’s financial infrastructure. What began as a decentralized perpetual futures exchange has expanded into a broader ecosystem that attracts traders, liquidity providers, builders, and capital at a growing scale. As activity across the platform increases, market participants view Hyperliquid as a core venue for a significant portion of on-chain financial activity. How Hyperliquid’s Evolution Extends Beyond A Trading Platform Hyperliquid is steadily evolving beyond a trading platform and into a full-scale financial supercenter of the crypto economy. According to the Delphi Digital post on X, the protocol is increasingly consolidating functions that traditional finance (Tradfi) typically separates among brokers, exchanges, and custodians into a single on-chain venue. Related Reading: Hyperliquid (HYPE) Could See Prices Reach $190 In Optimistic Market Capture Scenario At the core of this evolution is HIP-4, a feature that introduces outcome-based trading, allowing users to express views that perpetual futures cannot capture. A trader going long on Bitcoin in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) can be right about the number and still lose on the price reaction, and binary pay on the outcome. The direct fees generated by HIP-4 represent only a small share compared to the trade flow already accumulated in Hyperliquid. At the expected volumes, HIP-4 contributes roughly $25 million against Hyperliquid’s $636 million run rate. Delphi Digital argues that the capital that would typically rotate out for event views to other platforms now remains in Hyperliquid, reinforcing its liquidity. Circle’s USDC sitting in the venue is currently generating treasury yield, with  90% of it recycled back into HYPE buybacks. Additionally, HIP-4 has also changed what vaults can run, and on-chain vaults have been limited to two linear instruments that can be expressed.  However, outcome contracts introduce a powerful third instrument that pays directly on the event outcomes while netting against traditional directional position. With this added flexibility, vault creators can now build more sophisticated, event-driven strategies that hedge, and every trade that remains in the venue powers the flywheel. New All-Time High Reinforces Hyperliquid’s Market Leadership Hyperliquid is being viewed as a leading indicator for broader altcoin momentum. The CIO and founder of MNFund and MNCapital_vc, Michaël van de Poppe, noted that HYPE has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to move ahead of the rest of the market, often acting as an early signal that risk appetite is returning to digital assets. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Flips Solana By FDV As ‘Revenue Chains’ Race Heats Up In previous market cycles, strong momentum in HYPE has frequently been followed by broader strength across altcoins, making the asset a key indicator that many traders now monitor closely. However, with HYPE recently pushing toward a new all-time high in one of the strongest moves seen in the market for a long time, it shows there is an appetite for altcoins. Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has surged 55% in a single week and delivered more than 130% in year-to-date returns — but prominent crypto analyst Ali Martinez (@alicharts) is warning that the asset is now approaching a critical resistance zone with multiple technical indicators flashing sell signals simultaneously, a setup he says could trigger a retracement toward $40 if momentum fades at current levels. Related Reading: XRP Sees 4th-Largest Wallet Growth Spike Of 2026, Santiment Says In a post on X, Martinez laid out the technical case with precision. Three converging signals are appearing on HYPE at the same time: the TD Sequential Combo 13 sell signal is already active, a standard green 9 sell signal could confirm as early as the next session, and both the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and the Chande Momentum Oscillator are sitting at historically elevated — or overheated — levels, per the analyst’s analysis. HYPE's price trends to the upside following a surge in institutional adoption, as seen on the daily chart. Source: HYPEUSD on Tradingview  Why The Setup Concerns Martinez The significance of the current configuration lies in precedent. According to Martinez’s post, the last two occasions when TD Sequential sell signals appeared on HYPE while the RSI and Chande Momentum Oscillator were simultaneously at overheated levels, both instances led to significant corrections. The analyst is not pointing to isolated indicators — he is pointing to a specific combination of signals that has already proven consequential twice in HYPE’s relatively short price history. HYPE's price entering a dangerous area if the asset can't sustain its current bullish momentum, as seen on the TD Sequential Indicator. Source: Ali Martinez on X  The analyst does leave room for one final push before any reversal materializes. HYPE could still push toward $59 or even slightly above $60 before momentum fades, he notes — but frames that move as a potential exhaustion run rather than the beginning of a new leg higher. If rejection comes from the $59–$60 area, a retracement toward approximately $40 becomes increasingly likely, per his assessment. That would represent a pullback of roughly 33% from the upper resistance zone — meaningful, but consistent with the corrections that followed the previous two sell signal setups he references. ZCash Flashing A Similar Warning Martinez also flagged ZCash in the same post, noting a comparable technical structure after a 40%-plus weekly surge. ZCash is approaching the same resistance zone that triggered a major rejection in November — around the $700–$730 area — with the TD Sequential now flashing a sell signal on the weekly chart. Because the signal appears on the weekly timeframe, Martinez warns the potential correction could be substantially larger, with first downside support near $500 and a deeper retracement potentially reaching $380. The parallel between the two assets is notable given that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has publicly disclosed large positions in both HYPE and ZCash — with a $150 HYPE target and a $10,000 long-term ZCash target — making the current resistance zone a critical test of two of his highest-conviction calls simultaneously. Related Reading: New Bitcoin Lows? Analysts Say Chances Are ‘Extremely Slim’ As of this writing, HYPE trades at around $56, consolidating just below the critical $59–$60 resistance zone that Martinez has identified as the make-or-break level for the near-term price trajectory. Cover image from Perplexity, HYPEUSD Chart from Tradingview

Michael Saylor is calling $60,000 Bitcoin’s floor. The Strategy co-founder made the claim during a Thursday appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, saying the asset is now entering what he described as a “spring phase” — backed by solid support levels and a favorable broader market environment. Related Reading: Zcash Soars 88% In 30 Days: Is ZEC The Stealth Winner Of This Crypto Cycle? A Target Built On Bold Math Saylor’s confidence ties back to a specific projection he has held for some time: a 30% average annual return for Bitcoin. That number forms the backbone of his prediction that Bitcoin will hit $13 million by 2045, a figure he arrived at by modeling a 29% yearly return sustained over roughly 19 years. Among the forces he expects to drive that growth are institutional adoption, government-level treasury strategy, and Bitcoin’s fixed supply — factors he believes will pull capital away from gold and traditional financial markets. $MSTR Co-Founder @saylor explains why he thinks $BTC will outperform the S&P 500 over time:https://t.co/REOnScJVPZ — Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) May 21, 2026 The S&P 500, one of the most closely watched benchmarks in global finance, tracks 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the US. It has delivered an average annual return of around 10%, making it a reliable standby for investors who want steady, long-term growth. Saylor is betting Bitcoin can do triple that — a claim he repeated plainly on Squawk Box: “We expect 30%.” Numbers Tell A Complicated Story The current numbers don’t immediately support his case. As of the time of his interview, Bitcoin was down 12% for the year while the S&P 500 had gained 8%, according to Google Finance. Saylor has long maintained that short-term swings don’t define Bitcoin’s trajectory, and he reiterated that position Thursday, pointing instead to what he sees as a building wave of regulatory and institutional support. Among the specific developments he cited was the CLARITY Act, which cleared the US Senate Banking Committee last week with bipartisan support after months of delays. He also pointed to upcoming innovation exemption guidelines from the US Securities and Exchange Commission aimed at allowing securities tokenization on crypto networks, calling it a potentially major development for the industry. Related Reading: Analyst Warns XRP Could ‘Shake Out’ Traders Before Major Breakout Looking Ahead To A Bigger Market Share Saylor has made similar predictions before. Earlier this year, he said Bitcoin would double or triple the S&P 500’s returns over the next four to eight years. His longer-range view sees Bitcoin eventually overtaking gold in total market value by 2035, pulling in fresh capital that was previously locked in conventional assets. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Zcash (ZEC) has surged to its highest level since 2025, but the rally is now approaching a major technical barrier. While some analysts point to the first “constructive signs” in months, others warn of potential signs of exhaustion. Related Reading: European Commission Launches Crypto Rules Review As Euro Stablecoin Project Gains Support ZEC 110% Rally Faces Key Barrier Zcash has been among the crypto market leaders amid the recent volatility, rallying more than 21% over the past week and 110% over the past 30 days. Throughout May, the cryptocurrency has jumped from the $350 barrier to reclaim the $670 area, reaching a six-month high of $690 on Wednesday. Amid this performance, market observer Ali Martinez highlighted a multi-month horizontal channel that has been forming since October between the $192 and $698 level. After retesting the channel’s bottom in March, ZEC has jumped roughly 250% toward the upper zone of the channel, nearing a retest of the macro resistance. The analyst affirmed that the next step “is seeing whether buyers step in hard enough to force a breakout” from the crucial resistance zone. Nonetheless, he noted that Zcash may be showing signs of exhaustion as it approaches the “same resistance zone that triggered a major rejection back in November,” between $700 and $730. According to the post, ZEC’s TD Sequential is currently flashing a sell signal on the weekly chart while momentum indicators “are starting to look stretched again,” making it an important setup to watch. The 250% move from the bottom to the top of the channel was anticipated by a TD Sequential buy signal on the weekly chart, Martinez noted, asserting that the correction could be more significant since the sell signal has appeared in the weekly timeframe. He suggested that Zcash could see a 25% correction toward the $500 area as the initial target, adding that a 45% drop toward the $380 support may follow if a deeper retracement occurs. “So, while both HYPE and Zcash remain in strong uptrends, they are also entering zones where risk increases significantly,” he warned. Zcash Shows ‘Constructive Signs’ While the price holds the December highs as support in the weekly timeframe, analyst Rekt Capital pointed out that Zcash is “showing initial Bull Flag tendencies similar to what developed a few weeks prior, with positive pressure building at $528.951.” Market observer affirmed that the recent performance is “the first opportunity to see whether ZEC can hold these levels in a durable way,” adding that “so far the early signs are constructive.” Continuing to hold this area would go against the prior failed retest and suggest a real shift in market dynamics, with buyers willing to accumulate here. He explained that if Zcash continues to retest the $698 resistance and produces shallower rejections, it would signal that the $700 physiological barrier is weakening, which could, over time, open the path for price discovery. Related Reading: XRP ‘Under Heavy Resistance’ After Key $1.50 Rejection – Is A Drop To $1 Next? Nonetheless, he noted that price stability at current levels is crucial, and continued weekly closes above the $530 area would confirm the shift in market dynamics from last year’s attempt. On the monthly timeframe, Rekt Capital affirmed that a close above $514 is also critical, as it marks the three-month resistance zone that capped its breakout attempts between late 2025 and early 2026. “A Monthly Close above it, followed by a successful retest as new support, would be a compelling setup,” he concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

SUI may be one of the market’s more overlooked large-cap crypto setups, according to analyst Michaël van de Poppe, who argued that the network’s institutional, stablecoin and technical developments have been overshadowed by a steep drawdown in the token price. In a post on X, van de Poppe said market attention had focused heavily on SUI’s decline from $5.35 to roughly $0.90, while a broader infrastructure buildout continued in the background. His argument was not simply that SUI had become cheaper, but that the market may be underpricing the extent to which institutional rails, liquidity channels and protocol-level upgrades have continued to develop during the downturn. “SUI is one of the most under-discussed setups in crypto right now,” van de Poppe wrote. “While everyone was watching the price drop from $5.35 to ~$0.90, this is what was actually being built.” He pointed to a series of developments including the listing of a fifth spot crypto ETP in February 2026, CME futures going live, and three US staking ETFs from Grayscale, Canary Capital and 21Shares. Van de Poppe also cited Nasdaq-listed SUIG staking its full 108.7 million SUI treasury, the launch of USDsui through Stripe’s Bridge subsidiary, cumulative stablecoin transfers crossing $1 trillion in March, Hashi going live with native BTC collateral and more than 20 institutions committing on day one, and the Mysticeti consensus upgrade raising checkpoints per second from one to four. Related Reading: Sui Set To Integrate Native Private Transactions Into Core Protocol — What This Means For van de Poppe, those developments challenge the view that Sui risks fading into irrelevance after a major price correction. “This is not a narrative chain. This is rails being laid. That’s why arguing that the chain becomes a ghost chain doesn’t make sense at all,” he wrote. “Every chain has had the same impact since October 10th, which destroyed all the markets.” Analyst Points To Users, Transactions And Stablecoin Base Beyond the headline institutional developments, van de Poppe said he was more focused on three US staking ETFs than the token’s recent price action alone. He cited 232 million total users, 1.5 billion cumulative transactions, a roughly $500 million stablecoin baseline that held through the drawdown in total value locked, and network revenue that he said has been running consistently since launch. The TVL decline was a central part of his argument. According to van de Poppe, Sui’s TVL fell from $2 billion to $500 million, but the underlying asset also dropped by about 70% over the same period. He framed that as an important distinction for investors analyzing whether the ecosystem experienced heavy capital flight or whether much of the drawdown was mechanically tied to the token’s lower market price. “The overall TVL has dropped substantially, with a slight caveat,” he wrote. “The TVL dropped from $2 billion to $500M. In the same period, the underlying asset dropped by 70%.” Related Reading: SUI Surges 40%: Analytics Firm Explains What’s Driving The Rally His conclusion was that the decline should not be read too simplistically as an exodus from the ecosystem. “That means there wasn’t any money flowing out of the ecosystem; in fact, the underlying value just dropped,” van de Poppe said. “Additionally, the ecosystem’s reduced activity is simply due to the markets being destroyed as a whole, as confidence needs to be rebuilt.” SUI/BTC Chart Shows Bullish Divergence Van de Poppe also attached a SUI/BTC daily chart, arguing that the pair is showing signs of accumulation after a long decline. The chart marks a bullish divergence into the recent lows, followed by a sharp move higher and a subsequent pullback into what he described as a mean-reversion area. On the chart, the SUI/BTC pair is shown near 0.000136 BTC, with a highlighted accumulation zone below the current area and a potential resistance zone much higher, around the 0.000207 BTC region. The annotated setup suggests that van de Poppe is watching whether the recent pullback holds as a base after the breakout attempt. “The chart looks great for accumulation purposes. They announced many updates to the protocol last week as they keep shipping,” he wrote. “Technically, the bullish divergence on the Bitcoin pairs looks strong and valid, suggesting more upside for SUI.” He added that the move has already seen an initial breakout, followed by a pullback that he characterized as part of the setup rather than a negation of it. “Yes, they have already had a breakout, and this has come back down because it’s a mean-reversion play,” van de Poppe said. “However, this is the area where you’d want to look for accumulations on those protocols, and I personally think it is an attractive one to look at.” At press time, SUI traded at $1.0896. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Kraken sent 56 million tax forms to the Internal Revenue Service last year. Nearly a third covered transactions worth less than a dollar. More than 75% were for trades under $50. Those numbers, cited by the crypto exchange last month, have added weight to a growing call in Congress to rethink how small digital asset transactions are taxed in the United States. Related Reading: Crypto Access To Banks In Focus After Trump’s New Executive Order A Study, Not An Exemption A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday that takes a first formal step toward addressing that burden. Called the Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulation, Innovation, Taxation and Yields Act — or PARITY Act — the legislation does not create a tax break for small crypto transactions. What it does is direct the Treasury Department to examine whether one should exist, and to report back within 180 days on what relief it can offer under its current authority. Innovation should create opportunity for everyone, not just those already ahead. The Digital Asset PARITY Act modernizes the tax code for the digital age, creates clearer rules, and ensures emerging financial tools help expand financial inclusion and pathways to wealth. It is… pic.twitter.com/44B8mpEQLl — Rep. Steven Horsford (@RepHorsford) May 19, 2026 The bill also calls for a study on how much paperwork small crypto transactions generate for taxpayers, and on the total number of transactions under $200 that get reported to the IRS each year. The Treasury would also be asked to outline what resources the IRS would need if a de minimis exemption were eventually passed into law — and what kinds of fraud or abuse such an exemption might invite. Republican Representative Max Miller, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the US tax code has not kept pace with how fast digital assets have grown. “As America continues to lead the world in innovation, our tax code has failed to keep pace with the rapid growth of digital assets and modern financial technology,” Miller said in a statement. What Else The Bill Covers The PARITY Act carries over a section from an earlier draft that would treat regulated payment stablecoins like cash for tax purposes. Under that provision, no gains or losses would be recognized on stablecoin transactions unless the cost basis of those tokens falls below 99% of their redemption value. The bill also seeks to apply wash sale rules to crypto — a change that would close a loophole that stock investors are not allowed to use but crypto traders currently are. Related Reading: Zcash Soars 88% In 30 Days: Is ZEC The Stealth Winner Of This Crypto Cycle? Democratic Representatives Steven Horsford and Suzan DelBene joined Miller and Republican Rep. Mike Carey in introducing the bill. Horsford had previously released a discussion draft of the legislation back in March. A Race Against The Clock Miller told Bloomberg Tax he believes the bill can pass before this Congress wraps up. That deadline falls in January, after the November midterm elections in which every House seat will be contested. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Hyperliquid has overtaken Solana on a fully diluted valuation basis, according to Arkham, adding a new market marker to one of crypto’s most closely watched comparisons: the rise of application-heavy, revenue-generating chains. Arkham summarized the move directly on X, writing: “Hyperliquid has flipped Solana by FDV.” The accompanying Solana market page shows SOL trading around $86.51, with a fully diluted valuation of roughly $54.22 billion, a circulating market capitalization near $49.99 billion and 24-hour volume of about $2.74 billion. The same screen listed Solana’s current supply at 577.86 million SOL and max supply at 626.75 million SOL. On Arkham’s Hyperliquid page, HYPE was shown trading at $56.71, giving the network a fully diluted valuation of about $54.57 billion. That puts it slightly above the Solana FDV shown in Arkham’s Solana screenshot, at roughly $54.22 billion. The comparison is notable because Hyperliquid’s circulating market capitalization was much smaller, at about $13.28 billion, reflecting a current supply of 238.39 million HYPE against a max supply of 962.27 million. Arkham also showed 24-hour HYPE volume of roughly $1.20 billion, with the token trading near its listed all-time high of $59.30. Hyperliquid has flipped Solana by FDV. pic.twitter.com/rDF5FRg4TK — Arkham (@arkham) May 21, 2026 Hyperliquid And Solana Lead All ‘Revenue Chains’ The FDV flip comes as Hyperliquid has also been showing up at the top of crypto revenue rankings. In post on X, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley lists Hyperliquid with $790.55 million in total revenue, ahead of Solana at $532.34 million. TRON followed at $471.20 million, while Ethereum was shown at $425.56 million. Related Reading: Bitwise Bullish on Hyperliquid: HYPE Labeled ‘Undervalued’ As It Rallies 20% Horsley framed the comparison less as a zero-sum fight between HYPE and SOL and more as evidence of a broader category emerging inside crypto. “There’s a new class in crypto: the revenue chains,” Horsley wrote. “The leaders are Hyperliquid & Solana. Both do some overlapping things, and some different things. Both have exceptional communities, usage, use cases, etc.” That framing matters because the Hyperliquid-Solana comparison is not purely about market capitalization. It is also about where users, liquidity and trading activity are concentrating. Hyperliquid’s revenue profile has become central to the HYPE thesis, while Solana remains one of the largest high-throughput ecosystems in crypto, with broad activity across trading, DeFi, consumer applications and token issuance. Related Reading: Hyperliquid ETFs Send HYPE Closer To All-Time Highs—Here’s What The Data Shows Horsley argued that both networks are positioned around the same structural tailwind: capital markets moving onchain. “I think that both will rise together, just as iOS and Android both rode the structural adoption of mobile,” he wrote. “In the case of the revenue chains, they are riding the wave of capital markets coming onchain.” Solana Camp Downplays Rivalry Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko also pushed back against the idea that Hyperliquid’s rise should be treated as a threat to Solana’s roadmap. Responding to a post about Hyperliquid, Yakovenko wrote: “I am not worried about someone else succeeding. Whether hype succeeds or not isn’t going to change what I or the rest of the Solana ecosystem will be working on.” Yakovenko once again presented Solana-based Phoenix Trade as a better version of Hyperliquid: “Try Phoenix Trade my HL brother.” Meanwhile, Horsley highlighted the success of both. “If you are rooting for HYPE or SOL or both, success will be less about the competition between the two — healthy ofc — but rather the rise of onchain capital markets,” he wrote. “Root for capital markets coming onchain.” At press time, HYPE traded at $58.354. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

As market dynamics evolve and pressure builds to strengthen Europe’s position in the global crypto economy, the European Commission (EC) has launched a review of its landmark crypto framework to keep pace with the evolving digital asset landscape. Related Reading: XRP ‘Under Heavy Resistance’ After Key $1.50 Rejection – Is A Drop To $1 Next? EC Opens Review Of EU Crypto Rules On Wednesday, the European Commission launched a consultation on the functioning of the European Union’s (EU) regulatory framework on crypto assets, the Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCA). The regulator is seeking feedback from stakeholders and the public on whether the current framework remains fit for purpose, noting that the crypto markets and broader policy landscape have evolved since it took effect in 2024. According to the announcement, the Commission is evaluating whether updates to the framework are needed to reflect the developing landscape. Specifically, the consultation seeks input on MiCA’s core components, with a public consultation for individuals and a targeted consultation addressing more technical and legal issues. The targeted consultation is aimed at stakeholders, including crypto issuers and service providers, financial institutions, technology firms, academia, think tanks, industry associations, consumer groups, and EU public authorities. The consultation will remain open until August 31, with feedback informing the Commission’s future policy work on digital assets. This move comes as European industry groups push for MiCA reforms to boost the competitiveness of Euro-denominated stablecoins. Last month, Blockchain for Europe, an organization that represents international Blockchain industry players in the European Union (EU), argued that the MiCA framework made euro-pegged stablecoins safe, but less competitive than their US-denominated counterparts. As a result, the group proposed various reforms to the EU’s crypto legislation to improve the regulated stablecoin market and maximize its positive impact on the European digital assets industry. European Banks Back Euro Stablecoin Push While crypto executives and lawmakers express concerns about the dollar’s dominance in the crypto market, nearly 40 European banks have rallied behind Qivalis, a key project to boost euro-pegged stablecoins. The Qivalis consortium was launched in Amsterdam in 2025, seeking to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin with a critical mass of lenders to make transactions more efficient, boost adoption, and increase the competitiveness of Europe’s digital assets market. As reported by the Financial Times (FT), the Qivalis consortium, which launched in Amsterdam in 2025, has secured the support of another 25 lenders, increasing the total number of banks behind the project to 37. European bankers have become increasingly concerned about dollar dominance in the crypto market, the report noted, with many exploring stablecoins for faster, cheaper settlements, collateral management, and payments. Therefore, some of Europe’s biggest banks are backing the project, including BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit. Related Reading: Bitcoin Rally On The Line: Analyst Explains Why This Weekly Close Is Critical Jan-Oliver Sell, chief executive of Qivalis, told the FT that “the European sovereignty angle” was critical in the current geopolitical climate, which makes it “attractive for people to think about an alternative to the US dollar”. Sell also revealed that he was in discussions with several non-European banks operating in countries that receive significant remittances from Europe about joining the consortium, adding that euro-pegged stablecoins would be used for activities such as cross-border payments and immediate settlement. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain said the firm’s recent investment in Zcash was driven by a convergence of stronger market traction, improving infrastructure and a broader return to crypto’s privacy roots. Speaking on the latest Bankless podcast released May 19, Jain argued that Zcash has moved from a “left for dead” asset into a credible private store-of-value contender. Jain said Multicoin had watched Zcash for years without being convinced. The asset, in his view, had long suffered from weak attention, poor usability and limited evidence that privacy demand could translate into durable market interest. That changed after Zcash rallied sharply, corrected, and still retained both community intensity and a higher market baseline than in prior years. Multicoin’s Zcash Thesis “When I see something like that, I always pause and wonder, is this some manufactured thing? Is it sustainable? Is there a real groundswell of support here?” Jain said. “And when you see the price do what it did last year and then what we saw was it pulled back very significantly. As I saw it pull back, what I saw was one, the people who were talking about it were still excited about it. Two, the place where it pulled back on the chart actually demonstrated much better attention and strength than where the thing was trading for years and years before that.” That, Jain said, helped get Multicoin “over the line.” The firm interpreted the correction not as a failed narrative, but as a stress test. Zcash, he argued, retained the “key people” supporting it and showed that interest in the asset was not merely a short-lived speculative burst. Related Reading: Zcash, Bitcoin, And Solana—Catalysts Ahead That Could Fuel Another Upswing Before May End The discussion, which also featured Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz, framed Zcash as a possible answer to what both guests described as crypto’s unfinished privacy problem. Mumtaz, who said he began looking more seriously at Zcash in early 2024 after reviewing its scaling plans, argued that privacy had become “the major thing that crypto has forgotten,” particularly as institutional adoption pushes more financial activity onto transparent rails. Jain’s core investment thesis is not that Zcash becomes a high-throughput payments network. He described the asset’s real market as the store-of-value sector, where social coordination, brand and perceived monetary properties matter as much as raw technical capacity. In that context, he argued, Zcash is beginning to form a Schelling point around private wealth storage. “The market that Zcash is competing for is the store of value market,” Jain said. “Like that’s the job that it does is it’s for storing value and it is far more scalable than Bitcoin and so enables more transactions and such. But the core value prop is store of value.” Jain compared that dynamic to Bitcoin’s early reflexivity: more people treating an asset as a store of value makes it a stronger candidate for that role. He said Zcash now has the potential to benefit from a similar feedback loop, particularly if it remains the leading privacy asset by market cap, volume, attention and other relevant metrics. Related Reading: Arthur Hayes Says Zcash Is His Largest Crypto Position Outside Bitcoin The guests also contrasted Zcash with Monero. Mumtaz argued that Monero’s ring-signature design relies on decoys, while Zcash’s shielded model offers a stronger cryptographic foundation. Jain emphasized a separate but related point: brand. In his telling, Zcash is positioned less as a tool for illicit use and more as “privacy for the normal person.” “Zcash is not for that,” Jain said, referring to Monero’s darker market associations. “Zcash is for the regular person who says, no, I care about my privacy, not because I’m doing anything illegal or I have anything to hide, but because I don’t need to reveal all of my financial transaction history to every single person with whom I interact.” That positioning, he argued, could make Zcash more legible to institutions and a broader group of users. The asset’s transparent mode may allow institutional exposure, while improved wallet infrastructure and decentralized access routes could push more activity into the shielded pool over time. The podcast also addressed the bear case directly: investors have repeatedly overestimated demand for privacy, and prior privacy narratives have often ended poorly. Jain acknowledged that Zcash had previously been “hugely inflationary,” difficult to use, weakly marketed and dependent on centralized exchanges for acquisition. But he said the last 18 months changed the setup, citing better wallet infrastructure, more attention, and a macro backdrop that has made private stores of value more salient. Mumtaz added that upcoming catalysts could matter for adoption, including Ledger support for shielded ZEC, a rising shielded pool share of roughly 31% to 32%, planned block-time reductions from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, and further work on quantum resistance. At press time, ZEC traded at $584.82. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

The ZEC technical structure continues to strengthen after breaking above a key macro resistance level that had capped price action for an extended period. Following a successful breakout above a long-standing descending trendline, the asset has continued to hold above key levels that previously served as strong resistance throughout the broader downtrend. The move signals a potential shift in momentum as bullish pressure gradually returns to the chart. How Zcash Momentum Continues Building After Technical Breakout Zcash is showing signs of renewed technical strength after completing a significant compound breakout above both a long-standing descending trendline and the critical $540 macro resistance zone. Technical analyst Ardi mentioned on X that the asset has also closed above the previous lower high near $560 for the first time since the broader shift in market structure. Related Reading: Here’s Why The ZCash (ZEC) Price Rallied Above $500 Again This level now becomes a critical pivot, whether ZEC can hold its reclaimed level as support and build momentum toward the next major resistance region between $590 and $600. However, if ZEC fails to maintain this structure, it would quickly shift price back toward the $540 level as the next key support zone. Ardi highlighted that the cleanest risk setup and reward remain at the extremes, which is either a confirmed breakout above $640 highs or a retest into $540 support with a clear invalidation below. The current range of ZEC is likely to remain choppy, with price action lacking clear direction between key levels. Ardi advises that with further consolidation still possible before a decisive breakout, the more strategic approach is to avoid chasing price in the middle of the range. Instead, the better trade structure is to position longs at support. Will Zcash Rally Gains Strength Following Clean Breakout Confirmation Zcash has continued to strengthen technically after successfully confirming a breakout from a well-defined daily bull flag continuation pattern, signaling a sustained upside bullish continuation momentum following weeks of consolidation. Related Reading: Zcash (ZEC) Approaches Critical Breakout Zone With Bulls Targeting Higher Levels After Recent Surge According to a post on X from an analyst known as Team LAMBO, the setup move inside the premium from the $510 breakout zone toward $560 has already delivered nearly 20% expansion from the previously identified local bottom, reinforcing growing optimism around the ZEC higher timeframe structure. Despite this move, the broader structure still appears incomplete. As long as the price holds above the breakout region, the bullish bias will remain intact, with momentum favoring further upside. From a higher timeframe (HTF) perspective, the next key expansion targets are positioned around $625, followed by the $680 resistance zone, where a significant pool of liquidity is expected to be situated. Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has suggested that Zcash (ZEC) could eventually reach 10% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization, a long-term bullish thesis on privacy coins rather than a near-term price forecast. Based on ZEC’s circulating supply of around 16 million tokens, that scenario would imply a price in the high four-figure range, roughly $8,000–$10,000, depending on Bitcoin’s valuation. A Chart Pattern Worth Watching On the technical side, traders point to a possible cup-and-handle pattern, but this is a subjective chart formation with no guarantee of outcome. Resistance is often cited around $625–$650, with some speculative projections suggesting a move toward $1,000, though this depends heavily on broader market conditions and is not a confirmed target. The target also lines up with ZEC’s 1.618 Fibonacci extension, drawn from a $745 swing high down to a $185 swing low. Privacy Coins Pull Ahead ZEC is not moving alone. Monero and Dash, both privacy-focused tokens, have also posted gains over the past month. But Zcash leads the pack. Reports indicate the coin climbed more than 80% in 30 days while the total crypto market cap barely moved — up just 0.2% over the same stretch. $ZEC update This thing is running its own bull market rn… gg I closed my short. Especially with $BTC sitting on support around $76k Even a small pump in Bitcoin makes ZEC go absolutely stupid right now https://t.co/xLs6ficv7l pic.twitter.com/obAhbnXqfp — SnorlaX お金 (@SnorlaxOnChain) May 18, 2026 In the past three days alone, ZEC added 18% as the broader market slipped 3%. That split has prompted some traders to say Zcash is running its own bull market. Growing demand for financial privacy appears to be the main force behind the move, pulling fresh interest into a coin that had been largely overlooked for years. Related Reading: XRP Will Go ‘Higher, Much Higher,’ Analyst Says, Betting On Explosive Breakout Institutional Interest Adds Fuel Earlier in May, hedge fund Multicoin Capital disclosed it holds a position in ZEC. Around the same time, Robinhood added the token to its platform, opening it up to a wider pool of retail investors. Both developments landed at a time when the privacy narrative was already building. Hayes’s comment added another layer. His estimate was speculative — based on a market cap comparison to Bitcoin — but it drew attention and, according to data, ZEC’s value in Bitcoin terms has risen about 20.5% since he made the remark. Whether the cup-and-handle plays out or not, the coin has already proven it can move on its own terms. Featured image from Quicknode, chart from TradingView

While XRP attempts to hold a crucial area, some analysts have pointed to key indicators that could dictate whether the recent pullback is temporary or marks the start of a deeper correction. Related Reading: Bitcoin Rally On The Line: Analyst Explains Why This Weekly Close Is Critical XRP Rally Faces Critical Resistance On Tuesday, XRP continued its recent decline, falling to the $1.35 area, its lowest level since late April. The cryptocurrency has been trading between $1.36 and $1.50 over the past month, attempting to break out of the upper boundary on multiple occasions. Last Thursday, the altcoin rallied above this key resistance on the CLARITY Act progress, reaching a two-month high of $1.54. However, the price was quickly rejected from this level, tracing roughly 12% over the past five days. As the altcoin retested the $1.35 area, market observer ChartNerd stated that XRP risks another price correction toward new lows, affirming that “the data speaks for itself.” The analyst highlighted some concerning signals for the altcoin’s rally, including a major resistance area above and the confirmation of a death cross in the weekly Stoch RSI. He pointed out that the weekly 20 and 50 EMAs, sitting at $1.50 and $1.80, are two crucial resistance levels that had not been retested since their January 2026 crossover, which led to XRP’s drop to its February low of $1.11. He also noted that the weekly Stoch RSI crossover has previously marked a local top for XRP, with the last two crosses producing deeper corrections and the latest one coinciding with the relief rally that led to the weekly EMA death cross four months ago. After the recent rally to $1.54, the price has now retested the weekly 20 EMA for the first time since the January crossover. A failure to successfully break above this level and turn it into sustained support “will likely open the next leg down later this year,” the analyst said. ‘Next Big Move’ Targets $1? ChartNerd emphasized XRP must reclaim both EMAs and turn them into support to invalidate the bearish scenario, but added that “it just doesn’t feel like the right time yet.” Even if the altcoin breaks toward $1.80, the analyst considers that the price will likely fail to hold it long-term and “at least come back to, at a minimum, fill in most of this wick back down towards the lower dollar levels.” He has explained that a rejection from these EMAs could potentially send the altcoin toward a cycle bottom of $0.70, as it is a previous level of macro resistance that hasn’t been retested yet. Meanwhile, analyst Ali Martinez affirmed that XRP is ready for a big price move. He highlighted that the altcoin has been developing the “tightest Bollinger Band squeeze” on the three-day chart in over a year, calling the current compression zone a “definitive ‘no-trade zone.’” Related Reading: Solana Fails Channel Breakout—$78 Support The Next Destination? He noted that when volatility compresses this tightly, “it’s a signal that a violent price expansion is approaching.” Therefore, the market observer advised investors to wait for a clean three-day candlestick close out of XRP’s current range, between $1.29 and $1.50, to confirm the next major trend direction. A close above the upper boundary would signal an expansion toward the $1.80 is likely. On the contrary, a breakdown from the lower boundary would invalidate the immediate bullish structure and open the door for a deeper correction toward the $1.00 psychological support. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

As the race to tokenize real-world assets (RWAs) accelerates, ONDO is quietly positioning itself as one of the most influential players in the growing sector. While the market shifts toward real-world asset tokenization, ONDO has continued to expand its footprint in tokenized finance by building products that bridge traditional financial markets with blockchain infrastructure.  Why ONDO Is Emerging As A Leader In The Real-World Asset Sector ONDO Finance is quietly emerging as one of the most influential players in the rapidly expanding tokenized finance sector. A KOL manager and advisor, known as BitBull on X, has revealed that tokenized US Treasury products have now grown into a $13.7 billion market capitalization, with Ondo already ranking among the largest issuers in the space. Related Reading: ONDO Proves the Protocol Wins, Token Holders Lose – The BMIC Crypto Presale Flips That Model With Real Utility At the same time, tokenized stocks are gaining momentum, surpassing $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) as assets such as NCDAon, IBITon, MUon, and IVVon attract growing investor demand through Ondo Global markets. Meanwhile, the broader shift happening behind the scenes is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Users can now access the US stocks, ETFs, and treasury products directly on-chain, without relying on traditional brokerage infrastructure. While Ethereum continues to dominate the tokenized asset landscape, Ondo has rapidly positioned itself as one of the major platforms accelerating real-world asset adoption across crypto markets. BitBull noted that this signals a transition beyond stablecoins, with capital markets slowly migrating onto on-chain, and Ondo aiming to sit at the center of that transformation. Tokenized Stocks Could Become Ondo’s Biggest Opportunity ONDO is increasingly being viewed as one of the most undervalued opportunities in the tokenized finance sector. According to Not Telling on X, the project originally positioned the ONDO token strictly as a governance asset to avoid potential regulatory issues tied to securities laws, particularly around sharing protocol-generated revenue with token holders. Related Reading: Ondo Secures SEC-Registered Infrastructure With Oasis Pro Acquisition However, with the introduction of a clearer regulatory framework, such as the CLARITY Act, the landscape may be shifting. The new guidance suggests that distributing protocol revenue to token holders may no longer automatically be classified as a security asset. At the same time, the evolving stance of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) toward tokenized assets is reinforcing Ondo’s position as the best. The platform is already a dominant player in tokenized stocks, reportedly controlling a significant 60% shares of the market. If Ondo moves forward with the revenue-sharing protocol with token holders, the combination of real yield and strong positioning in tokenized real-world assets could significantly reprice the token. In that scenario, ONDO’s trajectory toward becoming a top-tier crypto asset, potentially breaking into the top 10 or even top 5, would come into focus. Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com

ONDO jumped roughly 16% after reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing a framework that could allow tokenized versions of stocks to trade on crypto rails, potentially giving one of the real-world asset sector’s most visible names a fresh regulatory tailwind. ONDO traded near $0.390, up 15.5% over 24 hours, with about $228 million in daily volume and a market capitalization near $1.9 billion. The move followed a Bloomberg report, that the SEC could release an “innovation exemption” for tokenized stocks as soon as this week. The framework would reportedly create a path for digital versions of securities to trade outside traditional exchange venues and on decentralized crypto platforms, including tokens that may not have the consent or backing of the public companies whose shares they track. Why Is ONDO Profiting The Most From The News? For crypto markets, the report landed directly on one of the year’s strongest narratives: tokenized public equities. The Kobeissi Letter described the potential exemption via X as a “surprise move,” saying it could “reshape the landscape of the American stock market” and represent “one of the US’ biggest shifts into crypto infrastructure yet.” Related Reading: Warren Zeroes In On Crypto Deal Structure As $75M Loan Draws Attention The market reaction centered on projects already positioned around on-chain securities. ONDO led gains among major RWA-linked tokens, while traders also pointed to Hyperliquid as a potential beneficiary because of its role in on-chain derivatives. One account, The DeFi Investor, framed the report as “great news” for both HYPE and ONDO, arguing that it “legitimizes Ondo as the largest tokenized stocks issuer,” while Hyperliquid will be “one of the biggest beneficiaries as the largest DEX for RWA perps.” Ondo’s own data points have given traders a concrete reason to connect the SEC report to the token. Ondo Global Markets recently crossed $1 billion in total value locked less than eight months after its September 2025 launch. The platform holds more than 70% of the tokenized equity issuer market and has processed more than $18 billion in cumulative trading volume. It currently offers more than 260 tokenized US stocks and ETFs across Solana, Ethereum and BNB Chain. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Extend Six-Week Streak With $858M Inflows On CLARITY Act Progress Katie Wheeler, Managing Director of Global Partnerships at Ondo Finance, said in a recent interview that the platform’s growth could accelerate further. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpassed $5 billion by the end of the year. I know that seems a little advantageous, but we have a lot of interest and we’re really building up quite a pipeline.” Wheeler’s broader argument is that tokenized equities remain early relative to the size of public markets. “We are literally just scratching the surface. This is a very large industry. So even if we did 1%, I think that would be tremendous,” she said. Tokenized stocks are just getting started. Following Ondo tokenized stocks crossing $1B in TVL, Ondo’s @KatieAWheeler gave @TheStreet her year-end forecast: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpassed $5 billion by year-end. We have a lot of interest, and we’re building up quite a… pic.twitter.com/sFIoiXqi8G — Ondo Finance (@OndoFinance) May 18, 2026 Still, the reported SEC approach raises a core regulatory question: whether stock-linked tokens can scale without undermining shareholder protections. Bloomberg reported that the tokens may not provide traditional rights such as voting power or dividends, while the source material indicates platforms could lose eligibility if listed products fail to provide rights such as voting or dividends. At press time, ONDO traded at $0.3871. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

While the rest of the crypto market has shown more signs of an intensifying bear market, Zcash (ZEC) is making major waves. Over the last 30 days, the privacy-focused coin has surged by around 60%, while Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) have remained relatively quiet, each slipping by single digits in the same timeframe. Nevertheless, Alex Cardichi, market expert from The Motley Fool, argues that Bitcoin, Solana and Zcash have several potential catalysts remaining this month that could trigger a fresh rebound rally. Bitcoin Could Aim For $100K, Solana Prepares Alpenglow In his latest report, Cardichi starts by discussing Bitcoin, citing the United States’ holdings of around 328,000 seized coins. He refers to comments made by White House advisor Patrick Witt on 6 May, when Witt revealed that a significant update on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is anticipated ‘in the next few weeks’. Cardichi argues that a positive announcement, especially one that provides clearer details on the status of the reserve, could push Bitcoin back towards six-figure levels. Currently, the market’s leading cryptocurrency has fallen from $82,000 last week to $76,300.  Related Reading: Zcash (ZEC) Rockets 1,200%—Expert Says ZEC Could Soon Outgrow Cardano (ADA) Solana is the second focus. Cardichi calls out a major technical development: the chain’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade. If everything goes to plan, the upgrade could roll out as soon as the third quarter of this year.  From Cardichi’s perspective, the upgrade’s improvements aren’t only about performance for its own sake. He suggests that if Alpenglow delivers the results Solana developers expect, it could become a practical incentive for financial institutions looking to transition parts of their workflows onto blockchains. In that context, he points to this year’s third quarter as a possible turning point for Solana and its native token, particularly if testing supports the Alpenglow upgrade’s promised impact. For now, SOL is trading at $84, down 11% over the past seven days.  Zcash After The ECC Exit Finally, Cardichi turns to Zcash, one of the best-performing tokens in the market,  noting that in January, the entire engineering team behind Zcash’s original developer—Electric Coin Company (ECC)—resigned amid an internal governance dispute.  Despite that upheaval, Zcash has since surged, rising about 127% over the last three months. Instead of proving fatal, Cardichi argues the disruption became the start of a new phase.  Related Reading: XRP ‘Trade Of A Lifetime’ Is Setting Up, Says Crypto Analyst After the engineering team exited, they formed a new organization called Zodl and raised $25 million from firms including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Winklevoss Capital in early March.  Cardichi says the funds are intended to recruit new talent and build out Zcash’s development roadmap, and he expects further updates to emerge soon as that work progresses. At the time of writing, Zcash was trading at around $533, having risen by almost 1,200% year-to-date. However, Cardichi suggests that a rally to the coin’s prior all-time high of $880 could be sparked by any catalyst arising from the new dev roadmap. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Hyperliquid’s lead in onchain perpetuals drew a fresh challenge from the Solana ecosystem after Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, known as Toly, argued that Solana needs its own atomically composable perp DEX inside the SVM. The debate comes as Hyperliquid is already trying to define its regulatory path in Washington during the advancement of the CLARITY Act. The exchange began with Hyperliquid co-founder Jeffrey Yan saying he had spent several days in Washington with the Hyperliquid Policy Center, meeting policymakers as the CLARITY Act advanced. According to him, the discussions focused on Hyperliquid, its potential benefits for American consumers, and the regulatory path for bringing onchain derivatives markets into the US framework. That policy push quickly collided with a separate market-structure debate on X, where Toly publicly encouraged users who enjoy Hyperliquid to try a new Solana-based perp DEX. The comment drew pushback from users, who questioned whether the industry needs another perpetuals venue rather than further innovation. Related Reading: HYPE Falls 6% As CME, ICE Target Hyperliquid Over Oil Risks Rune framed the issue directly: “I admire the Solana guys for pushing their apps publicly, genuine respect for the hustle, but maybe the energy should go towards innovation instead of replication.” He added that the central question was what a Solana-native perp DEX could do better than Hyperliquid, beyond competing on fees or copying the same product category. Hyperliquid Vs. Solana Toly’s answer was composability. He argued that the comparison is not fundamentally different from asking why Hyperliquid was needed when Binance, Coinbase or CME already existed. “It’s like asking what can Hyperliquid do that Binance or Coinbase or CME can’t?” Toly wrote. “Solana’s SVM needs an atomically composable perp DEX in its runtime so innovation can flourish. Apps built inside the SVM can’t use HL because you have to bridge there.” The disagreement cuts to the core of how different ecosystems view derivatives infrastructure. Hyperliquid has built its case around a vertically integrated, onchain exchange experience that appeals to traders seeking self-custody, speed, and a non-CEX interface. Rune acknowledged that Hyperliquid had answered its own “why exist” question through “self-custody, no KYC, community-owned,” but pressed whether composability alone is enough for a Solana-native rival to win. Toly did not argue that success is guaranteed. Instead, he framed the market as large enough to justify aggressive experimentation from Solana teams, especially if the base layer can support products that compete with centralized venues. Related Reading: Hyperliquid (HYPE) To $100? Expert Forecasts Major Rise Before Summer 2027 “The 10B OI is the opportunity,” he wrote, referring to open interest. “It’s a small fraction of what Binance, CME, Coinbase, NYSE have. Why wouldn’t I want Solana to compete for the chunk of the global market?” He added that Binance and other incumbents are unlikely to leave that market uncontested, and that Hyperliquid’s own growth has already validated demand for a DEX-style trading interface. “HL proved that people will trade with a DEX interface instead of a Binance/CME style one,” Toly said, while pointing to Solana ecosystem teams and hackathon winners as examples of broader experimentation. The debate also drew attention from market participants outside the Solana-Hyperliquid rivalry. Moonrock Capital founder Simon Dedic said he was “neither a Hyperliquid nor a Solana maxi” and did not care much about trading, but argued that Toly’s interest itself was notable. “When Toly, one of the most brilliant, successful and relentless founders in the industry, gets excited about a new product like this, you better pay attention I guess,” he wrote. At press time, HYPE traded at $45.968. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Nearly 20% of the world’s oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran now wants a cut of it — not by force, but through Bitcoin. Related Reading: XRP Will Go ‘Higher, Much Higher,’ Analyst Says, Betting On Explosive Breakout A Platform Built Around Geography Iran’s Ministry of Economy launched Hormuz Safe on May 16, 2026, a maritime insurance platform that lets cargo operators pay with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies instead of going through traditional banks. Once a payment clears on-chain, the cargo gets immediate insurance coverage along with a digitally signed receipt. The target market is ships passing through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz — one of the most heavily trafficked shipping corridors in the world. Iranian media have reported that the platform could eventually bring in more than $10 billion a year. No official figures have been released to back that number up. Sidestepping The Dollar For years, Western sanctions have blocked Iran from the global banking system, cutting it off from tools like SWIFT and dollar-based transactions. Hormuz Safe fits into a broader pattern of Iran looking to crypto as a workaround. Reports indicate the country has been exploring Bitcoin, stablecoins, and blockchain systems as ways to keep trade moving despite those restrictions. The idea behind the platform is straightforward. Instead of threatening to shut down a critical shipping lane during periods of tension, Iran appears to be trying to profit from the traffic that already flows through it. Early Stage, Big Questions Despite the attention the launch has drawn, Hormuz Safe is still very much a work in progress. Reports say the platform has little more than a basic landing page online, and key legal and technical details remain unanswered. The biggest obstacle for potential customers is sanctions exposure. US regulators have a track record of going after companies that do business with Iranian state-linked entities. Related Reading: Warren Zeroes In On Crypto Deal Structure As $75M Loan Draws Attention Any shipping operator that signs up could face secondary sanctions or compliance problems back home. On top of that, insurance certificates issued through an Iranian crypto platform may not be recognized by ports and regulators in other countries. Hormuz Safe remains an early-stage initiative that has generated more attention than actual business activity. Still, it reflects a growing trend: crypto is increasingly becoming a tool not just for traders and investors, but also for countries seeking alternatives to financial systems that have long been used against them. Featured image from Reuters, chart from TradingView

After springing back to life on the back of positive CLARITY Act development, the price of Bitcoin has been relatively quiet over the past few days. The premier cryptocurrency, which had been dancing around $82,000, is now barely above $78,000. According to a crypto trader on the social media platform X, the latest decline in Bitcoin’s price might not be what it seems and could be a fakeout. Divergence Between BTC Price, Open Interest Suggests Imminent Reversal Pseudonymous crypto pundit Cryptic Trades took to the X platform to share an interesting take on Bitcoin’s recent price decline. The market analyst posited that a combination of on-chain signals points to the formation of a trap for BTC short-position traders. Firstly, Cryptic Trades highlighted a divergence between Bitcoin’s price and the Open Interest metric, which measures the total number of outstanding derivative contracts for a cryptocurrency. While BTC’s price fell towards $78,000, the Open Interest metric has been on an upward trend. Related Reading: Is Zcash The Next Bitcoin? Investors Rush Into The Privacy Coin Narrative Typically, when price and Open Interest move in opposite directions, it means that a trend reversal (a return of bullish momentum, in this case) might be imminent. The trader also noted that the Funding Rates have been negative, which correlates with the ongoing divergence between Bitcoin’s price and Open Interest. The Funding Rates, which measure the periodic fee paid by short traders to long traders, or vice versa, are usually negative when bears are in control of the market (and are the ones making the payment). Cryptic Trades noted that negative Funding Rates suggest the bears are “doubling down” on their positions and continuously betting against the flagship cryptocurrency. “It also shows that even though the market structure remains intact, bears are shorting as if a breakdown already happened,” the crypto trader explained. According to Cryptic Trades, the confluence of these signals is how bear traps are formed, and that could be the current situation for Bitcoin. A bear trap is a deceptive price pattern that typically involves a drop in an asset’s value (often beneath a support level), tricking market participants into believing that a new downtrend has begun. It’s also important to note that extremely negative Funding Rates have often preceded a phenomenon known as a “short squeeze,” in which an asset’s price is driven higher by the forced closure of short positions. Hence, investors might want to exercise caution when entering any position at this juncture. Bitcoin Price At A Glance  As of this writing, the price of BTC is around $78,130, reflecting an over 1% decline in the past 24 hours. Related Reading: Why Bitcoin Price Could Be Forming A Consolidation Structure Around $80,000 Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token retreated roughly 6% on Friday after Bloomberg reported that CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange are pressing US officials to scrutinize the decentralized exchange’s role in offshore oil-linked trading. The move puts one of crypto’s fastest-growing derivatives venues in direct tension with two of the most powerful incumbents in global commodities markets. HYPE traded near $43.81 after reaching an intraday high of $46.93, implying a drop of about 6.7% from the session peak. The token’s 24-hour range ran from $42.75 to $47.00. CME And ICE Take Aim At Hyperliquid’s Oil Market According to the Bloomberg report, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and CME Group Inc. are urging the US to rein in Hyperliquid, which they described as a fast-growing, unregulated crypto platform that “could skew global oil prices” and be used for “price manipulation.” Related Reading: Hyperliquid (HYPE) To $100? Expert Forecasts Major Rise Before Summer 2027 Bloomberg reported that the exchanges have raised their concerns with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Capitol Hill officials. The core issue is Hyperliquid’s anonymous trading environment, which the exchanges argue could create openings for insiders to move prices or for state actors to evade sanctions. That argument lands at a sensitive point for both crypto market structure and commodity-market oversight. Hyperliquid has moved beyond crypto-native perpetuals into products tied to real-world assets, including oil. For legacy exchanges, the concern is not only that a new venue is capturing speculative flow. It is that a round-the-clock, offshore, crypto-native market could begin influencing price discovery in assets that feed directly into global inflation, energy costs and geopolitical risk. Oil Perps Became A Stress Test For 24/7 Markets Hyperliquid’s oil market had already drawn attention earlier this year. In March, an oil-linked perpetual contract tracking West Texas Intermediate crude generated more than $1.2 billion in 24-hour volume on Hyperliquid, briefly becoming the platform’s second-most traded market behind crypto assets. That surge came as traditional oil futures jumped more than 30% to nearly $120 a barrel during escalating Middle East tensions. Related Reading: 21Shares Is Launching A Hyperliquid ETF: Here Is What Investors Need To Know The episode showed why Hyperliquid has become a serious venue for risk-taking. Traditional commodity futures still operate within defined market hours, while crypto derivatives trade continuously. During weekends or geopolitical shocks, that difference can turn a crypto venue into one of the few live markets expressing fast-moving views on oil, gold or other macro-sensitive assets. For crypto traders, that is the product-market fit: always-on access, leverage and immediate reaction to global events. For CME and ICE, it is the risk case. If liquidity, leverage and anonymity concentrate around synthetic oil exposure outside the traditional regulatory perimeter, the line between offshore speculation and real-world commodity price formation becomes harder to police. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

After being rejected from the $1.55 barrier on Thursday, XRP dropped nearly 8%, continuing its consolidation below this crucial resistance. Amid this performance, a market watcher highlighted a multi-year pattern that could push the price toward new highs. Related Reading: Ethereum TD Sequential Flashes Sell Signal – Is A New 50% Corrective Phase Starting? XRP Multi-Year Pattern Takes Shape On Friday, market observer ChartNerd shared a long-term perspective on the XRP price, based on a multi-year formation with “significant macro future upside potential waiting ahead.” In an X post, the analyst highlighted a Cup and Handle pattern, which has been forming since 2018. The chart below shows that the pattern completed the cup during its mid-2025 rally and has been forming the handle since the altcoin reached its latest all-time high (ATH). Based on this, he suggested that XRP “may seek a Gaussian Channel retest to mark a periodic bottom,” as the indicator has been a strong confluence area over the past nine years. Notably, the cryptocurrency has seen three similar retests within the cup, and also marked the cycle low in 2017. Now, the $0.70-$0.90 area may also mark the handle’s bottom, where the 0.50 FIB level awaits in the same territory as support. The market watcher has previously explained that a rejection from the $1.60-$1.80 area is likely and will potentially send XPP toward a cycle bottom of $0.70 later in the year, as it marks a prior level of macro resistance that hasn’t been retested yet. Nonetheless, he affirmed that, regardless of where the macro low is marked, “future FIB extensions await above targeting $8,” with two potential double-digit targets sitting around the $13 and $27 marks. 2,000% Expansion Ahead? ChartNerd also noted that the potential handle bottom of the Cup and Handle formation aligns with a key multi-year retest inside a fractal. For context, XRP appears to be repeating a setup that led to its massive 68,000% expansion during the 2017-2018 rally. Ahead of its 2027 breakout, the cryptocurrency retested its multi-year ascending support three times, experiencing significant advances followed by strong corrections inside descending channels. Since 2020, the altcoin has been developing the same pre-breakout setup, when XRP reached its bear market bottom and created an ascending support level that has held for roughly six years. Related Reading: DEF Warns ‘Anti‑DeFi’ Amendments To CLARITY Act Could Threaten Users, Developer Protections After two retests of the crucial support, the cryptocurrency appears to be developing the same descending channel, which could lead to a third retest of the ascending trendline, and an eventual 2,000% multi-month rally toward a new double-digit high. “If XRP respects this pattern into late 2026, this is where we could potentially create the third retest, which is what we saw in the early cycles before the expansion in 2017,” the analyst previously stated. As of this writing, XRP trades at $1.43, a 6% decline on the daily timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

As the market reacts to the latest crypto legislation, Ethereum (ETH) is flashing warning signs after a fresh technical sell signal emerged for the first time in months and a spike in on‑chain realized profits. Related Reading: DEF Warns ‘Anti‑DeFi’ Amendments To CLARITY Act Could Threaten Users, Developer Protections Ethereum Risks New Leg Down After Key Sell Signal On Thursday, Ethereum jumped 3.5 % intraday before hitting its three-day $2,320 resistance area. The move follows the advancement of the crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, to a full Senate vote after a 15-9 bipartisan vote during the Senate Banking Committee’s long-awaited markup session. The King of altcoins has been moving sideways between $2,200 and $2,400 over the past month, which some have called a “no-trade zone.” While many analysts suggest that a breakout above the upper boundary is coming, analyst Ali Martinez has warned that Ethereum may be close to a major correction. In an X post, the market observer highlighted that a new sell signal has emerged on ETH’s weekly chart for the first time in nine months. He explained that the TD Sequential indicator has been highly precise in anticipating the altcoin’s trends since April 2025, with every signal on the weekly timeframe validated by significant price action over the past year. In mid-April and mid-June 2025, the key indicator flashed two buy signals, resulting in multi-week rallies of 87% and 134%, respectively. Meanwhile, it flashed a sell signal in late August 2025, which accurately timed a 63% correction from its all-time high (ATH) levels toward the February lows. Now, the latest weekly signal “suggests Ethereum is entering another corrective phase,” which could push the price to new local lows. If selling pressure accelerates, Martinez shared an initial target of $1,900, followed by potential mid- and long-term targets of $1,565 and $1,090. Time To Turn Cautious Or Bearish? Blockchain analytics firm Santiment highlighted that Ethereum realized profits rose to $74.58 million, its highest level in three weeks, even as the price fell 5.5% over the past three days. It noted that although this setup may seem “counterintuitive” given the recent pullback, it does not necessarily mean investors should turn completely bearish. As the firm explained, holders with a much lower cost basis are the ones taking profit during the mid-May dip. These traders accumulated back in February and March when Ethereum was below $2,000 amid market uncertainty and geopolitical risks. As a result, those who purchased during that period are still in profit despite the recent decline and may “have decided to sell while they feel they still have the opportunity to enjoy a profit.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Rally At Risk: This Critical Resistance Could End BTC’s Bullish Run Meanwhile, on-chain activity volume increased, with 4-hour candles showing notable price compression around the $2,241 level. Santiment emphasized that more transactions generate more Profit and Loss (P&L) realization events and that even modest individual profits elevate network-level total volumes. Based on the current Ethereum trader behavior, the firm told investors they do not necessarily need to turn bearish, but should instead “lean cautious” while waiting for clearer signals. “Watch for deeper realized losses as a potential bottoming signal, and don’t position aggressively until the distribution phase shows clear signs of ending,” it concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Crypto analyst Xanrox has advised market participants against buying Bitcoin, warning that a crash is looming for the leading crypto. Instead, the analyst advised buying altcoins, which are likely to offer greater gains.  Analyst Advises Against Buying Bitcoin With Crash Looming In a TradingView analysis, Xanrox advised against buying Bitcoin, citing the crypto’s bearish price action. Commenting on BTC’s daily chart, he noted that the LOG scale shows a bearish flag pattern, indicating bearish price action. He added that it will be a technical error to buy or go long at the resistance of the channel.  Related Reading: 9 Red Candles Before The Bottom: Why Bitcoin Price Will Continue To Crash Xanax further revealed that Bitcoin’s price is currently within the channel, indicating a huge selling wall above the current price. The analyst admitted there is still a chance BTC could rise to between $83,000 and $84,000. However, he advised opening a short position at this point rather than longing BTC.  The analyst’s accompanying chart indicated that the recent Bitcoin rally was simply a bull trap, with BTC now at risk of dropping to around $60,000. BTC notably fell below $80,000 yesterday following the release of the U.S. PPI inflation data, which showed that inflation rose 6% year-over-year (YoY) in April due to the U.S.-Iran war.  Meanwhile, Xanrox also noted that Bitcoin’s dominance is bearish, which is a strong sign of an altcoin season. He stated that the BTC price is currently looking to retest the main channel’s support trendline at around $60,000.  Altcoins To Buy Xanrox listed ADA, TRX, LINK, DOGE, BNB, XLM, XRP, and ETH as altcoins to buy for those looking to trade with huge banks and institutions because they control the price of these coins. He reiterated that market participants should avoid Bitcoin as its dominance is falling and that it has already pumped from its February lows of around $60,000.  Related Reading: Can An Altcoin Season Come Again? Why Bitcoin Price Can’t Fall Below $40,000 Meanwhile, the analyst stated that trading lower-cap coins will be better for those looking to make much more profit, as those coins have greater upside than the major altcoins, which he described as ‘bank’s coins.’ Some altcoins have recorded significant gains over the last month, with TON, SUI, and ONDO leading the way.  TON is up almost 50% in the last month, rising to almost $3 as the Toncoin network’s fees dropped by 600%. The altcoin also recorded this surge as the Toncoin network now offers one of the most attractive yields among all layer-1 networks. Meanwhile, SUI and ONDO are up over 26% and 57%, respectively, on the back of bullish fundamentals in their respective ecosystems.  At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $79,600, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

Arthur Hayes has put Zcash at the center of his crypto thesis, saying in an interview with Unchained founder Laura Shin that ZEC is now “probably my largest position outside of Bitcoin.” The BitMEX co-founder framed the trade as a bet on rising demand for financial privacy as AI, Big Tech and governments make public-chain activity easier to analyze. Hayes said he views Zcash as the strongest privacy asset in crypto, while acknowledging that the debate between Zcash, Monero and other privacy coins remains unsettled. “I think Zcash is the best,” Hayes said. He added that he is “not a cryptographer,” but said his view was shaped by reading competing arguments and speaking with developers working directly on privacy systems. His argument was not that Bitcoin should become fully private. Hayes said Bitcoin’s transparent ledger still has advantages for accountability, but argued that transparency comes with a growing trade-off as surveillance tools improve. “With AI, big tech and big government, it’s very trivial to de-anonymize transactions,” he said. Related Reading: Zcash Hits New YTD High As Multicoin Discloses ZEC Bet That, in Hayes’ view, creates room for a separate privacy asset to accrue value alongside Bitcoin rather than inside it. He described Zcash and Monero as trading at very low relative values versus BTC and called the setup asymmetric if privacy demand becomes more obvious to investors. The catalyst, as he sees it, is not merely regulatory pressure or user preference, but the exponential improvement of AI systems that can link activity across public data sets. Arthur on why the Zcash and NEAR integration is the quietly building mechanism that flips NEAR from inflationary to deflationary “Shielded Zcash lets you swap and send any coin, USDT on Tron, Bitcoin, anything, and that transaction will not point back to you. Completely… https://t.co/AOWKNsDRbc pic.twitter.com/tytoAgM5q0 — Laura Shin (@laurashin) May 12, 2026 Hayes Connects Zcash And NEAR In Latest Essay Hayes extended that thesis in his latest Crypto Trader Digest essay, “The Butterfly Touch,” dated May 11 on his Substack. In the essay, Hayes argued that rising dollar and yuan liquidity, driven by AI infrastructure spending, geopolitical conflict and renewed credit creation, has reopened the risk-on window for crypto markets. He said Bitcoin bottomed earlier this year at $60,000 and argued that a move back to $126,000 is a “foregone conclusion” if fiat liquidity keeps expanding. Related Reading: Zcash Is Crypto’s Most Mispriced Asset, Cypherpunk CIO Says The essay’s altcoin section was more explicit. Hayes wrote that it is “time to shitcoin,” saying Hyperliquid and Zcash are already large enough positions for Maelstrom, while NEAR is his “next favorite” trade. He said his next essay would lay out why the “privacy narrative” combined with Near Intents could create a “positive cash flow situation” for the protocol. That framing links Zcash and NEAR under a broader privacy-and-utility thesis. Zcash represents Hayes’ preferred pure-play privacy exposure, while NEAR appears to be the next asset he wants to connect to that theme through intent-based execution and potential protocol-level cash flow. He argued that such a setup could help reverse NEAR’s weak token performance and potentially push it back toward older cycle highs. For Zcash, Hayes’ case is more direct. He said privacy is likely to become more valuable as public blockchains become easier to interrogate with increasingly capable AI systems. “People want that privacy,” he said. “And there will be a private alternative.” At press time, Zcash traded at $541.75. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

A DeFi advocacy group has warned about a list of proposed amendments to the long-awaited crypto market structure bill that threaten the sector’s developers and hinder innovation in the US. Related Reading: Bitcoin Rally At Risk: This Critical Resistance Could End BTC’s Bullish Run CLARITY Act Amendments Could Harm The  DeFi Sector On Wednesday, the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) shared a list of 16 “anti-DeFi amendments” to the Senate Banking Committee’s crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, ahead of its highly anticipated Thursday markup session. In an X post, the advocacy group warned that some of the recent amendments submitted for consideration could harm DeFi technology, users, and developers if they are implemented in the final text of the legislation. These amendments came from Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Andy Kim, Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, and Jack Reed, who collectively targeted core DeFi protections in the bill. Some of the most notable “anti-DeFi” proposals include amendments by Senators Cortez Masto and Reed targeting the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), which exempts non-controlling developers and providers from federal money transfer requirements. According to DEF’s assessment of the text, Cortez Masto’s amendments “re-write the BRCA to turn it from a shield to a sword against developers,” and “strike protections for non-controlling developers” in Sections 301 and 302. Meanwhile, Reed’s amendments reportedly include a “direct attack on Van Loon – 5th Circuit federal court decision by subjecting smart contracts to sanctions ‘without regard to whether such contracts operate autonomously, can be modified, or are owned.’” In addition, he proposed eliminating the BRCS from the CLARITY Act. Other related amendments also target DeFi front ends, tokenization provisions, and expand BSA/AML obligations for developers and digital asset businesses. DEF Urges Community Action The DeFi Advocacy group called for action against the potential changes, urging X users to contact Senators’ offices to oppose them. However, it noted that Thursday’s markup will not consider every amendment. This gives the community a timely opportunity to press Senators to dismiss the proposals that would affect the industry. Responding to DEF’s post, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Semenov also slammed the Senators for targeting the DeFi sector, affirming that they “are trying to push last-minute amendments into Clarity Act that would defeat its entire purpose” and urging community members to act. Moreover, Justin Slaughter, VP of Regulatory Affairs at Paradigm, highlighted DEF’s “anti-DeFi” list, affirming that they are “basically the key amendments to watch,” alongside those affecting stablecoin rewards, the use of digital assets for tax payments, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crypto guidelines and rules, and DeFi ability to operate. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Extend Six-Week Streak With $858M Inflows On CLARITY Act Progress It’s worth noting that Senators submitted over 100 amendments to the CLARITY Act’s text ahead of the markup vote, with roughly 40 of them coming from anti-crypto Senator Elizabeth Warren. As journalist Eleanor Terret reported on X, one of these proposals would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing master accounts to crypto firms, resulting in heavy criticism from the crypto community and White House Crypto Advisor Patrick Witt. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

XRP’s futures open interest has climbed 23% so far in May, a sign that traders are betting bigger on the token even as its price trades roughly 6% below a recent high of $1.50. At $1.46 at the time of writing, XRP is down just nearly a percent in the last 24 hours — yet the money flowing into XRP investment products tells a different story. Related Reading: Strategy Boosts Bitcoin Position With Fresh $206M STRC Injection Institutional Appetite Keeps Growing Spot XRP exchange-traded funds recorded close to $26 million in inflows on Monday alone, the largest single-day figure since January 5. That pushed cumulative net inflows into a new all-time high of $1.35 billion, with total assets under management across spot XRP ETFs now sitting at $1.18 billion. The streak covers five straight days of net inflows. Broader XRP exchange-traded products — a category that includes ETFs and similar investment vehicles — pulled in nearly $40 million during the week ending May 8, according to data from CoinShares. Year-to-date net inflows for that group now stand at $191 million, bringing total AUM to over $2.5 billion. CoinShares head of research James Butterfill described the pace as a “notable acceleration,” attributing part of the momentum to developments around the US CLARITY Act, including a compromise proposal on stablecoin yields released on May 1. Charts Point Toward A Possible Breakout On-chain data is also shifting. XRP’s 90-day spot taker cumulative volume delta has flipped positive, a signal that buying pressure in the spot market is picking up. Social media sentiment around XRP recently hit a two-year high, adding another layer to the bullish picture forming around the token. Several analysts say the price chart supports further gains. One points to XRP bouncing off a multi-month ascending support line, setting up what could be a move toward $1.80. A golden cross on the weekly MACD — a widely watched technical indicator — has been cited as reinforcing that outlook. A more aggressive forecast puts XRP on a path toward $10, drawing comparisons to the token’s Q4 2024 rally after it broke out of a prolonged accumulation range between $1 and $1.30. Price And Open Interest Signal Momentum XRP is up 2.3% in the last week. Futures open interest rising alongside price is generally read as fresh money entering the market rather than short covering — a distinction traders watch closely when assessing whether a move has staying power. Related Reading: Shiba Inu Bullish Momentum Explodes As Buying Pressure Intensifies Data shows XRP ETFs logged their biggest daily inflow in more than four months this week. Whether institutional demand at this scale translates into a sustained price recovery remains to be seen, but the numbers behind the current move are drawing serious attention. Featured image from TopMicrobialStock/Shutterstock.com, chart from TradingView

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