Morpho Midnight's audit competition highlights the growing emphasis on security and innovation in DeFi, potentially attracting institutional interest.

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A potential U.S.-Iran deal could stabilize oil markets by reducing geopolitical tensions, impacting future oil price volatility and supply security.

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GraniteShares' move into photonics and AI infrastructure highlights the growing need for sustainable, efficient computing solutions in tech.

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Institutional Bitcoin ownership could centralize control, impacting market dynamics and potentially influencing regulatory and financial strategies.

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The CFTC's limited resources may hinder effective crypto regulation, risking inadequate oversight and investor protection in a rapidly evolving market.

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Bitcoin Magazine

CFTC Cracks Open U.S. Market for Bitcoin and Crypto Perpetual Futures

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has cleared the way for American traders to access one of crypto’s most important derivatives markets, approving the first true bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a U.S. exchange and issuing parallel relief that lets Coinbase route U.S. clients into global perp and options liquidity.

On Friday, the agency approved KalshiEX, LLC’s BTCPERP contract, a perpetual futures product that references the spot price of bitcoin and trades on Kalshi’s CFTC‑regulated designated contract market. 

At the same time, staff granted no‑action relief to Coinbase Financial Markets, allowing it to offer digital commodity derivatives — including access to offshore venues — to U.S. customers through a CFTC‑registered futures commission merchant structure.

Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are a type of futures contract with no expiration date that lets traders bet on the price movement of assets without owning them directly. 

They have become the dominant product in crypto derivatives trading, with most activity historically concentrated on offshore platforms.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig framed the move as a watershed moment for U.S. market structure.

“This morning, the CFTC took historic action to permit the listing of a true bitcoin perpetual contract by a CFTC‑registered exchange, charting a path for one of the most liquid segments of the crypto asset markets to exist within the US regulatory framework,” Selig said in a post on X.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong quickly seized on the news, highlighting just how much market access the agency has effectively unblocked. “Big day for our US‑based traders, and for Coinbase,” he wrote on X, noting that U.S. users had previously been shut out of “~80% of global crypto markets (perpetual futures and options). But not anymore!” 

Through Coinbase Financial Markets, institutional clients will be able to access global perps and options — including Deribit, which boasts tens of billions of dollars in bitcoin options open interest — via a single U.S.‑regulated FCM.

CFTC 24/7 Advisory

Friday’s announcements did not come in isolation. Alongside the product actions, the CFTC’s Division of Clearing and Risk, Division of Market Oversight and Market Participants Division issued a staff advisory on 24/7 trading, clearing and settlement of derivatives. 

The advisory is not a formal rulemaking, but it offers a window into how the agency is thinking about round‑the‑clock markets increasingly enabled by blockchain and decentralized infrastructure.

Commission staff said they have observed growing interest in effectively 24/7 trading, driven in part by digital asset markets. 

“Therefore, Commission staff believes that an advisory, outlining the potential risks associated with 24/7 trading, clearing, and settlement, and the ways in which these risks are addressed by current Commission regulations, may help promote continued market robustness, along with responsible innovation and fair competition among market participants,” the staff wrote.

In practice, the combination of the Kalshi approval, the Coinbase no‑action position and the 24/7 advisory amounts to a blueprint for how U.S.‑regulated entities can plug into, and help domesticate, the global perpetuals market. 

Kalshi can list a fully regulated bitcoin perp on its own exchange, while Coinbase, through its FCM, can connect U.S. clients to deep offshore liquidity pools without forcing them into bespoke offshore corporate structures.

Under Chair Selig and President Donald Trump, the CFTC has steadily pivoted from a posture of enforcement‑driven deterrence toward one of structured onshoring of key crypto market segments. 

Earlier this year, the CFTC and SEC jointly outlined a new taxonomy for crypto assets, and the SEC is preparing a broad tokenization rule set, while Paxos just secured approval to clear U.S. equities on blockchain rails.

This post CFTC Cracks Open U.S. Market for Bitcoin and Crypto Perpetual Futures first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Someone Just Inscribed the U.S. Constitution onto the Bitcoin Blockchain

An unknown actor broadcast a Bitcoin transaction Thursday evening embedding the full text of the U.S. Constitution onto the blockchain — permanently and without the possibility of removal.

The transaction, confirmed at 8:25 p.m. UTC on May 28, cost 113,454 satoshis, or about $83.41 in fees, and was processed by mining pool SpiderPool just 14 minutes after it hit the network. 

At 44.4 kilobytes, the transaction is far larger than a standard Bitcoin transfer — its bulk comes from the Constitution’s full text, beginning with “We the People of the United States,” written into an OP_RETURN output field and recorded on-chain.

How it worked on Bitcoin

OP_RETURN is a script opcode that allows anyone to attach arbitrary data to a transaction. Outputs tagged this way are provably unspendable — they carry no bitcoin value and exist solely to store information. For years, the field was capped at 80 bytes, limiting its use to short hashes, timestamps, and brief messages.

That changed with Bitcoin Core v30, released in mid-2025, which stripped away the byte limit and the one-OP_RETURN-per-transaction rule. Developers behind the change argued that the old cap was counterproductive — users were finding workarounds anyway, and the restriction created more problems than it solved. 

This transaction is one of the first high-profile uses of that new freedom, exploiting SegWit and Taproot features alongside the expanded OP_RETURN to fit an entire founding document into a single on-chain record.

Writing data to the blockchain is not a new concept. Projects like OpenTimestamps, DOCPROOF, and Factom spent years anchoring document hashes to the chain as tamper-proof records. The Ordinals protocol, which launched in 2023, pushed the practice further by inscribing images, audio, and code into the witness data of Taproot transactions. What separates Thursday’s inscription is the choice of document — not a hash or a jpeg, it was the governing charter of the United States, written in full.

The inscription arrives during a moment of discussion in the Bitcoin community. BIP-444, a pending proposal, would restore the old 83-byte OP_RETURN cap, with backers arguing that unlimited data storage undermines Bitcoin’s identity as a monetary network. 

The sender claimed no credit, offered no explanation, and left no traceable identity — only the Preamble, seven Articles, and 27 Amendments, written into a block that every Bitcoin node on the planet now carries.

This post Someone Just Inscribed the U.S. Constitution onto the Bitcoin Blockchain first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Texas Names Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee as State Eyes Direct Bitcoin Custody

Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock on Thursday announced the members of the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee, a newly created body tasked with guiding the state’s management, custody, and valuation of bitcoin holdings. 

The committee was established under Senate Bill 21, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and signed into law on June 22, 2025 — making Texas one of the most prominent states in the nation to move forward with an operational bitcoin reserve.

“The Legislature gave the Comptroller’s office a clear responsibility to administer the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and that work must be done with transparency, security and strong financial controls,” Hancock said in a statement Thursday. “This advisory committee brings together the kind of expertise needed to help the state carry out that direction carefully, responsibly and in the best interest of Texas taxpayers.”

The five-member committee — which includes Hancock himself — draws on a broad range of financial, legal, and digital asset expertise. 

Laurie Dotter, who chairs the Investment Advisory Board for the Employees Retirement System of Texas, brings more than 35 years of investment and governance experience. 

Jamie McAvity, founder and CEO of Cormint Data Systems, is a nationally recognized bitcoin miner operating a 130-megawatt facility in Fort Stockton with top efficiency rankings. 

Legal scholar Carla Reyes, a professor at Southern Methodist University, currently serves on the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee and has testified before Congress on blockchain policy. 

Rounding out the panel is Gary A. Vecchiarelli, CPA, president and CFO of CleanSpark, who built that company’s institutional-grade BTC trading desk, yield strategies, and digital asset governance framework.

The office also issued an RFP seeking a qualified crypto custodian to support its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which currently holds about $10 million in exposure via the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), with services covering secure custody, liquidity, and asset management.

The move signals a planned transition from ETF-based exposure to directly custodied Bitcoin within 60 days of contract execution, reflecting a shift toward full ownership, institutional-grade security, and broader crypto asset support over time.

Washington’s own Bitcoin reserve push hits hurdles

Texas’s move comes as the federal government continues working to solidify its own Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — a process that has proven more complicated than initially anticipated. 

President Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, directing the Treasury Department to establish a reserve seeded with BTC already held through criminal and civil asset forfeitures — an estimated 328,372 BTC, making the U.S. the largest known state holder of BTC in the world. 

The order explicitly bars the Treasury from selling those bitcoin.

However, the path to a formal, codified reserve has faced delays. In January 2026, Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, acknowledged “obscure legal provisions” still needed to be overcome. 

By May 2026, Witt signaled that a major legal breakthrough had been reached, saying an announcement on the reserve was imminent.

Legislation to make the reserve permanent is also advancing in Congress. The American Reserves Modernization Act — co-sponsored by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Nick Begich — would authorize the Treasury to purchase up to 200,000 BTC per year for five years, with holdings locked for a minimum of 20 years. 

If passed, the Treasury’s first open-market Bitcoin purchase is projected for Q4 2026.

This post Texas Names Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee as State Eyes Direct Bitcoin Custody first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Miners Face AI Squeeze as Hash Rate Flattens and Network Enters New Security Phase, Fidelity Says

Digital asset markets are slogging through a choppy 2026, with prices under pressure even as the underlying plumbing of the system quietly advances — from tokenization on Wall Street to quantum‑resistant upgrades on Bitcoin. 

A new mid‑year update from Fidelity Digital Assets frames the year as one of “structural retooling,” where regulatory progress, infrastructure build‑out, and institutional experimentation are doing more work than headline prices suggest.

Bitcoin is down about 13% year‑to‑date amid liquidation‑driven deleveraging, stubborn inflation and geopolitical shocks that have pushed rate expectations back toward tightening, Fidelity notes. 

Yet the asset has outperformed many traditional benchmarks during recent flare‑ups in global conflict, hinting at renewed demand for liquid, politically neutral assets when stress spikes.

At the same time, demand for crypto exposure through mainstream channels remains resilient, with options on spot BTC exchange‑traded products—launched only in late 2024—now seeing open interest comparable to options settled in native bitcoin, according to the report. 

Tokenization is another quiet growth area, as large financial institutions roll out blockchain‑based products and major exchanges take stakes in digital‑asset platforms, helped by joint SEC–CFTC guidance and draft legislation like the CLARITY Act that aim to formalize a digital‑asset taxonomy.

AI, mining and Bitcoin’s security debate

One of the more novel developments so far this year is the interplay between AI and bitcoin mining capacity. Fidelity noted the 30‑day average hash rate and mining difficulty are each down roughly 8–9% from earlier highs—before a modest rebound—suggesting miners may be redirecting power and infrastructure toward higher‑margin AI data center workloads.

On‑chain, the firm reports that expanding the amount of data allowed in Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN field has not triggered the feared “blockchain bloat,” with block sizes and utilization still tracking within projected ranges. 

Instead, attention has turned to node diversity and long‑term security: Bitcoin Core still accounts for about 77% of nodes versus roughly 17% for Bitcoin Knots, raising what Fidelity calls a non‑zero risk of fragmentation under certain conditions even as work accelerates on proposals like quantum‑resistant Pay‑to‑Merkle‑Root outputs.

Bitcoin vs. gold

Outside crypto, gold has reasserted itself as a preferred macro hedge, surging nearly 30% earlier in the year before settling back to a still solid 3–4% gain year‑to‑date, according to the report. 

Fidelity points to persistently strong central‑bank buying and evidence that gold is overtaking U.S. dollars and Treasuries in some reserve mixes, alongside isolated but symbolically important moves such as Iran accepting BTC for certain payments tied to traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

This post Bitcoin Miners Face AI Squeeze as Hash Rate Flattens and Network Enters New Security Phase, Fidelity Says first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Anonymous Plaintiff Seeks Legal Title to $293 Billion in Dormant Bitcoin, Without Holding Any Private Keys

A pseudonymous individual calling himself “Noah Doe,” along with two Wyoming LLCs, has filed suit in New York Supreme Court seeking a court declaration that they are the legal owners of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses holding roughly 3.8 million BTC — worth an estimated $293 billion at current prices. 

The case, filed March 11, 2026, and amended May 1, 2026 (Index No. 153119/2026), is believed to be the first attempt in U.S. history to claim title to Bitcoin under a lost-and-found property statute.

The legal vehicle is New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B, a statute designed for tangible lost objects — a wallet found on a sidewalk, say, or jewelry left in a cab. The law says a finder who reports lost property to police, makes reasonable efforts to locate the owner, and receives no response within a set period can eventually take legal title to the item. 

Noah Doe’s complaint argues that dormant Bitcoin addresses are “lost property” under that framework, that his USB drives of address data delivered to the NYPD 17th Precinct satisfy the deposit requirement, and that title to all 39,069 addresses vested in him across three dates: December 26, 2025, March 31, 2026, and April 14, 2026.

The statute has never been applied to cryptocurrency. Article 7-B was written for physical objects that a finder picks up and hands to authorities. The plaintiff never held private keys to any of these addresses and could not have transferred the coins to the police or to any owner who came forward. 

A Bitcoin address, unlike a lost wallet, remains fully accessible to its original owner regardless of whether someone else has identified it — the coins do not move unless the true keyholder signs a transaction.

What the bitcoin lawsuit targets

The 39,069 addresses named as defendants are not a random sample of dormant Bitcoin. 

According to blockchain research firm Galaxy Digital, which published a detailed analysis of the case in May 2026, roughly 21,923 of the defendant addresses carry what researchers call the “Patoshi” nonce pattern — an onchain fingerprint widely attributed to Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Those addresses alone hold approximately 1.096 million BTC, worth around $84.7 billion.

Also on the defendant list: one address holding 79,957 BTC stolen in the 2011 Mt. Gox hack — coins that have been actively tracked by investigators for over a decade — and one address that is a Counterparty “burn” address, meaning it is provably unspendable and was never controlled by any person. The Mt. Gox coins are the subject of ongoing recovery proceedings and are not, by any conventional definition, abandoned.

The median defendant address holds 50 BTC, currently worth approximately $3.86 million. The average holds 97.25 BTC, worth around $7.5 million. 

According to Galaxy’s onchain data, 99.9% of the defendant addresses hold BTC worth considerably more than $10.

That $10 figure is central to the case’s architecture. The complaint relies on an unnamed expert’s opinion that each address was worth less than $10 “as is” at the time of finding, on the basis that recovering the contents is uncertain. 

That single valuation places all 39,069 addresses into Section 257(2) of Article 7-B — the statute’s fastest track, which vests title in the finder just one year after the find date, with no multi-year police holding period required.

The $10 figure is the legal linchpin of the lawsuit, because it is the number the plaintiffs use to argue that the wallets qualify for New York’s fastest lost-property title path, even though the coins themselves are worth far more on the market.

If the addresses were valued closer to their market prices, they would fall into the statute’s top bracket, which carries a three-year police holding requirement. The one-year shortcut the complaint relies on would not be available. 

The complaint’s three title-vesting dates correspond exactly to the three found dates plus one year — a timeline that only works if the sub-$10 valuation holds. The expert behind that valuation is not named anywhere in the filings.

The connection to the 2025 Dusting Campaign

The defendant addresses did not emerge from nowhere. Galaxy Research identified all but one of them in an October 2025 report on a blockchain “dusting” campaign — a practice where tiny amounts of BTC are sent to addresses, often to track wallet activity.

Between June and July 2025, over 39,000 addresses received OP_RETURN messages — a Bitcoin data field used to embed text — claiming the sender had taken constructive possession of the coins. 

Galaxy’s research showed those messages appeared to be groundwork for a legal abandonment claim. That report won Best Crypto Research for 2025 from the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers.

Galaxy’s May 2026 analysis traced the funding for both the 2025 dusting campaign and the 2026 court-ordered onchain service to a single Bitcoin address, which Galaxy calls the “Bankroll” address. The firm found that 99.6% of the 2025 dusting transactions were funded within two hops from that address, and the same address funded the 2026 service operation.

Because the defendants are anonymous Bitcoin addresses, the court authorized alternative service under CPLR § 308(5): each address received a 546-satoshi payment (roughly 4 cents) carrying an OP_RETURN message linking to a website hosting the pleadings. Galaxy confirmed 98 batch transactions across Bitcoin blocks 950,446 to 950,576, reaching all 39,069 addresses between May 21–22, 2026.

Whether that constitutes adequate legal notice is an open question. Onchain service has precedent in Ethereum cases, where wallets are account-based and tokens dropped into an address tend to surface in wallet software. 

Bitcoin operates differently — wallets are built around unspent transaction outputs, and most Bitcoin wallet software does not display OP_RETURN payloads at all. Many wallets filter incoming dust transactions as spam by default.

What a win would — and would not — mean

Crypto legal observers across the industry agree that even a complete plaintiff victory would not allow Noah Doe to move a single coin. Without private keys, a court declaration confers no ability to transact on the Bitcoin network. The protocol does not recognize court orders; only a valid cryptographic signature moves BTC.

The practical concern, as Galaxy and legal commentators have noted, is different. A court declaration could function as a “cloud on title” — a legal document the plaintiffs could present to a regulated exchange or custodian if any of the listed coins appeared at a centralized venue. 

That could trigger asset freezes and force original owners to surface and prove ownership, potentially at the cost of their anonymity. It is that leverage over regulated intermediaries, rather than any ability to seize coins directly, that gives the case its potential significance.

Because the defendants are pseudonymous addresses that will not appear in court, a technical default is possible around late June 2026, approximately 30 days after service. A motion for default judgment would likely follow. 

The court retains discretion to hold a hearing before issuing a declaration of title, and legal observers note that the novelty of the theory and the scale of the claim are factors that tend to invite judicial scrutiny. 

This post Anonymous Plaintiff Seeks Legal Title to $293 Billion in Dormant Bitcoin, Without Holding Any Private Keys first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

On May 29, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) moved more than 411 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, drawing fresh scrutiny to Michael Saylor’s financing model.

Arkham Intelligence data showed two transfers of roughly 205.3 BTC and 206.2 BTC from Strategy-associated wallets before the coins reached the destination address.

This movement has not been confirmed as a sale, and Strategy has previously shifted coins between wallets as part of custody management, triggering similar speculation that later appeared to reflect internal restructuring.

However, the latest transfer drew closer attention because of how the coins moved.

ForeDex Proof, an on-chain analyst, said the transferred Bitcoin first left two Strategy-linked wallets for new addresses before being moved again, a second step that differs from earlier wallet migrations.

Those prior transfers generally stopped after funds moved from an MSTR-linked wallet into a new address.

Moreover, the address format also stood out. ForeDex Proof said Strategy has historically used Coinbase Custody and Native SegWit addresses beginning with “bc1q,” while the latest movement involved an address beginning with “3,” a P2SH format.

Considering this, the analyst said the latter wallets appeared connected to Coinbase Prime activity commonly associated with over-the-counter transactions, raising the possibility that Strategy was preparing to sell a small portion of its holdings.

Still, this BTC movement represents only a fraction of Strategy’s 843,738 BTC treasury, but its timing gave the movement greater weight.

This is because it came during a week in which the company paused fresh Bitcoin purchases, moved to repurchase convertible debt, and told investors that selling Bitcoin could become part of its financing toolkit if market conditions or dividend obligations required it.

STRC stress narrows Strategy’s room for error

The Coinbase-linked transfer comes as Strategy’s preferred-stock structure faces pressure from a falling dollar reserve and weaker trading in STRC, the variable-rate preferred instrument designed to trade around its $100 par value.

Over the past months, Strategy has used the preferred stock issuance as part of a broader funding system that enables it to raise capital, buy Bitcoin, and manage liabilities without relying solely on common stock or convertible debt.

Market observers noted that STRC’s structure depends on market confidence, as investors must believe the company can continue paying dividends, maintain sufficient cash coverage, and access capital markets.

That confidence has grown more fragile as STRC has consistently traded below par since mid-month.

Meanwhile, Strategy recently moved to repurchase nearly $1.5 billion in face value of its 0% convertible senior notes due in 2029 for about $1.38 billion in cash.

The repurchase removed a future liability and retired the notes at a discount, but it also reduced the reserve that some investors had viewed as a buffer for preferred dividends and interest costs.

Glenn Cameron, global head of institutional at Onramp Bitcoin, said Strategy’s dollar reserve fell from $2.25 billion on Feb. 1 to $871 million on May 25. The decline roughly matched the cash cost of the convertible-note repurchase.

Cameron estimated that Strategy’s annual cash obligation is about $1.66 billion, including preferred dividends, convertible interest, and software business burn. He said STRC alone accounts for about $1.23 billion of that total at an 11.5% dividend rate.

On that estimate, Strategy’s remaining dollar reserve covers about 6.3 months of annualized obligations. Cameron said the reserve had been presented to STRC subscribers as roughly 2.5 years of coverage for preferred dividends and interest on debt before the convertible repurchase reduced the cash cushion.

These figures sharpen concern over the company’s funding structure. If STRC remains below par, Strategy may need to raise the dividend rate to restore demand, and each increase applies to the full outstanding STRC stack, raising the company’s future cash burden.

Crypto analyst Ragnar said Strategy needs to refill its cash reserve as soon as possible and argued that STRC’s weakness may reflect investor concern over the shrinking coverage ratio.

He said the company may sell higher-cost Bitcoin lots to rebuild cash, citing purchases of 220 BTC at $123,561, 430 BTC at $119,666, and 6,220 BTC at $118,940 as potential candidates if Strategy chooses to reduce exposure at the margin.

That theory would align with the logic of a tactical sale without altering Strategy’s broader holdings. Selling higher-cost coins could raise cash and reduce the company’s average cost basis while leaving the bulk of its treasury intact.

It would also mark a visible change in the way investors understand Saylor’s Bitcoin strategy, because even a limited sale would show that some coins can be used to support the capital stack when market conditions tighten.

Strategy faces a 4-month window

Joao Wedson, chief executive of Alphractal, said the pressure reflects a deeper issue around Strategy’s accumulation timing.

He argued that a company with such a large Bitcoin position should have built a much lower average entry price during the 2022 and 2023 bear-market window, rather than carrying an average purchase price near the mid-$70,000 range after aggressive buying in 2024 through 2026.

Wedson said older Bitcoin holders were distributing during the later phase of Strategy’s accumulation, leaving the company with a less favorable risk-reward profile.

His critique cuts into one of the assumptions behind the model: that repeated capital raises can keep improving shareholder exposure as long as the company converts proceeds into Bitcoin.

That argument has become more relevant as preferred dividends grow. A lower average cost basis would give Strategy more flexibility to sell a limited amount of Bitcoin while still realizing gains across the treasury.

However, a higher cost basis leaves less room between market price, investor confidence, and the obligations attached to the company’s preferred-stock stack.

Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, said Strategy has entered its first major bind among common shareholders, Bitcoin holders, and preferred investors.

He argued that the company could have preserved its cash buffer for dividend payments, but instead used a large portion of that reserve to retire 0% of its debt.

Dorman said the company now faces two main paths if pressure continues. It can sell Bitcoin to help fund preferred dividends, supporting preferred holders while weakening the accumulation narrative. Or it can stop paying dividends, preserving the Bitcoin stack while undermining confidence in the preferred securities.

Strategy could also raise new capital, but that depends on market access. STRC’s design relies on the ability to issue securities near par. If investor demand weakens, the company may need to offer higher yields to attract buyers, thereby increasing future obligations against the same Bitcoin pool.

Dorman said the tension could play out over the next four months. That timeline has become a test of whether Strategy can keep its funding loop intact while Bitcoin remains volatile, STRC trades below par, and the dollar reserve provides less room for error.

The post Strategy selling? Saylor’s Bitcoin transfer to Coinbase puts his treasury model under cash pressure appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin miners spent years racing to secure cheap electricity, and that electricity has since become more valuable than the Bitcoin mining business built on it.

That inversion drives Fidelity's May 2026 assessment that AI hosting could give miners a second revenue stream while flattening Bitcoin's hash rate as major operators redirect energy infrastructure away from pure mining, and two hyperscaler contracts have put a concrete price on what miners built.

Cipher Mining's SEC-filed business update announced a roughly $5.5 billion, 15-year lease with AWS to provide 300 MW of turnkey space and power for AI workloads, with delivery beginning in July 2026.

IREN signed a roughly $9.7 billion, five-year GPU cloud contract with Microsoft, deploying NVIDIA GB300 GPUs through 2026 at its 750 MW Childress, Texas campus and supporting 200 MW of critical IT load.

Miners had already secured land, grid interconnection, substations, and power rights, which are what AI data centers need and cannot build fast enough.

The 2024 halving compressed hash prices and pushed CoinShares' tracked weighted-average cash cost to roughly $79,995 per BTC by the first quarter of 2026, prodding operators toward AI hosting as a revenue stabilizer, leasing unused capacity, keeping the mining rigs running, and offsetting the worst of the Bitcoin downturns.

CoinShares estimates public miners' AI and HPC contracts had surpassed $70 billion in aggregate by early 2026, with listed miners on pace to derive as much as 70% of revenue from AI by year-end, up from roughly 30%.

That is a revenue hedge that the Cipher and IREN contracts have since displaced with price discovery for power campuses.

Price discovery changes the internal math

Fidelity's January 2026 analysis identified a mining-to-AI crossover at roughly $60 to $70 per petahash per day for a 20-joule-per-terahash fleet, meaning most 20-to-25 J/TH miners would need the hash price to rise 40% to 60% to match contracted GPU-hosting economics.

The Hashrate Index's May 25 data has since extended this distance, with the US dollar-denominated hash price at $35.88 per PH/day, placing the AI crossover at approximately 67% to 95% above the current spot.

A miner sitting on 300 MW of powered, permitted infrastructure now faces a choice between deploying ASICs and earning $35.88 per PH/day, or signing a hyperscaler lease at contracted rates that require hash price to nearly double to match.

AWS and Microsoft have effectively published a floor on what that infrastructure is worth to someone other than Bitcoin, and every major operator with comparable assets now has that number in their model.

AI infrastructure costs between $8 million and $15 million per megawatt to build, compared to $700,000 to $1 million for Bitcoin mining infrastructure, and miners who transition enter a more capital-intensive business with fundamentally different debt profiles, valuation metrics, and execution risk.

Hash rate may no longer follow BTC price alone

Bitcoin's mining expansion historically followed price, with miners ordering more machines when BTC rose and cutting capacity when it fell.

VanEck's April ChainCheck recorded 30-day hash rate momentum at the 16th percentile and 90-day momentum at the 9th percentile, the densest cluster of sustained hash-rate drawdowns since China's 2021 mining ban.

CoinWarz data as of May 28 showed Bitcoin difficulty at 136.61T and a 90-day difficulty change of -5.40%, consistent with Fidelity's picture of mining churn.

Bitcoin's 2,016-block difficulty adjustment is still the counterweight, since every time hash rate exits, it lowers the computational cost of producing valid blocks and raises revenue per unit of remaining hash once difficulty resets.

A 20% hash-rate exit would lift surviving miners' hash price to roughly $44.85 per PH/day, while a 30% exit would bring it to roughly $51.26, still well short of Fidelity's AI crossover unless BTC price or transaction fees rise meaningfully.

Power locked into 15-year AWS leases or five-year Microsoft GPU contracts cannot rotate back to mining even if ASIC economics recover. In older cycles, idle hash returned because machines could be switched back on, while in this cycle the campuses themselves may be committed elsewhere.

Bitcoin gets the tighter market it needs

If BTC moves toward $100,000 to $140,000 or transaction fees rise materially, the economics realign.
A 20% reduction in network hash rate lowers the BTC price required to reach the $60 to $70 AI crossover to approximately $98,000 to $114,000, and a 30% reduction lowers that threshold to roughly $86,000 to $100,000.

Miners who are still committed to Bitcoin benefit from a market where hash price rises faster than hash rate, compressing the competitive field and improving margins for operators with efficient fleets and lower power costs.

Fewer large public miners in the hash rate mix also reduces the forced BTC selling that has historically pressured spot price during expansion cycles.

Charles Schwab's May 26 analysis argues that hybrid infrastructure models strengthen Bitcoin's overall network health: lower forced selling, tighter difficulty conditions, and better miner margins reduce the systemic stress that large capital-intensive miners have historically introduced at cycle peaks.

The industry separates into two distinct businesses, consisting of companies that own power campuses and monetize them through hyperscaler contracts, and companies that actually mine Bitcoin, often at lower-cost, more flexible, or stranded-energy sites where AI data centers cannot easily operate.

AI wins the allocation decision

If BTC holds below $70,000 to $80,000, fees stay thin, and power prices stay elevated, contracted GPU-hosting economics dominate internal capital allocation for operators with AI-ready sites.

CoinShares estimates that at roughly $30 per PH/day, between 15% and 20% of the global fleet becomes uneconomic if power costs $0.06 per kilowatt-hour or higher for machines with S19 XP efficiency or lower.

Older fleets shut down, difficulty declines across successive epochs, and surviving miners earn more per petahash, but not enough to close the gap with the Cipher and IREN contracts for operators who still have that choice.

The difficulty adjustment keeps the network running through any exit, and mining's center of gravity moves as large public miners with AI-ready infrastructure become data-center landlords, while Bitcoin hash rate concentrates among operators with cheaper, more intermittent, or internationally diversified energy.

The IREN/Microsoft contract carries an explicit delivery-timeline clause that Reuters reported could trigger termination if milestones are missed, and miners carrying heavy debt alongside delayed AI revenue face an equity repricing from a Bitcoin proxy to an execution-risk asset.

The split is the outcome

The contest between ASICs and GPUs for miner capital plays out site by site, operator by operator, contingent on power contracts already signed and BTC price at the next halving.

Bitcoin's network absorbs hash-rate exits through lower difficulty, and higher BTC price or fees can pull economics back toward mining for any operator who has not already committed power elsewhere.

The more durable consequence of the AWS and Microsoft deals is that they have made it possible to run a large, credibly profitable infrastructure business on the same sites that Bitcoin mining built, without mining a single block.

Whether that possibility becomes the default for the next generation of power-campus construction depends on where BTC price settles relative to $35.88, and how many more hyperscalers arrive with 15-year checkbooks before the next halving forces the question again.

The post Bitcoin miners’ real prize is power as AI reshapes mining appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Senate Banking cleared the CLARITY Act 15-9 on May 14, and within two weeks, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social pledging to codify a “future-proof” digital asset market that haters could not undo, calling the US the “crypto capital of the world.”

Crypto allies are using the timing to press the argument that a friendly regulatory posture lasts only as long as the regulator who holds it, and statute demands a congressional act to overturn.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins amplified the same line on X, writing that the agency's prior hostility to digital asset innovation is over and that the administration, Congress, and regulators are delivering clarity to digital asset markets, a framing that positions the agency as the handoff and Congress as the closer.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate to act fast, warning that floor time is precious, while Senator Cynthia Lummis called the moment the “last chance” to pass CLARITY until at least 2030, with midterm elections framing the outer boundary.

The Clarity Act and where it stands

Senate Banking advanced the CLARITY Act, with Chairman Tim Scott declaring it ready for the Senate floor.

The legislation would divide digital asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC, expand CFTC supervision of crypto spot markets, define when tokens qualify as securities or commodities, require registration and disclosure from covered firms, protect customer funds, and apply Bank Secrecy Act obligations to digital asset businesses, converting years of agency interpretation fights and litigation into a single statutory framework.

The Senate calendar carries no confirmed floor date for CLARITY, but the White House is reportedly pushing it toward a showdown as it targets a July 4 signing.

Before a signing, Senate leaders must reconcile the Banking product with the Senate Agriculture Committee's separate digital commodities track, pass a merged bill through the full chamber, and align with the House version.

The floor math

Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, and cloture requires 60 votes, meaning the bill needs 7 Democratic or independent votes if every Republican backs it, a threshold the committee reached only two votes toward, from Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks.

Both Senators may withhold floor support unless the Senate addresses three specific objections: anti-money-laundering provisions that Democratic minority staff say leave illicit-finance loopholes around sanctions and mixers, demands to bar political officials from profiting on crypto ventures they help shape, and stablecoin reward language that banking groups warn could pull deposits from community lenders.

Banking trade associations have positioned themselves as conditional supporters, backing a federal framework in principle but pressing for tighter guardrails on stablecoin rewards, arguing that stablecoin issuers with reward programs would compete directly with traditional deposit accounts and reduce local lending capacity.

That wedge between mainstream finance and crypto-native industry groups gives Senate Democratic holdouts a conventional-finance rationale for demanding revisions, separate from the AML and ethics objections.

The reported July 4 target rests on Senate leadership holding the floor calendar through June, and a state work period runs from June 29 to July 10, cutting practical floor time to the weeks before the recess begins.

If leadership does not bring CLARITY to the floor by roughly the third week of June, the July 4 signing target becomes logistically untenable, and any remaining action would need to fit between the end of the recess and the start of the August break.

What seven votes decide the Clarity Act's fate?

If Gallego and Alsobrooks hold their committee votes and compromise language secures five or more additional Democratic or independent votes, with banks accepting narrower stablecoin reward limits, CLARITY could produce the first broad federal market-structure law for digital assets in US history.

Statutory CFTC supervision of spot markets gives crypto firms a legal foundation that will survive future administrations, since overturning a statute requires an act of Congress, a higher procedural bar than a presidential appointment alone.

The Crypto Council for Innovation and the Blockchain Association have both argued that a signed bill would accelerate institutional adoption and consolidate US leadership, a claim that carries more weight once it has the force of law behind it than it does as a lobbying position.

If Democrats find AML language insufficient, Republicans reject ethics demands, and crypto-industry lobbying holds stablecoin reward fixes in place, the seven-vote threshold goes unmet, and the floor fight stalls.

The industry holds the friendliest regulatory environment in a decade, built entirely on Atkins at the SEC, an accommodating CFTC, and a pro-crypto White House, positions that the next administration can vacate with new appointees and revised guidance.

Lummis's “last chance until 2030” framing puts the specific cost on the bear case: if CLARITY misses the June window, midterm elections in 2026 could flip Senate seats and close the legislative path for the rest of the decade.

Trump's allies ran a flood-the-zone campaign this week to generate enough public and political momentum in June that Senate Democratic holdouts face greater cost from blocking the bill than from voting yes on a compromise.

Whether that calculation produces seven or more Democratic votes before the June window closes will determine whether the administration's pro-crypto regulatory reversal becomes law or stays a posture the next SEC chair can reverse with a memo.

The post Trump’s crypto push hits the Senate vote math behind CLARITY Act’s July 4 target appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The BEA's April PCE print showed headline inflation at 3.8% year over year and core at 3.3%, broadly matching economist expectations and removing the risk of a fresh macro shock, leaving Bitcoin in the fragile middle ground it has occupied since losing $75,000, where macro panic has cooled.

Yet, renewed demand still has to arrive before stabilization becomes a directional move. Matt Mena, senior crypto research strategist at 21Shares, said in a note:

“Market sentiment is being anchored by today’s PCE print coming broadly in line with expectations, giving risk assets a needed macro stabilizer after a volatile stretch driven by geopolitical headlines and inflation prints.”

The PCE print confirmed Mena's read that inflation held steady at the exact moment Bitcoin was already technically fragile.

$80,000 as the macro confirmation line

BTC had slipped below $75,000 before the PCE data landed, registering an intraday low near $72,500 and keeping the $73,000-$75,000 support zone under pressure.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $733.4 million in net outflows on May 27, with IBIT accounting for $527.8 million of that figure, and PCE removed the risk of a hotter-than-expected print compounding that damage, while leaving the bid behind those outflows unresolved.

The 3.8% annual headline figure is the fastest pace in three years and aligns with forecasts. Markets have already priced in rates staying unchanged into 2027, meaning Bitcoin's next leg higher requires internal demand to arrive independently of monetary easing.

Bitcoin broke above $80,000 a few weeks ago after holding below it for more than three months, the level Mena identifies as where the bull thesis confirms or stalls, and the current consolidation between $73,000 and $75,000 puts that breakout at risk of being erased.

Mena reads the move as a reset, noting that Bitcoin is up by over 10% from April's open and over 11% since the start of Operation Epic Fury, while gold has declined over 16% over the same period.

That difference reinforces Bitcoin's position as a high-beta macro asset with differentiated demand, one that held its support zone through a geopolitically charged stretch that sent more traditional safe-haven assets lower.

The bid PCE left open

A decisive reclaim of $80,000 would put $82,000 back in focus, the resistance that capped upside since February, and in Mena's model could set Bitcoin up to end the quarter in the $85,000-$95,000 range.

If Bitcoin consolidates at $73,000-$75,000, the ETF outflows slow, and BTC reclaims $80,000, the pullback resolves as a reset after an impressive run.

PCE's in-line print removed the macro trigger for a forced breakdown, and Mena's relative-strength argument is that crypto held through geopolitical volatility that pressured other assets, the broader crypto market is up roughly 6% over the same period, and Hyperliquid's HYPE token set a new all-time high of $65.

Those are telling of risk appetite across the space holding through the sell-off. Polymarket currently prices a 57% probability that the CLARITY Act is signed into law in 2026, and ceasefire diplomacy between the US and Iran has eased one of the geopolitical overhangs that drove volatility through the spring, adding secondary support to the bull case.

Mena's year-end target, contingent on inflation fears staying contained and regulatory momentum continuing, puts Bitcoin above $100,000.

If ETF redemptions continue and BTC loses the $73,000-$75,000 zone, PCE's neutral reading leaves the floor entirely to internal demand.

With inflation at 3.8% headline and 3.3% core, the Fed stays in a hold that markets have already priced through 2027, meaning Bitcoin in the bear case has only internal demand to work with.

A break below $73,000 would reframe the current consolidation as distribution and push the $80,000 reclaim further out of reach.

Policy tailwinds, such as CLARITY odds and Middle East de-escalation, stay in place, but policy momentum alone carries insufficient force to reverse a Bitcoin selloff driven by sustained spot-market outflows and deteriorating ETF demand.

Sticky inflation keeps financial conditions tight for the high-beta assets that Bitcoin most closely resembles in a risk-off environment, and tight conditions favor sellers over buyers at current support levels.

Inflation held close enough to April's forecasts to keep the macro shock risk contained, and at 3.8% headline and 3.3% core, it also confirmed that inflation remains too elevated for the Fed to ease financial conditions.

Bitcoin's next move depends on whether buyers return before the $73,000-$75,000 support gives way, and whether a reclaim of $80,000 arrives before the stabilization PCE provided runs out.

The post Bitcoin avoided an inflation shock, now it has to prove the rally isn’t over appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A New York lawsuit is seeking to treat some of Bitcoin’s oldest dormant wallets, including addresses tied to the cryptocurrency’s creator, as lost property valued at less than $10 each.

The amended complaint asks a state court to grant legal ownership of 39,069 Bitcoin addresses to a pseudonymous plaintiff identified as Noah Doe and two Wyoming entities, ABC Company, and XYZ Company.

Together, the addresses hold nearly 3.8 million BTC, or about 18% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million token supply.

Galaxy Digital stated that nearly all of the 39,069 defendant addresses overlap with wallets that received small on-chain transactions in 2025.

At the time, Salomon Brothers used Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN feature to serve legal notices on the dormant wallets, claiming a right to seize them under the “Doctrine of Abandonment” unless the owners responded within 90 days.

After that campaign, hundreds of addresses moved coins and were excluded from the lawsuit. The addresses that stayed silent became the defendant set.

An old lost-property statute meets dormant Bitcoin

The plaintiffs’ case rests on an attempt to fit dormant Bitcoin addresses into New York’s lost-property law, a framework designed for physical items that can be found, reported, and returned.

Noah Doe and the two Wyoming-based entities argue that the wallets qualify as abandoned property because they were identified, reported to authorities, and left unclaimed for more than a year.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs placed lists of the addresses on USB drives and delivered them to the New York Police Department’s 17th Precinct, then followed up with an on-chain notice campaign using OP_RETURN messages, a press release, and a claim window intended to demonstrate reasonable efforts to reach the owners.

The plaintiff's legal effort leans heavily on Article 7-B of New York’s Personal Property Law, which allows a finder of lost property to claim title after the required holding period if no rightful owner appears.

In ordinary cases, that framework applies to property turned over to police and held while an owner is given time to come forward. The lawsuit asks the court to extend that logic to public blockchain addresses whose owners are unknown, unreachable, or silent.

To fast-track the litigation, the plaintiffs rely on a controversial valuation strategy, claiming an unnamed independent expert appraised the contents of each individual wallet at less than $10 because the private keys required to move the coins are unavailable.

Notably, New York law provides finders a shorter path to property worth less than $10 if they have made reasonable efforts to locate the owner and have failed.

However, on-chain data runs counter to that appraisal. Galaxy Digital stated that the 39,069 addresses hold an estimated $293.5 billion in Bitcoin at current market prices.

A further breakdown of the wallets showed that the average address in the legal claim contains 97.25 BTC, worth roughly $7.5 million, while the median holds exactly 50 BTC, or about $3.86 million.

That 50-BTC median reflects Bitcoin’s original mining reward, meaning many of the defendants appear to be early block payouts that have remained untouched since the network’s first years.

That gap between the legal valuation and current market value sits at the center of the dispute. If the court accepts the plaintiffs’ view that each address is worth less than $10 because recovery is uncertain, they can argue that the title vested one year after each batch of addresses was found.

However, if the court values the property by the Bitcoin recorded at those addresses, the lawsuit becomes far harder to place on the expedited track the plaintiffs are using.

The wallet list reaches Bitcoin’s earliest history

The addresses named in the lawsuit stretch back to Bitcoin’s earliest years, pulling some of the network’s most-watched and contested wallets into a claim built around abandonment.

Galaxy Digital said the defendant list is anchored by roughly 21,923 Patoshi-pattern addresses, a group of early-mined wallets long associated with Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Those addresses hold about 1.096 million Bitcoin, making them one of the largest dormant pools of BTC on the ledger.

Their inclusion gives the case its market significance, but it also complicates the plaintiffs’ theory.

Satoshi-linked coins are not obscure assets that disappeared from view. They have been studied for years by researchers, investors, and forensic analysts because any movement from those wallets would likely become one of the most closely scrutinized events in Bitcoin’s history.

Meanwhile, another target is a wallet holding 79,957 Bitcoin that blockchain investigators have linked to the 2011 Mt. Gox breach. Those coins are widely treated as stolen and contested property, a status that sits uneasily with a lost-property claim based on abandonment.

Additionally, the list also includes a counterparty-linked burn address holding 2,131 Bitcoin. Burn addresses are used to remove coins from circulation by sending them to destinations that cannot be spent from.

In that case, the legal claim runs into a technical wall because the address was designed so that no owner could later appear with a private key and move the funds.

Many of the remaining wallets last moved between 2009 and 2013, when Bitcoin went from having no market price to trading at a few hundred dollars. Some may belong to early miners. Some may reflect lost keys. Others may be cold storage, estate assets, or wallets controlled by holders who have chosen not to move their coins.

That uncertainty goes to the center of the dispute. Bitcoin’s ledger records movement, not intent. A wallet can sit untouched for 15 years because the owner is gone, because the key is lost, because the coins are deliberately held, or because the address can never be spent from at all.

The lawsuit asks a court to infer abandonment from inactivity, even though the blockchain alone cannot explain why a coin has remained still.

That mix shows the difficulty of applying a physical lost-property statute to blockchain records.

A judgment would create leverage, not control

Market analysts emphasize that even a sweeping courtroom victory for the anonymous plaintiffs would not immediately move a single satoshi.

This is because a judicial decree cannot generate the private cryptographic keys required to authorize a transaction, nor can it override the immutable math of a decentralized network.

Instead, the true value of a favorable judgment lies in its utility as a legal weapon at the boundary between Bitcoin’s permissionless ledger and traditional financial institutions.

If Noah Doe secures a quiet-title declaration from a New York court, that document would serve as a powerful cloud on title.

Should the legitimate owner of a targeted wallet ever move their Bitcoin to a centralized exchange, an institutional custodian, or a commercial bank, the plaintiffs could present the court order to freeze the accounts. This would trigger protracted domestic litigation, forcing the true owners to step forward and prove their identities.

That dynamic exposes a profound irony at the heart of the case. The plaintiff obtained permission from Justice Kathy J. King to proceed under a pseudonym, citing the threat of physical violence or kidnapping if his identity were tied to a multi-billion-dollar claim.

Yet, the legal mechanism he is employing forces the actual owners of the dormant wallets to forfeit their own privacy and expose their identities to the public record simply to defend their property.

Because the defendants are anonymous cryptographic addresses, no traditional defense counsel is expected to appear in court.

Galaxy Digital stated that a technical default is likely by late June 2026, roughly 30 days after the on-chain service of process was executed, with a formal motion for a default judgment anticipated later this summer.

However, the firm argued that a rubber-stamped victory is highly improbable. New York justices retain broad discretion when evaluating applications for declaratory judgments, particularly when confronting novel legal frameworks, questions regarding process servers, and a nominal $10 valuation slapped onto a $293 billion fortune.

Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, concluded:

“It would be extraordinary for a New York court to hand three anonymous parties legal title to roughly $293 billion worth of BTC, including the coins most closely associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, on a lost-and-found theory propped up by a questionable under-$10 valuation,”

The post New lawsuit claims Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin is “Lost Property” worth under $10 per wallet appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Finding a crypto-friendly business account for a corporate entity remains one of the largest operational hurdles for modern enterprises, tech startups, and Web3 firms. Corporate structures worldwide face strict institutional compliance and rigid Know Your Business (KYB) checks. Traditional legacy banks often instantly decline applications associated with digital assets due to conservative risk mitigation strategies.

Fortunately, fintech innovation has fundamentally shifted the corporate financial landscape. European platforms operating under full banking licenses now provide robust corporate accounts designed to interface seamlessly with digital assets and international fiat networks.

Here is a comprehensive breakdown of the best crypto-friendly business accounts for companies, exploring global efficiency with specific insights into key markets like Germany.

The Landscape of Corporate Crypto Banking

Corporate banking for crypto-exposed businesses requires a framework that can handle standard fiat operations—such as payroll, tax payments, and vendor settlements—without flagging legitimate transfers to and from digital asset platforms.

Financially strict jurisdictions across Europe enforce tight anti-money laundering (AML) protocols. In regions like Germany, the financial regulatory authority (BaFin) closely monitors fiat-to-crypto flows. This has historically caused traditional commercial banks to freeze corporate accounts that interact with exchanges or on-chain treasuries. For modern corporations, the ideal solution is a corporate fintech platform that bridges the gap between traditional fiat compliance and the digital economy.

Why Revolut Business is a Leading Choice for Companies

Revolut Business has emerged as one of the most reliable and scalable financial solutions for modern enterprises, startups, and established international corporations. Operating with a full European banking license, the platform balances strict regulatory compliance with the flexible infrastructure required by fast-growing corporate teams.

Streamlined Company Registration and Setup

One of the primary advantages of utilizing this platform is the speed of corporate onboarding. Traditional institutions can take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to finalize a business account setup. Revolut Business slashes this timeline to 24–72 hours through automated photo and video identification systems, allowing new companies to become operational almost immediately. This is particularly beneficial for German structures like the GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) or UG (Unternehmergesellschaft), which traditionally face slow institutional bureaucracy.

Interbank Exchange Rates and Multi-Currency Liquidity

For international firms managing global operations, cross-border transfers can become costly. The platform allows corporate entities to execute domestic and international transfers at highly competitive interbank exchange rates. This ensures that firms moving fiat capital into crypto liquidity pools or off-ramping corporate revenues do not lose significant margins to hidden foreign exchange fees.

Corporate Team Management and Spend Control

The platform provides advanced expense management tools. Businesses can issue dedicated physical or digital corporate cards to team members, set explicit operational limits, and track expenses dynamically in real time. This level of internal governance is critical for Web3 firms and tech startups that require strict audit trails for financial compliance.

• Corporate Sign-up Incentive: New businesses can tap into optimized corporate benefits and streamline their company setup directly.
• Get Started: Open your Revolut Business Account here to initiate your application.

Alternative Crypto-Friendly Corporate Accounts

While Revolut Business offers an exceptional all-around interface for corporate teams, several other banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and fintech providers operate within the global and European markets:

1. Finom

Finom is a prominent European fintech platform operating extensively in Germany and Western Europe via a strategic partnership with Solaris SE, which holds a full German banking license. Finom provides dedicated IBANs within 24 hours and includes integrated invoicing and accounting tools tailored for freelancers and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

2. Vivid Money

Vivid Money provides flexible corporate accounts suitable for modern corporate structures. It offers competitive interest on corporate fiat balances and specific cashback rewards, making it a viable option for early-stage startups seeking operational flexibility.

3. Traditional Alternatives (Deutsche Bank & Commerzbank)

For larger, institutional corporate structures requiring substantial credit lines or traditional corporate backing, legacy institutions like Deutsche Bank or Commerzbank remain relevant. However, their compliance frameworks for crypto-related transactions are significantly more rigid, requiring extensive source-of-funds documentation.

Key Criteria for Selecting a Corporate Bank Account

When evaluating where to establish your company's primary financial repository, consider the following parameters:

• KYB and Onboarding Efficiency: Choose platforms that offer automated, digital verification to avoid prolonged capital lock-ups during corporate formation.
• Fiat-to-Crypto Transparency: Ensure the platform's compliance framework does not arbitrarily flag transactions coming from regulated digital asset exchanges.
• Accounting Integrations: Modern corporate accounts should link directly with software like Xero, QuickBooks, or local tax tools like DATEV to ensure clear bookkeeping.

How to Get Started with a Crypto-Friendly Account

Setting up a robust, modern business account can be completed entirely online. To prepare for the application process, ensure you have the following documentation ready:

• Proof of Incorporation: Corporate registry extracts (e.g., Articles of Organization or Handelsregisterauszug).
• Identification Documents: Valid passports or national identity cards for all beneficial owners and directors.
• Corporate Details: Clear description of business operations and planned transactional volume.

To register your business and secure an agile corporate account, you can access the streamlined signup interface directly via the corporate portal: Register Your Company with Revolut Business

Global Stocks Rally While Crypto Sentiment Remains Weak

Global stock markets are showing strong momentum, with major indices reaching new record levels across the United States and Asia. The S&P 500 closed at a new all time high, while Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s KOSPI also pushed into record territory.

This rally shows that traditional risk assets are attracting strong investor demand, especially as AI related stocks, government contracts, and broader equity optimism continue to support market sentiment. However, the crypto market is not following the same path with the same strength.

Instead, major altcoins remain under pressure, and the market still looks cautious despite some green daily moves.

Altcoins Recover Slightly, but the Crypto Market Lacks Conviction

The latest crypto market performance shows several major altcoins moving higher on the day. Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, Cardano, Dogecoin, Zcash, and Stellar are all showing positive daily changes.

However, the move does not yet look like a full market recovery. Many major crypto assets still carry weak technical ratings, suggesting that the current bounce may be more defensive than bullish.

This creates an important gap between global equities and digital assets. Stocks are breaking records, but the crypto market is still trying to stabilize after recent selling pressure.

Why Is the Crypto Market Not Following the Stock Rally?

There are several possible reasons why the crypto market is lagging behind.

First, liquidity remains selective. Investors may be willing to take risk in equities, especially in AI and technology stocks, but they are still cautious when it comes to altcoins.

Second, institutional crypto flows remain uneven. When large funds reduce exposure or when ETF related outflows dominate the headlines, sentiment across the broader crypto market can weaken quickly.

Third, altcoins usually need stronger confirmation before a real rally starts. A few daily gains are not enough if trading volume, momentum indicators, and technical ratings remain weak.

AI Stocks Are Leading, but AI Tokens Are Not Moving the Same Way

One of the most interesting differences is the AI narrative. In traditional markets, AI related stocks are seeing strong demand, supported by government spending, corporate investment, and investor enthusiasm.

In crypto, AI tokens are still gaining attention, but they are not leading the market with the same strength. This shows that the AI trend is currently more powerful in equities than in digital assets.

That makes the crypto AI sector an interesting area to watch, but not yet a confirmed leader in the current market cycle.

What Altcoins Need for a Real Recovery

For the crypto market to confirm a stronger recovery, altcoins need more than short term green candles. The market needs stronger trading volume, better technical signals, and renewed confidence from both retail and institutional investors.

A real recovery would likely require:

Stronger inflows into crypto products, improved sentiment across major altcoins, higher trading volume, and a clear shift from defensive positioning to risk appetite.

Until then, the crypto market may continue to move sideways or recover unevenly, even while global stocks continue to break records.

Crypto Market Outlook: Delayed Rally or Continued Weakness?

The main question now is whether the crypto market is simply lagging behind traditional markets or showing a deeper weakness.

If global risk appetite continues to improve, altcoins could eventually benefit from the same liquidity wave that is lifting equities. However, if crypto specific pressure remains high, the market could stay disconnected from the stock rally for longer.

For now, the message is clear: global stocks are showing strength, but the crypto market still needs stronger confirmation before calling this a real recovery.

As decentralized compute and machine learning models become integrated into financial and creative workflows, certain projects have emerged as clear leaders.

Investors are increasingly looking beyond simple "AI hype" toward protocols that provide tangible infrastructure for the future. In this article, we analyze three AI tokens that demonstrate high utility and strong market positioning.

Why AI and Blockchain are the Future of Investment

In 2026, the synergy between AI and blockchain is no longer theoretical; it is a "multiplicative" force for global efficiency. Blockchain provides the transparent, decentralized layer needed to verify AI data and secure compute resources, while AI offers the "intelligence" to optimize on-chain processes.

• Decentralized Intelligence: Reducing reliance on "Big Tech" silos for model training.
• Resource Efficiency: Tokenizing GPU power allows for a global, borderless marketplace for compute.
• Trustless Governance: AI can manage complex DAO structures with high-speed data analysis.

Top 3 AI Coins to Consider in 2026

1. Bittensor (TAO): The Decentralized Brain

Bittensor remains the premier protocol for decentralized machine learning. By creating a marketplace for intelligence, Bittensor allows different subnets to specialize in various AI tasks—from image generation to complex data analysis—rewarding participants in TAO.

Why TAO is a Strong Contender

As of May 2026, Bittensor has gained massive institutional validation. With recent reports of major tech entities exploring TAO's subnet architecture, the token has shown strong "alpha" performance. The Bittensor price (often compared to the blue chips of the sector) remains a favorite for those betting on a "World Computer" of intelligence.

• Subnet Scalability: Each subnet acts as its own specialized economy.
• Institutional Interest: Rumors of AI-specific ETFs have kept liquidity high.
• Deflationary Incentives: The halving mechanics and staking requirements create a supply crunch as demand for decentralized inference grows.

2. Render (RENDER): Powering the Visual AI Revolution

As AI-generated video and spatial computing become mainstream, the demand for GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) power has hit record highs. Render Network bridges the gap by connecting users who need compute power with those who have idle GPUs.

The Investment Thesis for RENDER

Render transitioned successfully to the Solana blockchain, which significantly lowered transaction costs and improved scalability. This move allowed it to integrate more deeply with AI training and inference workloads, moving beyond its original scope of 3D rendering.

• Burn-and-Mint Equilibrium: This economic model ensures that as network usage grows, the supply of RENDER is managed efficiently.
• Strategic Partnerships: Render's involvement in spatial computing projects with companies like Apple and Meta makes it a critical infrastructure play.
• GPU Shortage Hedge: As centralized cloud providers (AWS, Google) face capacity limits, Render provides a decentralized alternative.

3. DeXe (DEXE): AI-Driven Social Trading and DAOs

While Bittensor and Render focus on infrastructure, DeXe Protocol is revolutionizing how we interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) and governance through AI-enhanced tools. DeXe provides the framework for DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and social trading platforms.

The Role of AI in DeXe

In 2026, DeXe has integrated advanced automated tools that allow for "meritocratic" governance. AI agents within the DeXe ecosystem help analyze trader performance and manage treasury allocations based on real-time data, reducing human error and bias.

• Social Trading Evolution: Users can replicate the strategies of top traders (Executives) with AI-powered risk management.
• Incentive Alignment: The DEXE token is used for governance, ensuring that those with the most "expertise" have a proportional say in the protocol's future.
• Multi-chain Utility: DEXE's presence across multiple chains ensures high liquidity and accessibility.

3 AI Coins to Consider in 2026

Crypto Market Crash Continues Across Major Coins

The crypto market is under pressure again, with major coins trading in the red while traditional markets show stronger momentum. Bitcoin is hovering near $73,000, Ethereum is trading close to the critical $2,000 level, and Solana has slipped below $85.

The broader market picture also looks weak. $BTC, $ETH, $BNB, $SOL, $DOGE, $ADA, and $LINK are all showing negative daily performance, while several major crypto assets carry weak technical ratings. This suggests that the current crypto market crash is not limited to one token or sector, but reflects broader selling pressure across the market.

Privacy coins are also under pressure, with Monero and Zcash showing sharp moves. Meanwhile, Stellar stands out as one of the few major gainers, but that is not enough to shift the overall market sentiment.

S&P 500 Hits New High While Crypto Falls

The most important part of the story is the contrast between crypto and stocks. While Bitcoin and major altcoins are falling, the S&P 500 has reportedly reached a new all-time high. This creates a major market contradiction: traditional risk assets are rallying, but crypto is failing to follow.

Usually, when stocks rise strongly, crypto often benefits from improved risk appetite. However, this time, the reaction is different. Stocks appear to be pricing in better macro sentiment, while crypto traders remain cautious.

This divergence raises an important question: if investors are willing to take risk in equities, why is Bitcoin still falling?

Why Bitcoin Is Not Following the Stock Market Rally

One possible reason is that crypto is still dealing with its own internal weakness. The recent crypto crash triggered heavy selling, weak technical setups, and possible leverage unwinding across major coins. Even if macro sentiment improves, crypto may need more time to recover from the damage caused by the sell-off.

Bitcoin is also trading near a key psychological zone. If $BTC fails to hold above the $70,000–$73,000 area, traders may expect another downside move before any real recovery begins. This keeps buyers cautious, especially while Ethereum remains close to $2,000 and Solana continues to trade below stronger resistance levels.

Another factor is market rotation. Investors may currently prefer stocks because the S&P 500 is showing stronger momentum, while crypto charts still look fragile. Until Bitcoin confirms a rebound, capital may continue flowing into equities instead of digital assets.

Trump’s Pro-Crypto Narrative Is Not Saving the Market Yet

Recent posts also show renewed attention around President Trump and his pro-crypto positioning. Some traders are calling him the first pro-crypto president, while others are focusing on his influence on market sentiment.

However, the latest crypto market reaction shows that political narratives alone are not enough to reverse a crash. Even if Trump’s administration is seen as more supportive of crypto, traders still need stronger liquidity, clearer regulation, and better technical confirmation before confidence returns.

In other words, bullish headlines may support long-term sentiment, but they do not automatically stop short-term selling.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Rebound or Drop Toward $70K?

For now, Bitcoin’s next major test is whether it can hold above the current support zone. If $BTC stabilizes above $73,000 and buying volume returns, the market could attempt a recovery toward $78,000–$80,000.

However, if Bitcoin loses momentum and breaks lower, the next key psychological level is around $70,000. A move below that area could deepen the crypto market crash and put more pressure on Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and other major altcoins.

The bullish scenario depends on Bitcoin reclaiming strength and proving that the stock market rally can eventually spill back into crypto. The bearish scenario is that crypto is warning of hidden risk while stocks continue to rally.

Crypto Market Outlook

The current market setup is unusual. Stocks are breaking records, but crypto is still struggling. That makes this moment important for traders because it could signal either a delayed crypto rebound or a deeper divergence between Bitcoin and traditional markets.

For now, the key levels to watch are Bitcoin near $70,000–$73,000, Ethereum around $2,000, and Solana below $85. If these levels hold, the crypto market may still recover. If they fail, the crash could continue before a stronger bottom forms.

$BTC, $ETH, $SOL, $BNB, $XRP, $DOGE, $ADA, $LINK, $ZEC, $XMR, $XLM

The cryptocurrency market is witnessing a stark disconnect between Washington politics and raw market mechanics. Within the last 24 hours, U.S. President Donald Trump aggressively attempted to salvage market sentiment by issuing two highly supportive, pro-crypto statements on his Truth Social platform. Most notably, Trump declared that under his administration, the United States is securely positioned as the "crypto capital of the world," emphatically promising that he will "NEVER let Crypto down!"

Despite this overt rescue attempt from the White House, the market reacted with cold indifference. Instead of an upward rally, the premier digital assets entered a synchronized freefall. The Bitcoin price suffered a sharp drop, dumping over $2,000 to slide into the $73,200 range, while major altcoins like Ethereum ($ETH) and Ripple ($XRP) recorded even steeper percentage losses.

Why is Bitcoin Crashing?

If you are wondering why is bitcoin crashing right as a sitting U.S. President goes out of his way to salvage the industry's regulatory outlook, the fundamental catalyst isn't domestic policy—it is escalating war.

While Trump's verbal rhetoric was bullish, a fresh exchange of U.S.-Iranian military strikes shattered regional ceasefire hopes, triggering global risk-off sentiment. Short-term traders used the temporary political headline pump to exit their positions into stable cash and gold. This flight to safety triggered an aggressive cascade of margin liquidations that dragged down the entire crypto sector, breaking multi-month support zones for several top-tier tokens.

Crypto Crash: Ethereum and XRP Suffer Major Breakdowns

The downside momentum was not isolated to Bitcoin. The broader altcoin market faced intense distribution, invalidating critical psychological floors.

Ethereum ($ETH) Slices Below $2,000

Ethereum experienced a severe technical breakdown, plunging by over 4.8% within 24 hours to trade at $1,987. This marks the first time ETH has closed below the vital $2,000 level since March. Analysts note that after seven consecutive weeks of downward or sideways distribution, the failure to hold the $2,100 support level has opened the door for Ethereum to test the next structural floor near $1,900.

Ripple ($XRP) Crashes Past Key Supports

Ripple’s native token, $XRP, similarly fell victim to the heavy selling pressure, losing roughly 4% of its value to drop to $1.27. The intense selling volume pushed XRP below its strongly defended $1.30 support zone. The asset is facing dual headwinds from stagnant spot ETF inflows and external geopolitical anxieties, with traders now eyeing the $1.10 horizontal support as the next defensive line.

How Trump is Trying to Salvage the Market

To understand Trump's salvage operation, we must look closely at what the administration expressed. Trump's posts targeted two specific pillars of the domestic digital asset landscape that have faced heavy regulatory pressure: structural market legislation and federal regulatory jurisdiction.

Codifying the CLARITY Act: Trump took aim at the "Anti-Crypto Army" and promised to permanently codify a "FUTURE-PROOF Digital Asset Market Structure," referring implicitly to the ongoing legislative push for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act currently awaiting a full Senate floor vote.

Defending Prediction Markets via the CFTC: In his secondary post, Trump came to the defense of prediction markets (such as Polymarket and Kalshi), insisting that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) must retain "exclusive authority" over these platforms to ensure they thrive against state-level restrictions.

Crypto Analysis: Breaking Down the Crypto Price Dumps

An examination of the BTC/USD trading chart and major altcoin pairs shows that the market was already showing signs of severe exhaustion prior to the social media posts.

When the bullish headlines hit, price action experienced a brief, volatile spike before aggressively reversing. From a technical perspective, both BTC and ETH have drifted well below their short-term 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs). If Bitcoin cannot stabilize above $73,000, analysts warn that a deeper correction toward the psychological floor of $70,000 could trigger a broader capitulation.

ETF Outflows and Leverage Flush: $744 Million Wiped Out

The primary underlying mechanism behind the sudden price drop was a massive influx of institutional selling paired with a flush in the derivatives market. Data from Coinglass revealed that spot Bitcoin ETFs suffered a massive single-day outflow of $733 million, led heavily by BlackRock's IBIT fund shedding over $500 million.

This institutional exit exacerbated a massive leverage wipeout in the derivatives market. The broader cryptocurrency market suffered over $744 million in total liquidations within a 12-hour window, with $715 million consisting of forced long liquidations. Trump's attempt to salvage the mood acted as a counter-indicator; instead of driving spot demand, it provided the ideal conditions for whales to distribute assets, trapping over-leveraged retail traders in the process.

Wintermute is providing liquidity on the two biggest prediction markets, linking flows for both firms, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The CFTC issued an order allowing Kalshi to offer perpetual futures in the U.S., starting with contracts tied to Bitcoin's price.

The Sui token is among the worst performing top 100 crypto assets of the last week in the wake of back-to-back outages.

Cooling demand for Bitcoin ETFs adds to declining accumulation by whales, underscoring a trying time for the crypto market.

The man who built the modern NYSE just said Hyperliquid is bigger than Nasdaq. JPMorgan says the debasement trade is unwinding.

Coinbase emerges as the first regulated firm to expand access to global crypto options and perpetual futures in the U.S. following approval from CFTC.

XRP has officially turned red in its monthly return for May as market sentiment increasingly become bearish while its price continues to decline.

Bloomberg analyst explains why falling Bitcoin ETF volatility matters more than millions in outflows from BlackRock and how it brings crypto closer to gold.

Shiba Inu deflationary momentum returns with over 19 million SHIB burned.

XRP Ledger payment activity surged to one of its highest levels in weeks, signaling renewed network participation despite continued price weakness.

Key Highlights

• Federal derivatives regulator authorizes Kalshi and Coinbase for crypto perpetuals trading

• KalshiEX secures groundbreaking approval for U.S. bitcoin perpetual futures contract

• Coinbase receives regulatory clearance for international crypto derivatives offerings

• Federal oversight extends to previously offshore-dominated perpetual futures products

• American cryptocurrency derivatives landscape undergoes substantial regulatory transformation

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has established a federally supervised framework for cryptocurrency perpetual futures within American markets through decisive authorizations granted to Kalshi and Coinbase. This regulatory milestone draws a trading instrument previously concentrated in offshore jurisdictions under U.S. federal derivatives supervision. Crypto trading platforms now possess an explicit pathway to provide perpetual contracts while operating within the commission’s regulatory boundaries.

KalshiEX Secures Bitcoin Perpetual Futures Authorization

The CFTC granted regulatory approval to KalshiEX for launching a bitcoin-linked perpetual futures instrument designated as BTCPERP. This financial product provides market participants with bitcoin price exposure while eliminating traditional expiration requirements. KalshiEX must operate this offering in full compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and associated regulatory mandates.

Perpetual futures contracts enable market participants to establish directional positions on underlying asset values without actual ownership requirements. These instruments differ fundamentally from conventional futures by operating without predetermined settlement dates. They currently represent a substantial segment of worldwide cryptocurrency derivatives volume.

The KalshiEX authorization represents America’s inaugural federally regulated bitcoin perpetual contract available through a registered trading venue. This development significantly broadens Kalshi’s market presence beyond its established prediction market operations into comprehensive derivatives offerings. Furthermore, it delivers to American traders a domestically regulated alternative to products historically confined to international platforms.

Coinbase Secures International Derivatives Market Framework

The federal regulator simultaneously granted a no-action determination to Coinbase Financial Markets concerning digital commodity derivatives instruments. This regulatory stance permits the Coinbase subsidiary to facilitate U.S. customer access to select international options and perpetual futures products. These offerings will process through Coinbase’s Bermuda entity under foreign futures regulatory classification.

The authorization additionally permits Coinbase Financial Markets to accept customer-held digital assets for margin collateral purposes. Eligible collateral assets encompass bitcoin, ether, and approved stablecoins within this regulatory structure. Coinbase now possesses a defined compliance framework for delivering access to international derivatives trading venues.

Coinbase leadership has consistently emphasized that American market participants faced restricted access to substantial portions of global cryptocurrency markets. This regulatory determination substantially reduces that accessibility barrier through federally recognized channels. It positions domestic platforms competitively alongside international venues that currently command perpetual futures trading volume.

Federal Agency Establishes Fresh Crypto Derivatives Policy Direction

The commission released these authorizations concurrent with staff interpretive guidance addressing continuous trading operations, clearing mechanisms, and settlement procedures. Agency officials connected escalating market demand to distributed ledger technology and decentralized market infrastructure. Nevertheless, this guidance lacks the enduring authority associated with formal regulatory rulemaking processes.

The CFTC has employed authorization orders, no-action correspondence, and staff advisory statements to establish cryptocurrency regulatory policy. This methodology provides market participants with immediate operational clarity while legislative bodies and regulatory agencies deliberate permanent rule frameworks. Consequently, subsequent agency leadership transitions or new statutory enactments could materially alter this regulatory architecture.

The federal derivatives regulator now demonstrates enhanced commitment to cryptocurrency perpetuals and market infrastructure within American jurisdiction. The agency simultaneously pursues risk management objectives concerning leverage utilization, price volatility, and systemic stability through regulated trading venues. Kalshi and Coinbase consequently occupy pivotal positions in this substantial transformation of U.S. cryptocurrency derivatives markets.

The post U.S. Crypto Derivatives Market Transforms as CFTC Greenlights Kalshi and Coinbase appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Central bank gold reserves reach 26.6%, the highest since 1993, signaling a major reserve shift.
• Central bank gold reserves growth driven by inflation shocks, sanctions risks, and debt concerns.
• Dollar share drops to 56.3% while gold gains traction as a neutral reserve asset.
• Private investors have doubled gold exposure and accumulation trends in global markets.

Central bank gold reserves are rising across global markets as sovereign institutions shift away from traditional currency exposure.

The latest data shows accelerating accumulation trends driven by macro uncertainty, inflation pressures, and changing geopolitical alignments shaping reserve strategies in 2026.

Global Reserve Rebalancing in Central Bank Gold Reserves

Global accumulation in central bank gold reserves has accelerated as emerging and developed economies reposition reserve portfolios. Data shows gold rising to 26.6 percent of total reserves in 2026, marking the highest level since 1993.

Central banks have increased purchases since 2022, responding to inflation volatility, sanctions risks, and geopolitical fragmentation.

Reserve managers in Asia, Europe, and Latin America have expanded gold holdings opposed to dollar-based settlements. 

Gold’s lack of counterparty risk continues to support its role in reserve diversification strategies globally.

Private sector allocation trends mirror sovereign behavior, with investor exposure to gold increasing to 2.7 percent over five years below historical peaks. 

Market participants are responding to persistent inflation shocks and rising sovereign debt levels across advanced economies.

Gold reserves continue to act as a benchmark for risk perception, influencing broader portfolio strategies. 

At the same time, bullion demand is supported by expectations of long-term monetary fragmentation where multiple reserve blocs compete rather than a single dominant currency system. 

Dollar Pressure and Market Positioning Shifts

Dollar share in global reserves continues to decline as central bank gold reserves expand across multiple regions. IMF data shows the dollar at 56.3 percent of global foreign exchange reserves, down from 57.8 percent in the previous quarter.

Market forecasts from major institutions project sustained demand for gold into 2026, with average central bank purchases estimated at 585 tonnes in early trading periods.

JPMorgan Chase reports that both sovereign and institutional demand remain structurally elevated due to ongoing macro uncertainty.

Recent market data also reflects unusual gold flow dynamics across Asia, particularly in Japan, where exports surged sharply in 2026.

Reports from The Kobeissi Letter show gold exports rising 35.6 percent year over year, driven by elevated global pricing. 

At the same time, imports increased significantly. This creates a widening trade imbalance in physical bullion flows, which analysts attribute to tax arbitrage mechanisms and cross-border movement of previously unaccounted bullion. 

Additionally, corporate revenue concentration trends in the United States show increased economic centralization, reinforcing investor preference for hard assets. This environment continues to shape the global monetary transition framework.

The post Central Bank Gold Reserves Hit Multi-Decade High Amid Dollar Decline appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Wintermute launches two-sided market making operations in prediction markets
• The firm aims to narrow bid-ask spreads across event-based contracts
• Prediction market platforms receive institutional-grade liquidity depth
• Wintermute extends its crypto trading expertise to event-driven instruments
• Event contract venues benefit from enhanced order book depth and stability

Wintermute has launched dual-sided market making operations within prediction market platforms, covering actively traded event contracts. This strategic expansion brings the firm’s institutional-grade trading infrastructure to a rapidly developing market category. The initiative positions Wintermute within a sector increasingly integrated with digital asset infrastructure.

Wintermute Brings Professional Trading to Event-Based Markets

Wintermute is now providing continuous bid and ask pricing for prediction market contracts across major platforms. These platforms collectively process over $20 billion in monthly trading activity as of early 2026. The firm emphasizes that its participation seeks to enhance liquidity depth, reduce pricing spreads, and facilitate larger position sizes.

The London-headquartered algorithmic trading operation manages over $3.5 trillion in yearly trading activity. Its current operations span more than 70 trading venues, encompassing spot markets, derivatives platforms, decentralized finance protocols, and over-the-counter desks. Wintermute is now applying its established execution and risk management frameworks to event-driven trading instruments.

Prediction markets enable participants to trade contracts whose values depend on real-world event outcomes. These events range from regulatory announcements and macroeconomic releases to electoral results, legal decisions, and other publicly verifiable occurrences. Market pricing thus reflects collective probability assessments more directly than traditional financial instruments.

Wintermute’s approach focuses on maintaining continuous two-way quotations across chosen event contracts. The firm simultaneously displays buy and sell prices throughout active trading sessions. Traders therefore access tighter pricing structures and greater available liquidity when entering or exiting positions.

This development arrives as prediction markets evolve beyond specialized forecasting applications. Multiple platforms now incorporate stablecoin collateral, public blockchain infrastructure, and crypto-native settlement mechanisms. This technological foundation aligns with Wintermute’s established capabilities in digital asset trading systems.

Nevertheless, prediction markets continue to exhibit early-stage liquidity characteristics despite growing participant interest. Broader spreads can diminish execution efficiency and weaken the informational content of market prices. Wintermute’s sustained market making activity targets these structural challenges.

Event Contract Markets Attract Institutional Trading Firms

Wintermute views event contracts as direct instruments for trading real-world uncertainty. This structure provides market participants with exposure to specific catalysts without requiring indirect hedging through traditional markets. Institutional traders can therefore express precise views on upcoming events using purpose-built instruments.

The firm’s market entry follows similar initiatives from other prominent digital asset trading operations. Jump Trading has reportedly established market making relationships with Polymarket and Kalshi. Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital has evaluated opportunities to supply liquidity across leading prediction market infrastructure.

These developments demonstrate how crypto-focused trading firms increasingly recognize prediction markets as legitimate trading venues. The sector has achieved meaningful scale because participants seek real-time probability indicators around significant events. Additionally, blockchain-based settlement has enhanced speed and accessibility for certain market structures.

Wintermute’s strategic move also highlights structural similarities between prediction markets and crypto market operations. Many platforms demand robust custody arrangements, collateral management, settlement protocols, and risk oversight systems. The firm already operates these functions across extensive digital asset trading activities.

The liquidity initiative could strengthen price discovery mechanisms within prediction markets. Enhanced depth may reduce dramatic price dislocations during high-activity event periods. Greater order capacity can help markets absorb demand from professional trading operations.

Wintermute joins the prediction market sector as these platforms gain broader financial market recognition. Its two-sided liquidity framework introduces additional structural maturity to markets still developing institutional participation. The firm thereby contributes another foundational element to event-risk trading infrastructure.

The post Wintermute Launches Two-Sided Market Making in Prediction Markets appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• MSCI index rebalancing triggered massive passive fund outflows during Friday’s closing session.
• The Indian stock market crash erased ₹5.77 trillion in investor wealth within a single trading day.
• Monsoon concerns and geopolitical uncertainty added pressure across banking, energy, and auto stocks.
• Sensex plunged 1,092 points while Nifty 50 recorded a sharp 359-point weekly decline.

Indian stock market crash rattled Dalal Street after benchmark indices erased ₹5.77 trillion in investor wealth during Friday’s session.

Aggressive passive fund selling linked to MSCI rebalancing, combined with monsoon concerns and geopolitical uncertainty, triggered one of the sharpest final-hour declines witnessed in recent months.

MSCI Rebalancing Triggers Massive Selloff Across Dalal Street

The crash accelerated sharply during the final 30 minutes of trade as MSCI’s May 2026 index rebalancing came into effect.

Heavy passive institutional flows triggered broad-based selling pressure across benchmark stocks, midcaps, and smallcaps.

The BSE Sensex plunged 1,092 points to settle at 74,775, while the NSE Nifty 50 declined 359 points and closed at 23,547. The total market capitalization of BSE-listed firms dropped by ₹5.77 trillion in a single trading session.

Market participants linked the sudden collapse to benchmark-linked passive funds adjusting portfolios at the closing bell.

Since global funds tracking MSCI indices must replicate benchmark weightings, large-scale buying and selling orders entered the market simultaneously.

Federal Bank, MCX, NALCO, and Indian Bank entered the MSCI Standard Index during the latest review. Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India, Rail Vikas Nigam, Jubilant FoodWorks, and Kalyan Jewellers exited the benchmark, triggering aggressive mechanical selling.

Analysts estimated passive outflows between $800 million and $1 billion during the session. Trading turnover on the NSE cash market also surged sharply as institutions executed rebalancing-related trades before market close.

The final-hour decline erased nearly all intraday gains. Several heavyweight stocks, including Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and ITC, faced concentrated selling pressure during the closing phase.

Monsoon Risks and Global Uncertainty Weigh on Investor Sentiment

Apart from MSCI-driven selling, the Indian stock market crash also reflected rising concerns over India’s monsoon outlook and global geopolitical tensions.

Investors turned cautious after the India Meteorological Department revised the southwest monsoon forecast to 90% of the long-period average.

The updated projection increased fears of weaker agricultural output and elevated food inflation in the coming months. Concerns surrounding possible El Niño conditions further weakened market sentiment during the session.

Global uncertainty also remained a key pressure point. Reports regarding a possible extension of the US-Iran ceasefire arrangement lacked official confirmation from Washington, prompting investors to reduce exposure before the weekend.

Sectoral indices reflected widespread weakness across the market. Oil & Gas stocks dropped 2.75%, while Metal, Auto, Energy, and Utilities sectors also recorded heavy losses.

IT remained the only major sector trading in positive territory, supported by gains in US technology shares and a weaker rupee.

Despite the broader equity selloff, the Indian rupee appreciated nearly 69 paise against the US dollar. Softer crude oil prices supported the currency even as equities witnessed intense volatility.

Market participants are now closely watching the RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled for June 3–5. Investors are also monitoring crude oil movements, monsoon developments, and additional updates surrounding US-Iran negotiations as volatility continues across Indian equities.

The post Indian Stock Market Crash Erases ₹5.77T After MSCI-Led Selloff appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Midnight Network went live on March 30, 2026, with nine institutional-grade nodes producing blocks in a federated phase.
• Six dApp proposals merged between May 8–19, spanning DeFi, medical consent, and supply-chain traceability use cases.
• Compact DSL compiles TypeScript-like contract code directly into ZK circuits, enabling three programmable disclosure modes per dApp.
• Two stablecoin proposals are under review, which are critical for enabling functional trading pairs on already-approved DEX platforms.

Midnight Network is redefining blockchain privacy through a programmable disclosure model that moves beyond the traditional binary approach.

Rather than forcing projects to choose between full transparency or complete shielding, the Cardano partner chain allows contracts to specify exactly which data fields are visible and to whom.

Since mainnet launched on March 30, 2026, in a federated phase, the network has already merged six third-party dApp deployment requests across key sectors including DeFi, healthcare, and supply-chain management.

Midnight’s Technical Architecture Enables Selective Data Visibility

The network runs on three core components that work together to enable this disclosure model. Compact, a TypeScript-like domain-specific language, compiles contract source directly into zero-knowledge circuits.

The Kachina protocol processes private state transitions off-chain and submits only the ZK proof to the ledger. A dual-state ledger then maintains public and shielded state in separate stores.

This structure supports three disclosure modes within a single contract. Data can be committed openly to the chain as public, decrypted by specified parties through auditor mode, or kept entirely private with only a ZK proof visible.

All three modes are already active on midnight.city, the official AI-agent simulation running since February 26, 2026.

The network also separates its token functions deliberately. NIGHT handles value and governance, while DUST is a shielded, non-transferable resource covering transaction fees.

This keeps operational costs out of counterparty visibility and removes MEV as a structural concern for institutional flows.

Nine institutional-grade nodes currently produce blocks: Google Cloud, MoneyGram, Vodafone’s Pairpoint division, eToro, Worldpay, Bullish, AlphaTON Capital, Blockdaemon, and Shielded Technologies.

Decentralization will follow in subsequent phases as Cardano stake pool operators begin producing blocks for both networks.

dApp Deployment Pipeline Reflects Diverse Real-World Use Cases

Between May 8 and 19, 2026, six dApp proposals merged into the Midnight Improvement Proposal repository. These covered a spot order-book DEX, a hybrid AMM DEX, a perpetuals contract, a medical consent registry, an ambassador directory, and a fishery traceability log.

Four more proposals remain under review, including two stablecoins, one NFT project, and one payment application.

Each proposal undergoes a risk assessment across three axes: Privacy-at-risk, Value-at-risk, and State-space-at-risk.

The gyotak fishery traceability contract scored 1/1/1 across all three, committing hashes of GPS, photo, and species data per catch.

NexiFuse, the medical consent registry, scored 2 on the privacy axis since consent graph leakage remains regulated PII.

The two stablecoin proposals currently under review are particularly relevant. The merged DEXs require a stable unit of account before meaningful trading pairs can function. This points toward composability as the next development layer taking shape on the network.

Analytical tooling for ZK circuit correctness, metadata boundaries, and off-chain trust models is developing alongside these first dApps, positioning Midnight for regulated finance and healthcare workloads at scale.

The post Midnight Network Launches Programmable Disclosure Framework for Blockchain Privacy appeared first on Blockonomi.

Crypto markets traded lower over the past seven days, with Bitcoin leading the decline as investors shifted away from risk assets. BTC started the week near the $77,000-$78,000 range but steadily lost momentum, falling toward roughly $ 73,000 by Friday.

This move undoubtedly reflected a combination of macro pressure, renewed ETF outflows, and weaker liquidity rather than a single industry-specific event.

It goes without saying that the biggest theme was the fading institutional demand. US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw notable redemptions, with over a billion dollars leaving in a single day. At the same time, large-holder activity picked up, with whale outflows reaching their highest level since February, which added to concerns that some investors are preparing to offload into weakness.

Macro headlines also played their part. Geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran have reduced hopes for near-term rate cuts, weighing on speculative assets. Moreover, analysts reported that central banks are adding to their gold reserves at an unprecedented rate, signaling broader risk-off market sentiment.

Altcoins followed Bitcoin lower – at least most of them. Ethereum is hovering near $2,000, and risk appetite remains cautious, to say the least.

Overall, the week showed that crypto remains highly sensitive to ETF flows and macro risk. Bitcoin’s failure to hold its price around the mid-$70s level leaves the market looking rather defensive heading into next week.

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.54T | 24H Vol: $83B | BTC Dominance: 57.7%

BTC: $73,158 (-5.4%) | ETH: $1,995 (-5.9%) | XRP: $1.33 (-3.4%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

SpaceX Pre-IPO Market Flash-Crashes 45% on Hyperliquid. The pre-IPO market for SpaceX on Hyperliquid, powered by Ventuals, went through a sudden flash crash. Its price tanked by 45% in moments before recovering, causing mass liquidations. Ventuals has said that affected traders will be compensated.

Google Engineer Accused of Turning Secret Search Data Into a $1.2M Polymarket Profit. US prosecutors have charged a software engineer from Google with allegedly using confidential information to profit from betting on Polymarket. He allegedly made $1.2 million by using proprietary search data.

Hyperliquid Adds Macro Prediction Markets, HYPE Explodes Above $64. Hyperliquid has expanded the suite of available outcome markets on its platform. Initially, only fixed bets on Bitcoin’s daily price were available, but now users can trade on macro events such as monthly CPI prints and more.

Coinbase CEO Reveals What Still Needs to Change Before Finance Truly Evolves. Brian Armstrong said that the financial system still requires major upgrades. He emphasized that significant technological innovation and policy work will be needed to achieve them.

Galaxy Digital and BitGo Clash in Court Over Failed $1.2 Billion Crypto Merger. BitGo and Galaxy Digital continue their courtroom clash over the collapse of a $1.2 billion acquisition agreement that was once expected to become the largest merger in the industry.

Sui Network Hit by Fresh Outage Months After Previous Six-Hour Downtime Incident. Sui Network has once again experienced considerable downtime. The blockchain went offline for nearly six hours on Thursday. It’s far from the first time this has happened as well.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Hyperliquid – click here for the complete price analysis.

The post Bitcoin, Altcoin Prices Slide on ETF Outflows and Macro Risk: The Weekly Crypto Recap appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Around 85,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, May 29, with a notional value of roughly $6.3 billion. This event is larger than usual for the end of the month, so it may affect spot markets.

Crypto markets have been in decline all week, with around $120 billion leaving the space as Bitcoin continues to weaken and Ether gets crushed.

Escalation of US military action in the Middle East has pushed investors into panic mode, and the sell-off has accelerated.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.85, meaning that sellers of longs and shorts are pretty evenly matched. Max pain is around $75,000, according to Coinglass, which is a little higher than current spot prices, so some could be out of the money on expiry.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at the $80,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.7 billion, but short sellers still have $1.2 billion in OI at $60,000. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been declining recently, and is at $37.5 billion, according to Coinglass.

Although Bitcoin has fallen to a “very dangerous level,” implied volatility (IV) has not risen significantly, reported derivatives provider Greeks Live on Thursday.

Under these circumstances, today’s expiry appears likely to “significantly alter the current options position structure,” they added.

“The market as a whole is still betting on support, and large investors’ concerns about the risk of a breakout have not increased significantly.”

BTC’s price has begun to break below the Gex concentration zone, and the resistance from open interest will continue to weaken. Meanwhile, since Gex is concentrated around $2,000, ETH has also broken below the Gex resistance level.

Although BTC has fallen to a very dangerous… pic.twitter.com/INeioAIqMP

— Greeks.live (@GreeksLive) May 28, 2026

In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 650,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $1.3 billion, max pain at $2,200, and a put/call ratio of 0.77. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $6.9 billion.

This brings the total crypto options expiry notional value to around $7.6 billion, the largest event for many weeks.

Spot Market Outlook

Markets have been falling all week, with total capitalization dipping to $2.55 trillion on Friday morning in Asia, their lowest level since April 13.

BTC managed to recover $73,000 after falling below it twice on Thursday, but its market structure remains weak and further losses look likely.

ETH had reclaimed $2,000 at the time of writing, but also looked very weak and deep in bear market territory.

Crypto could be further pressured by US inflation, which increased at its fastest pace in three years in April as measured by this week’s PCE report.

The post Will Crypto Markets Fall Further When $6.3B Bitcoin Options Expire? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

On May 29, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin Strategy transferred 411.48 BTC, worth over $30 million, to Coinbase Prime, a move that immediately drew attention across the crypto community as traders tried to read the intent from the on-chain activity.

The timing was especially hard to ignore considering that on Polymarket, the probability that Strategy will sell some of its Bitcoin before December 31, 2026 has now hit 84%.

What the Transfer Could Mean

Depositing BTC to an exchange does not automatically mean that the holder is looking to sell. This was noted by pseudonymous crypto analyst COINBOY, who pointed out that funds moved to Coinbase Prime could be for OTC trading, collateral arrangement, or institutional fund management rather than outright liquidation. Keep that distinction in mind before reading too much into a single on-chain transaction.

However, what gave Strategy’s move more weight is the context around it, with the company’s Executive Chairman Michael Saylor recently declining to rule out selling some BTC before year-end, a notable departure from the hold-at-all-cost image he’s spent years building.

That change in mindset was revealed on Strategy’s Q1 2026 earnings call, where the firm reported $12.5 billion in net losses for the period. During the call, Saylor suggested that the company could liquidate part of its BTC stash to pay dividends, a position that was defended by Bitcoin maximalist Samson Mow, who said that the “never sell” mantra long associated with Saylor should not be taken as some kind of corporate oath but as guidance for individual holders, since any BTC treasury company that completely rules out selling would be handing a roadmap to short sellers that could hurt it.

There’s also the question of what Strategy did earlier this week when, instead of buying more Bitcoin as is the tradition, it repurchased approximately $1.5 billion of its own 0% convertible senior notes that were due in 2029. Analyst Darkfost framed the move as a balance sheet cleanup rather than the company rethinking its BTC plan, although Saylor himself had once again hinted in an interview that one of the options Strategy had considered to fund the repurchase was Bitcoin sales.

Interestingly, hours before on-chain tracking platform Lookonchain reported on Strategy’s 411 BTC deposit on Coinbase Prime, the executive posted a one-word tweet on X that simply read, “HODL.”

Where Bitcoin Stands

While speculation about Strategy’s intention was running rife, BTC itself was being buffeted by geopolitical developments, with the OG cryptocurrency losing more than $2,000 from its value after hostilities between the USA and Iran resumed. That session was quite rough, as it saw crypto markets shed over $100 million in total capitalization, with liquidations across derivatives topping $1 billion.

Today, at the time of writing, BTC was about $300 short of $74,000, having dipped by almost 5% in 7 days and nearly the same percentage in the last month. For Strategy, whose 843,738 BTC were purchased at around $75,700 per coin, the current price range puts its overall position modestly in the red on paper.

The post Strategy Moves $30 Million in BTC to Coinbase Amid Sell Speculation appeared first on CryptoPotato.

This Friday, we examine Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Hyperliquid in greater detail.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is down 6% this week after sellers managed to put pressure on the $2,000 support. At the time of this post, this level appears to be holding, but only by a thread. Another push later could turn it into key resistance.

If $2,000 is lost next week, buyers will likely retreat to support at $1,800. This level managed to halt the downtrend previously, but another visit there could be interpreted as bearish, with a higher chance of a breakdown.

Looking ahead, this cryptocurrency remains in a bearish trend with sentiment being quite negative. This will likely fuel new lows as the downtrend continues into the summer of 2026.

Ripple (XRP)

XRP also had a bad week, closing with a 4% loss. Its price fell below the blue pennant, which is now acting as resistance. Sellers are defending the level at $1.4 and the key support levels are found at $1.2 and $1 where buyers are likely to return.

If this weakness continues, this cryptocurrency is likely to revisit the support levels in the coming weeks. Sellers are also controlling the price and have dominated for over three weeks with no relief.

Looking ahead, XRP is in a difficult position because its downtrend has been ongoing for almost a year. There were no major relief rallies, and any bounce was short-lived. Hopefully, a bottom is found soon, with $1 as a prime candidate.

Cardano (ADA)

ADA has entered dangerous territory after its price pierced through the support at $0.24. While it is still early to call it, this breakdown could be a significant loss of trust as the price falls to new lows.

Cardano also closed the week with a 7% loss, being unable to stop sellers from pushing the price down. The support at $0.24 held well for several months, but it seems this latest push may seal its fate.

Looking ahead, if $0.24 becomes resistance in the coming days, this cryptocurrency may make new lows not seen since 2021. If so, key target areas will be found at $0.20 and $0.15.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance Coin continues to disappoint, as its price has failed to break the $690 resistance level several times. This has forced it to bounce in a flat trend for months, testing the support at $580 and resistance at $690 several times. It also closed the week with a 3% loss.

Without a clear breakout, BNB could end up making lower lows, as the overall market bias is bearish. Therefore, sellers have the advantage and they could soon try their luck again at the key support. If that won’t hold, bears will target $ 500 next.

Looking ahead, this cryptocurrency may pause, moving sideways before its downtrend resumes. This is contingent on the overall market remaining bearish. Should Bitcoin make new lows, BNB is likely to follow as well based on this price action.

Hype (HYPE)

HYPE closed this week 6% higher, but it appears to have hit a ceiling somewhere around $64. Since that level was visited, sellers managed to put a stop to the rally and the price has been hesitating to make new gains.

With sellers becoming more aggressive, the most likely scenario here is a pullback towards the low $50 before HYPE attempts new highs. A correction would also be ideal to consolidate the recent gains after such a spectacular performance in recent weeks.

Looking ahead, if HYPE manages to test and confirm $52 as support, then it can use that level as a base towards new highs later. The current resistance at $63 continues to hold and will need to turn into support for the rally to resume.

The post Crypto Price Analysis May-29: ETH, XRP, ADA, BNB, and HYPE appeared first on CryptoPotato.

XRP-linked exchange-traded funds continue to attract investor demand despite the broader crypto market downturn.

The latest data shows that XRP ETF clients bought $1.77 million in XRP yesterday, bringing total net assets to about $1.12 billion.

XRP Funds Defy Broader ETF Weakness

The fresh XRP inflow comes at a moment when Bitcoin and Ethereum products have been hit by renewed outflows. Investors seem to be pulling back from riskier assets amid a broader crypto market downturn. Data from SoSoValue shows that US BTC spot ETFs record $228M in outflows, while ETH products lost $121M.

Against that backdrop, XRP’s $1.77 million inflow might seem modest in size, but it could be interpreted as notable in direction. It indicates that some ETF investors continue to accumulate exposure to Ripple’s native cryptocurrency despite the fact that capital is exiting BTC and ETH products.

Of course, the inflow has been far from enough to reverse XRP’s weakening price action, although positive signs appear.

XRP Price Notes Small Rebound

XRP is showing a modest rebound today, with the token trading around 2% higher. That said, the move has not fully erased the recent bearish pressure.

As CryptoPotato reported earlier, XRP recently slipped towards its lowest levels since March, eyeing $1.20 as the next major support zone.

Technical pressure has also been intense throughout the past week. XRP fell below its 100-day moving average, which is currently treated as considerable resistance at $1.4, while the 200-day moving average remains higher around $1.6.

A breakdown below $1.2 could open the door to a much deeper decline, potentially toward the zone around $0.60.

And yet, the contrast seems clear: ETF demand remains positive, but price momentum is still bearish. The first step to stabilizing the PA would be to reclaim the 100-day EMA at $1.4.

The post Good News for Ripple? XRP ETFs Post Inflows Despite Market Downturn appeared first on CryptoPotato.