Heightened U.S.-Iran tensions could disrupt global oil markets and influence geopolitical alliances, impacting international diplomatic dynamics.

The post Trump warns Iran of consequences amid rising military tensions appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Trump's hardline stance may prolong US-Iran tensions, reducing chances for diplomatic resolutions and impacting regional stability and markets.

The post Trump’s hardline stance dims prospects for US-Iran nuclear deal appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Iran's leadership instability could lead to significant geopolitical shifts, affecting regional power dynamics and global market perceptions.

The post Iran’s new leader absent from talks, raising leadership stability concerns appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Increased US-Iran tensions may lead to military action, impacting nuclear deal prospects and heightening geopolitical instability.

The post Trump says US surveils Iran’s enriched uranium, plans extraction appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

A potential end to the conflict could stabilize the region, reduce global tensions, and shift geopolitical alliances, impacting future diplomacy.

The post Putin signals potential end to war in Ukraine, blames West for prolonging conflict appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

What does Bitcoin “Power Projection” mean to the U.S. Military? 

On April 21st and 22nd 2026, during a Senate Armed Services Committee, Admiral Samuel Paparo of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command made comments on Bitcoin’s utility in cybersecurity for the country’s military, calling it a “valuable computer science tool as power projection,” and disclosing that INCOPACOM is running a Bitcoin node in their experiments with the protocol.  

The comments by the INCOPACOM Commander came just days after the Islamic Republic of Iran demanded payment in Bitcoin for safe passage across the Strait of Hormuz. The mention of “power projection” echoed the work of a famous and controversial Bitcoiner, Jason Lowery, author of Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection, MIT Fellow and Special Assistant to the Commander of INDOPACOM. 

In his work — which involved an MIT thesis and book expanding on his work — Lowery discussed the cybersecurity value of Bitcoin and its unique ability to deliver “power projection” in cyberspace, a landscape of national security and military operations that otherwise lacks traditional deterrence options. 

The book gained significant popularity and earned Lowery both fans and critics across the Bitcoin industry, but was later taken down from distribution by Lowery at the request of his superiors. An event that suggested to some that the book might have something important enough that the U.S. military wants to keep it quiet. 

But what is this unique value that Bitcoin brings to military matters, and what does “Power Projection” in this context actually mean? 

According to Department of Defense’s 2002 Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, power projection is; “The ability of a nation to apply all or some of its elements of national power – political, economic, informational, or military – to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain forces in and from multiple dispersed locations to respond to crises, to contribute to deterrence, and to enhance regional stability.” In other words, the ability of a nation to influence the behavior of other nations or political entities of interest, at a range beyond its national borders. Examples can range from diplomatic to economic influence, as well as military capabilities such as long-range missiles, drones or a powerful navy. 

The word deterrence is also doing a lot of work here. The DoD defines it as: “The prevention from action by fear of the consequences. Deterrence is a state of mind brought about by the existence of a credible threat of unacceptable counteraction.”

Lowery brings Bitcoin into the world of deterrence in the physical world by presenting a particularly interesting insight. That just as microchips are essentially wires moving electric power in “encoded logic” inside a computer’s motherboard, so can the globe’s electric grid be seen as a kind of “macrochip”, with giant wires moving large amounts of electricity from power sources across nations and throughout the world. These macrochips now also have logic gates in the form of Bitcoin mines — Lowery argues — they consume large quantities of energy, converting it into the scarce digital asset, which can be programmed via Bitcoin script. 

The Bitcoin macrochip could, in theory, bind cybersecurity matters to the physical world, since energy output is one of the most important and expensive resources a nation can muster. While governments can print paper money at will, summoning massive amounts of electricity to influence something like Bitcoin’s proof of work competition is orders of magnitude more difficult and is the basis of Bitcoin’s resilience.

Bitcoin’s Multisignature Deterrence

The most obvious and powerful demonstration of Bitcoin’s “embedded logic” security is the invention of multisignature Bitcoin wallets, which safeguard much of the Bitcoin wealth today. 

Multisignature wallets require multiple predefined private keys to sign valid transactions before Bitcoin can be transferred, making it possible to geographically decentralize the storage of Bitcoin private keys across space and jurisdictions. 

Multisig challenges hackers not just to hack one key pair, but multiple, across multiple locations under time constraints, since users have the advantage of legitimate access to those keys and can potentially move the bitcoin quickly in response to a threat. Hackers must gain access to enough keys while also fooling alarms and safeguards, avoiding getting caught. Multisig imposes high costs on attackers and, as such, might very well fit the definition of ‘deterrence’. It may even fit the definition of ‘power projection’ as Bitcoin funds can be kept secure and available to be sent when needed anywhere in the world, thanks to Bitcoin’s other networking-based censorship resistance qualities. 

This differs from traditional finance and its centralized databases since Banks can freeze and confiscate assets from their rightful owners when pressured politically, as seen in cases like that of Cyprus and their 40% bail in, or the United States’ confiscation of Russia’s foreign treasury reserves held in European custody.

But INDOPACOM did not explicitly talk about Bitcoin, the asset, in their comments; they seemed to think Bitcoin’s proof of work protocol could secure data and networks external to the Bitcoin asset. But the Bitcoin script, the logic internal to the Bitcoin blockchain, only governs BTC, its internal asset. 

For external networks to benefit from Bitcoin’s powerful proof of work macrochip, they would have to be anchored to Bitcoin somehow, and that’s where much of Lowery’s thesis starts to stall out. He does, however, develop this idea further by proposing the “Electro-Cyber Dome”.

Cyber Security Threats and the Electro-Cyber Dome

In Software 2.5, Lowery argues that “software system security vulnerabilities are derived from insufficient constraints on control signals” sent to networked machines. An example of this might be fake login attempts that cost a website more computer resources to authenticate than they cost attackers to send. Lowery adds that such vulnerabilities “can be exploited in such a way that it puts software into insecure or hazardous states.” Examples of such network security exploits include, but are not limited to:

• Email spam and comment spam — superfluous emails and comments that flood inboxes or forums.
• Sybil attacks — creation of large numbers of fake identities to manipulate systems.
• Bots and troll farms — automated or coordinated accounts used to amplify malicious activity.
• Weaponized misinformation/disinformation campaigns — flooding networks with false or manipulated information.
• Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks — flooding networks with superfluous control signals (service requests) to overwhelm bandwidth.
• Forged or replayed control signals — impersonating legitimate commands, orders, or data that put software into insecure/hazardous states.
• Systemic exploitation of administrative permissions/insider abuse — exploitation of trust-based hierarchies where high-privilege accounts can be compromised or misused.

Lowery suggests that other networks could defend themselves against all of these threats to some significant degree using proof of work (POW) protocols like Bitcoin’s.

In the Bitcoin white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto defined Bitcoin’s POW quite elegantly: “The proof-of-work involves scanning for a value that when hashed, such as with SHA-256, the hash begins with a number of zero bits. The average work required is exponential in the number of zero bits required and can be verified by executing a single hash.”

Nakamoto specifically references Adam Back’s “Hash Cash, A Denial of Service Counter-Measure”, which was designed to make email spam costly by requiring computers sending an email to produce a POW stamp of a difficulty defined by the recipient of the email. Recipient servers would need to keep a list of stamps already used, in order to prevent reuse of the same work by attackers, aka to prevent “double-spending” attacks. These stamps, however, were not transferable, a quality which some cypherpunks wanted in their pursuit of digital money. Hal Finney was one such engineer who furthered the field by inventing RPOW, or reusable proof of work.

RPOW essentially tokenized POW stamps via a centralized server that kept track and facilitated transfers. One of Nakamoto’s key innovations was decentralizing this server and its list of spent stamps, in the form of the blockchain, while also defining a global difficulty algorithm that all Bitcoin miners must satisfy, rather than relative difficulty targets chosen by each website at will. 

Lowery, in his concept of the Electro-Cyber Dome, is essentially talking about Hash Cash. He specifically says that servers can choose the difficulty target they see fit, and never proposes that the Dome would or should use Bitcoin’s SHA-256 protocol, though it is implied in his idea of the macrochip. What he does do is use Bitcoin as the principal example of such a cybersecurity network actually working at scale; “We know for sure that electro-cyber domes can function successfully as a security protocol because this is what Bitcoin uses to secure itself and its own bits of information against systemic exploitation.”

Lowery goes further than defense, pointing out that as such systems gain adoption, a concept of aggression becomes possible by large miners, he writes; “it should be noted that this wouldn’t be a strictly “defensive” power projection capability…People with access to proof-of-power can theoretically “smash” through these electro-cyber dome defenses if desired. Thus, proof-of-power protocols are not strictly “defense only” protocols as some have argued. A top threat to people using physical cost function protocols like Bitcoin is other people using the same protocol (hence why Nakamoto mentions the word “attack” 25 times in an 8-page whitepaper, each time referring to people running the same protocol).”

Criticisms of Lowery’s Softwar Thesis 

Lowery’s Softwar thesis can be fairly described as controversial within the Bitcoin community. It’s optimistic take that large portions of military conflict could instead be settled via hash rate wars in some future has been described by Shinobi at Bicoin Magazine as “delusional”. 

Broadly speaking, critics reject the idea that data or networks external to Bitcoin can be secured in any way with Bitcoin’s technology stack, be it its POW, its blockchain or its native asset. Jameson Lopp did a multi-part review of Lowery’s thesis and book, praising many aspects of the thesis but ultimately dismissing its conclusions, saying that: “Softwar falls short on acting as a blueprint for how we should build the future.”

The most obvious question to me is whether using SHA-256 proof of work to gatekeep access to networks outside of Bitcoin makes sense in the first place, or if it could even be considered using Bitcoin. If the Electro-Cyber Dome is not demanding a high enough POW difficulty to mine any Bitcoin, if it does not use Bitcoin’s target difficulty, its asset or its blockchain, then is it using Bitcoin? 

Furthermore, given that China has the bulk of the ASIC manufacturing industry for Bitcoin mining, would INDOPACOM — the U.S. military branch in charge of keeping the Indo Pacific in check — really want to secure its cyber networks with algorithms that China mass produces chips to brute force? That seems like an awkward decision to make at best, and is more likely to lead them to consider alternative POW algorithms. But at that point, they certainly would not be using Bitcoin and would lose the macrochip argument. It would instead be using classic Hash Cash, and maybe that’s the lesson in this story. Lowery’s affinity with Bitcoin might be more of a marketing strategy and a shout-out to an industry that inspired him, rather than the actual tool that INDOPACOM might end up using.  

The Happy Middle Ground

In the gap between theory, implementation, and criticisms of Software style ideas, there exist some projects that serve as young but curious examples of how Bitcoin can secure more than money. 

SimpleProof, an Open Time Stamps-based Bitcoin notary of sorts, has been using the blockchain to record hashes of data, demonstrating that a certain version existed at a certain time. This very narrow use of Bitcoin as a time-stamping server helped defend one side of the Guatemala elections a few years ago from accusations of fraud by the opposition, resulting in real political consequences for the country. 

Michael Saylor, on the other hand, led the creation of what some have called the Orange Checkmark protocol on top of Bitcoin. This tech stack, which can be found on Github, is a privacy preserving Bitcoin native decentralized digital identity system. It gained some interest from the Bitcoin community when it was announced a couple of years ago, but it does not appear to have gained any adoption. 

Finally and ironically enough, Jameson Lopp, perhaps Lowery’s most verbose critic with three dedicated articles on the topic, actually implemented a proof-of-work-based spam protection mechanism on his website for a submission form, which, according to Lopp, works well. So if even he can see the use of these old ideas, even if just based on Hash Cash, then perhaps we will one day see Bitcoin-like technologies used to secure the networks and data of the world. 

This post What does Bitcoin “Power Projection” mean to the U.S. Military?  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

ANTPOOL, Block Inc, F2Pool, Foundry, Spiderpool, MARA Foundation & DMND Join Stratum v2 Working Group

The Stratum v2 Working Group announces today that ANTPOOL, Block Inc, F2Pool, Foundry, Spiderpool, MARA Foundation, and DMND have joined the working group to advance the adoption of the Stratum v2 protocol. 

The working group was founded in 2022 by Braiins and Spiral to develop and maintain the Stratum v2 protocol as an open and vendor-neutral specification usable by the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. The protocol is an upgrade to the original Stratum mining protocol, bringing massive efficiency gains, privacy, security, and functionality that can be used to improve overall mining decentralization. 

The onboarding of the new members, all substantial players in the mining ecosystem, represents a big leap forward for the working group’s progress in ensuring proper functioning and compatibility across real-world mining operations at scale. It also shows a growing consensus in the mining ecosystem that Stratum v2 is the direction to take going into the future. 

“We’re proud to support the broader adoption of Stratum V2. Aligning around an open, interoperable standard enables the industry to collaborate more effectively and drive improvements in efficiency, security and decentralization,” said Andy Zhou, CEO of ANTPOOL. 

Stratum v2 supports mechanisms for more efficient management of large fleets of miners, is end-to-end encrypted, and allows individual miners to produce their own block templates with supporting pools (among other features). 

Kenway Wang, CTO of Spiderpool had this to say: “Decentralization is core to our mission. Stratum V2 supports this by enabling miner-constructed templates, while also improving efficiency, especially for miners in bandwidth-constrained environments.” 

About the Stratum V2 Working Group

The Stratum V2 Working Group is an open collaboration initiative dedicated to advancing the development, adoption, and interoperability of the Stratum V2 mining protocol. It maintains a public specification and provides a coordination layer between developers and industry stakeholders.

This post ANTPOOL, Block Inc, F2Pool, Foundry, Spiderpool, MARA Foundation & DMND Join Stratum v2 Working Group first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Shinobi.

Bitcoin Magazine

Why eBay Should Ignore GameStop and Use Bitcoin to Save $1.2 Billion in Transaction Costs

Ryan Cohen’s unsolicited $55.5 billion unsolicited bid to absorb eBay into GameStop has the corporate world doing a double-take. Cohen’s pitch sounds seductive on paper: he promises to slash $2 billion in bloated overhead and instantly rocket eBay’s diluted GAAP earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79 in year one.

But behind the flashy presentation lies a massive hurdle: a highly speculative cash-and-stock structure that requires taking on $20 billion in new debt from TD Securities and drastically diluting GameStop’s own stock to buy a company four times its size. Analysts and investors are deeply skeptical, which is why eBay’s stock continues to trade well below Cohen’s $125 offer price.

eBay’s board doesn’t need a smaller, meme-backed retailer to step in and aggressively strip its budget to find efficiency. Instead, they can look at a real-world blueprint proving that true operational efficiency isn’t found by gutting marketing, it’s found by upgrading the payment layer.

By taking a page out of the broader digital asset ecosystem and looking at how legacy brand Steak ‘n Shake just revolutionized its business model, eBay can unlock a massive structural victory completely on its own terms.

The Proof of Concept: The Steak ‘n Shake Case Study

When the national burger chain Steak ‘n Shake activated Bitcoin Lightning Network payments across its locations, it wasn’t just a marketing gimmick. The real-world data completely flipped the script on corporate retail finance:

• 50% Fee Savings: Steak ‘n Shake’s leadership confirmed that processing payments over the decentralized Bitcoin Lightning protocol instantly cut their payment transaction costs right in half compared to legacy credit card networks.
• The Strategic Reserve: Instead of converting those savings back to fiat, they funneled the capital directly into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to fund employee bonuses, creating an organic, self-reinforcing financial flywheel.

The Opportunity Cost: What This Math Means for eBay

The Payments Blindspot

eBay is an e-commerce titan, facilitating massive scale across its global marketplace. In its fiscal year 2025 financial results, eBay reported steady momentum, yet it remains anchored to traditional payment rails. Because eBay runs its own internal payment infrastructure (eBay Managed Payments), it is stuck swallowing massive transaction fees from legacy credit card cartels, passing those costs onto sellers via a hefty ~13.25% take-rate.

While eBay guards its exact net processing fees, traditional credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) charge large digital merchants an average global interchange and processing toll hovering between 2.5% and 3.5%.

Assuming a standard 3% merchant legacy swipe fee across eBay’s massive $80 billion volume, replicating Steak ‘n Shake’s proven 50% reduction in processing costs reveals a staggering annual opportunity cost currently paid to the banking cartel:

• $80B (Annual GMV) x 3% (Est. Legacy Swipe Fee) = $2.4B in Friction
• $2.4B x 50% (Lightning Efficiency) = $1.2B Annually

The Treasury Blindspot

While eBay has been letting its $2.92B in cash reserves sit in low-yield traditional treasury notes (generating a baseline productivity of just 12.23%), the opportunity cost of ignoring Bitcoin over the last three years has turned into a multi-billion dollar boardroom mistake.

If eBay’s board had allocated 100% of those reserves to Bitcoin instead of flat fiat cash, that treasury would have grown by a massive 1,406%. That represents a $5.02B unrealized gain that eBay completely left on the table.

Try the Bitcoin Treasury simulator.

Legacy Credit Card Rails vs. The Bitcoin Lightning Network

Instead of letting a leveraged buyout dictate its future, a native crypto payment layer permanently restructures eBay’s economics in favor of its 135 million active users [1.1].

3 Reasons Why the Payment Play Beats Cohen’s Takeover

1. It Protects Shareholders from Volatile Corporate Debt

GameStop’s proposal relies on stitching together an unconfirmed $20 billion financing letter and highly unpredictable meme-stock equity to cover the massive acquisition. Integrating a decentralized payment protocol, by comparison, costs eBay virtually nothing to implement. It expands profit margins organically without adding a single dollar of toxic corporate leverage to the balance sheet.

2. It Empowers the Lifeblood of eBay: The Sellers

Ryan Cohen intends to extract value by aggressively cutting $1.2 billion from eBay’s sales and marketing budget. Tech-forward payment integration takes the opposite approach: it extracts value from the banks. Passing a massive fee reduction back to power-sellers gives them an overwhelming incentive to list their best inventory exclusively on eBay rather than moving to independent storefronts or Amazon.

3. It Dominates the Collectibles Market Automatically

A massive pillar of GameStop’s buyout logic is using its 1,600 brick-and-mortar storefronts as physical hubs to authenticate trading cards and luxury items. However, the high-end collectibles market is already deeply intertwined with digital asset wealth. Seamlessly allowing global buyers to purchase a luxury watch or a rare comic book natively via Bitcoin unlocks a vast ecosystem of highly liquid global capital that a physical retail storefront simply cannot replicate.

The Ultimate Counter-Punch

GameStop is targeting eBay because it views the platform as a massive cash-generating engine that has grown technologically stagnant. Rather than allowing a smaller company to leverage itself to the hilt for a takeover, eBay’s board can render GameStop’s cost-cutting thesis totally obsolete.

By using the retail industry’s blueprint to fix its payment layer, cutting out banking monopolies, and returning $1.2 billion in annual savings to the marketplace, eBay can drive its own historic earnings boost, proving it doesn’t need a savior to dominate the future of digital commerce.

Disclaimer: This content was prepared on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations for informational purposes only. It reflects the author’s own analysis and opinion and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, invitation, or solicitation to purchase, sell, or subscribe for any security or financial product.

References

• [1.1] GameStop Investor Relations. (2026). GameStop Proposes to Acquire eBay at $125.00 Per Share. GameStop Investor Relations
• [1.2] ANI News. (2026). GameStop proposes to acquire ebay at USD 125 per share in cash and stock. ANI News
• [1.3] Bitcoin Magazine. (2026). Steak ‘n Shake Says Bitcoin Payments Cut Processing Costs by 50%, Save $6 Million Annually. Bitcoin Magazine
• [1.4] CoinoMedia via Binance Square. (2025). Steak ‘n Shake Saves Big with Bitcoin Payments. Binance Square
• [1.5] Reddit r/Bitcoin. (2026). Steak ‘n Shake Says Bitcoin Payments Cut Processing Costs by 50%, Save $6 Million Annually. Reddit
• [2.1] Kotaku. (2026). GameStop’s Absurd Bid To Buy eBay For $56 Billion Sounds Bad. Kotaku
• [2.2] Digital Transactions. (2026). How Steak ‘n Shake Slashed Costs With Crypto. Digital Transactions
• [2.3] MyBroadband. (2026). GameStop offers R930 billion for eBay. MyBroadband
• [2.4] Reddit r/Bitcoin. (2026). Starting March 1, Steak n Shake will give all hourly employees at its company-operated restaurants a Bitcoin bonus. Reddit
• [3.1] Bitcoin Magazine. (2026). Steak ‘n Shake Teases “Bitcoin Milkshake” For Bitcoin Conference 2026. Bitcoin Magazine
• [4.1] eBay Inc. Investor Relations. (2026). eBay Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results. eBay Investor Relations
• [4.2] Value Added Resource. (2026). eBay Q4 2025 Earnings: GMV Growth & Depop Acquisition Surprise. Value Added Resource

This post Why eBay Should Ignore GameStop and Use Bitcoin to Save $1.2 Billion in Transaction Costs first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Nick Ward.

Bitcoin Magazine

Boltz Launches Non-Custodial USDC Swaps, Bridging Bitcoin Directly to Circle’s Regulated Dollar

Boltz, a leading non-custodial swap provider for Bitcoin, today announced the launch of USDC Swaps, enabling instant conversion between Bitcoin and USDC, the regulated stablecoin issued by Circle. Swaps are supported across all major Bitcoin layers, including the Lightning Network, and are live now at boltz.exchange.

“USDC Swaps mark a turning point for the Bitcoin ecosystem. For the first time, anyone can move between Bitcoin and the dollar most trusted by the regulated financial world without opening an account, completing KYC, or trusting a custodian in the process,” said the team in a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. 

A Non-Custodial Bridge

Exchanging Bitcoin for USDC is not new. What is new is doing it without giving up custody. Today, users who want to move between Bitcoin and a regulated dollar are typically funneled through centralized exchanges and brokerages that require account creation, identity verification, and full custody of user funds. A subset of services offer the same conversion without an account upfront, but because those services still take custody of user funds during the swap, they retain the ability to pause settlement and request identity documents if a transaction is flagged for review, with funds potentially getting confiscated in the meantime. The trade-off, in either case, has been the same: trust, surveillance, and friction in exchange for access.

Boltz removes that trade-off. USDC Swaps execute trustlessly, with no account, no sign-up, and no KYC at any stage. Funds remain under user control until the moment USDC arrives in the user’s wallet. This is the core innovation, and it is what separates Boltz from every other path between Bitcoin and Circle’s regulated Stablecoin.

Bridging Two Financial Worlds

For more than a decade, Bitcoin and the stablecoin economy have evolved on parallel tracks. Bitcoin built the open, permissionless side of the internet’s financial layer. Circle and USDC built the compliant, audited dollar that institutions require for operations. The two rarely connected directly.

USDC Swaps close that gap. With a single transaction, value can move between Bitcoin and a fully reserved, monthly-attested dollar that is already integrated into the products of Stripe, Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Robinhood, Revolut, Nubank, and a long list of banks, fintechs, and payment processors worldwide.

“The momentum is unmistakable,” wrote the Boltz team. USDC is the stablecoin that Stripe and Paradigm placed at the center of Tempo, their new payments-focused blockchain. It is the dollar on which Coinbase built its institutional infrastructure. It is the dollar that regulated card networks, asset managers, and global fintechs reach for when they need a digital dollar they can defend to a regulator. Boltz USDC swaps mean plugging Bitcoin directly into the rails that the regulated world is already standardizing on.

“Bitcoin and the regulated financial system have always been adjacent worlds, separated by intermediaries that demand custody and identity,” said Kilian Rausch, CEO of Boltz. “USDC Swaps remove that separation. A merchant accepting Bitcoin, a freelancer paid in sats, a treasury team managing operating capital, all of them can now reach the regulated dollar economy on their own terms, in seconds.”

Powered by the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol

USDC Swaps are built on Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), the native infrastructure that allows USDC to move across blockchains without wrapping or third-party bridges. Every USDC delivered through a Boltz swap is genuine, Circle-issued USDC, the same USDC accepted by regulated payment partners around the world.

By building on CCTP, Boltz is able to serve users across every USDC-supported network, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and others, from a single, focused liquidity provider.

Use Cases Across Consumer and Business

Boltz believes that USDC Swaps unlock a broad set of practical applications, including:

• Off-ramping Bitcoin into the banking system through regulated partners that already accept USDC, such as Stripe, Coinbase, and Bridge.
• Day-to-day operations for Bitcoin-native businesses, such as paying vendors, funding payroll, and settling recurring bills in regulated dollars without leaving non-custodial infrastructure.
• Merchant settlement for Bitcoin-accepting businesses that need to book revenue in compliant, accountant-friendly USDC.

All of the above are now unlocked without having to use crypto wallets outside of Bitcoin. Users send Bitcoin through Boltz and the recipient can receive USDC.

Bitcoin First, by Design

Boltz emphasized that the launch does not change the company’s Bitcoin-first orientation. All swaps remain non-custodial, all swaps settle atomically, and a “Bitcoin-Only Mode” continues to be available for users who prefer a stripped-down interface. USDC Swaps simply extend the reach of Bitcoin into a part of the financial system that, until now, has been difficult to access without trusted intermediaries.

USDC Swaps are available immediately to all users at boltz.exchange. Integration into various SDKs and the Boltz BTCPay Plugin is planned to follow in the coming weeks, according to the company.

This post Boltz Launches Non-Custodial USDC Swaps, Bridging Bitcoin Directly to Circle’s Regulated Dollar first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy Opens Door to Bold Bitcoin Sales Pivot Unlocking $2.2 Billion Tax Benefit

Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy, Nasdaq: MSTR), the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder and first Bitcoin Treasury Company, held its Q1 2026 earnings call on May 5. The results were dominated by massive non-cash GAAP losses from Bitcoin’s fair-value accounting amid a volatile quarter. Yet the real story, and the market’s focal point, was a clear strategic pivot: the company signaled it is now willing to sell portions of its Bitcoin holdings tactically. This marks a departure from the long-standing “never sell” narrative and positions BTC as an actively managed capital allocation asset rather than untouchable inventory.

The Numbers: GAAP Pain, Operational Resilience, Bitcoin Growth

Strategy reported an operating loss of $14.47 billion and a net loss of $12.54 billion ($38.25 per diluted common share), compared to smaller losses in Q1 2025. The primary driver was a $14.46 billion unrealized fair-value loss on its digital assets as Bitcoin prices declined during the quarter (roughly from ~$87,000 to ~$68,000 by late March). These are non-cash charges under current accounting rules.

The core software business showed modest growth, with total revenues of $124.3 million (up ~12% year-over-year) and gross profit of $83.4 million (67.1% margin). Cash and equivalents stood at $2.21 billion. More importantly for the Bitcoin Treasury thesis:

• Holdings: 818,334 BTC as of early May (3.9% of total supply), up 22% year-to-date in 2026.
• Acquisitions: 89,599 BTC purchased in Q1 alone (~$7.3 billion at ~$80,900 average) plus another 56,235 BTC in Q2-to-date.
• Key Metrics: 9.4% BTC Yield and ~63,410 BTC gain year-to-date (equating to ~$5 billion in dollar gains). Bitcoin per share rose 18% year-over-year to 213,371 sats.
• Capital Raised: ~$11.7 billion year-to-date (roughly half common equity, half preferred—primarily the flagship STRC “Stretch” digital credit product, which has scaled to $8.5 billion outstanding with strong liquidity and a 11.5% dividend yield). fool.com

The balance sheet remains fortress-like: modest net leverage (~9%), ample cash reserves, and a sophisticated digital credit engine via STRC that has attracted institutional and DeFi interest (including tokenized versions). Executives highlighted a proposed shareholder vote to shift STRC dividends from monthly to semi-monthly for better liquidity, with return-of-capital (ROC) tax treatment expected for the foreseeable future.

The Headline Shift: Tactical Bitcoin Sales as Financial Engineering

The call’s biggest takeaway, echoed in real-time X (Twitter) commentary, was the explicit openness to selling Bitcoin under the right conditions. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor stated the company “will probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend just to inoculate the market, just to send the message that we did it.” President and CEO Phong Le added: “We will sell Bitcoin when it’s advantageous to the company… We’re not gonna sit back and just say, ‘We’ll never sell the Bitcoin.’ We wanna be net aggregators of Bitcoin, increasing our total Bitcoin, but more importantly, increasing our Bitcoin per share.” This isn’t a fire sale or abandonment of accumulation. Instead, as detailed in the earnings presentation slides and elaborated by executives, it’s optimized capital allocation:

• Tax Harvesting Opportunity: Strategy’s BTC stack has clear cost-basis tiers (from early low-basis holdings to recent higher-cost purchases). Slides illustrated that selling higher-cost-basis BTC (e.g., ~$80k–$100k+ tiers) at current levels could realize substantial capital losses—potentially turning ~$7.6 billion in unrealized losses into immediate tax benefits (estimated $2.2 billion in tax assets at a 29% rate). These losses can offset gains elsewhere, reduce CAMT (corporate alternative minimum tax) exposure, and create valuable tax shields. Because Bitcoin is treated as property by the IRS, wash-sale rules don’t apply, allowing strategic repurchases if desired. thestreet.com
• Redeployment for Accretion: Proceeds would fund high-BPS-accretive actions—buying back undervalued MSTR shares (especially below ~1.22x mNAV), retiring convertible debt, or supporting dividends—while maintaining or growing Bitcoin per share. A presentation slide modeled a $1 billion “sell BTC to buy MSTR” trade, showing strong positive delta to BTC yield and gains at sub-1.22x mNAV levels (e.g., +636 bps yield at 0.5x mNAV). This could crush shorts, reduce float/dilution risk, and boost mNAV. thestreet.com
• Dividend and Liability Management: Small, targeted sales could perpetually fund STRC preferred dividends (with STRC issuance potentially outpacing the BTC “breakeven” cost). This inoculates against FUD about forced sales or dilution while keeping the company a net BTC buyer overall.

In short, BTC transitions from a static “digital gold” reserve to a dynamic tool for optimizing taxes, liquidity, capital structure, and shareholder value, without increasing leverage. As one sharp X analysis put it: “BTC is no longer treated as untouchable inventory. It’s becoming an actively managed capital allocation asset optimized around Bitcoin per share, float control, taxes, and capital structure.”

Follow BFC on X.

Market Reaction

Disclaimer: This content was prepared on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations for informational purposes only. It reflects the author’s own analysis and opinion and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, invitation, or solicitation to purchase, sell, or subscribe for any security or financial product.

This post Strategy Opens Door to Bold Bitcoin Sales Pivot Unlocking $2.2 Billion Tax Benefit first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Nick Ward.

The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust completed its first month of trading without a single day of net outflows, providing an early test case for how a Wall Street bank’s brand, pricing, and distribution network can alter the competitive landscape of the digital-asset market.

The product, trading under the ticker MSBT, launched on April 8 and has since attracted about $193 million in net inflows, while managing over $240 million in assets.

Data from SoSoValue shows the fund's inaugural month included 17 days of positive inflows and five days of flat flows, with zero daily redemptions recorded.

That streak stands out amid a period of localized volatility for rival US spot Bitcoin funds. For context, the broader Bitcoin ETF category bled $422 million in combined outflows during the last two trading sessions, while MSBT successfully absorbed an additional $13 million in fresh capital.

This divergence gives Morgan Stanley a flow record that fund sponsors typically take quarters to build.

Currently, MSBT holds about 2,620 Bitcoin, ranking it 32nd among Bitcoin-holding crypto ETFs and exchanges, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.

While it trails the largest spot funds in raw size, its resilience during market drawdowns indicates that institutional clients are treating the fund as a long-term allocation.

How Morgan Stanley's MSBT achieved a flawless first trading month

To understand why this capital is proving so sticky, market observers are looking directly at the issuer's pedigree, as Morgan Stanley’s primary advantage in a turbulent market is familiarity.

While crypto-native firms and dedicated asset managers pioneered the US spot Bitcoin ETF market, the bank offers investors a distinctly different entry point: a regulated financial institution with an established wealth-management and advisory base.

The bank leaned into this distinction at launch. Amy Oldenburg, Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset strategy, noted that digital assets are increasingly intersecting with traditional markets. She emphasized the firm's focus on helping clients navigate this shift through financial structures they already trust.

This frames MSBT as part of Morgan Stanley’s broader client-service model rather than a standalone, speculative crypto venture.

However, brand familiarity and trust are only half the equation as the firm is also weaponizing its cost structure to capture market share.

The fund charges a 0.14% sponsor fee, which the bank positioned at launch as the lowest among all spot Bitcoin ETPs. It deliberately undercuts the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust at 0.15%, Bitwise at 0.20%, and BlackRock’s industry-leading iShares Bitcoin Trust at 0.25%.

While the margin appears small in percentage terms, fees become a critical battleground as Bitcoin ETFs transition from novel launch products into standard portfolio allocation tools.

For fiduciaries, advisers, and institutions, a lower expense ratio heavily influences model-portfolio decisions when multiple products track the identical underlying asset and offer similar execution and custody standards.

This aggressive pricing strategy gives Morgan Stanley a highly effective pitch as its internal wealth-management channel expands access. The firm employs roughly 16,000 financial advisers overseeing $9.3 trillion in client assets.

Even a fractional allocation shift through this vast network could exponentially increase MSBT’s asset base over the coming quarters. Yet, this internal, advisor-led growth is just one pillar of a much wider, multi-front rollout.

Bitcoin ETFs register longest weekly inflow streak this year

Meanwhile, MSBT’s first month also benefited from a broader recovery in demand for US spot Bitcoin funds.

SoSoValue data show the US Bitcoin ETFs have drawn more than $3 billion across six straight weeks of net inflows through May 8, the longest run of weekly gains since last summer.

The streak suggests demand has steadied after Bitcoin’s uneven start to the year, even as daily flows remain sensitive to price swings and macroeconomic pressure.

Macroeconomic research platform Ecoinometrics noted that this steady improvement in ETF inflows suggests real, long-term capital is returning to the digital asset market, rather than a temporary rebound driven by short-term positioning or leverage.

For MSBT, the wider market recovery provides useful context. Morgan Stanley did not launch into a weak ETF market, but its lack of daily redemptions still sets it apart in a category where capital has continued to move unevenly across issuers.

The post Morgan Stanley’s MSBT ends first trading month with 0 outflows amid Bitcoin ETFs 6-week inflow streak appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Has Donald Trump been net positive for Bitcoin? It is an uncomfortable question for many Bitcoin supporters, including me.

My political criticisms of Trump are substantial and longstanding. They extend well beyond policy disagreements into questions about rhetoric, institutional conduct, and the broader political culture surrounding his presidency.

None of that disappears because Bitcoin performed well during parts of his administration or because parts of the industry now view him as an ally. Still, the question matters because Bitcoin increasingly sits inside state policy, capital markets, and geopolitical competition.

Once that happened, separating political preference from analytical judgment became harder. The reason the question deserves a serious answer is simple: no modern U.S. president has moved Bitcoin closer to formal government recognition than Trump.

That does not automatically make him “good for Bitcoin” in a complete sense. Price appreciation alone is insufficient. Campaign rhetoric is insufficient. Political branding is insufficient.

The real test is whether Bitcoin has become more institutionally durable, more legally defensible, and more difficult for future governments to marginalize.

On that narrower question, the evidence is stronger than many critics like me want to admit.

Trump’s Bitcoin legacy rests on whether political recognition became durable institutional protection.

So, to dig into it, Donald Trump has been positive for Bitcoin in one important and provable way: he moved it closer to the center of U.S. government policy than any prior president.

The clearest evidence comes from the federal record: an executive order endorsing lawful use of public blockchains, self-custody, mining, and validation, followed by a separate order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.

That shift changed Bitcoin's political ceiling. The U.S. government stopped treating it only as an asset to be policed, taxed, or liquidated, and began describing it as something the state could hold as a reserve asset.

For investors and institutions, that lowers the perceived risk of a federal ban or of hostile banking policy returning unchanged.

The broader record is less sweeping. Price action is mixed. Regulation has improved, while the law on Bitcoin itself remains incomplete.

Yet public trust remains weak. The blockchain has yet to show a simple adoption boom. Trump-linked crypto businesses have also created a separate reputation problem that Bitcoin supporters cannot dismiss by saying the protocol is apolitical.

The answer is therefore ledger-specific. Trump's Bitcoin record is strongest where government recognition, institutional access, and political permission are the test.

It is weaker where the test is price durability, public confidence, durable statute, or organic base-layer use.

Price and policy tell different stories

The price case depends on where the measurement begins. Bitcoin sat near $67,800 on Nov. 5, 2024, and about $80,700 on May 10, 2026.

From that election-day anchor, Bitcoin is up by roughly 20%. That supports the view that Trump's victory, policy signals, and the broader post-halving cycle coincided with a meaningful market repricing.

Other politically relevant anchors give a weaker read. Bitcoin was about $101,200 on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump's inauguration day.

It was around $90,600 on March 6, 2025, when the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve order was signed. Measured from those points, the market is lower.

CryptoSlate's Bitcoin page also places BTC just above $80,000 this weekend, roughly 37% below its Oct. 6, 2025, all-time high of $126,198.

The honest price verdict is mixed. Trump-era policy helped create a friendlier backdrop, and Bitcoin did reach a new high during that period.

Current price action still falls short of proving a durable Trump premium. It shows a rally that later gave back a large share of its gains, leaving the market positive from election day and negative from inauguration.

Policy gives Trump a stronger claim. Executive Order 14178 made support for lawful digital-asset use an explicit U.S. policy, including public blockchain networks, self-custody, mining, validating, and dollar-backed stablecoins.

Executive Order 14233 went further by establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, giving Bitcoin distinct treatment from other digital assets in the federal stockpile.

That is a real status change. It turns Bitcoin from something the U.S. government mostly seized, sold, or argued about into something the government says it will retain as a reserve asset.

It also creates a political fact that future administrations would have to reverse openly if they wanted to return to a more hostile posture.

The limit is equally important. The reserve order capitalizes the reserve with forfeited government BTC and permits only budget-neutral acquisition strategies that impose no incremental taxpayer cost.

The reserve's immediate force is recognition, custody, and potential restraint from sell pressure. New sovereign demand would require acquisition records that are currently lacking.

Regulation follows the same pattern. The GENIUS Act was enacted as federal law and created a payment-stablecoin framework.

Related Reading

Trump signs GENIUS Act into law, activating America's first regulatory framework for stablecoins

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Jul 18, 2025 · Gino Matos

The SEC's SAB 122, the OCC's March 2025 clarification, and the Federal Reserve's withdrawal of prior crypto guidance all made the banking and custody environment less hostile.

Those are material changes. The central Bitcoin market-structure fight remains unfinished.

The CLARITY Act has passed the House and been referred to the Senate Banking Committee, but has not yet become public law.

In practical terms, Trump can claim a real shift in executive and agency posture, plus one major stablecoin statute. He cannot yet claim that Bitcoin's full federal market-structure problem has been solved by enacted law.

Public reputation did not follow the official endorsement

The weakest part of the pro-Trump case is public reputation. Gallup found in June 2025 that 14% of U.S. adults owned cryptocurrency, 60% had no interest in buying it, and 55% considered it very risky.

Pew's October 2024 baseline was similarly hostile: 63% of Americans had little or no confidence that crypto is reliable and safe, while 17% had ever invested, traded, or used it.

Those surveys are imperfect measures of Trump's second-term effect. Pew predates the term, and Gallup predates some later Trump-linked crypto controversies.

Even with that timing caveat, they show the starting terrain and first-year public response. Bitcoin and crypto have yet to become trusted mass-market institutions because the president embraced them.

The Federal Reserve's household survey adds another check. In 2024, 8% of adults used crypto for any purpose, while only 2% used it to buy something or make a payment.

That points to an asset still understood mainly as a speculative or investment product, rather than an everyday monetary tool.

This is where the reputation ledger cuts against the official-status ledger. A reserve order can change how fund managers, bank compliance teams, and public-market investors price political risk.

It has much less power over households shaped by exchange failures, scams, meme-coin cycles, and partisan suspicion. Official recognition can lower institutional fear while leaving popular distrust largely intact.

Trump's personal and family crypto ties complicate the reputation ledger further. Associated Press reporting on Trump-linked crypto business relationships and CryptoSlate's coverage of scrutiny around World Liberty Financial support a credible conflict-of-interest concern.

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Nov 20, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

The sourced record supports reputation and ethics risk, plus allegation context. It falls short of proving criminal wrongdoing or showing that Bitcoin's protocol has been compromised.

For Bitcoin, that distinction is uncomfortable.

Still, public reputation is built through association as well as technical design. A president can strip Bitcoin of its official status while also making crypto look more self-serving to people who already distrust it.

Chain data leaves the adoption case unproven

On-chain evidence is the other major restraint on the net-positive claim. Blockchain.com data show daily confirmed transactions rising from 465,286 on Nov. 5, 2024, to 526,789 at the end of last week.

That is a positive endpoint comparison. Daily unique addresses fell from 548,496 to 498,493 over the same endpoints, and daily transaction fees fell from about $457,676 to about $232,729.

Those figures need careful handling. Unique addresses are a poor proxy for people, and daily endpoints can be distorted by batching, exchange flows, transaction composition, and non-monetary activity.

Still, they fail to support a clean claim that Trump's policy shift brought a wave of base-layer users into Bitcoin.

Independent on-chain analysis points in the same direction. Glassnode described a 2025 divergence between elevated BTC prices and quieter network activity, including low fee pressure and dominance by large entities.

Galaxy separately argued that fee pressure had faded after late-2024 Runes and Ordinals activity cooled.

A mempool.space check also showed a quiet point-in-time fee market, with 1 sat/vB recommended for half-hour, hour, economy, and minimum fee targets and 3 sat/vB for fastest confirmation.

That picture is mixed rather than bearish in every sense. Low fees make Bitcoin cheaper to use, and high prices can reflect institutional demand moving through ETFs, custodians, treasuries, and off-chain venues rather than base-layer transaction growth.

It does limit the adoption claim. Trump's Bitcoin effect looks stronger in official recognition and institutional channels than in everyday blockspace demand.

The sourced record supports a conditional answer. Trump has been positive for Bitcoin's ideological status and institutional access.

He turned public-blockchain support into executive policy, created a version of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, backed a friendlier agency posture, and signed a major stablecoin law that helps crypto market infrastructure.

The rest of the ledger is weaker. Bitcoin's price is positive from election day and negative from inauguration and reserve-order anchors.

The reserve is real, but with no verified evidence here of an active government accumulation program. Market-structure law remains unfinished. Public trust is still low.

On-chain activity shows no simple grassroots boom. Trump-linked crypto conflicts create a credible reputation drag by association, even without proving criminality.

The most defensible answer is yes, in a limited sense. Trump has been net positive where government recognition, institutional access, and political permission are the main tests.

He has yet to be clearly net positive, where Bitcoin's broader legitimacy ultimately has to show up: public confidence, durable law, and organic network use.

The next developments that would change the judgment are concrete reserve accounting, any new record of BTC acquisitions, final market-structure legislation, changing public-opinion data, and sustained on-chain demand that cannot be explained primarily by speculation or institutional custody flows.

The post Has Donald Trump been a net positive for Bitcoin or created an unbreakable partisan divide? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Mozilla’s latest Firefox security update provides a rare glimpse into what happens when frontier AI capabilities reach defenders before attackers. The company said it fixed 423 Firefox security bugs in April after gaining access to Claude Mythos Preview, compared with roughly 420 fixes over the previous 14 months.

That compression is the signal.

The defensive side did in one month what had previously taken more than a year, then disclosed a sample of the bugs to show the depth of latent risk still present inside a mature, heavily tested browser codebase.

The strongest anchor is age.

One of the disclosed bugs, Bug 2025977, was a 20-year-old XSLT reentrancy issue in which key() calls could trigger a hash table rehash, free backing storage, and leave a raw entry pointer in use. Another, Bug 2024437, involved a 15-year-old flaw in the HTML <legend> element.

These are exactly the kinds of long-buried defects that can survive ordinary testing, fuzzing, and manual review because they sit inside obscure edge cases, older subsystems, or complex interactions across distant parts of the browser.

Mozilla said Claude Mythos Preview helped identify and fix 271 bugs in the Firefox 150 release, with additional fixes shipped in 149.0.2, 150.0.1, and 150.0.2. Of those 271 Firefox 150 bugs, 180 were rated sec-high, 80 were sec-moderate, and 11 were sec-low.

Mozilla’s security severity framework assigns sec-high to vulnerabilities that can be triggered by normal user behavior, such as visiting a web page. That places the findings in a serious operational category, even where Mozilla had built no full proof of real-world weaponization.

The 20-year bug shows how long exploitable-looking flaws can survive

Firefox is an old, high-value, heavily scrutinized browser. Its code has been tested by internal teams, external researchers, fuzzers, bug bounty hunters, and attackers for years.

That makes the April surge more important because the vulnerabilities surfaced inside a project with mature security engineering rather than inside a lightly reviewed codebase. Mozilla said AI-generated security reports to open-source projects had previously carried a high noise burden for maintainers.

Reports could look plausible while still being wrong, and the asymmetry was obvious: generating claims was cheap, while validating them consumed experienced engineering time.

The dynamic shifted as models improved and Mozilla built a harness around them. The company described a pipeline that could steer models toward specific code areas, generate reproducible test cases, filter noise, deduplicate findings, triage severity, and move confirmed bugs into the security lifecycle.

That surrounding system is central to the result.

The model provided discovery power, while the harness turned that power into confirmed reports and patches.

The disclosed sample in Mozilla’s technical write-up included a WebAssembly GC bug that could create a fake-object primitive with potential arbitrary read or write, IPC race conditions affecting parent-process reference counts, raw NaN deserialization across an IPC boundary, parent-process stack memory leakage during DNS parsing, use-after-free flaws, and sandbox escape candidates.

These are security primitives that attackers value because they can become parts of exploit chains. A memory corruption bug can become a foothold.

An information leak can improve reliability. A sandbox escape can expand control from a constrained process into a privileged one.

The 20-year-old XSLT issue sharpens the implication.

A bug can persist across multiple generations of browser architecture, testing practices, and security staffing. Longevity does not automatically create exploitability, but it does create time for discovery and refinement by anyone capable of finding it.

A hostile actor with Mythos-level tooling before Mozilla’s April patch run would have had a larger search surface, a better way to generate proof-of-concept exploits, and a stronger chance of finding old flaws that had escaped previous methods.

Mozilla also emphasized that several bugs were sandbox escapes. That category requires precision.

A sandbox escape usually assumes that a content process has already been compromised, then uses another vulnerability to reach a more privileged process. In browser exploitation, this is a critical layer.

A first-stage bug can place attacker-controlled code inside a constrained rendering process. A second-stage sandbox escape can move execution toward the browser’s parent process, where the attacker has far more leverage.

From there, the attacker may try to access browser-mediated data, manipulate web sessions, observe sensitive activity, or pivot into additional device-level exploitation depending on operating-system defenses, permissions, and chain reliability.

The worst case is attacker-first access to Mythos-level discovery

The central risk is access sequencing.

Mozilla discovered a Mythos-level vulnerability before a hostile actor used the same class of model-assisted pipeline against Firefox at scale. Reverse that order, and the security picture changes.

A company facing attackers with earlier access to these systems would be defending against a faster search process, a deeper exploit inventory, and a larger pool of chainable primitives. The sharp risk is that a sophisticated actor can use model-driven auditing to locate entry bugs, information leaks, sandbox escapes, and reliability aids across the same target before maintainers can identify, triage, patch, test, and ship fixes.

A realistic high-end attack chain would use several pieces.

The first piece is a trigger that can be reached through ordinary browsing. Mozilla’s own severity framework says sec-high bugs can be triggered by normal user behavior, including visiting a page.

The attacker then needs a primitive that gives code execution or memory corruption inside a sandboxed content process. A JIT, WebAssembly, layout, DOM, or parsing bug can serve that role if it can be made reliable.

The next piece is a leak or type confusion that helps defeat address-space layout randomization or improves memory shaping. The third piece is a sandbox escape, such as a parent-process race, IPC boundary confusion, or privileged decoding path.

The final layer is post-exploitation code that turns browser control into useful access.

That end state is severe.

A successful full-chain browser compromise can expose whatever the browser can see or mediate. For ordinary users, that can include active web sessions, sensitive page content, credentials entered into sites, browser-accessible files exposed through permissions, and the ability to manipulate pages in ways that alter what a victim sees.

For crypto users, the risk profile is sharper.

Browsers sit between users and exchanges, wallets, bridges, portfolio tools, token approvals, custody dashboards, and internal admin panels. A browser-level compromise against a targeted crypto user could attempt to hijack sessions, alter transaction details before signing, inject malicious wallet prompts, capture credentials during entry, or use the browser as a foothold for deeper compromise against a trading desk, developer machine, journalist, or exchange employee.

The most dangerous version is targeted rather than mass-market.

A nation-state, ransomware affiliate, or financially motivated group would likely avoid noisy broad exploitation at first. It could compromise websites likely to be visited by a narrow target set, send tailored links, or use a watering-hole campaign against developers, crypto executives, validators, researchers, infrastructure operators, or newsroom staff.

The victim only needs to browse to the wrong page if the chain is reliable enough and the target’s Firefox build remains vulnerable. Mozilla notes that many sandbox escapes require an already-compromised content process, which defines the attacker’s assembly problem.

Mythos-level capability helps search for exactly those missing chain links.

The attacker’s advantage comes from scale and optionality.

Traditional exploit research requires scarce expertise, deep target knowledge, and time. Model-assisted security harnesses can reduce the search cost.

They can inspect more files, test more hypotheses, and generate more reproducible cases than a small human team alone. A sophisticated human still has to guide, validate, and weaponize the results.

The model compresses the discovery phase and expands the menu of candidate bugs. For defenders, patch velocity becomes a strategic constraint.

For attackers, the prize is a period in which their discovery curve moves faster than the company’s remediation curve.

Crypto users sit close to the blast radius of browser compromise

For the crypto industry, browser security is an upstream risk.

Wallets, exchanges, bridges, analytics dashboards, custody portals, governance tools, and internal admin panels all depend on the browser as a trust boundary. A secure signing flow can be weakened by a compromised browser environment.

A protected exchange account can be exposed through a hijacked session or a manipulated interface. A newsroom, developer team, or fund can be targeted through ordinary web activity and then pressured through credential theft, session abuse, or transaction manipulation.

A hostile actor with early access to Mythos-level capability would gain an advantage in the reconnaissance phase.

The attacker could direct the system toward browser subsystems that interact with web content, serialization, media parsing, graphics, IPC, DNS, image decoding, permissions, or privileged process boundaries. Each confirmed defect would become a candidate building block.

Some candidates would fail. Others would require unusual victim behavior.

A smaller set could become operational when paired with other bugs. That funnel is enough to create serious risk when the target population includes high-value wallets, exchange operators, infrastructure engineers, or journalists covering sensitive markets.

The danger also extends to supply-chain and operational workflows.

Crypto teams often rely on browser-based admin consoles for cloud providers, analytics services, customer support systems, exchange dashboards, hardware wallet interfaces, treasury tooling, and communications platforms. A browser-level exploit against a single privileged employee could place the attacker inside systems that were never directly vulnerable.

In that scenario, the browser becomes the bridge between public web content and private operational access.

Mozilla’s April patch surge should therefore be treated as an early warning for the broader software stack.

The company had the model, the harness, and the engineering capacity to convert findings into fixes. Many companies have only part of that system.

Some have no comparable pipeline at all. If attackers receive equivalent discovery capability first, the gap between latent bugs and operational exploitation can shrink.

The defensive side then faces compressed timelines across validation, patching, regression testing, disclosure, and user updates.

Mozilla’s own FAQ adds an important boundary.

A sec-high or sec-critical bug is not automatically equivalent to a practical exploit. In many cases, a single bug is insufficient for full Firefox compromise because the browser has a defense-in-depth architecture, sandboxing, site-specific processes, and operating-system mitigations such as ASLR.

Mozilla also said it generally does not build exploits to determine whether each bug could be used by an attacker in the real world. It classifies high-severity issues based on dangerous symptoms such as use-after-free or out-of-bounds memory behavior and assumes that any such issue may be exploitable with enough effort.

That conservative posture is appropriate because false negatives in exploitability analysis are costly.

Defenders need model-assisted auditing before attackers industrialize it

Mozilla’s work points toward a new security threshold for major software projects.

Access to advanced models is only one layer. The organization also needs a system that turns findings into shipped fixes without collapsing under volume.

The company described the operational burden clearly: every bug required care, attention, review, testing, and release management. More than 100 people contributed code to the hardening effort, alongside engineers working on triage, scaling, testing, and releases.

The model increased discovery throughput, and the organization had to absorb the resulting patch load.

The same dynamic applies beyond browsers.

Any company with a large codebase, a complex permission model, or an exposed parsing surface faces a discovery environment that can change quickly when a more capable model becomes available. Exchanges, wallet providers, custody platforms, payment processors, identity systems, cloud services, and developer tooling companies all share the same structural problem.

Attackers can point models at old code, low-traffic modules, awkward boundary layers, serialization formats, plugin systems, parsers, and privilege transitions. Those are the places where old assumptions accumulate and where exploit-chain components often sit.

Mozilla’s example also shows why prior hardening investments can pay off under model pressure.

The company said its models attempted sandbox escapes via prototype pollution in the privileged parent process, but those attempts were blocked by an earlier architectural change that froze prototypes by default. AI-assisted discovery increases pressure on weak seams.

Strong defaults, privilege separation, sandboxing, memory safety, fuzzing, and exploit mitigations can force attackers into longer chains. Longer chains increase cost and failure points.

When frontier models make vulnerability discovery cheaper, architectural defenses become more valuable because they turn isolated bugs into incomplete attacks.

The policy debate around frontier security models often centers on offensive or defensive use.

Mozilla’s case shows the answer depends on who gets access first and who has the operational capacity to act on the output. In defender hands, Mythos-level systems can accelerate hardening.

In the attacker's hands, the same class of capability can accelerate inventory building. The asymmetry is practical.

Attackers need fewer confirmed results, can keep findings private, and can focus on a narrow target. Defenders need to fix broadly, avoid regressions, coordinate releases, and protect slow-updating users.

That leaves companies with a direct mandate: build AI-assisted security pipelines before adversaries use comparable systems against them.

The next phase of vulnerability management will favor teams that can scan continuously, reproduce findings automatically, route reports intelligently, and ship patches quickly. Mozilla said it intends to move toward continuous integration scanning as patches land in the tree.

That is the correct direction.

The window between discovery and exploitation is narrowing. Companies with model access, harness maturity, and release discipline will reduce latent risk.

Companies waiting for public advisories may learn about their own bugs after someone else has already turned them into infrastructure.

Mozilla’s April patch surge shows that the defender advantage is still possible when access, tooling, and release capacity align.

The same episode also shows how fragile that advantage can be. A 20-year-old bug was still present.

Sandbox escape candidates were still present. Hundreds of security fixes moved through the pipeline in one month after model-assisted discovery scaled.

The next test is whether the rest of the software ecosystem builds comparable defensive capacity before Mythos-level vulnerability discovery becomes routine in offensive hands.

The post Firefox finds 20 year old bug and patches 14 months of fixes in 30 days using Anthropic’s Mythos AI appeared first on CryptoSlate.

BlackRock is accelerating its push to bring Wall Street yields to the blockchain, filing paperwork with US regulators to introduce a pair of tokenized money market funds.

The move represents a major escalation in the asset management giant's strategy to bridge traditional financial instruments with the rapidly expanding digital asset ecosystem.

According to May 8 filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the world’s largest asset manager intends to issue digital shares for an existing multibillion-dollar treasury fund, alongside an entirely new vehicle tailored specifically for the crypto-native market.

The dual rollout targets a growing demographic of investors who park their wealth in digital wallets and stablecoins rather than traditional brokerage accounts. It also cements BlackRock’s position as a dominant infrastructure provider for the burgeoning tokenized real-world asset (RWA) sector.

Nate Geraci, president of investment advisory firm NovaDius Wealth, characterized the filings as a bellwether for the broader financial industry.

“You'll be seeing much more of this from top asset managers,” Geraci said, noting that BlackRock's initiative would be the first of many similar strategic pivots expected from institutional heavyweights in the near future.

BSTBL and BRSRV

The first of the two proposed products will digitize a portion of the BlackRock Select Treasury-Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL).

The $6.1 billion mutual fund, which operates under the strict quality and diversification mandates of Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, will now offer a blockchain-based share class that operates concurrently with its traditional institutional shares.

The tokenized BSTBL securities are slated to debut on the Ethereum network.

True to its traditional counterpart, the digital class will maintain a conservative investment strategy, allocating 100% of its assets into cash, US Treasury bills, and overnight government-secured repurchase agreements.

The portfolio mandates a dollar-weighted average maturity of 60 days or less, ensuring high liquidity and minimal risk.

The second filing introduces a ground-up tokenized product: the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV).

Unlike the Ethereum-exclusive BSTBL shares, BRSRV is designed for multi-chain deployment, maximizing its interoperability across the decentralized web.

The fund is constructed as a treasury-backed money market product and mirrors the strict underlying asset profile of BSTBL. This means that it focuses exclusively on short-term US government obligations with maturities under 93 days.

However, its structural purpose is distinctly aimed at serving as institutional-grade plumbing for the crypto economy.

Positioning for the GENIUS Act

Industry analysts view the BRSRV filing as a highly strategic maneuver designed to capitalize on the shifting US regulatory landscape, particularly the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

Market experts broadly speculate that BlackRock is positioning the fund to serve as a compliant, yield-bearing reserve asset for stablecoin issuers under the impending legislative framework.

The asset manager is already deeply entrenched in this space, currently managing roughly $65 billion in existing stablecoin reserves.

Notably, BlackRock recently submitted a comment letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) regarding the agency's proposed framework for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs).

In the letter, BlackRock advocated for a flexible, principles-based regulatory environment, officially backing the OCC’s proposed “Option A.”

This preferred regulatory path includes a quantitative safe harbor featuring 10% daily and 30% weekly liquidity thresholds, alongside a 40% concentration limit and a 20-day weighted average maturity cap.

Crucially, BlackRock urged the OCC to allow same-day settling government money market funds to count toward these weekly liquidity floors, a classification that would directly benefit vehicles like BRSRV.

Riding crypto tokenization wave

Meanwhile, BlackRock's aggressive product rollout takes place against the backdrop of an expanding market for blockchain-based financial assets.

According to data tracker rwa.xyz, the distributed asset value of the tokenized market now exceeds $30 billion, shared among more than 767,000 investors. This marks a staggering $10 billion acceleration since January 2026 alone.

BlackRock already commands a significant slice of this market. Its existing BUIDL product is ranked the fourth-largest tokenized fund globally, with an estimated value of over $2.4 billion.

The corporate philosophy driving these product launches was clearly telegraphed earlier this year by BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink.

In his annual shareholder letter, Fink framed digital assets as essential tools to modernize global finance, while warning that the current US economic model leaves too many middle-class workers behind.

Fink argued that the traditional financial system has disproportionately rewarded existing asset holders. By recording asset ownership on digital ledgers, he posited, the industry can drastically reduce the friction, cost, and time required to move securities, ultimately democratizing access.

Fink wrote:

“Half the world’s population carries a digital wallet on their phone. Imagine if that same digital wallet could also let you invest in a broad mix of companies for the long term—as easily as sending a payment.”

Likening the current state of tokenization to the internet in 1996, Fink acknowledged that blockchain integration will not displace the old model overnight.

Instead, he views products like the newly filed money market funds as the necessary bridges connecting legacy financial plumbing to the future of digital distribution, provided policymakers institute clear counterparty-risk standards and digital identity checks.

The post BlackRock looks to sidestep Clarity yield issues, filing for two new tokenized money market funds appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Ondo Finance said Ripple has redeemed OUSG on XRP Ledger and received a USD payout in Singapore through Mastercard and Kinexys by J.P. Morgan.

The May 6 pilot tested whether a tokenized fund redemption on a public blockchain could trigger a bank-account payout across borders and banks, using a transaction path that Ondo said operated outside traditional banking windows.

Ondo said the XRP Ledger leg processed in under five seconds. The cash leg stayed inside bank infrastructure, moving through Mastercard's Multi-Token Network, Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, and J.P. Morgan's correspondent banking network.

That split is the core of the development. The pilot links public-chain settlement speed to bank-account completion while keeping the USD payout on bank infrastructure. The available record separates XRP Ledger's asset role from the USD payout, which was initiated on Kinexys and delivered to Ripple's Singapore bank account through J.P. Morgan's rails.

How the settlement chain was divided

Ondo described the transaction as the first near-real-time, cross-border, cross-bank redemption of a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund. Ripple redeemed part of its Ondo Short-Term U.S. Government Treasuries holdings on XRP Ledger.

The redemption then moved into a payout path. Ondo processed the request, Mastercard's Multi-Token Network routed the instruction, Kinexys debited Ondo's Blockchain Deposit Account, and J.P. Morgan's correspondent banking network delivered the USD proceeds to Ripple's Singapore bank account.

The structure shows how the asset record, instruction layer, and fiat payout can be coordinated so an institution can avoid a separate manual process after a tokenized fund redemption.

XRP Ledger documentation says new ledger versions usually close about every three to five seconds, which supports the plausibility of a fast asset leg. The pilot-specific processing time and first-of-its-kind framing remain attributed to Ondo.

Ondo's June 2025 launch brought the tokenized Treasury product to XRPL with minting and redemption support tied to Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, and CryptoSlate covered that launch at the time.

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Jun 11, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The fresh peg is the redemption-to-bank-account path. Ripple's OUSG redemption was tied to a cross-border payout route involving Mastercard and J.P. Morgan infrastructure, building on the tokenized fund's existing XRPL deployment.

Kinexys also entered the pilot with prior tokenized-settlement work behind it. J.P. Morgan's blockchain unit had already completed a tokenized Treasury settlement test with Ondo and Chainlink in 2025, using a delivery-versus-payment structure that connected Kinexys Digital Payments to Ondo Chain testnet activity.

CryptoSlate covered that Kinexys-Ondo test as an earlier bridge between bank payment rails and tokenized asset markets. The May 2026 pilot extends that baseline into a different pattern: OUSG redemption on the XRP Ledger, a payout instruction via Mastercard, and a USD payment to a Singapore bank account.

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May 14, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Mastercard's role also fits a prior setup. The company announced Ondo in 2025 as the first tokenized real-world asset provider on its Multi-Token Network, describing MTN as a way to link commercial banks with digital assets that can move around the clock. In this pilot, MTN served as the routing layer between on-chain redemption and Kinexys settlement, with the issuer and dollar-settlement roles handled elsewhere.

Scale gives the pilot useful context

OUSG is a qualified-access product. Ondo's documentation describes it as tokenized exposure primarily to short-term U.S. Treasuries and government-sponsored enterprise securities, with access limited to eligible investors who complete onboarding for Ondo's qualified-access products.

That restriction changes the likely near-term audience. The first users of this type of settlement design are more likely to be funds, payment firms, market makers, treasury teams, or financial institutions managing tokenized collateral and cash positions across time zones.

The setup points first toward institutional settlement design, with consumer-facing access left to other product channels.

RWA.xyz showed OUSG with a total asset value of about $680 million when accessed on May 9. The same page showed XRP Ledger as one of the product's supported networks, with roughly 2.8 million OUSG tokens on XRPL and about $101 million in monthly transfer volume associated with the XRPL row. Ethereum, meanwhile, holds around $2.4 million in tokens.

Those figures give the product scale while leaving the pilot itself unquantified. Ondo's release did not disclose how much OUSG Ripple redeemed, the exact timestamp of the transaction, the Singapore bank involved, or whether the process is now available beyond the pilot participants.

The product data also shows why the transaction should be treated as infrastructure context before adoption proof. OUSG is large enough to be a relevant tokenized Treasury instrument, and the XRPL row points to activity around the product.

The same data leaves this specific redemption undisclosed, so the scale belongs in the background rather than in the lede claim.

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For XRP, the market backdrop is separate from the settlement claim. CryptoSlate's XRP page listed the token at around $1.42, with roughly $86 billion in market cap and about $2 billion in 24-hour volume.

CryptoSlate's aggregate market page listed the total crypto market cap at about $2.68 trillion.

Repeatability is the next test

The pilot lands inside a larger tokenization debate. Ripple and Boston Consulting Group projected in 2025 that tokenized real-world assets could grow to $18.9 trillion by 2033.

That figure is useful as a scenario marker, but it comes from a Ripple release about a Ripple-BCG report and should be treated as participant forecast context.

The operational test is more concrete than the forecast. Tokenized Treasuries already make sense on paper as collateral, cash-management instruments, and yield-bearing assets that can move on ledgers outside market hours.

The harder question is whether redemptions can settle into bank accounts while reducing the batch processes, cutoffs, and manual instructions that tokenization is supposed to shrink.

Ondo, Ripple, Mastercard, and Kinexys have now shown one controlled answer: public-chain redemption records can be coordinated with interbank settlement infrastructure. That is a real infrastructure step, but it remains a pilot with missing details.

The signal to watch is whether the same structure becomes available to more institutions, larger transaction sizes, more banks, or more public blockchains where OUSG is issued.

If it does, tokenized Treasury products become less like blockchain wrappers around familiar assets and more like operating components in cross-border liquidity management. A bespoke transaction among named partners would keep the development closer to infrastructure validation than market transformation.

For now, the important detail is the split. XRP Ledger handled the tokenized fund record quickly. Mastercard and Kinexys connected that event to bank instructions. J.P. Morgan's network delivered USD.

The pilot's strongest message is that tokenized funds may be moving toward a model where public ledgers and bank rails have to work together in the same transaction.

The post JPMorgan, Mastercard and Ripple complete cross-border XRP tokenized Treasury settlement appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Michael Saylor is once again at the centre of the Bitcoin conversation after hinting that Strategy could be preparing for more BTC activity. His latest “back to work” style message caught the attention of crypto traders, especially as Bitcoin price continues to hold above the important $80,000 level.

The timing matters. Bitcoin is trading around $81,000, while the broader crypto market is showing signs of recovery. Ethereum is back above $2,300, XRP is outperforming several major coins, and Solana is also moving higher. In this environment, any signal from Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, can quickly become a market catalyst.

Michael Saylor Bitcoin Signal: Why Traders Are Watching Strategy Again

Michael Saylor has built a strong reputation in the crypto market because of Strategy’s aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy. Over the past years, the company has turned into a corporate Bitcoin proxy, with investors often watching its moves as a signal of institutional conviction.

According to recent reports, Strategy holds around 818,334 BTC, making it the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the market. The company also recently reported a major quarterly loss linked to Bitcoin’s earlier price decline, but it still remains deeply exposed to the long-term Bitcoin thesis.

This is why Saylor’s public signals matter. Whenever he posts or hints at renewed activity, traders often speculate that another Bitcoin purchase could follow. While a post alone does not confirm a new buy, the market tends to treat Saylor’s messages as important because they have often appeared around periods of Strategy Bitcoin accumulation.

Bitcoin Holds Above $80K as Market Sentiment Improves

Bitcoin price is currently holding around $81,272, according to the latest market data shown on TradingView. The coin is up slightly over the past 24 hours, while its market cap remains above $1.6 trillion.

This is important because the $80,000 zone has become a key psychological level for BTC. After the recent correction and recovery, traders are watching whether Bitcoin can hold this area as support. If BTC stays above $80K, the market could begin pricing in another move toward higher resistance levels.

The broader market also supports this narrative. Ethereum is trading around $2,348, Solana is near $94.5, XRP is around $1.47, and BNB is above $656. This shows that the recovery is not limited to Bitcoin only. However, BTC remains the main driver of crypto market direction.

Could More Strategy Bitcoin Buying Push BTC Higher?

If Strategy announces another Bitcoin purchase, it could strengthen bullish sentiment in the short term. Corporate buying does not guarantee a price rally, but it can create confidence among traders, especially during uncertain market phases.

There are three reasons why a new Strategy purchase would matter now.

First, it would show that Saylor and Strategy are still committed to the Bitcoin accumulation strategy despite recent volatility and financial pressure.

Second, it would reinforce the idea that institutional buyers are willing to buy BTC even above $80,000.

Third, it could bring fresh attention to Bitcoin at a time when the market is already trying to recover from recent weakness.

At the same time, traders should remain careful. Strategy’s Bitcoin exposure is already massive, and recent reports showed that the company faced a large quarterly loss due to Bitcoin’s earlier decline. That means every new purchase also increases the company’s dependence on BTC price performance.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Can BTC Move Toward $85K Next?

From a market structure perspective, Bitcoin holding above $80K keeps the short-term outlook constructive. If buyers defend this level, BTC could attempt another move toward the $84,000 to $85,000 range. A clean breakout above that zone could open the door for a stronger move toward $88,000 and possibly $90,000.

However, if Bitcoin loses the $80K support again, the market could see renewed selling pressure. In that case, traders may watch the $78,000 to $76,000 area as the next important support zone.

For now, the key question is simple: can Bitcoin stay above $80,000 long enough for institutional and retail confidence to return? If Saylor’s hint turns into another confirmed Strategy purchase, BTC could receive the extra push it needs to continue its recovery.

What This Means for the Crypto Market

Michael Saylor’s latest hint comes at a sensitive moment for crypto. Bitcoin is recovering, altcoins are starting to move, and traders are looking for confirmation that the market has enough strength to continue higher.

A new Strategy Bitcoin buy would not only affect BTC sentiment. It could also support the broader crypto market by improving confidence in digital assets as a long-term investment class. Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and other major altcoins could benefit if Bitcoin continues to lead the market upward.

Still, the market remains volatile. Macro risks, regulatory uncertainty, and profit-taking can quickly change the trend. For now, Bitcoin holding above $80K is the level to watch, and Michael Saylor may have just given traders another reason to stay focused on the next move.

$BTC, $ETH, $XRP, $SOL, $BNB

Solana and Bitcoin Lead the May 2026 Bull Charge

Solana ($SOL) is currently on a critical recovery path toward the triple-digit mark. Meanwhile, the "king of crypto," Bitcoin ($BTC), has successfully converted the $80,000 resistance into a foundational support level, providing the necessary liquidity and sentiment boost for the broader altcoin market.

SOL Price Recovery: The Path to $100

As of May 10, 2026, the Solana price is trading near $93.43, showing significant resilience after a period of consolidation. Technical indicators on the daily chart reveal a compelling story for the bulls:

• Inverse Head-and-Shoulders: SOL has completed a bullish reversal pattern, suggesting that the recent "bottoming out" phase is over.
• Moving Average Crossover: The 20-day EMA is trending toward a "golden cross" with the 50-day EMA, a signal often followed by aggressive buying volume.
• Liquidity Influx: Onchain data shows that the USDC Treasury minted 250 million USDC on the Solana blockchain today, May 10, indicating massive institutional preparation for decentralized finance (DeFi) activity.

If SOL can clear the immediate resistance at $96.95, analysts predict a swift 14% move that would not only breach the $100 target but potentially extend toward $111.00 in the short term.

Bitcoin Price Holds the $80k Line: Institutional Dominance

Bitcoin's ascent above $80,000 earlier this month was not a mere "flash in the pan." Unlike previous cycles driven by retail speculation, the 2026 rally is anchored by sustained spot ETF inflows and corporate treasury adoption. Major financial institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have fully integrated Bitcoin trading and custody services, creating a "floor" that was absent in earlier years.

The current stability of BTC above $80,000 is particularly impressive given the macroeconomic backdrop. Despite the transition in Federal Reserve leadership and persistent inflation concerns, the "Clarity Act" progress in the U.S. Senate has provided the regulatory certainty that institutional investors required.

"Bitcoin is no longer just a digital gold; it has become the anchor for a new era of digital credit," noted a lead analyst at Strategy Inc., which recently reported record first-quarter results for its Bitcoin-backed financial products.

As of May 10, 2026, XRP is trading around $1.4291, showing a recovery from the early-year lows. With the SEC lawsuit firmly in the rearview mirror since the 2025 settlement, the narrative has shifted from "will it survive?" to "how high can it scale?"

Is it a Good Time to Buy XRP?

Determining if it is a "good buy" depends on your horizon. Currently, XRP is consolidating just above the $1.40 psychological level. For long-term investors, the entry at these levels is attractive because the asset is backed by:

• Spot XRP ETFs: With over $1.53 billion in AUM across seven US ETFs, the "wall of money" has arrived.
• Legal Clarity: The removal of the SEC overhang allows US exchanges and banks to integrate XRP without fear.
• Institutional Adoption: Ripple’s partnerships with giants like Kyobo Life and Intesa Sanpaolo for on-chain settlement provide fundamental utility that few other tokens possess.

How High will XRP Reach in 2026?

The $2.00 mark isn't just a round number; it represents a full structural recovery and a gateway to the 2025 all-time highs of $3.66. To reach $2.00 from the current $1.42, XRP needs a 40% rally. Given the current daily volume and the steady ETF inflows (averaging $80M+ monthly), this target is technically within reach by Q3 or Q4 of 2026.

XRP Technical Analysis: Support and Resistance Areas

Looking at the 2-hour and daily charts provided, we can identify the specific "battlegrounds" for traders.

1. Immediate Support: The $1.35 Floor

The 2-hour chart highlights a primary support zone at $1.3521. This level has historically acted as a springboard for recent bounces. If XRP face a correction, bulls must defend this area to prevent a slide back to the $1.20 range.

• MA Cross: The 9-day and 21-day Moving Averages are currently hovering around $1.40 - $1.42, acting as dynamic support in the short term.

2. The $1.45 "Breakout" Resistance

$XRP is currently bumping its head against a yellow resistance line at $1.4500. As seen in the daily chart, a daily candle close above this level would signal a "cup-and-handle" breakout.

• RSI Check: The RSI (14) is sitting at 60.73. This indicates bullish momentum but leaves enough "overbought" room for a push higher toward the next major hurdle.

3. Critical Resistance: $1.60 and $1.85

• $1.60: This is the mid-range target. Passing this would likely trigger FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) among retail traders.
• $1.85 - $1.88: This area aligns with the 200-day Moving Average. This is the ultimate "bull vs. bear" line. Reclaiming the 200-MA would practically guarantee a run to $2.00 and beyond.

XRP Price Levels in 2026

Ethereum Price Shows Early Comeback Signals

Ethereum price could be preparing for a stronger comeback as one important market signal starts to shift: Bitcoin dominance is losing momentum. After a 5-week uptrend, Bitcoin dominance has started to break down, while the daily MACD has flipped bearish.

This matters because when Bitcoin dominance weakens, capital often starts rotating into Ethereum and other altcoins. For $ETH, this could be an early bullish signal, especially after weeks of pressure and slow recovery attempts.

Bitcoin Dominance Breakdown Could Support Ethereum Price

The breakdown in $Bitcoin dominance suggests that traders may slowly be shifting attention away from $BTC and back into altcoins. Historically, when Bitcoin dominance loses strength, Ethereum is often one of the first major assets to benefit.

This does not confirm an immediate rally, but it does create a more supportive setup for ETH. If Bitcoin dominance continues to fall, Ethereum price could gain stronger momentum as liquidity starts moving into the broader altcoin market.

Ethereum Price Prediction: Is $3K Back in Sight?

The current Ethereum price prediction is turning more optimistic as market structure improves. A move toward $3K is possible if ETH holds key support levels, reclaims important resistance zones, and benefits from renewed altcoin demand.

For now, $3K is not guaranteed, but it is becoming a more realistic upside target. If ETH buyers return with stronger volume, $Ethereum price could attempt a bigger recovery in the coming sessions.

Altcoin Momentum Makes ETH One to Watch

This setup is also bullish for altcoins in general. A weaker Bitcoin dominance trend usually means traders are becoming more open to risk, which can support Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and other major altcoins.

Ethereum remains the key asset to watch because it often leads altcoin momentum. If ETH starts moving strongly, the broader altcoin market could follow.

Crypto Clarity Act heads to a key Senate vote

The Crypto Clarity Act is heading toward an important moment in Washington. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has scheduled an executive session for May 14, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time to consider H.R.3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025. The session will take place in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, according to the committee’s official schedule.

Why the Crypto Clarity Act matters for the market

The main goal of the Crypto Clarity Act is to reduce the legal uncertainty that has surrounded the U.S. crypto sector for years. Crypto companies have often argued that unclear rules make it difficult to build, list tokens, offer services, or compete globally. Investors, meanwhile, have faced a market where regulation often comes through enforcement rather than clear legislation.

A clearer framework could support crypto adoption by giving exchanges, token issuers, investors, and institutions a more defined rulebook. This matters because regulatory clarity is often seen as one of the missing pieces for broader institutional participation in digital assets.

The bill is also important because it comes at a time when crypto regulation is no longer a niche issue. Stablecoins, tokenized assets, crypto exchanges, and digital payment systems are increasingly connected to the broader financial system. That makes the Crypto Clarity Act a major political and market event, not just a crypto industry update.

Stablecoin rewards are the biggest fight

One of the most controversial parts of the bill is stablecoin rewards. Banks oppose parts of the proposal because they fear that rewards paid on stablecoin holdings could compete with traditional savings accounts and pull deposits away from banks.

The latest compromise tries to separate passive stablecoin rewards from activity-based rewards. Under the deal brokered by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks, rewards on idle stablecoin holdings would be prohibited because they may resemble bank deposit interest. However, rewards linked to other stablecoin activity, such as payments, would still be allowed.

This distinction is important. Banks want tighter limits because they believe stablecoin reward programs could weaken deposit flows into the regulated banking system. Crypto firms argue that a full ban on third-party stablecoin rewards would be anti-competitive and could limit innovation in digital payments.

Why Coinbase and crypto firms support the compromise

Crypto companies, including Coinbase, now support the updated language because it appears to protect some forms of user rewards while addressing concerns from banks. The compromise gives the bill a better chance of moving forward after months of disagreement between the crypto sector and traditional finance.

For Coinbase and other crypto platforms, the issue is bigger than stablecoins alone. If the Crypto Clarity Act advances, it could help create a more predictable operating environment in the U.S. That could benefit exchanges, blockchain projects, stablecoin issuers, and institutional investors waiting for clearer rules.

Still, this is not a final win for crypto. The bill can still change during the committee process, and the final Senate version may look different from the current proposal.

Democratic support remains uncertain

The biggest political question now is whether the Crypto Clarity Act can gain enough Democratic support. Reuters reported that several Democrats remain concerned that the bill may be too weak on anti-money laundering rules and does not do enough to prevent political officials from profiting from crypto ventures.

That issue could become one of the biggest obstacles before a full Senate vote. Even if the Senate Banking Committee advances the bill, it would still need broader support in the Senate. Reuters also noted that the bill would need support from at least seven Democrats to pass the full Senate.

This means the May 14 vote is only the first major step. The bill could still face amendments, delays, or political resistance before reaching a final vote.

What this could mean for crypto prices

The Crypto Clarity Act could become a positive catalyst for the crypto market if investors see progress toward a real U.S. regulatory framework. Regulatory clarity often supports market confidence, especially for Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and major U.S.-linked crypto companies.

However, traders should be careful. A committee vote does not mean the bill has become law. The market may react positively if the bill advances, but volatility could return if political disagreement grows or if the final language becomes less favorable for crypto firms.

The key market reaction will depend on three things: whether the bill passes the Senate Banking Committee, whether Democrats push for major changes, and whether the stablecoin rewards compromise survives the next stage.

Crypto companies are upgrading wallets to counter the coming quantum computing threat, but gaps remain.

Researchers say multiplayer games may reveal AI behavior that static tests miss.

Two men face money laundering and drug charges following the seizure of $4.2 million in Bitcoin from alleged darknet marketplace dealings.

U.K. police charged British sprinter CJ Ujah in an alleged crypto fraud scheme involving wallet seed phrase theft and impersonation calls.

Senators had hoped the issue, which has plagued crypto legislation for months, had been put to bed with a proposed compromise last week.

Dogecoin activity cools off amid quiet weekend trading with 50% volume decline.

On May 10, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz unlocked GPU mining, but Satoshi Nakamoto feared this code upgrade would destroy Bitcoin's democracy.

Jameson Lopp warns of a potential Sybil attack against Bitcoin after a sudden surge of 200,000 fake P2P addresses.

Cardano web3 wallet receives key improvements ahead of hard fork.

JPMorgan and Mastercard fuel a major XRP ETF surge, SHIB splits price paths with DOGE, and Bitcoin price indicators flash a definitive path toward $94,500.

TLDR:

• JASMY has corrected 98.7% from its $0.36 all-time high and now sits in a HTF demand zone at $0.0045–$0.0060.

• A weekly close below $0.0040 invalidates the bullish structure, making this the most critical risk level to watch.

• Analysts project a potential 10x–40x rally for JASMY during the 2026–2027 altseason if key levels are reclaimed.

• JASMY must reclaim and hold above $0.01030 on higher timeframes to confirm any valid bullish market structure shift.

JasmyCoin (JASMY) is drawing attention from crypto analysts as it trades near multi-year lows. The token has completed a near-total macro correction from its all-time high.

Technical patterns suggest a possible long-term expansion phase may be forming. Analysts are now watching key demand zones closely. Price compression at range lows points to a potential shift in market structure ahead.

JASMY Sits Inside Critical HTF Accumulation Zone After Steep Decline

JASMY reached its previous cycle peak at approximately $0.36 before entering a prolonged downtrend. From that high, the token corrected by roughly 98.7%, placing it near historically significant demand levels.

The price is currently trading between $0.0045 and $0.0060, which analysts identify as a high-risk accumulation zone.

Crypto analyst Crypto Patel noted on X that JASMY “may be forming the same structure that led to a 4,000%+ expansion.”

The token has been trading inside a multi-year descending channel since its 2021 cycle top. Consistent lower highs and lower lows have defined price action throughout this period.

A confirmed breakout and retest occurred in 2024, representing a temporary shift in order flow. However, JASMY failed to reclaim the $0.05 level on higher timeframes, which led to redistribution. Price eventually returned to the current HTF demand region near cycle lows.

Compression at range lows is being read as a sign of seller exhaustion by market participants. The pattern mirrors behavior seen before the 2023–2024 rally, which produced a 1,933% gain. Analysts are treating the current zone as a late accumulation phase before any potential move higher.

Key Price Levels and Cycle Targets Guide Market Outlook for JASMY

For any bullish structure to remain valid, JASMY must reclaim and hold above $0.01030 on higher timeframes. Below that, mid-range resistance sits between $0.0070 and $0.0100. A weekly close below $0.0040 would invalidate the current accumulation thesis entirely.

The structure break level that would confirm a higher timeframe shift is $0.0208. Beyond that, major liquidity targets include $0.05 and $0.18. Bull cycle price targets outlined by the analyst are $0.0185, $0.050, and $0.185 respectively.

The 2026–2027 window is being flagged as a period for a potential massive breakout and retest. Analysts point to a possible 10x–40x rally during a broader altseason phase.

This projection is based on the repeating channel compression and expansion structure seen across previous cycles.

The current phase is described as late accumulation near cycle lows, with risk remaining elevated. Traders are advised to monitor weekly closes carefully around the $0.0040 invalidation level. No confirmed breakout has occurred yet, and price remains within the descending channel structure.

The post JASMY Price Outlook: Can JasmyCoin Repeat Its 4,000% Rally from Current Accumulation Lows? appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Binance’s emerging market user share rose sharply from 49% in 2020 to 77% in 2026, per platform data. 
• Around 83% of Binance’s multi-product users are based in emerging markets, showing deep regional engagement. 
• Stablecoin savers on Binance grew from 4% in 2020 to 28% in 2026, with 73% based in emerging markets. 
• Crypto platforms like Binance operate 24/7 with no minimum balance, lowering barriers for unbanked users globally.
  

Binance is addressing global financial exclusion by offering a full spectrum of products within one account. The platform aims to serve users across income levels, from basic savings to advanced trading tools.

With 1.4 billion adults still unbanked worldwide, according to the World Bank, crypto infrastructure is emerging as a practical alternative.

Binance’s data shows growing adoption in emerging markets, where its user share climbed from 49% in 2020 to 77% in 2026.

Crypto Infrastructure Reshaping the Economics of Financial Access

Traditional finance has long placed high barriers on participation. Geography, account minimums, and eligibility standards have historically shut out hundreds of millions of people.

Crypto platforms operate differently — they run 24/7, require no minimum balance, and function across borders through a single mobile interface.

Digital-asset platforms allow users to hold assets, earn yield, make payments, and access global markets. This changes who gets to participate and on what terms.

A person with limited access to traditional investment products can still engage with financial markets through one digital account.

Binance has built its platform around this premise. The company offers tools for capital preservation, passive yield, on-chain utility, and advanced trading — all within one account.

As Binance noted, “one account, access to a full spectrum of products so users can start where they are and grow on their own terms.” Users can start at any level and expand their participation over time as their needs evolve.

This range of options makes access more practical and durable. When diverse products exist on one platform, users are not forced to move between services as their financial goals change. That continuity matters, especially in markets where financial infrastructure is still developing.

Emerging Markets Drive Multi-Product Engagement on Binance

Binance’s growth in emerging markets reflects real demand for broader financial services. Users in these regions are not just trading — they are saving, sending money across borders, and generating yield.

Platform data shows that 83% of multi-product users are based in emerging markets. Binance has described its role as building “a platform where more of those financial functions can come together in a usable way.”

Stablecoin adoption further supports this pattern. Approximately 28% of Binance users holding at least $10 keep more than half their portfolio in stablecoins.

That figure was just 4% in 2020. Around 73% of all stablecoin savers on the platform are based in emerging markets.

This behavior points to Binance functioning as an integrated financial account for many users. Rather than a trading venue alone, the platform is serving savings and payments needs alongside crypto investing.

Binance stated that “the next era of finance will not be defined only by whether markets are open, but by whether more people can actually navigate them.” That is a meaningful shift in how users in lower-income environments are engaging with digital finance.

The data also shows that users with access to more products stay more engaged. Those using three or more products account for 14% of total active users. Broader product access, therefore, directly connects to deeper financial participation.

The post Binance Reports 77% Emerging Market User Share as 1.4 Billion Adults Remain Unbanked Globally appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Hyperliquid burned over 45 million HYPE tokens worth more than $2 billion using collected platform fees.

• The exchange generates close to $1 billion annually and directs 100% of revenue toward HYPE buybacks and burns.

• Burned tokens represent roughly 14.5% of the 310 million HYPE distributed in the first trader airdrop.

• Hyperliquid recorded $1.5 billion in net inflows over three months as Arbitrum lost the same amount in outflows.

Hyperliquid has burned more than 45 million HYPE tokens as its fee-driven buyback model gains attention across the crypto market. The decentralized exchange recorded approximately $824,688 in fees within a single 24-hour period.

All collected fees went directly toward purchasing and burning HYPE tokens. The platform now reports close to $1 billion in annual revenue. Net flow data further shows $1.5 billion in inflows over the past three months.

Hyperliquid’s Buyback and Burn Model Sets a New Standard

Hyperliquid’s tokenomics structure differs from most crypto projects in circulation today. Rather than selling tokens to cover operational costs, the platform channels all revenue into buybacks. This approach has resulted in the permanent removal of 45,116,933 HYPE tokens from supply.

According to data shared by Hyperliquid Hub on X, the burned tokens carry a market value of over $2 billion. That figure equals roughly 14.5% of the entire first trader airdrop, which totaled 310,000,000 HYPE tokens. The scale of this burn reflects a consistent and structured approach to reducing supply.

The daily burn has remained steady, which sets it apart from one-time or irregular token removal events seen elsewhere.

Each fee cycle feeds directly into the Auto-Fill mechanism, which executes the buyback and burn automatically. Users who sell their HYPE to the AF effectively contribute to the permanent reduction of circulating supply.

With close to $1 billion in annual revenue, the platform sustains this model without relying on external funding or token sales.

This positions Hyperliquid as a revenue-generating protocol that returns value to its token holders through supply reduction rather than direct distributions.

Hyperliquid Records $1.5 Billion in Net Inflows Over Three Months

Capital movement data shows a strong preference for Hyperliquid among traders shifting funds between platforms.

The exchange recorded $1.5 billion in net inflows over the last three months alone. This trend points to growing user confidence in the platform’s structure and reliability.

By contrast, Hyperliquid Hub on X noted that Arbitrum recorded $1.5 billion in net outflows during the same period.

The contrast between the two figures shows a clear directional shift in where traders are choosing to deploy capital. Hyperliquid appears to be the primary destination for those exiting Arbitrum.

Net flow figures are a common measure of capital movement across blockchain platforms. Consistent inflows typically reflect user acquisition and growing liquidity. For Hyperliquid, the $1.5 billion figure adds to an already active period of protocol growth.

Together, the burn data and the net flow numbers paint a picture of a platform gaining both liquidity and long-term token value. The combination of revenue-backed buybacks and rising inflows continues to draw attention from traders watching on-chain activity closely.

The post Hyperliquid Burns 45 Million HYPE Tokens While Recording $1.5 Billion in Net Inflows appeared first on Blockonomi.

Every platform’s identity is shaped by where it came from. Caesars brought the weight of Las Vegas online — decades of land-based casino heritage, a loyalty program connecting digital play to physical properties, and a brand that carried implied quality into the online space before the product had to prove it independently. DraftKings brought daily fantasy sports online — an existing engaged audience, American sports cultural fluency, and the operational readiness to capture the US sports betting market when regulation opened it.

Both identities produced genuine platforms for genuine players. The Caesars player who trusts the name from their Las Vegas visits. The DraftKings player who was already using the platform for fantasy leagues before real-money betting was legal. Both platforms continued to serve those players after the transition to licensed gambling.

ZunaBet brought something different online in 2026. Not a land-based heritage. Not a fantasy sports audience. The future — a platform built from scratch in the current year for the player who exists in the current year. The crypto-native player. The esports bettor. The player who wants sixty-three providers worth of game variety and a loyalty program that states its return before the first deposit. This article examines all three and explains what each identity produced.

Caesars: The Las Vegas Identity Online

The Caesars identity online is built on the transfer of trust from physical to digital. A player who has stayed at a Caesars hotel, played at a Caesars casino floor, or earned tier status through land-based activity finds the online product a continuation of a relationship that already existed. The brand’s implied quality arrived before the product had to earn it independently.

The casino product reflects genuine casino heritage. A substantial library from established providers, live dealer content informed by physical table game expertise, and a product that benefits from decades of understanding how casino players engage with their favourite games. The Caesars online casino is built by people who have been operating casinos long enough to understand the category deeply.

The sportsbook covers major US and global sports with in-play betting. The product serves the player who wants sports alongside casino from a trusted name.

Caesars Rewards is the identity’s most distinctive product feature. The cross-platform connection between online activity and land-based tier status — hotel rooms, dining, entertainment, physical casino status — has genuine value for the player who uses Caesars properties. Online gambling becomes part of a broader relationship with the brand rather than a standalone product.

The identity has clear limits for the player outside its profile. The cross-platform loyalty feature that makes Caesars distinctive is irrelevant to the exclusively online player who never visits a physical property — the program reduces to a standard points system for that player. Payment infrastructure is fiat-based with business-day withdrawal timelines. Crypto support is minimal. Geographic operation is bounded by US state licensing.

DraftKings: The Fantasy Sports Identity Online

The DraftKings identity online is built on audience conversion. The daily fantasy sports player who spent years managing lineups and tracking statistical outcomes found the transition to real-money sports betting natural when the legal framework allowed it. The brand they trusted for fantasy became the brand they trusted for betting without requiring them to learn a new platform or extend trust to a new name.

The sportsbook is the product that audience conversion produced. American sports coverage built for the fantasy-origin bettor — NFL with the market depth and statistical orientation that reflects genuine understanding of how this player engages with football, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college sports with comparable investment. The app is refined through years of this specific player’s feedback. In-play coverage is reliable. The product serves its converted audience consistently.

The casino has grown in proportion. A reasonable library, live dealer content, standard table game variants. The product serves the sports-first player’s secondary casino interest.

Dynasty Rewards is the identity’s loyalty expression. Points accumulate through play, tiers reflect volume, and benefits are redeemed through a structure that most experienced players find delivers less actual cash value than the tier descriptions initially implied when the conversion mathematics are properly applied. The gap between promise and delivery is consistent enough that it forms a regular part of how players describe their loyalty experience on review platforms.

The payment identity is fiat banking for the daily fantasy convert. Business-day withdrawal timelines. Bitcoin in select states as a response to demand rather than a native infrastructure commitment. Geographic operation is bounded by licensed US states.

ZunaBet: The Future Identity Online

ZunaBet launched in 2026 under Strathvale Group Ltd, operating under an Anjouan gaming license and registered in Belize. The team carries over 20 years of combined industry experience. It is not a US licensed operator and it does not hold state-level certification. Its identity is not built on transferring trust from a physical brand or converting a pre-existing digital audience. Its identity is built on being built in 2026 for the player who exists in 2026.

The game library is what a future-built casino identity looks like. ZunaBet carries 11,294 titles from 63 providers. The Caesars casino identity reflects land-based heritage. The DraftKings casino identity reflects sports-first priorities. ZunaBet’s casino identity reflects a player who needs genuine variety from multiple creative sources to stay engaged over the long term — sixty-three different approaches producing content with different mechanics, different volatility profiles, and different visual identities. Evolution for the full live dealer catalogue. Pragmatic Play across multiple categories. Hacksaw Gaming for the high-volatility mechanics experienced players seek. Yggdrasil for its distinctive design philosophy. BGaming for the crypto-native aesthetic. The identity sustains long-term engagement because it was built for the player who cycles through limited libraries quickly.

The sportsbook is what a future-built sportsbook identity covers. Football, basketball, tennis, NHL, and other major global sports alongside CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Valorant as genuine primary markets. The future identity includes esports as a foundational sportsbook category because the player it was built for follows competitive gaming as seriously as traditional sports. Virtual sports and combat sports complete the coverage.

The payment identity is what a future-built crypto infrastructure looks like. More than 20 cryptocurrencies supported natively — BTC, ETH, USDT across multiple chains, SOL, DOGE, ADA, XRP, and others. No platform processing fees. Withdrawals settling in minutes. Apps across iOS, Android, Windows, and MacOS with 24-hour live chat support. The future identity was built for the player who holds cryptocurrency and expects platforms to handle it natively rather than approximately.

Payments: Three Identities, Three Outcomes

The payment comparison is a direct illustration of what three different identity origins produce.

Caesars’ land-based identity produces fiat banking payments — the infrastructure that casino hotels and physical gaming operations have always used. Business-day withdrawal timelines. Minimal crypto. The outcome reflects the identity’s origin.

DraftKings’ daily fantasy identity produces fiat banking payments — the infrastructure the fantasy sports platform was built on and the online sportsbook inherited. Similar timelines. Bitcoin in select states as a concession rather than a commitment. The outcome equally reflects the identity’s origin.

ZunaBet’s 2026 identity produces native crypto payments — the infrastructure built for the player who arrived in 2026 with cryptocurrency as their primary financial instrument. Twenty-plus coins natively supported. Minutes rather than days. No fees beyond network costs. The outcome reflects an identity built for the current moment rather than transferred from a previous one.

Loyalty Programs: Three Identities, Three Outcomes

The loyalty comparison is equally a comparison between identity outcomes.

Caesars’ identity produces Caesars Rewards — a cross-platform program with genuine value for the player who uses physical Caesars properties and a standard points system for the player who does not. The outcome serves one player type distinctively and another adequately.

DraftKings’ identity produces Dynasty Rewards — a points system that accumulates toward redemption options delivering less actual value than the tier descriptions implied for most players who calculate it. The outcome reflects an identity that inherited the points-loyalty standard of its era.

ZunaBet’s identity produces the dragon evolution loyalty system — six tiers, Squire through Ultimate, with a gamified mascot called Zuno and direct rakeback rates of 1%, 2%, 4%, 5%, 10%, and 20%. All tiers open. All rates applying to all activity. No conversion. No invitation. The outcome reflects an identity built for the player whose loyalty expectation is transparency rather than implied value.

Twenty percent at the Ultimate tier. The identity produces a loyalty outcome that the player can calculate before joining and verify throughout membership. Additional tier benefits — up to 1,000 free spins, VIP club access, double wheel spins — extend the identity’s loyalty outcome beyond the core rakeback.

The Welcome Bonus

ZunaBet new players receive a bonus across three deposits totalling up to $5,000 plus 75 free spins. First deposit matched 100% up to $2,000 with 25 free spins. Second deposit matched 50% up to $1,500 with 25 spins. Third deposit matched 100% up to $1,500 with 25 spins.

Caesars and DraftKings offer welcome promotions within their respective regulated US markets. Current terms vary by state and should be confirmed directly on each platform.

Three Identities, One Direction

Caesars brought Las Vegas online and its identity continues to serve the player who values that heritage and the cross-platform loyalty connection it enables. The identity is genuine and the outcome it produces continues to attract its intended player.

DraftKings brought daily fantasy sports online and its identity continues to serve the player who made that conversion. The identity is equally genuine and the outcome it produces continues to attract its intended player.

ZunaBet brought the future online in 2026 and its identity serves the player neither established identity was built for — the crypto-native, esports-betting, rakeback-expecting, large-library-needing player whose profile was not part of either established identity’s origin.

ZunaBet launched in 2026 and its identity is still being proven over time. Both established identities were tested and confirmed across years of consistent operation. ZunaBet’s identity is early in that testing and players should weigh that honestly.

But the identity built for the player who exists now — rather than the player who existed when Caesars built its land-based brand or when DraftKings built its fantasy sports audience — launched in 2026. That identity is ZunaBet’s and in 2026 the player it was built for is finding it.

The post Caesars Brought Las Vegas Online. DraftKings Brought Fantasy Sports Online. ZunaBet Brought The Future Online. appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• CME Group listed SUI futures, making Sui only the fourth L1 alongside BTC, ETH, and SOL in regulated derivatives.
• Sui processed 65.8 million transactions in a single day within two months of its May 2023 mainnet launch.
• Three US staking ETFs from Grayscale, Canary Capital, and 21Shares listed in early 2026 on major exchanges.
• Hashi enables native Bitcoin collateral on Sui without wrapping or custody, with 20-plus institutions committing on day one.

Sui Network has completed three years since its May 2023 mainnet launch, marking the milestone with a string of institutional developments.

CME Group listed SUI futures contracts, making Sui only the fourth Layer-1 blockchain to enter CME’s regulated derivatives market.

The others before it were Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Three staking ETFs have listed in the US, cumulative active addresses passed 228 million, and DeFi total value locked peaked at $2.6 billion.

From Parallel Execution to Protocol Maturity

Sui launched with a clear architectural thesis: parallel execution should be built into a blockchain’s foundation, not added as an afterthought.

Within two months of launch, the network processed 65.8 million transactions in a single day. That figure was the highest recorded across all blockchains at the time, and gas fees remained nearly flat throughout.

Two infrastructure additions in 2023 shaped the chain’s long-term trajectory. In July, the Sui Foundation launched DeepBook, a native central limit order book embedded directly into the protocol.

Every DeFi application on Sui draws liquidity from the same shared pool, which is an uncommon design choice among Layer-1 networks.

In September 2023, zkLogin went live, allowing users to authenticate Web3 apps using Google or Facebook credentials.

Zero-knowledge proofs handle identity on-chain, removing the need for seed phrases or separate wallet setup. This lowered the entry barrier for mainstream users considerably.

By 2024, the focus shifted to consensus performance. In August, Mysticeti launched as a DAG-based consensus engine, cutting latency by 80% and bringing finality to 640 milliseconds.

Traditional financial players responded: Franklin Templeton announced a strategic partnership, and Grayscale launched the Grayscale Sui Trust.

Stablecoins, Bitcoin Collateral, and Regulated Products

Heading into 2025 and 2026, the infrastructure stack filled in steadily. Walrus Protocol added decentralized storage in March 2025, completing the native stack from execution to data storage. Mysticeti V2 followed in November, delivering sub-second finality and horizontal validator scaling.

In December 2025, 21Shares listed the first-ever SUI ETF on Nasdaq, a 2x leveraged product. By February 2026, three staking ETFs from Grayscale, Canary Capital, and 21Shares had listed in the US.

That same period saw USDsui launch through Stripe’s subsidiary Bridge, and cumulative stablecoin transfers on Sui crossed $1 trillion in March 2026.

Perhaps the most consequential development came with Hashi, developed by Mysten Labs. Hashi is a native Bitcoin collateralization primitive that allows BTC to be used directly as on-chain collateral, without wrapping or centralized custody.

The system is secured through MPC and Move’s ownership model. Over 20 institutions committed on day one, as noted in a post from the official Sui Network account.

Zero-fee stablecoin transfers were also announced at Sui Live Miami as coming soon, extending the chain’s payments utility further.

The post Sui Network Turns Three: CME Futures, Staking ETFs, and $2.6B DeFi TVL Mark a New Era appeared first on Blockonomi.

Although most of the cryptocurrency market is in the green now, with BTC climbing to $81,500 minutes ago, Ripple’s native token is actually among the top performers.

The asset posted a notable surge in the past hour or so, going from $1.42 to almost $1.50. This became its highest price tag since April 18, when it was rejected at $1.50 and spent the following three weeks trading sideways between $1.34 and $1.45.

This impressive price surge of almost 5% daily comes on the heels of many analysts predicting it over the past weeks.

As reported yesterday, Ali Martinez noted that the TD Sequential metric had flashed a major buy signal on the 4-hour chart. The analyst outlined targets of up to $1.82 if it manages to decisively break through the $1.45 resistance.

Fellow analyst CW noted that the token’s current chart shows significant strength, and predicted that “a full-scale rise for XRP is imminent.” Before that, they forecasted a “historic rally” in the making.

Another popular analyst on X who often touches upon XRP’s price moves, EGRAG CRYPTO, was significantly more bullish on the asset’s long-term performance. They touched upon the historical EMA Ribbon and outlined three different scenarios for the asset’s future.

Even the most modest one envisioned a mind-blowing 1,000% surge based on historical performance, while the most likely to occur, according to EGRAG, predicted a 1,250% surge, which would send the token flying to $13.

The post Ripple (XRP) Is Breaking Out as Analyst Expects ‘Full-Scale Rise’ appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Crypto prices marked gains over the past week, including a multi-month high for the market leader, and some of the reasons are the return of demand for spot ETFs tracking their performance.

Here are the precise numbers from last week: the big gainers and those who didn’t see any action.

BTC ETFs: The Winner

The first and largest crypto ETFs were the undisputed leaders in terms of attracting funds last week, despite the rough ending. The financial vehicles saw net inflows of $532 million on Monday, $467 million on Tuesday, and $46 million on Wednesday when the asset peaked at almost $83,000.

Its price momentum began to fade at the end of the business week, coinciding with substantial net outflows of $277 million on Thursday and $146 million on Friday. Nevertheless, the total weekly inflow stood at an impressive $622.75 million, up from the previous week’s $154 million.

The cumulative total net inflows have risen to well over $59 billion as of Friday’s market close.

ETH ETFs Follow Suit

The spot Ethereum ETFs, on the other hand, had only one day in the red, but it was painful. After pulling $61 million on Monday, $97.6 million on Tuesday, $11.6 million on Wednesday, and a more modest $3.6 million on Friday, the funds saw a significant withdrawal of over $103.5 million on Thursday, according to SoSoValue data.

Nevertheless, the week ended well in the green, with net inflows of over $70 million. However, it still couldn’t offset the losses seen from the previous week, which ended on May 1, when investors pulled out over $82 million from the funds.

The cumulative net inflows into the spot ETH ETFs remain above $12 billion since their inception in mid-2024.

XRP ETFs and Some Honorable Mentions

The funds tracking Ripple’s cross-border token didn’t have a single day in the red last week, but Thursday was a no-action day with $0.00 reportable flows. Investors inserted nearly $4 million on Monday, over $11 million on Tuesday, $13 million on Wednesday, and $6 million on Friday.

The week ended with more than $34 million in net inflows, which is significantly more impressive than the minor $35K in net outflows during the previous week. The total net flows are up to another all-time high of $1.32 billion.

The honorable mentions are the SOL ETFs, which saw almost $40 million in net inflows last week, while the LINK and DOGE ETFs gained somewhere around $1 million each.

The post BTC vs. ETH vs. XRP ETFs: Which Pulled the Most Money Last Week? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin continues to trade within a broader recovery structure following the strong rebound from the $60K region. However, despite the recent bullish momentum, the market has been struggling to reclaim a decisive resistance zone at the $80K region, where the next major directional move is likely to emerge.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, BTC has been recently experiencing choppy price action near the crucial $80K resistance region, while lacking sufficient bullish momentum for a confirmed breakout. This area carries substantial technical importance as it aligns with the 100-day moving average, strengthening seller presence around current levels.

Recent candles reflect increasing hesitation and fading momentum as the market struggles to establish acceptance above this threshold. Based on the current structure and the repeated rejection attempts around the $80K-$82K range, the probability of a bearish reversal appears slightly higher in the short term.

Nevertheless, if buyers unexpectedly manage to push the price above both the 100-day MA and the upper boundary of the price channel, a fresh short-squeeze scenario could unfold, potentially driving BTC toward the major $90K resistance region.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour chart, Bitcoin remains trapped within a tight consolidation range bounded by the ascending dynamic trendline from below and the static $80K-$83K resistance zone overhead. This structure reflects a temporary equilibrium between buyers and sellers following the recent impulsive rally.

As long as the price remains confined within this range, further sideways consolidation is likely. However, the ascending trendline near the $78K level currently acts as the key short-term support for buyers. A bearish rejection and breakdown below this trendline could trigger a corrective decline toward the lower order block regions around the $75K-$76K and potentially the $70K-$71K support area.

Onchain Analysis

From an on-chain perspective, the realized price of long-term holder cohorts continues to act as one of the market’s most important macro support and resistance indicators. These realized price levels are crucial because they determine whether specific holder cohorts remain in overall profit or loss, significantly influencing their market behavior.

Currently, Bitcoin is trading between the realized price bands of the 12-month to 2-year cohorts, positioned approximately between $62K and $92K. Historically, remaining above these realized price levels reflects stronger holder confidence and reduced sell-side pressure, while losing them often leads to broader market weakness. As a result, this range remains highly significant for determining Bitcoin’s next macro trend direction.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Where Is BTC Headed Next Week? Key Levels to Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Binance has released a report outlining how cryptocurrencies and digital asset infrastructure are improving financial access in underserved regions and emerging markets. Titled “Finance Without Frontiers,” the paper explains how the unbanked and underbanked population is turning to crypto for cross-border payments and financial inclusion as a whole.

According to the report, crypto adoption has grown beyond speculation into real-world utility because of the financial inclusion it offers. Besides trading on digital asset platforms, users now have access to global systems through tokenization, artificial intelligence (AI) agents, and mobile-native services.

A Huge Financial Inclusion Gap

Researchers at the world’s largest crypto exchange found that the scale of unmet financial need is structural and concentrated in certain regions. There is a huge global financial inclusion gap.

Data from the World Bank revealed that roughly 21% of the global adult population (1.3 billion adults) remains unbanked. Approximately 73% of these adults are found in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with more than 50% concentrated in eight countries.

For the purpose of the report, researchers tagged adults with access to deposit accounts but limited access to credit, digital payments, yield-bearing savings, or cross-border services as the underbanked. About 4.7 billion adults lack access to credit or loans, and 3.6 billion in LMICs do not use digital payments or cards. Roughly 40% of adults in LMICs save formally, with at least 77% receiving no interest on their deposits.

Interestingly, five of the eight countries with the highest concentration of unbanked people rank among the top 20 in Chainalysis’s Global Crypto Adoption Index. This pattern shows that digital networks have provided an alternative entry point for financial inclusion.

How Crypto Helps

Diving deeper, Binance researchers highlighted areas where crypto has driven financial inclusion. Some of them include payments and remittances, access to capital markets, private-market democratization via tokenization, and programmable finance for non-human participants (AI agents). There is also the area of device penetration for people with mobile phones versus those with smartphones.

Amid the rise in financial inclusion, the growth of the share of crypto users from emerging markets has outpaced that of developed markets. Users from emerging markets have increased from 49% in 2020 to 77% in 2026 amid active demand for a broader range of financial services.

Additionally, user engagement has extended well beyond trading: an internal study on Binance showed that 14% of total active users engage with multiple products, including savings, payments, and investments. The majority of these users are concentrated in emerging markets.

The observed adoption trend highlights how on-chain networks have become a major component of the global financial-inclusion conversation.

The post Beyond Speculation: Binance Reveals How Crypto Is Transforming Emerging Markets appeared first on CryptoPotato.

While bitcoin (BTC) has continued to rise in what analysts have called a bear market rally, traders and investors have increased their profit-taking. Daily realized profits have risen to levels not seen since early December 2025, while unrealized profits hover near levels historically associated with intensified distribution.

According to a CryptoQuant report, BTC has surged 37% since the beginning of April. The rally has been driven by a combination of easing macro pressures, prior undervaluation, and a sharp increase in perpetual futures demand. Amid the rally, the leading digital asset has reached a peak not seen in the last three months.

Bitcoin Profit-Taking Surges

On May 4, Bitcoin holders realized daily profits of 14,600 BTC, a level not seen since December 10. This marks the highest profit realization since December 2025, when BTC traded above $90,000. With traders back in profitable territory, the short-term holder (STH) spent output profit ratio (SOPR) has risen above 1.016, holding above 1.00. The metric has been in profitable territory since mid-April.

CryptoQuant analysts insist that historical data show that increased realized profits at key resistance levels precede local tops or sustained consolidation phases. This suggests that the Bitcoin market could witness either of the two outcomes after the ongoing rally.

On a 30-day rolling basis, Bitcoin holders are realizing net profits of at least 20,000 BTC for the first time since December 22, 2025. This trend follows a period of heavy net losses in February and March, during which investor realization fell as low as -398,000 BTC.

“The shift from net loss realization to net profit realization is a structural inflection point in bear market dynamics. The crossing back into positive net territory reflects the degree to which the April–May price rally has restored profitability across the holder base,” analysts stated.

Spot Demand Still in Contraction

Despite traders being on a 30-day net profit of 20,000 BTC, the figure remains far below the 130,000–200,000 BTC threshold associated with bull markets. At the same time, they are sitting on their highest unrealized profit margin since June 2025. Unfortunately, this level historically indicates elevated correction risk, as there is a greater incentive to lock in profits.

Meanwhile, perpetual futures demand has continued to expand, sustaining the same speculative environment that triggered April’s rally. Spot demand remains in contraction, but at a milder level than early 2026. Combined with muted exchange inflows, the current market environment carries significant correction but has not reached a distributional peak.

The post Bitcoin Investors Took More Profit as BTC Rallied to 3-Month High: CQ appeared first on CryptoPotato.