AI-driven security tools like GregoAI could revolutionize cybersecurity by autonomously identifying vulnerabilities, reducing human error.

The post GregoAI earns $250,000 bounty through autonomous exploit discovery appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Wispr's potential $2B valuation highlights the growing investor confidence in AI-driven productivity tools, despite fierce competition from tech giants.

The post Wispr seeks funding that would value AI voice startup at $2B appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Nvidia's massive AI investments could centralize power in the AI sector, risking financial instability if AI demand falters, echoing past tech bubbles.

The post Nvidia commits over $40B to AI equity deals in 2026, raising dot-com era comparisons appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Persistent inflation pressures may delay rate cuts, impacting borrowing costs and increasing volatility in crypto and other risk assets.

The post US consumer price index rises 3.8%, highest since May 2023 appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

China's vessel withdrawal may ease Strait tensions, impacting oil prices and highlighting shifting geopolitical alliances and economic strategies.

The post Chinese vessels exit Strait of Hormuz amid Beijing’s opposition to Iranian tolls appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Onramp Raises $12.5M Series A to Scale Multi-Institution Bitcoin Custody Platform

Onramp has raised $12.5 million in a Series A round led by Early Riders, valuing the bitcoin financial services firm at $135 million as it pushes to scale a custody model designed to meet institutional standards.

The Austin-based company told Bitcoin Magazine it now holds more than $1 billion in assets under custody and has recorded zero security incidents since its founding in 2023. The new capital will support expansion of Onramp Finance, its recently launched platform that combines bitcoin custody, brokerage, and cash management, while funding new partnerships across banks, registered investment advisors, and fintech firms.

At the center of the strategy is Onramp’s Multi-Institution Custody (MIC) model, which distributes key control across several regulated custodians rather than relying on a single entity or placing full responsibility on clients. The system is built with partners including BitGo, Coincover, and Tetra Trust, allowing for shared control structures that can span jurisdictions.

The approach targets a long-standing tradeoff in digital asset custody. Investors have often had to choose between centralized platforms with counterparty risk and self-custody setups that require technical expertise and operational oversight. Onramp positions MIC as a middle path that removes single points of failure while keeping assets verifiable on-chain.

Institutional traction has begun to follow. UK pension fund Cartwright selected Onramp as custodian for its bitcoin allocation, while the Bitcoin Policy Institute has endorsed multi-party custody frameworks for potential state-level bitcoin reserves.

A full bitcoin financial stack via Onramp

Chief executive Michael Tanguma said the company aims to build a full financial stack around bitcoin, including lending, retirement accounts, and treasury management tools. The firm launched Onramp Finance in April, offering brokerage services across all 50 states, cash accounts with rewards, a payments card, bitcoin IRAs, and access to gold within a single interface.

Early Riders partner Liam Nelson said the firm backed Onramp to help establish MIC as a standard across the industry, arguing that custody design will shape the next phase of bitcoin adoption.

The company plans to split the new funding between product development and distribution. On the engineering side, Onramp will continue building out its platform and prepare its custody infrastructure for licensing to other regulated custodians. On the commercial side, it will expand sales efforts and develop white-label offerings for financial institutions seeking to integrate bitcoin services.

Onramp also named former Blackstone partner David Thayer as a strategic advisor, adding experience in infrastructure investing as it targets deeper engagement with traditional finance.

The bet is that as bitcoin enters broader portfolios, custody will become a primary concern. Onramp is positioning its architecture as a foundation for that shift, aiming to extend its model across institutions that want exposure without assuming concentrated risk.

This post Onramp Raises $12.5M Series A to Scale Multi-Institution Bitcoin Custody Platform first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Surges 3% Past $82K as Senate Advances Clarity Act, STRC and SATA Fuel Bitcoin Credit Boom

Bitcoin price extended its rebound on Thursday as a landmark U.S. crypto bill cleared a key Senate hurdle and Bitcoin‑linked credit products logged fresh milestones. Bitcoin price traded near $81,400 with intraday highs around $82,000, up more than 3% over the past 24 hours on more than $1 billion in spot trading volume.

The Senate Banking Committee advanced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on a 15–9 vote, with Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland joining all 13 Republicans. The bill, known as H.R. 3633, seeks a federal framework for digital asset trading, stablecoins and intermediaries, splitting oversight between the SEC and CFTC and setting registration, disclosure and compliance rules for exchanges, brokers and custodians.

Chair Tim Scott described the markup as a turning point after years in which crypto firms faced a “regulatory gray zone” under rules built for earlier markets, and framed the bill as a way to keep innovation inside the United States while tightening controls on criminal use of digital assets. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who leads the committee’s digital assets panel, called the Clarity Act the hardest bill of her career and “a case of first impression” for fitting new software‑based assets into existing financial law.

Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren led the opposition and argued that the bill weakens securities protections, preempts state anti‑fraud rules and lets banks build large crypto exposures, which she linked to pre‑2008 risk patterns.

She said the framework “declares open season” on consumers and labeled it “industry‑written” and “not ready,” while allies raised ethics and national‑security concerns tied to President Donald Trump’s crypto businesses, mixers and stablecoins.

STRC and SATA extend Bitcoin credit boom

Against that backdrop, Strategy Inc.’s STRC preferred stock continued to scale up its Bitcoin accumulation program. Bitcoin for Corporations’ live STRC ATM Tracker showed more than $1.24 billion in total issuance volume, an estimated 11,709 BTC acquired and an effective yield of 11.5%, with proceeds capture rate near 80%, at the time of writing. 

The marketed structure targets 26 times the current daily Bitcoin supply, underscoring how ATM issuance has turned STRC into one of the largest corporate Bitcoin buyers on record.

Strive’s SATA preferred stock advanced its own experiment in yield design. Strive disclosed plans for SATA to pay cash dividends every business day starting in June while maintaining a 13.00% annual rate, which the firm estimates produces an effective yield near 13.88% through daily compounding. SATA sits on a debt‑free balance sheet with more than 15,000 BTC and an 11.1% Bitcoin Yield for the first quarter of 2026.

Bitcoin price teeters near $82,000

It was a strong day for bitcoin price Bitfinex analysts wrote to Bitcoin Magazine saying the once dominant funding rate has lost signal power, so they are turning attention to options positioning as Bitcoin price pushes around the 80,000 zone.

The analysts added that ETF demand and open‑market accumulation now drive the move instead of STRC‑linked buying, with long‑horizon “conviction buyers” holding close to four million BTC in the strongest two‑quarter increase in this cohort since the COVID‑19 crash, which pulls more bitcoin out of circulating supply and could help the bitcoin price go up.

This post Bitcoin Price Surges 3% Past $82K as Senate Advances Clarity Act, STRC and SATA Fuel Bitcoin Credit Boom first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bukele’s Futuristic BINAES Library Blends Books, Bitcoin, and Family Play in Revitalized Capital

Located in the heart of the country’s capital, El Salvador’s BINAES library stands tall as a monument to the love of knowledge, literature, and technology—accessible to the public 24 hours a day, for free. Positioned directly in front of and carefully aligned with the Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador, BINAES is also surrounded by the Palacio Nacional de El Salvador (to its left/side) and the Jardín Centroamérica, all symbols and reminders of a dream. The dream of a society that elevates beauty, the love of knowledge and faith, and shares them with the world.

Having traveled to many countries and cities in my lifetime, I have to say that the safety, tranquility and cleanliness of this area of San Salvador was remarkable. An unignorable contrast to the city squares of many western capitals, often unsafe, filled with garbage, and host to the homeless and drug addicted. Instead, both outside the library, in the gardens and walkable roads of the city square, as well as inside the library, palace and gardens, children and their families can be seen at peace, running around, enjoying this national treasure. 

Donated to El Salvador by the Chinese government, BINAES is 7 stories tall with a wide range of amenities, including a cafeteria on the first floor and an Italian restaurant on the 7th. Plenty of room to host events of various sizes, public and private. BINAES stands out with an elegant futurist design, congruent with its facilities and a vision for the future of El Salvador, which also prominently features Bitcoin technology and educational materials. 

With a strong focus on supporting families and the next generation, the second floor is a young children’s playground filled with educational tools, books and physical entertainment options for children to unleash their energy. The third floor has a large section dedicated to LEGOs, a powerful educational tool known to stimulate a love of building in children, with multiple tables where parents sit with their kids and play. It also hosts children’s video games, such as collaborative and family-friendly games like Mario Party and the legendary Minecraft. 

The fourth floor is aimed at children 8-12 as well as fans of fantasy and fiction, with dedicated Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter areas, as well as hundreds of manga books featuring some of the greatest stories of the Japanese genre. Many of these areas include collection grade legos and merchandise from the films, as well as, of course, full libraries of books for each fictional universe. 

The fifth floor is home to literature, history and books for adults, considered the core of the library, with thousands of books on all major genres of knowledge. Among them, a vast section on social sciences, which includes economics, hosting some samples of libertarian Austrian economists like Mises, Milton Friedman, Rothbard, and Ayn Rand, though not too deep a variety. 

This specific topic, which is very important to the history, economic theory of Bitcoin and its cultural roots, is one that the library got some criticism for years ago when it was first completed. Back then, a popular tweet claimed the library had no works on libertarian economic theory, something which today has changed, but could improve further. Their collection, for example, had no fictional work by Rand, only a couple of her philosophy books; this is something that can actually be changed easily enough, though, as the library does accept book donations. Donors can contribute by first emailing BINAES staff at consultalealbibliotecario@cultura.gob.sv. 

The sixth floor is the high-tech area. Coming out of the elevators, the first thing you see is a Bitcoin-shaped bookshelf with a solid collection of Bitcoin literature, covering its economics, software architecture and history of money, among many other topics. This specific installation is a project by Alejandra Guajardo, also known as Miss Bitcoin, the Salvadorian model who represented the nation in the Miss Universe pageant of 2022. Her Bitcoin Book Shelf initiative looks to deploy installations of this sort in libraries all over the world, with an expansion to Mexico in the works. Bitcoiners who want to lead the installation of Bitcoin bookshelves in their local libraries can contact her to make it happen. 

In the center of the same floor is a beautiful Bitcoin lounge area, with another similarly shaped bookshelf and various Bitcoin plushies called Little Hodlers led by artist and Bitcoin evangelist Lina Seiche. A massive screen shows Mempool.space, a slick and very popular Bitcoin block explorer, showing live network data and statistics. 

This floor is also home to 3D printers, tools for robotics work, interactive digital screen-style whiteboards, a full gaming area with top-of-the-line gaming consoles, a virtual reality area, computers available to the public for research, and a digital collection of over 9 million books accessible to the public. As well as various dedicated office-like environments for students and teams to take advantage of and get some work done. 

Last but not least is the seventh floor, home to the art gallery, which at the time of my visit was hosting a variety of art pieces, showing the history of El Salvador through the architecture of iconic locations in the area. In the center of this art hall, between the gallery and the Basílico Italian Bistro, are photographs of Bukele and first lady Gabriela Bukele, perfectly aligned with the Metropolitan Cathedral across the square, a beautiful architectural detail that reinforces a harmonic union between the classic arts and faith.

Overall, despite the high-tech Chinese design of the library, which somewhat contrasts against the classical Roman architecture of the area, the BINAES library is likely to stand as a visionary legacy of the self-described Philosopher King and his administration.  

This post Bukele’s Futuristic BINAES Library Blends Books, Bitcoin, and Family Play in Revitalized Capital first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

Senate Banking Committee Advances Clarity Act, Two Democrats Break Ranks in 15-9 Vote

The Senate Banking Committee advanced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on a 15–9 vote Thursday, with Sens. Ruben Gallego (D‑Ariz.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D‑Md.) joining all 13 Republicans to move the sweeping crypto market structure bill to the full Senate.

The Clarity Act is the Senate’s bid to build a federal framework for digital asset trading, stablecoins and intermediaries, splitting oversight between the SEC and CFTC and setting registration, disclosure and compliance rules for exchanges, brokers and custodians. It now advances alongside a related bill from the Senate Agriculture Committee, with the two texts expected to merge before a floor vote.

Chair Tim Scott (R‑S.C.) cast the markup as a turning point after years in which crypto firms operated in what he called a “regulatory gray zone” under “outdated rules.” 

He said the bill aims to protect consumers, keep innovation in the United States and “close the doors that criminals, terrorists and hostile regimes have tried to exploit,” after months of cross‑party talks that expanded the draft by more than 200 pages.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R‑Wyo.), who leads the committee’s digital assets panel, called the Clarity Act “the hardest piece of legislation” she has worked on across decades in state and federal office. She described it as a “case of first impression” that tries to fit new asset types and software into a regulatory code built for earlier markets.

Warren’s camp: “industry‑written” and “not ready”

Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D‑Mass.) led the opposition, arguing the committee should focus on groceries, health costs and credit card rates, not “a bill written by the crypto industry for the crypto industry.” 

Warren warned that the draft “blows a hole” in securities law that has protected investors since 1929, preempts state anti‑fraud rules and allows banks to load up on volatile crypto exposure in ways she linked to pre‑2008 practices. 

She said the bill “declares open season on defrauding American consumers who use crypto,” and accused Republicans of advancing a framework that helps “the President of the United States’ crypto grift.

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D‑Ga.) tied his no vote to ethics concerns, calling President Donald Trump’s digital asset business ties “pure corruption” and faulting Republicans for refusing enforceable conflict‑of‑interest rules for all elected officials, including the president and vice president.

Illicit finance, mixers and stablecoins

National security concerns drove a series of Democratic amendments that Republicans rejected in 11–13 votes. Warren proposed stronger sanction tools against crypto mixers and DeFi services, citing Treasury’s 2022 designation of Tornado Cash and warning that the bill does not isolate mixers in statute. 

Sen. John Kennedy (R‑La.) pressed her on why new anti‑money‑laundering sections do not already cover those services, then joined Republicans to defeat the proposal.

Sen. Jack Reed (D‑R.I.) described how Iranian actors use stablecoins to buy drone components, import sensitive goods and collect tolls from tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. He said the Treasury still must “go hat in hand” to issuers such as Tether for voluntary cooperation, and sought explicit power for regulators to block foreign illicit stablecoin flows; his amendment failed on the same party‑line split.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D‑Md.) pointed to estimates that more than 150 billion dollars in digital assets flowed through wallets tied to illicit activity last year and highlighted a large North Korean exchange hack where DeFi services helped launder funds. 

His proposal to make it unlawful to release a DeFi protocol with the stated purpose of enabling money laundering, sanctions evasion or terror finance also fell in an 11–13 vote, after Republicans argued that existing criminal statutes already reach that conduct.

Republicans, led by Lummis and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R‑Ohio), answered that Titles II and III of the bill already tie digital asset intermediaries into the Bank Secrecy Act, expand Treasury’s “special measures” authority and bring kiosks, brokers and exchanges into clearer federal oversight than the House version.

President Trump, World Liberty and failed ethics amendments

Ethics provisions tied to Trump’s business ties to World Liberty Financial and other crypto ventures produced some of the sharpest exchanges. Van Hollen offered an amendment to bar the president, vice president and members of Congress from business ties to crypto firms and to require more disclosure, saying it was needed because “the president and members of his family” had been involved in “corrupt crypto ventures and various crypto scams.”

Moreno said the measure belonged in the Judiciary Committee because it carried criminal penalties and defended Trump as “a good man,” accusing Van Hollen of declaring criminal conduct without a court record. The amendment failed 11–13.

Warren tried to force banking regulators to release confidential supervisory records related to Jeffrey Epstein, arguing Epstein had backed early crypto investments and that exam files could reveal what banks and supervisors knew as he moved funds through major institutions. Lummis answered that confidential supervisory material is outside a market structure bill’s scope, and that amendment also failed, even after Kennedy said he would have supported it without “co‑conspirator” language.

DeFi safe harbor deal exposes Democratic split

One of the most consequential votes came on Lummis Amendment 122, a technical package negotiated with Sen. Mark Warner (D‑Va.) that refines when a DeFi protocol counts as controlled by a small group and interacts with the bill’s core safe harbors. 

Warren argued the amendment embeds “a narrow test” for which entities count as crypto intermediaries and imports a Section 604 “loophole” that shields decentralized services from basic anti‑money‑laundering rules, saying that “it doesn’t matter if you have rules if nobody has to follow them.”

After a short technical fix to strike two lines, the committee adopted the amendment 18–6, with Warner, Cortez Masto and Alsobrooks joining Republicans. That vote marked a clear split: Warren, Reed and Van Hollen opposed the compromise, while a “crypto Democrat” bloc accepted the DeFi framework as a basis to refine before floor action.

Process fight over which amendments get heard

The markup also turned into a test of Scott’s control over the amendment list. Before the hearing, he ruled more than a dozen proposals out of order on drafting and filing grounds, including a National Sheriffs Association‑backed fix from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D‑Nev.) on decentralized platform enforcement and a community‑bank‑supported stablecoin‑yield tweak from Reed and Sen. Tina Smith (D‑Minn.).

Later, seeking a bipartisan outcome, Scott reinstated several amendments, including Lummis 122, after Democrats such as Warner and Gallego said committee votes on those compromises would make support easier. Warren objected that he was reviving a subset of Republican‑side language while leaving law enforcement and community‑bank proposals sidelined. 

Van Hollen noted that some of his own properly drafted amendments never reached a vote, even as previously disqualified Lummis text passed 18–6. 

Scott replied that he and Warren had agreed to cap amendments from each side, and that within that cap he was using discretion to serve Democrats who wanted a bipartisan result.

Gallego and Alsobrooks give Clarity Act its bipartisan spine

Through the day, Republicans accepted targeted changes that industry and moderates backed, including Sen. Mike Rounds’ AI sandbox and Sen. Dave McCormick’s portfolio‑margin language, both adopted with Democratic support. They rejected every Democratic attempt to extend sanctions tools, bar bailouts, tighten DeFi liability or write ethics rules into the bill.

By the final vote, the Democratic side had split into clear camps. Warren, Warnock, Van Hollen, Smith and Reed built a record that presents Clarity as an industry‑driven framework that weakens enforcement and leaves presidential conflicts untouched. Warner helped shape key language but kept leverage for later stages. 

Gallego and Alsobrooks supplied the decisive Democratic votes that turned a partisan project into a 15–9 bipartisan committee win, while both signaled that support on the floor will depend on further movement on ethics and enforcement as the bill heads toward merger with the Agriculture Committee’s version and a 60‑vote test before the full Senate.

This post Senate Banking Committee Advances Clarity Act, Two Democrats Break Ranks in 15-9 Vote first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Senate Banking Committee Opens Historic Crypto Bill Markup as Warren, Republicans Clash Over CLARITY Act Amendments

The Senate Banking Committee opened a historic markup Thursday morning on H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, moving the most sweeping attempt at federal cryptocurrency regulation in American history toward a committee vote. 

The session — defined by sharp partisan exchanges, procedural disputes, and targeted Republican courtship of crossover Democrats — unfolded against a hard deadline: if the bill does not clear the committee before the Memorial Day recess, the entire legislative calendar resets.​

Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) opened by casting the bill as a correction to years of regulatory failure. 

“For years, the digital frontier was trapped in a regulatory gray zone,” he said. “Developers, entrepreneurs and investors were left with uncertainty. They faced confusion and enforcement actions when instead the government should have been crafting clear rules of the road.” 

Scott framed the legislation around three pillars: consumer protection, retaining American innovation, and national security.

He acknowledged the bill had grown substantially through negotiation — “since June of last year, we have added 33,000 words and 219 pages to get this legislation as bipartisan as humanly possible” — and conceded that Republicans had not gotten everything they wanted.​

Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered a frontal assault. She opened not with digital assets, but with grocery prices, overdraft fees, and credit card interest rates — consumer concerns she argued the committee should be addressing instead. 

“We’re spending our time working on a bill written by the crypto industry, for the crypto industry,” Warren said. 

“Nothing made it into this bill that wasn’t approved by the crypto industry.” She cited a CoinDesk survey showing crypto ranked at the bottom of voter priorities, with just 1% of respondents identifying it as their top concern.​

Warren then leveled five charges against the bill: that it would tear a hole in securities laws protecting investors since 1929; declare open season on consumer fraud by preempting state-level protections; repeat the mistakes of 2008 by allowing banks to load up on risky crypto assets; deepen national security vulnerabilities; and do nothing about what she called the Trump administration’s crypto corruption. 

“Since taking office last year, the president and his family have raked in at least $1.4 billion in gains from crypto deals alone,” she said.​

A procedural fight before the first vote

Before amendments were called, a dispute over which ones would be heard consumed the opening minutes. Warren said more than a dozen Democratic amendments had been ruled out of order before the session began — including one requested by the National Sheriffs Association to close a money-laundering loophole for cartels, and another from community banks seeking to prevent deposit flight.

“You and you alone have decided which amendments are in and which amendments are out,” she told Scott directly, calling on him to reverse the rulings from the floor.

Scott pushed back, attributing the situation to Warren’s own staff, who he said had objected to a Republican amendment on a technical drafting ground, triggering a wholesale review of all filed amendments. He acknowledged throwing out at least one Republican amendment in the process.

“I tried to make sure both sides had an opportunity,” Scott said. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sought a formal clarification on the ruling — drawing a procedural exchange with Scott that underscored the fragile footing of a markup in which more than 130 amendments had been filed.​

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) offered a terse counter: “The definition of working together at a markup is allowing amendments to be called up and voted upon.”

Lummis: ‘The hardest piece of legislation I’ve ever worked on’

Lummis, the bill’s most tenacious Senate champion, delivered a defense that was equal parts policy brief and personal testimony.

“I served 14 years in the Wyoming Legislature, eight years as State Treasurer, and now 14 years in the Congress,” she said. “This is by far the hardest piece of legislation I’ve ever worked on.” 

She said former Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had said the same thing.​

Lummis catalogued the bill’s anti-illicit-finance provisions at length: risk-based examination standards, expanded Treasury special measure authority, mandatory annual reports on foreign jurisdictions’ AML compliance, recurring Treasury reports on offshore stablecoins, insider resale restrictions, and a federal regulatory floor for crypto kiosks — the last drawing an endorsement from AARP, which cited FBI data showing more than 13,460 crypto kiosk fraud complaints and $389 million in losses in 2025 alone.​

She turned Warren’s national security argument back on her. “The risks of which she spoke exist now — right now — because there is no regulatory framework,” Lummis said. “There is no way now that this industry can protect the good actors, discover, vet and punish the bad actors.” 

She closed with a humanitarian pitch: that the bill would let ordinary people transmit money faster and cheaper, provide a level financial playing field regardless of geography, and protect domestic abuse survivors and political refugees who could memorize their savings in Bitcoin. 

“This is an innovation that provides individual freedom, individual savings,” she said.

Both Scott and Lummis used their floor time to name individual Democrats — Warner, Cortez Masto, Gallego, Warnock, Alsobrooks — who had contributed to the bill’s nine-month negotiation process. 

The acknowledgments were deliberate: with 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats on the committee, and a 60-vote threshold needed on the Senate floor, bipartisan support was not optional.​

The amendment fights so far

Sen. Mike Rounds’ (R-SD) proposal to create an AI regulatory sandbox for financial firms passed 15-9, with Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Andy Kim joining Republicans in support — an early sign some Democrats remain open to compromise.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren failed repeatedly to reshape the legislation. Her amendments targeting tokenized asset disclosures, DeFi sanctions tied to terror financing, and bank crypto activity all fell 11-13, largely along party lines. 

During debate over DeFi sanctions, Warren invoked the Treasury’s 2022 sanctions on Tornado Cash and warned Iran could use crypto to collect tanker fees through the Strait of Hormuz. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), viewed as a possible crossover vote, ultimately opposed the measure.

A separate amendment from Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) directing the SEC and CFTC to revisit portfolio margin rules passed 18-6 with broad bipartisan support.

The markup is ongoing and can be followed here. 

This post Senate Banking Committee Opens Historic Crypto Bill Markup as Warren, Republicans Clash Over CLARITY Act Amendments first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is seeing a drastic rise in fraud attempts targeting its users as the network draws more institutional activity, higher transaction volumes, and renewed attention from XRP traders.

On May 14, David Schwartz, the former chief technology officer at Ripple, published a public warning regarding the increasing scam efforts targeting the XRPL ecosystem.

Schwartz, a highly visible figure within the community, cautioned users that malicious actors are increasingly deploying fake airdrops and impersonation accounts to drain user funds.

The XRP Ledger Foundation issued a similar warning, saying that scams targeting the XRP community had increased sharply. The foundation urged users to avoid airdrops, giveaways, and fake customer support offers on X, where impersonation campaigns often move quickly around trending XRP narratives.

The warnings come as XRPL activity, institutional tokenization experiments, and XRP market flows have drawn renewed attention to the network.

That attention has also created a wider opening for fraudsters, who are increasingly packaging old scams in the language of airdrops, governance votes, DeFi rewards, and institutional adoption.

Scam reports rise across XRP social channels

The most common pattern of these scams involves impersonation accounts posing as well-known XRPL developers, executives, influencers, or ecosystem projects.

These accounts often copy profile photos, display names, and recent posts before directing users to claim a reward, vote on a proposal, or connect a wallet to a third-party site.

Once a user signs the transaction, the wallet can be drained. In some cases, the malicious prompt is framed as a routine governance vote or a claim for a free token. In others, users are told they have qualified for an NFT reward, only to be prompted to approve a transaction that swaps their XRP for a worthless asset.

Krippenreiter, an XRPL supporter who has tracked several recent scam patterns, said these fraud attempts now include fake NFT rewards, airdrop campaigns tied to XRP-linked projects like Flare and Firelight, and private messages from bots posing as familiar community accounts.

The common thread is urgency: users are pushed to act before checking the account, the transaction details, or the destination address.

Meanwhile, these tactics are not new to XRP holders. Over the years, Ripple has consistently warned about fake XRP giveaways and deepfake promotions, including edited videos that falsely imply support from company executives.

Panos Mekras, co-founder of Anodos Finance, also raised concerns last year about fraudulent projects using XRPL’s growing visibility to market vague token offerings and poorly defined products.

However, the difference now is scale. XRP’s online community is larger, and XRPL-based projects have become more visible thanks to the slate of developments occurring within the network.

As a result, scammers now have more real developments to imitate. This means a fraudulent post can borrow the language of tokenized assets, lending, governance, airdrops, or validator upgrades and still appear plausible to casual users.

That makes transaction review more important. On public ledgers, funds generally cannot be recovered once transferred.

For XRP holders, the basic defensive step is still the same: verify the account, inspect the transaction, avoid entering a seed phrase, and do not connect a wallet to an unsolicited link.

Wall Street embraces XRPL's on-chain infrastructure

The escalation in fraudulent activity is occurring against a backdrop of significant institutional adoption, as traditional financial entities increasingly utilize the XRPL for measurable utility.

Data from the digital asset treasury firm Evernorth shows that transaction volume on the ledger grew by 65% over the past 12 months, rising from 43 million to 71 million monthly transactions.

Unlike the speculative bursts commonly seen in decentralized finance, this volume is largely programmatic and tied to real-world settlement. Key drivers of this activity include the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp, Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, the tokenization platform Justoken, and Braza Bank in Brazil.

Notably, traditional finance heavyweights are also actively testing the network’s capabilities. In a major milestone for on-chain finance, JPMorgan, Ripple, and Mastercard recently completed the first cross-border redemption of a tokenized US Treasury asset on the XRPL.

The transaction settled in under five seconds, a stark contrast to the multi-day settlement windows typical in traditional banking.

Furthermore, Guggenheim, a financial services firm managing hundreds of billions in assets, has issued short-term corporate debt directly on the blockchain. The issuance, backed by US Treasuries and rated Prime-1 by Moody's, generated over $280 million in volume.

In the United Kingdom, the government-licensed digital asset exchange Archax is migrating institutional products to the XRPL, including a £3.8 billion fund from asset manager abrdn, targeting $1 billion in traditional assets on the ledger by mid-2026.

Protocol upgrades target institutional compliance

To support this influx of regulated capital, the XRPL network is undergoing significant structural upgrades.

Last week, the XRPL Foundation announced the release of software version 3.1.3, featuring a “default-yes” amendment fix that streamlines network upgrades without requiring manual voting by validators.

This foundational update furthers the slate of compliance-focused features on the network designed to bridge the gap between decentralized technology and traditional regulatory requirements.

Beginning in late 2025 with the introduction of Multi-Purpose Tokens, the network enabled financial institutions to bake compliance rules, such as transfer restrictions, freeze controls, and know-your-customer requirements, directly into the asset code.

The first half of 2026 has seen the rapid deployment of further institutional tooling. In February, the network integrated Permissioned Domains and Token Escrows, enabling banks to establish closed-network environments in which only credentialed participants can transact.

This was followed by the launch of Permissioned Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), functioning essentially as on-chain dark pools that eliminate anonymous counterparty risk.

Most recently, in April 2026, the network developers launched a Native Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Proof Verifier.

This programmable privacy layer allows institutions to settle large trades on a public blockchain without broadcasting sensitive trade data to competitors, replicating the confidentiality of traditional clearing systems.

XRP derivatives heat up as whales accumulate

This wave of development and activity has driven significant market momentum around the token.

According to CryptoQuant, the XRP derivatives market on Binance is experiencing a steady return of speculative liquidity.

The firm noted that open interest recently climbed to $475.4 million, pushing past its 30-day average of $440.7 million. The open interest Z-Score reached 1.65, indicating a significant deviation from historical norms and suggesting increased trader activity and leverage.

While a rising Z-Score is not an explicitly bullish indicator, it highlights growing risk exposure that could trigger sharp volatility.

In the spot market, institutional appetite remains strong. XRP spot exchange-traded funds recorded $25.8 million in inflows on May 11, the largest single-day haul since early January, pushing cumulative inflows to $1.36 billion.

This institutional demand is mirrored by the behavior of large on-chain holders.

Data from the blockchain analytics firm Santiment reveals that the number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP has reached an all-time high of 332,230.

This cohort of investors has demonstrated consistent accumulation since June 2024, absorbing selling pressure through periods of intense market volatility.

Notably, these major holders quickly resumed accumulating following a crypto-wide liquidation event in early February, suggesting a strong long-term conviction that the network's ongoing structural upgrades will eventually be reflected in asset valuation.

Despite these robust fundamental developments, XRP's price action has remained relatively subdued, trading around $1.45 compared to previous levels.

The post Ripple insider warns XRP holders as fake airdrop scams surge across XRPL appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin surged back above $81,000 after the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, clearing a major hurdle for the most comprehensive crypto regulation bill in US history.

On May 14, the panel approved the legislation on bipartisan lines, sending the legislation to the full Senate floor. The successful markup caps ten months of painstaking negotiations and represents a monumental shift toward establishing a clear federal framework for digital assets.

Patrick Witt, the executive director of the White House Presidential Advisory Committee on Digital Assets, said:

“The CLARITY Act is not only good policy, it is necessary policy for the United States to maintain our leadership position in global financial markets. Not to mention the robust consumer protections and anti-illicit finance provisions it contains, without which, there are none.”

CLARITY Act's path to passage

The CLARITY Act aims to resolve a decade-long turf war between federal regulators by explicitly dividing jurisdiction over digital asset markets.

Under the newly approved text, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is granted sweeping authority to regulate crypto spot markets, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) retains oversight over digital asset securities and primary offerings of investment contracts.

The road to passage narrowly survived a last-minute push from traditional banking stakeholders, including the American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute.

Bankers had lobbied heavily against the rewards provisions on stablecoins, warning that the bill could trigger “deposit flight” from traditional financial institutions.

To secure the necessary bipartisan votes, lawmakers relied on a delicate compromise regarding stablecoin rewards.

The approved text explicitly bans platforms from offering passive yield on idle stablecoin balances, which was a major victory for the traditional banking sector. However, it permits “activity-based rewards” tied to direct platform transactions, such as gas fees or utility payments.

Still, the legislation drew sharp criticism from some progressive lawmakers, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who said:

“[CLARITY Act] will turbocharge the massive conflict of interests posed by Donald Trump and his family's crypto ventures.”

Conversely, crypto advocates celebrated the markup as a defining victory that would bolster the industry's growth. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the legislation will benefit the American people by making the US financial system faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

He added that the CLARITY Act “will also ensure that the US leads in the global race to build the next generation of our financial system.”

What's next for the bill?

While committee approval marks a historic milestone, the path to enactment remains a daunting legislative sprint.

CLARITY Act proponents are aiming for a final desk signing by President Donald Trump by the Fourth of July, a deadline that leaves virtually no room for error.

The immediate hurdle is the calendar. Lawmakers face an impending Memorial Day recess on May 21, and the clock is ticking toward the August congressional recess.

To meet the July 4 target, the bill must first undergo a floor reconciliation with the Senate Agriculture Committee's January text before heading to the full Senate floor, where it will require a 60-vote supermajority to pass.

From there, Senate leadership must reconcile the legislation with H.R. 3633, the corresponding digital asset bill passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025.

Despite the dense procedural gauntlet ahead, Galaxy Digital, a prominent asset management firm, said it is “cautiously optimistic with a view of 55% likelihood that the bill will become law in 2026.”

However, Senator Cynthia Lummis previously warned that the bill, if stalled at any stage, could derail momentum. According to her, this could potentially delay the comprehensive cryptocurrency regulation until the end of the decade.

The post Bitcoin rips as CLARITY Act clears major Senate Committee hurdle, advances to the full Senate floor appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Senate Banking Committee meets in executive session later today, May 14, to consider the CLARITY Act, a bill that already cleared the House 294-134 in July 2025 and needs at least 7 Democratic votes to advance in the full Senate.

Hashdex CIO Samir Kerbage reads the current crypto price action as confirmation that the market is pricing the odds of a committee vote, leaving the capital flow scenario of a signed bill entirely out of current valuations.

Kerbage told CryptoSlate:

“If the CLARITY Act is signed into law this won't just be a compliance milestone, it will be a market activation event that should lead to significant capital inflows, product development, and broad institutional acceptance.”

Related Reading

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May 13, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

He added that Hashdex is optimistic that the bill will reach President Donald Trump's desk this summer.

What the Clarity Act establishes

CLARITY covers stablecoin rewards, anti-money-laundering rules, SEC fundraising exemptions, DeFi treatment, and tokenization.

The stablecoin provision is the most contentious, as the bill bans rewards on idle stablecoin balances that resemble bank deposits while permitting transaction-based rewards and requires the SEC, CFTC, and Treasury to issue joint rules.

Banks have pushed back against deposit flight risk, while crypto firms argue that restricting third-party rewards is anti-competitive.

The bill would bring digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers under Bank Secrecy Act treatment as financial institutions, adding AML, customer identification, and due diligence obligations.

For institutions sitting on the sidelines, that framework is a prerequisite, as it gives compliance teams a rulebook to defend internally and investment committees a structure they can approve.

Kerbage said:

“The CLARITY Act is particularly important for institutional investors. These investors have fiduciary responsibilities and investment policies that require a far greater level of regulatory clarity than individual investors.”

Institutions need policy clarity, investment committee approval, product wrappers, and fiduciary justification before they can allocate at scale. If signed, the CLARITY Act provides the policy layer that unlocks the rest of that chain.

Kerbage expects the bulk of that institutional capital to flow through ETFs and index-based crypto products, giving demand a durable, reportable structure.

Farside Investors data shows that US-traded Ethereum ETFs have accumulated approximately $12 billion in cumulative net flows since launch, and Solana ETFs have surpassed $1 billion.

Both are well below the Bitcoin ETF scale, accumulating in a market where CLARITY would, for the first time, establish the regulatory status of their underlying assets.

The Bitcoin ETF comparison

Kerbage's benchmark for CLARITY's potential is the SEC's January 2024 approval of spot Bitcoin ETF listings, which converted latent demand into packaged, committee-approved flows at a far larger scale than pre-approval consensus had projected.

He argued:

“For Bitcoin alone, that regulatory action led to cumulative flows crossing $70 billion in just two years.

If digital asset market structure legislation is signed into law, we expect a similar trajectory for crypto assets beyond Bitcoin, particularly the smart contract platforms providing the underlying infrastructure for stablecoins and tokenization initiatives.”

CLARITY would give the broader crypto asset class a definitional framework, determining when tokens are securities, commodities, or otherwise, and the products issuers need to build and institutions need to buy.

Kerbage points to new product creation as the mechanism through which capital enters the market once legislation clears, building through a pipeline of ETFs and wrappers that institutions can use.

He expects issuers to build around the unique attributes of crypto, such as staking-based initiatives, index-based broad exposure, and income strategies that exploit crypto market liquidity and improve financial infrastructure.

Kerbage said:

“Approval of the CLARITY Act will only make it easier for these products to launch and attract investor capital.”

The Senate bill text includes a Regulation Crypto exemption allowing companies to raise up to $50 million per year and $200 million in total, disclosure rules for ancillary assets, DeFi cybersecurity standards, and banking-law clarifications for digital asset activities.

Repricing Clarity Act asset class vs. amendment friction

If the Banking Committee advances the bill and bipartisan momentum builds toward enactment, Kerbage sees a credible path to repricing the whole asset class.

Bitcoin's base case trades between $74,000 and $85,000 in the coming weeks, absent a major catalyst.

He said:

“Approval of the CLARITY Act could be the catalyst that helps drive crypto prices much higher, potentially pushing prices closer to recent all-time highs before the end of the year.”

Smart contract platforms, staking assets, tokenization infrastructure, and index-based crypto ETFs all carry a larger regulatory uncertainty discount than Bitcoin, which already cleared its access event in 2024.

A signed CLARITY Act compresses that discount across the asset class simultaneously, making the bull case for beyond Bitcoin assets more directly tied to the bill's fate than BTC itself.

The legislative path carries real friction, as full Senate passage requires at least seven Democratic votes, and the stablecoin rewards provision, banking-sector opposition, ethics considerations, and AML implementation details all create amendment risk that could delay or dilute the final text.

A drawn-out markup fight would leave uncertainty in the crypto pricing process, keeping the regulatory discount intact and limiting the institutional capital unlock Kerbage describes.

Kerbage concluded by calling CLARITY “the most significant piece of legislation in this industry's history.”

The post Crypto markets are massively underpricing Clarity Act passing – Hashdex warns appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin has been seeing recurring mid-month strength this year, and it is becoming harder to separate it from Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) expanding preferred-stock machine. The funding channel is helping the company continue to buy the flagship digital asset while adding a growing layer of cost to its balance sheet.

Research firm K33 has tied the pattern to Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock, STRC, which has become a key source of liquidity for the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder. The instrument pays dividends at month-end, but investors must own the shares by the 15th to qualify for the payout.

That deadline has turned the middle of each month into a predictable window of demand. Investors buy STRC ahead of the cutoff, driving up its trading volume, and the stock moves back toward its $100 par value.

Once STRC trades at or above par, Strategy can issue new shares through its at-the-market program and use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin.

Data from STRC.live shows that this loop has become active this week, with STRC returning to par and giving Strategy enough room to fund the purchase of more than 5,000 Bitcoin before Friday’s next ex-dividend deadline.

The move extends a pattern that has made Strategy’s capital markets activity a recurring feature of Bitcoin’s spot-market flow. It also reinforces why STRC has become the most dominant preferred equity in the market.

STRC turns dividend demand into Bitcoin buying

The volume of Bitcoin acquired through this specific funding channel has accelerated aggressively since the start of the year.

K33 research noted that Strategy bought 4,467 Bitcoin using STRC proceeds in January. By March, purchases tied to the preferred stock had climbed to 22,131 Bitcoin.

In April, the figure rose again to about 46,872 Bitcoin, showing how rapidly the instrument has moved from a financing tool to a major driver of the company’s accumulation strategy.

Vetle Lunde, the head of research at the crypto research firm, described the setup as a mechanical source of demand.

According to him, STRC draws yield-focused investors before the ex-dividend date, helping the preferred stock regain par and giving Strategy the market depth needed to issue more shares. The company then converts that demand into spot Bitcoin purchases.

Meanwhile, Strategy is now seeking to tighten the cycle. The company has proposed moving STRC’s dividend schedule from monthly payments to twice-monthly distributions, arguing that more frequent payouts would reduce reinvestment delays and improve market efficiency.

The change would also create more frequent opportunities to raise capital. That could reinforce the mid-month buying pattern, while making Strategy more dependent on a product that carries a far higher cost than its earlier financing tools.

Strategy’s cheap-capital era gives way to preferred equity

While the STRC mechanism is helping to shape BTC's near-term market performance, institutional researchers are sounding the alarm about the trade's long-term sustainability.

For much of its Bitcoin accumulation history, the Michael Saylor-led company had relied on common stock issuance and convertible debt.

Both were attractive when Strategy’s equity traded at a wide premium to the value of its Bitcoin holdings, and bond investors were willing to accept low coupons in exchange for exposure to possible stock upside.

However, those conditions have considerably weakened over the past year.

Delphi Digital estimates Strategy’s common stock premium now trades at about 1.24 times its enterprise-value-based net asset value. At that level, issuing common stock offers far less benefit for increasing Bitcoin per share.

Moreover, the convertible-debt window has also narrowed. Strategy carries about $8.2 billion of principal from earlier deals, with repayments scheduled to begin in September 2027.

That leaves STRC as the main financing engine for Strategy's recent BTC purchases. Because the preferred stock sits below senior debt and convertibles in the capital stack, investors require more compensation for the risk.

STRC’s annualized yield has already risen to 11.5%, a sharp increase from the cheaper financing that supported Strategy’s earlier Bitcoin purchases.

The Bitcoin-per-share trade gets more expensive

STRC still helps Strategy buy Bitcoin without issuing common stock directly for the purchase. That is central to the company’s argument that the program can support growth in Bitcoin per share.

Delphi estimates that about 97% of every $1 billion raised through STRC can be deployed into Bitcoin. At current prices, that can lift Strategy’s Bitcoin-per-share metric at the point of issuance.

The cost arrives afterward. Each $1 billion of STRC creates roughly $115 million of annual dividend obligations. Those payments must be serviced, and Delphi expects Strategy to rely on common stock issuance to meet them.

That turns the preferred program into a delayed dilution mechanism. The Bitcoin bought with STRC proceeds can initially lift per-share exposure, but the recurring dividend bill gradually offsets that benefit as more common stock is issued to fund payments.

Delphi’s model shows the effect fading over time. Bitcoin-per-share growth could exceed 7% in the first year of the program, but fall to just above 3% by the third year as the preferred stock base grows and dividend obligations compound.

The pressure becomes more acute near the $28.3 billion STRC authorization cap. Once Strategy reaches that limit, the preferred-stock engine can no longer keep funding new purchases at the same pace. The dividend bill, however, remains.

Under those conditions, Delphi projects that net Bitcoin-per-share growth could turn negative, shrinking by nearly 6% a year as common issuance is used to service preferred dividends rather than to expand holdings.

A bear market could stress the loop

The larger risk is that STRC’s mechanics work best when Bitcoin is rising, and investor appetite for yield remains strong.

Blockchain research firm House of Chimera has warned that a sustained downturn could create a negative feedback loop.

According to the firm:

“As Bitcoin declines, STRC may need to raise its dividend to maintain investor demand. Yet higher yields also increase Strategy’s monthly cash obligations at the exact moment its BTC holdings are losing value. This creates a structurally fragile feedback loop in which worsening market conditions force the structure to promise ever-larger payouts.”

The House of Chimera’s test suggests that under pessimistic market conditions, Strategy’s $2.5 billion cash reserves could be exhausted within 17 to 22 months.

That would leave the company facing a liquidity squeeze at the same time market access is weakest.

Moreover, the bigger danger is that Strategy could eventually be forced to sell Bitcoin to meet dividend obligations.

Any forced selling would add pressure to the spot market, weaken demand for STRC, and potentially require even higher yields to restore investor confidence.

In House of Chimera’s most severe scenario, the preferred-stock stack could eventually force sales approaching 800,000 Bitcoin.

Strategy moves from accumulation to balance-sheet management

Acknowledging the changing financial realities, Strategy’s corporate posture has evolved.

The company’s recent disclosures point to a more active approach than the earlier “never sell” posture associated with founder and Chairman Michael Saylor.

The focus has shifted toward maximizing BTC Yield, a company metric that tracks the growth of physical Bitcoin holdings relative to the number of outstanding shares. In an X post, Phong Le, president and CEO of the company, said:

“Bitcoin per share (BPS) is our True North. Every day, Strategy uses multivariate models to optimize capital, equity, debt, and credit decisions to maximize annual BTC Yield (growth in BPS). YTD, we’ve achieved 9.4% BTC Yield and $5.0 billion in BTC Gain.”

Keeping those figures positive will become harder as cheap debt rolls off, preferred dividends expand, and the cost of each new Bitcoin purchase rises.

For now, STRC continues to support a reliable mid-month Bitcoin bid. The instrument converts yield demand into fresh capital, and that capital continues to flow into the spot market.

However, the trade is also becoming more fragile. Strategy’s funding machine can still lift Bitcoin in the short term, but the same structure is building a larger dividend burden behind each purchase.

As STRC grows, the question for shareholders and Bitcoin traders becomes whether the company can continue to increase Bitcoin per share after the machine's cost is fully accounted for.

The post Bitcoin keeps rallying mid-month – Is Saylor using Strategy’s STRC funding loop to pump BTC? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin’s break below $80,000 has pushed traders toward a crowded leverage zone where a further decline could force about $1 billion of long positions out of the market.

According to CryptoSlate data, the largest cryptocurrency fell to as low as $78,725 after US inflation readings came in hotter than expected, weakening expectations that the Federal Reserve will be able to cut interest rates later this year.

As of press time, Bitcoin has recovered to $79,500, down about 2% on the day and roughly 37% below its October record above $126,000.

This price performance has left Bitcoin wedged between two closely watched liquidation levels. CoinGlass data from May 14 shows an estimated $1 billion of long positions on major exchanges could be liquidated if Bitcoin falls below $78,000. A rebound to about $80,458 would put roughly $640 million of short positions at risk.

That narrow range has become the market’s immediate battleground after inflation data interrupted Bitcoin’s recovery from April lows.

Notably, the current sell-off also coincides with softer US demand signals, outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, and renewed profit-taking by investors whose holdings returned to gains during the rally.

Leverage builds around $78,000

In a note shared with CryptoSlate, CryptoQuant noted that BTC's rally above $80,000 was driven by speculative demand.

As a result, the $78,000 level now carries more weight because leveraged long positions are concentrated below it.

This level of concentration indicates where forced selling or buying could intensify if the price reaches that threshold. A large cluster means the market could move faster once that zone is hit, as exchanges close positions that no longer meet margin requirements.

Coinglass's liquidation map shows the greater immediate downside risk. If Bitcoin slides below $78,000, forced closures of long positions could add sell pressure at the same time spot demand is already weakening.

That could turn an ordinary pullback into a sharper deleveraging move.

Meanwhile, the upside risk is smaller but still relevant. A move back to $80,458 would pressure roughly $640 million of short positions, creating the possibility of forced buying if bears are caught leaning too heavily into the inflation-driven drop.

That tension leaves Bitcoin in a compressed range. A break lower would test whether April’s recovery had enough spot demand behind it. A recovery above $80,000 would show that the inflation shock has not fully reversed the rebound.

Spot Bitcoin demand softens as ETF outflows spike

Meanwhile, Bitcoin's derivatives setup is becoming more fragile because recent spot-market signals have softened.

According to CryptoQuant data, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has been declining since late April. The index tracks the price gap between Coinbase and Binance and is often used as a gauge of US demand.

A sustained negative reading suggests buying pressure from US-linked investors has cooled as Bitcoin approached $80,000.

In this case, CryptoQuant analyst JA Maarturn explained that the signal means that “US Institutional (large players) [are] selling bitcoin.”

This is corroborated by ETF flows, which have also turned less supportive this week with more than $800 million in outflows.

Data from SoSoValue shows that the poor performance was mainly driven by the $630.38 million in net outflows on May 13. This was the second consecutive day of withdrawals and the largest single-day outflow in three months.

Additional Glassnode data also shows that the seven-day moving average of US spot ETF net flows fell to -$88 million a day, the deepest outflow since mid-February.

Market analysts noted that these flows indicated that some institutional investors used BTC's $80,000 recovery to reduce exposure rather than increase risk.

However, the picture is not one-way as the spot Bitcoin ETFs still had more than $400 million in net inflows month-to-date, a sign that investor appetite has not disappeared.

The recent reversal, however, shows that demand has become more selective as the rally runs into macro pressure and technical resistance.

The 200-day average becomes the upside test

Against this backdrop, Bitcoin’s immediate downside test is $78,000, the early-May low that preceded the rally toward $82,000. A break below that level would put the liquidation cluster in play and raise the risk of a move toward the late-April capitulation zone.

Still, BTC's primary resistance level sits near $82,400, its 200-day moving average. CryptoQuant data show Bitcoin reached that level after a 37% rally from April lows.

The setup resembles that of March 2022 in one respect: Bitcoin then rallied about 43% before meeting its 200-day moving average and later resumed its decline.

According to the firm, a clean break above $82,400 would ease pressure on bulls and could force short sellers to rethink positions.

However, failure near that zone would reinforce the view that Bitcoin’s rebound has run into resistance just as profit-taking and ETF outflows are picking up.

If Bitcoin falls below $78,000, the next major on-chain support sits closer to $70,000, near traders’ on-chain realized price.

That level represents the average cost basis of short-term traders and has historically acted as a support band when unrealized profits compress back toward zero.

The post Bitcoin traders brace for $1 billion liquidation trap after inflation shock breaks $80,000 appeared first on CryptoSlate.

In the last 45 days alone, the US stock market has ballooned by nearly $11 trillion in market capitalization. As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 continue to shatter record highs, investors are beginning to ask the golden question: when will this massive wave of capital spill over into the digital asset market?

The $11 Trillion Liquidity Wave

The recent rally has been nothing short of historic. Driven by a combination of cooling inflation data and an insatiable appetite for AI-driven technology, the total US market cap has reached approximately $73.3 trillion as of May 2026. This $11 trillion expansion represents a significant increase in global wealth, much of which is currently sitting in "risk-on" equity positions. Historically, such periods of extreme equity growth serve as a precursor to a "liquidity rotation," where profits from stocks flow into high-growth alternatives like $Bitcoin and $Ethereum.

What is Market Rotation?

Market rotation occurs when investors move capital from one asset class that has reached perceived "peak" valuation into another that offers higher asymmetric upside. In the current context, the $11 trillion gain in stocks represents a massive pool of unrealized gains. As stock valuations become stretched—with the S&P 500 trading at a P/E multiple near its 40-year high—the incentive for investors to diversify into the "digital gold" of the crypto space increases exponentially.

Analysis: Stock Market Performance as of May 14, 2026

To understand the scale of this move, we must look at the giants leading the charge. As of today, May 14, 2026, the tech sector remains the primary engine of growth.

Current Equity Benchmarks:

According to Goldman Sachs, AI investment alone is expected to drive 40% of S&P 500 earnings growth this year. This "wealth effect" creates a surplus of capital that typically seeks higher-beta assets once the initial equity move plateaus.

The Crypto Correlation: Why Bitcoin Follows Tech

The correlation between the Nasdaq 100 and Bitcoin has historically been strong, often ranging between 0.6 and 0.8. When tech stocks soar, it indicates a high "risk appetite" among institutional and retail investors alike.

As of today, Bitcoin ($BTC) is trading near $79,549, knocking on the door of the psychological $80,000 resistance level. The surge in stock market value acts as a "rising tide" for all risk assets. When the stock market adds $11 trillion, it isn't just numbers on a screen; it is collateral and purchasing power that can be used to enter the crypto market via crypto exchanges or Spot ETFs.

Can Bitcoin reach 100K again?

For Bitcoin to reach 100k again, the following needs to happen:

• Wealth Effect: Investors feeling "rich" from stock gains are more likely to speculate on altcoins.
• Institutional On-ramps: With record inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, the bridge between Wall Street and Crypto is shorter than ever.
• Profit Taking: As traders trim their positions in overextended stocks like Nvidia, a portion of that $11 trillion will naturally seek the 24/7 liquidity of crypto.

While the broader crypto market sentiment has turned cautious, XRP price is holding strong support around the $1.40 level. This comes at a time when Bitcoin and Ethereum have breached critical psychological and technical floors.

What's Happening to Crypto?

Current market data confirms a significant shift in momentum:

• XRP: Maintaining stability above $1.43, successfully testing the $1.40 support zone.
• Bitcoin (BTC): Has officially dropped below the $80,000 mark, trading near $79,200.
• Ethereum (ETH): Is struggling to find footing after slipping below $2,400.

For the current bullish structure to remain intact, XRP must defend its current base, while BTC and ETH need a swift recovery to prevent a localized "liquidity drain" from altcoins.

Why $1.40 Matters for XRP

In technical analysis, a "strong support" level is an area where buying interest consistently outweighs selling pressure. For $XRP, the $1.40 zone represents a pivot point that has transitioned from resistance to support over the last several months. Holding this level during a Bitcoin price drop suggests that XRP investors are currently less reactive to BTC’s volatility, potentially due to ecosystem-specific developments or institutional accumulation.

The Ripple Effect: Can XRP Decouple from BTC and ETH?

While XRP is showing strength, the broader market health heavily depends on the recovery of the leaders.

The Dependency on Bitcoin and Ethereum

If $Bitcoin fails to reclaim $80,000 and $Ethereum stays below $2,400, the market may enter a "distribution phase." In this scenario, even strong performers like XRP eventually see a breakdown as traders move capital into stables or hardware wallets to preserve gains.

• Recovery Target: BTC needs a daily close above $81,500 to signal a "fakeout."
• Downside Risk: Failure to recover could lead the market toward lower liquidity zones not seen since early Q1.

XRP Price Prediction: Support and Resistance Targets

Analyzing the current 1W XRP/USDT chart provides two primary paths for the coming weeks.

1. The Bearish Scenario: A Retest of $1.20 - $1.30

Should the $1.40 support fail due to continued pressure from the crypto market, XRP will likely gravitate toward its secondary support zone. This area, located between $1.20 and $1.30, is a high-volume node where the price found significant stability during previous corrections.

2. The Bullish Scenario: Eyes on $1.80 and $2.00

If XRP maintains its "holding strong" status, the path of least resistance remains upward. The immediate overhead resistance sits at $1.80. A successful breach of this level would clear the way for a run toward the psychological $2.00 milestone, a target that has remained a primary focus for long-term Ripple holders.

The digital asset market has been hit by a wave of intense volatility, leaving traders and long-term holders in a state of shock. After a period of bullish consolidation where Bitcoin ($BTC) appeared to be building a base for a six-figure run, the tide has turned. Today, the leading cryptocurrency plummeted below the psychological $80,000 mark, dragging the rest of the market, including Ethereum ($ETH), down with it.

Bitcoin Price Crash Today

Bitcoin is currently trading at approximately $79,100, having officially lost the $80,000 support level that bulls defended for weeks. This 5% intraday drop has triggered over $300 million in liquidations, primarily affecting over-leveraged long positions. The sudden move has shifted market sentiment from "Greed" to "Fear" almost instantly.

Why did Bitcoin Price Crash? 

The primary catalyst for today's market crash is the release of the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) for April 2026. The data, published this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that wholesale inflation is surging at its fastest pace in years.

The PPI Shock by the Numbers

• Headline PPI: Increased by 1.4% month-over-month, vastly exceeding the 0.5% forecast.
• Year-over-Year PPI: Hit 6.0%, the highest level in 3.5 years (since late 2022).
• Core PPI (ex-food & energy): Jumped 1.0% MoM, signaling that inflation is broad-based and not just tied to volatile sectors.

A significant driver of this spike was a 15.6% surge in gasoline prices and a 7.8% rise in energy goods, largely due to the escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East affecting global supply chains.

Why High PPI Destroys the Crypto Narrative

Bitcoin is often touted as an "inflation hedge," but in practice, it behaves as a high-beta liquidity asset. When the US PPI comes in this high, it forces the Federal Reserve to maintain a hawkish stance.

The market is now pricing in a "higher-for-longer" interest rate environment. Higher rates make the US Dollar stronger and Treasury yields more attractive, which naturally sucks liquidity out of risk assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Technical Analysis: Is $75k the Next Stop?

From a technical perspective, the Bitcoin kurs has broken below its 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA). This is a major bearish signal for swing traders.

• Crucial Resistance: For any hope of a recovery, BTC must reclaim $80,500 on the daily candle.
• Support Levels: The next major "liquidity pocket" is located at $75,000. If the selling pressure continues, analysts expect a rapid descent to this level as stop-losses are triggered.
• Ethereum Impact: ETH cours has also broken its support at $2,275, currently eyeing the $2,100 zone.

To manage the current volatility, many investors are moving their funds to safety. You can compare the most secure storage options in our hardware wallets comparison or look for exchanges with higher liquidity on our exchange comparison page.

As of May 13, 2026, PEPE remains a central figure in the meme coin landscape. While many expected the "frog" to fade into obscurity, it has maintained a significant market presence. However, the 2026 market is vastly different from the speculative frenzy of years past. With $Bitcoin dominance rising to over 58.5%, the question for retail investors is simple: Is PEPE a hidden gem or a falling knife?

Is PEPE Worth Buying?

Currently trading at $0.00000418, PEPE is in a "make or break" consolidation phase.

• The Bull Case: If PEPE breaks the current descending resistance, it could target $0.00000580 in the short term.
• The Bear Case: Analysts warn that if support at $0.00000304 fails, PEPE could see a further 23% drop by mid-May.

For those seeking high-risk, high-reward plays, PEPE is still "worth it" as a speculative tool, but it is no longer the "easy money" it was during its inception.

PEPE as a High-Beta Asset

In 2026, professional traders treat PEPE as a High-Beta asset. This means PEPE tends to move in the same direction as Bitcoin but with much greater intensity. When the market is "Risk-On," PEPE outperforms; when the market consolidates—as it is doing now in May 2026—PEPE often bleeds value faster than major coins.

Performance Comparison: PEPE vs. The Giants

To determine if PEPE is worth buying, we must look at how it stacks up against the "Serious" assets in May 2026.

PEPE vs. Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin is currently the preferred choice for institutional capital, with funds flowing back into BTC as altcoins struggle. PEPE is only a superior buy if you anticipate a massive retail surge that lowers Bitcoin's dominance.

PEPE vs. XRP

XRP has found a floor at $1.40, backed by its utility in cross-border payments. PEPE lacks this fundamental "floor," making it more susceptible to total retracements if community interest dips.

PEPE Price Analysis: Key Levels for PEPE Coin

The weekly chart shows a tightening wedge. The RSI is at 45.02, which is firmly in "no man's land."

Key Support and Resistance

• Resistance ($0.00000479 - $0.00000592): PEPE has failed to break this level four times in 2026. A daily close above this is the primary "Buy" signal for trend followers.
• Support ($0.00000304): This is the ultimate "safety net." According to recent crypto news, a breach here would likely invalidate the 2026 bull thesis.

2026 Market Catalysts

• Other Frogs Threat: New competitors are siphoning liquidity from the original PEPE community, posing a significant threat to PEPE's "meme-king" status.
• Institutional Moves: While JPMorgan is launching tokenized funds on Ethereum, meme coins like PEPE rely entirely on social media virality and potential "Spot Meme ETF" rumors.

IS PEPE Coin Worth Buying in 2026?

PEPE is worth buying in 2026 only if you are using "play money." It remains a powerful tool for catching volatility, but it is underperforming compared to the stability of Bitcoin.

JPMorgan Chase intensified its foray into the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem by filing for a new tokenized money-market fund on the Ethereum blockchain. This move, identified through recent SEC filings, underscores a major shift in how "Global Systemically Important Banks" (GSIBs) view public blockchain infrastructure not just as an experiment, but as a primary settlement layer for institutional liquidity.

JPMorgan’s Ethereum Strategy

The bank’s latest vehicle, the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund (JLTXX), follows the successful late-2025 launch of its first public-chain fund, MONY (My OnChain Net Yield Fund). Unlike early permissioned experiments, these funds leverage the public Ethereum network, allowing for greater interoperability with the broader digital asset ecosystem.

Tokenized Money Market Funds

A tokenized money-market fund is a traditional financial product—typically investing in short-term U.S. Treasury bills and repurchase agreements—where ownership is represented by digital tokens (often ERC-20 on Ethereum).

• Yield on-chain: Investors earn dividends that accrue daily and are distributed as additional tokens.
• 24/7 Liquidity: Unlike traditional banking hours, these tokens can be transferred or redeemed near-instantaneously.
• Programmability: The fund’s "shares" can be integrated into smart contracts to serve as collateral.

Bridging Traditional Finance and Stablecoins

The timing of this launch is strategic. With the implementation of the GENIUS Act (the 2025 U.S. stablecoin legislation), stablecoin issuers are now required to hold high-quality liquid assets as reserves. JPMorgan is positioning JLTXX specifically to satisfy these legal requirements, effectively turning Ethereum into a bridge between the $240 billion stablecoin market and U.S. Treasury yields.

Institutional Competition: JPMorgan vs. BlackRock

JPMorgan is moving into a space currently dominated by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, which recently surpassed $2.5 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM). While BlackRock has a head start, JPMorgan’s deep integration with corporate treasury desks through its Morgan Money platform gives it a unique distribution advantage.

Services and Utility on Ethereum

The launch of JLTXX on Ethereum entails several key services that were previously manual or siloed within internal bank ledgers:

• Atomic Settlement: Subscriptions and redemptions can happen in real-time using stablecoins or tokenized deposits, eliminating the T+1 or T+2 settlement lag.
• Collateral Mobility: Through JPMorgan’s Tokenized Collateral Network (TCN), these fund tokens can be used as collateral for derivatives or repo trades without moving the underlying assets.
• Transparent Registry: While identity is verified off-chain to meet KYC/AML standards, the record of ownership exists on a transparent, immutable ledger, reducing audit friction.

Security startup Calif says researchers used a preview version of Anthropic's Claude Mythos AI to help build an Apple macOS kernel exploit.

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Strategy's Michael Saylor called Strive's impending shift to daily dividend payments "impressive."

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XRP has shattered market expectations by surging past the $1.50 mark, delivering a massive 6.7% daily gain.

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Major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced a strategic infrastructure overhaul, deprecating its legacy cross-chain provider to migrate exclusively to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).

Popular crypto analyst believes that Bitcoin could still hit $86,000 soon despite the ongoing market slowdown that has caused its price to retreat to $79,000.

CME Group has officially added XRP to its new Nasdaq Crypto Index ahead of the historic May 29 shift to 24/7 trading. Learn how open interest predicted this move.

Key Highlights

• ASST stock climbs as Strive introduces daily SATA dividend structure alongside bitcoin treasury expansion.

• Company’s SATA preferred shares transition to daily cash distributions beginning June 16.

• ASST advances following complete debt retirement and enhanced bitcoin accumulation strategy.

• Strive now controls 15,009 BTC while ASST rallies on innovative income structure announcement.

• New daily payout mechanism positions Strive distinctively within bitcoin treasury company landscape.

Shares of Strive (ASST) climbed after the firm combined balance sheet improvements with an innovative income-generating offering. ASST reached $17.97, posting a 7.32% gain, while maintaining strength throughout the trading session. The upward movement coincided with regulatory filings detailing debt elimination and modifications to preferred share terms.

Strive, Inc., ASST

Strive announced that its subsidiary, Semler Scientific, finalized the buyback and cancellation of all outstanding 2030 convertible notes. This transaction eliminated liabilities associated with the 4.25% Convertible Senior Notes scheduled to mature in 2030. Furthermore, the trustee validated that all indenture requirements were met and discharged.

Eliminating this debt provides Strive with increased financial flexibility for its capital allocation initiatives. Additionally, the firm currently maintains a minimal debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, based on InvestingPro metrics. This metric underscores the company’s recent deleveraging efforts and improves its overall financial positioning.

SATA Preferred Shares Transition to Daily Payment Model

Strive revised the conditions governing its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, designated as SATA. The firm submitted the modified certificate to Nevada’s Secretary of State on May 13. Accordingly, these revisions alter the methodology for computing and distributing preferred share dividends.

Beginning June 16, 2026, SATA will distribute cash dividends on every business day. Shareholders registered on the preceding business day will be eligible for each distribution. Nevertheless, dividend declarations will continue on a monthly basis for subsequent monthly dividend cycles.

The board preserved SATA’s yearly dividend rate at 13.00% for monthly intervals commencing after May 16. Moreover, any unpaid regular dividends will generate additional accumulating dividends if Strive fails to make scheduled distributions. The revised provisions also address dividend postponements, notification procedures, and restrictions on specific payments.

Bitcoin Accumulation Strategy Generates Investor Attention

Strive disclosed the dividend modification concurrent with its first-quarter financial results and bitcoin treasury report. The company purchased 6,001 bitcoin throughout the first quarter. This amount comprised 5,048 bitcoin obtained through Semler Scientific and 953 bitcoin acquired via open-market transactions.

Between April 1 and May 12, Strive accumulated an additional 1,381 bitcoin for its holdings. As a result, the firm’s aggregate bitcoin position reached 15,009 bitcoin. This figure establishes Strive among publicly traded entities employing bitcoin as a primary treasury reserve.

This approach also amplified earnings volatility during the reporting period. Strive disclosed a GAAP net loss of $265.9 million for the quarter ending March 31. The majority of this loss stemmed from fair-market value adjustments to its bitcoin position.

The post Strive (ASST) Stock Climbs on Daily Dividend Strategy and Bitcoin Holdings Growth appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• The euro stablecoin market currently holds about €620 million in total capitalization.
• Euro stablecoins account for roughly 0.2% of the global stablecoin market.
• Transaction volume for MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins has increased by 1,200% since the regulation took effect.
• Issuers report rising inbound requests from entrepreneurs and institutional firms seeking regulated euro digital assets.
• The broader addressable market for euro-denominated activity stands at approximately €16 trillion.
• Euro stablecoins contribute nearly 13% of global stablecoin payment activity.

Euro-pegged digital tokens remain small in market size, yet issuers now report rising demand from institutions and startups. The total euro stablecoin market stands near €620 million, or about 0.2% of global stablecoin capitalization. However, issuers say MiCA has triggered sharp volume growth and renewed interest across Europe.

EUR Stablecoin Market Expands Under MiCA Framework

The euro stablecoin market cap holds near €620 million, yet transaction activity has accelerated quickly. Since MiCA took effect, compliant euro stablecoin volumes have increased by 1,200%. Issuers attribute this rise to a migration from unregulated tokens toward regulated alternatives.

Market participants point to MiCA’s reserve and compliance standards as a key driver of adoption. Issuers must maintain controlled reserves and meet transparency obligations under the framework. One issuer stated, “MiCA gave the market a clear rulebook, and capital responded immediately.”

Entrepreneurs and institutions now explore euro-based digital settlement options within the regulated structure. Issuers report steady inbound requests from payment firms and fintech platforms. They aim to capture activity within the broader €16 trillion euro-denominated financial system.

The €16 trillion figure reflects cross-border payments, trade finance, and traditional euro liquidity flows. Euro stablecoins already account for nearly 13% of global stablecoin payment activity. Market data shows that this share connects traditional finance with decentralized platforms.

Despite growth, euro stablecoins still represent a small fraction of the addressable market. A €620 million capitalization serves a multi-trillion euro ecosystem. Issuers describe current penetration levels as minimal relative to total euro liquidity.

Circle’s EURC Leads Compliance-driven Shift

Circle Internet Financial has captured more than 50% of the euro stablecoin market through its EURC token. The company aligned EURC operations with MiCA requirements early in the rollout phase. This alignment positioned EURC as a compliant option during the regulatory transition.

EURC now holds the largest share of euro stablecoin liquidity across exchanges. Market participants shifted balances toward EURC as MiCA compliance became mandatory. Circle stated that compliance “strengthened trust and improved institutional access.”

MiCA requires issuers to hold reserves under strict management rules and oversight. These rules limit how issuers invest backing assets and generate yield. As a result, issuers operate with narrower margins compared to previous models.

Traditional stablecoin revenue relied on short-term government securities and low-risk instruments. Under MiCA, issuers must structure reserves according to defined asset criteria. Companies confirm that compliance increases operational discipline while reducing flexibility.

Liquidity on decentralized exchanges and lending protocols has also begun to adjust. Platforms list more euro trading pairs as compliant supply grows. Exchange data shows that euro stablecoin activity continues to rise following MiCA implementation.

The post Euro Stablecoin Issuers Eye €16T Market After MiCA Boost appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Blockchain.com has launched crypto-backed loans for users worldwide.
• The product allows clients to borrow against Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC without selling their assets.
• Loan rates start at 1.9% per year, making the offering competitive in the market.
• The service targets large crypto holders seeking liquidity for property, business, and tax needs.
• CEO Peter Smith said crypto-backed lending has been one of the most requested products on the platform.
• Blockchain.com stated it will use its existing liquidity, infrastructure, and risk systems to support the rollout.

Blockchain.com has introduced crypto-backed loans for clients worldwide. The company now allows users to borrow against Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC without selling holdings. Loan rates start at 1.9% per year, and the product targets large digital asset holders seeking liquidity.

Blockchain.com Expands Lending Access for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC

Blockchain.com confirmed global availability of its crypto-backed loans product. The service enables clients to pledge Bitcoin as collateral and secure cash for major expenses. Borrowers can fund property purchases, business investments, and tax obligations through structured loans.

The company stated that rates begin at 1.9% annually, positioning the offer competitively. It is designed for high-value accounts seeking larger borrowing limits. It also structured the loans to let clients maintain market exposure while accessing capital.

Blockchain.com included Ethereum in the approved collateral list at launch. Clients can lock Ethereum holdings and receive liquidity without executing a sale. The structure supports long-term holders who prefer to retain digital assets during financing.

The firm also approved USDC as eligible collateral under the program. Users can pledge USDC to unlock funding for various permitted uses. However, the company said loan purposes may differ depending on the jurisdiction.

CEO and founder Peter Smith addressed the demand for the new product. He said, “Crypto-backed lending has been one of the most requested products on our platform.” He added that the company plans to compete aggressively in the category.

Smith emphasized existing operational strength within the company. He said Blockchain.com does not enter the lending market from a standing start. He pointed to established liquidity, infrastructure, and risk management systems.

The company stated that these systems already support institutions and wealth clients. It will now extend those capabilities to a broader customer base. The rollout forms part of its consumer and wealth expansion strategy.

Company Targets High Net Worth Clients as Crypto Lending Tops $70 billion

Blockchain.com launched the product as the crypto-backed lending market surpassed $70 billion. The company cited growing demand from holders seeking structured liquidity solutions. It aims to provide competitive pricing and higher borrowing capacity.

The firm said it operates across more than 70 jurisdictions worldwide. It reported processing over $1.2 trillion in transactions to date. It will leverage this footprint to distribute the lending product globally.

Blockchain.com also plans to expand into lending transfers for high-net-worth individuals. The company said it will use blockchain infrastructure to streamline crypto-backed credit. It aims to position its platform as a financial hub for digital asset users.

The post Blockchain.com Launches Crypto-Backed Loans Worldwide appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• World Liberty co-founder Zak Folkman said the $75 million Dolomite loan was small compared to posted collateral.
• Folkman stated that the borrowing aimed to increase utilization and liquidity on Dolomite Markets.
• Onchain data showed that more than $40 million of the borrowed funds moved to Coinbase Prime.
• DeFi analysts raised concerns in April about concentration and liquidation risks tied to the WLFI position.
• Justin Sun filed a lawsuit alleging that World Liberty froze his tokens and restricted governance access.

World Liberty co-founder Zak Folkman addressed a $75 million Dolomite borrowing position and a lawsuit from Justin Sun at Consensus 2026. He said the loan represented a small share of posted collateral and aimed to increase protocol usage. He also confirmed that World Liberty hired Quinn Emanuel and rejected Sun’s claims as false.

World Liberty Explains WLFI and USD1 Loan Activity on Dolomite

Folkman said World Liberty acted as the largest liquidity supplier on Dolomite Markets before taking a limited loan. He stated that the team posted about 5 billion WLFI tokens as collateral and borrowed roughly $75 million in USD1 and USDC. He described the move as “a very, very small loan” compared with the collateral size, and he said the goal focused on raising utilization rates.

He added that the strategy helped expand liquidity across the protocol over time. Onchain data from Arkham showed that the wallet later transferred over $40 million to Coinbase Prime. However, DeFi analysts on X raised concerns in April and warned about concentration and liquidation risks tied to the WLFI-backed position.

Folkman said the borrowing strategy followed internal planning and transparent smart contract rules. He stressed that all contract functions remain visible on Etherscan and other public explorers. He maintained that the position size did not threaten lenders based on posted collateral levels.

He also said the team monitored utilization and liquidity metrics during the borrowing period. He stated that World Liberty reduced its position as liquidity expanded. He reiterated that the company aimed to support growth within Dolomite rather than extract value.

World Liberty Rejects Justin Sun Claims and Files Defamation Case

Folkman also addressed a lawsuit filed by Tron founder Justin Sun in a California federal court on April 22. Sun alleged that World Liberty froze his tokens and excluded him from governance. He also claimed that the WLFI contract contained undisclosed blacklist features and threatened permanent token burns.

Folkman said World Liberty felt “blindsided” by the filing and denied all allegations. He said the project retained Quinn Emanuel to pursue a defamation case against Sun. He described the matter as “cut and dry” and called Sun’s statements “blatantly false.”

He said the 20% unlock terms appeared clearly in the project’s terms and conditions. He also stated that smart contract features remained publicly accessible on blockchain explorers. He argued that no hidden blacklist functions existed beyond disclosed parameters.

Folkman further said World Liberty faces heavier scrutiny due to its ties to President Donald Trump. He described the connection as both a “blessing and curse” for distribution and growth. He stated that the association accelerated adoption while increasing media and public attention.

The post World Liberty Defends Dolomite Loan, Denies Sun Claims appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• The Senate Banking Committee advanced the Clarity Act in a 15-9 vote with two Democrats joining Republicans.
• The bill would split crypto oversight between the SEC and the CFTC and set rules for exchanges and brokers.
• Lawmakers rejected several Democratic amendments related to sanctions, ethics, and anti-money laundering measures.
• A DeFi safe harbor amendment passed 18-6 after support from a bloc of Democrats and Republicans.
• The Clarity Act will merge with the Agriculture Committee version before heading to the full Senate.

The Senate Banking Committee approved the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in a 15-9 vote on Thursday. Sens. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks joined 13 Republicans to move the bill forward. The measure now heads toward a merger with the Senate Agriculture Committee text before a floor vote.

Clarity Act Clears Committee With Bipartisan Support

Lawmakers advanced the Clarity Act after months of cross-party negotiations and revisions. Chair Tim Scott said the bill ends a “regulatory gray zone” for crypto firms. He added that the framework would protect consumers and keep innovation in the United States.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis called the proposal “the hardest piece of legislation” of her career. She said the bill fits new digital assets into an older regulatory system. The text splits oversight between the SEC and the CFTC and sets rules for exchanges, brokers, and custodians.

The committee rejected several Democratic amendments during the markup session. Sen. Elizabeth Warren opposed the bill and called it “a bill written by the crypto industry.” She argued that the draft weakens securities law protections that date to 1929.

Warren also warned that the bill allows banks to increase crypto exposure. She linked that risk to practices before the 2008 financial crisis. Republicans voted down her amendments in 11-13 votes.

Ethics, Sanctions, and DeFi Debates Shape Vote

Democrats raised concerns about illicit finance and stablecoins during the hearing. Sen. Jack Reed said Iranian actors use stablecoins to buy drone components. He sought authority for regulators to block foreign illicit stablecoin flows, but the amendment failed.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen cited estimates that over $150 billion moved through illicit wallets last year. He proposed penalties for releasing DeFi protocols designed for money laundering. Republicans rejected his measure and said current criminal laws already cover such conduct.

Ethics issues tied to President Donald Trump also shaped debate. Van Hollen proposed barring elected officials from crypto business ties. Sen. Bernie Moreno opposed the amendment and said it belonged in the Judiciary Committee, and the panel defeated it 11-13.

A key vote came on Lummis Amendment 122 regarding DeFi safe harbors. The committee adopted the amendment 18-6 after a technical revision. Warner, Cortez Masto, and Alsobrooks joined Republicans to support the compromise language.

Earlier, Chair Scott limited the number of amendments under committee rules. He later reinstated selected proposals to secure bipartisan backing. By the final vote, Gallego and Alsobrooks provided the Democratic support needed for the 15-9 outcome.

The post Clarity Act Moves Forward After 15-9 Committee Vote appeared first on Blockonomi.

Coinbase announced that it is expanding support for USDC on Hyperliquid by becoming the official treasury deployer of USDC under Hyperliquid’s Aligned Quote Asset (AQA) framework.

The company said the move aims to strengthen USDC’s position as the primary stablecoin used across on-chain capital markets.

USDC Strengthens Grip on Hyperliquid

In the latest press release, Coinbase stated that concentrating liquidity around USDC could improve market efficiency by allowing capital to move more freely across trading venues with fewer conversions. Users will continue to have access to USDC through Coinbase’s fiat on- and off-ramps and its wider global network.

The AQA framework was originally introduced by Native Markets as part of its efforts to build a stablecoin platform for Hyperliquid users. Coinbase said it will now assume the role of AQA deployer, while Native Markets has agreed to terms giving Coinbase the right to acquire the USDH brand assets.

According to the announcement, USDH markets will remain operational for now but will gradually be phased out over time. Coinbase also revealed that USDH remains fully backed and that users can continue converting USDH to USDC without fees or redeeming for fiat during the transition period.

Meanwhile, Native Markets will continue handling those conversions and redemptions.

“Since launch, Hyperliquid has seen rapid growth and quickly became a predominant onchain trading network. Coinbase has invested in supporting builders on HyperEVM by supporting stablecoin liquidity. We’re excited to further our support of the ecosystem and see USDC’s continued growth on Hyperliquid.”

Next Phase

In a separate post, Hyperliquid revealed that Circle will serve as the technical deployer overseeing Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) services and native cross-chain infrastructure, while both Circle and Coinbase have committed to staking HYPE tokens to support AQAv2 activation.

The announcement also noted that, as the treasury deployer, Coinbase is expected to share the majority of the reserve yield revenue with the protocol. Hyperliquid further indicated that a future network upgrade will transition canonical outcome markets under HIP-4 to using USDC as the quote asset.

Since its debut in November 2024, Hyperliquid has established itself as a major player in on-chain crypto trading, particularly in perpetual futures markets. The platform gained further institutional attention earlier this week when 21Shares launched the first ETF designed to provide exposure to its native token, HYPE.

The post Coinbase Becomes Official USDC Treasury Deployer on Hyperliquid appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin has started showing early signs of weakness after its recent recovery rally toward the $80K resistance region. The market is now confronting a technically important supply zone where sellers have become increasingly active, raising the probability of a broader corrective phase in the short term.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily chart, BTC has recently shown several bearish signs as the price struggles to maintain bullish momentum around the crucial $80K resistance level. This area coincides with a strong confluence of supply, including the upper boundary of the broader ascending channel and the 200-day moving average near the $82K mark. The repeated inability to reclaim this region highlights the presence of aggressive sellers and growing distribution pressure in the market.

As a result, the probability of an expanded bearish retracement has increased notably. If sellers maintain control, Bitcoin could gradually decline toward lower support zones, with the $75K region acting as the first key demand area. A deeper correction could then expose the broader support zone around $70K-$71K, which previously acted as a significant accumulation range for buyers.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour timeframe, the market has recently broken below a key ascending trendline that had supported the latest bullish structure since the rebound from the $60K region. This bearish breakdown serves as an early warning sign that momentum is fading and sellers are gradually gaining dominance over the market.

Additionally, many participants who accumulated BTC during the recent capitulation toward the $60K support zone now appear to be securing profits and reducing exposure near resistance. This behavior has increased selling pressure around the $80K region and further supports the possibility of another corrective leg in the coming days. If bearish momentum accelerates, the price could continue its decline toward the highlighted demand zones at $76K and eventually the $71K region.

Onchain Analysis

From a liquidation perspective, the Binance BTC/USDT heatmap reveals a substantial concentration of liquidity resting beneath the current market price, particularly around the $77K region. Historically, the market tends to gravitate toward these high-liquidity zones, as they fuel larger directional moves through forced liquidations.

This growing liquidity cluster below the market further aligns with the current bearish technical structure observed across both higher and lower timeframes. As long as Bitcoin remains below the critical resistance confluence around $80K-$82K, the probability of a liquidity-driven decline toward the lower clusters remains elevated.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Risks Drop to $75K as Sellers Defend Critical $80K Resistance appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, May 14th, 2026]

14th of May, Dubai: BNB Chain, the leading L1 blockchain ecosystem, has published a new research report evaluating how BNB Smart Chain (BSC) could migrate core cryptographic systems to post-quantum alternatives in the future.

The report explores the implementation and performance implications of replacing traditional blockchain cryptography with quantum-resistant approaches, including ML-DSA-44 transaction signatures and pqSTARK aggregation for validator consensus.

While quantum computing is not yet capable of breaking production blockchain cryptography in real-world systems, the research reflects a forward-looking approach to infrastructure resilience and long-term network security.

The report evaluates several core areas of the BSC stack, including:

• Post-quantum transaction signature schemes
• Validator signature aggregation
• Transaction verification flows
• Public key storage
• Cross-region network performance under increased data loads

One of the key findings was that post-quantum readiness is technically achievable today, but comes with significant scalability trade-offs.

In testing:

• Transaction size increased from 110 B to ~2.5 KB
• Block size increased from ~110 KB to ~2 MB
• Native transfer TPS decreased from 4,973 to 2,997

The report found that the primary bottleneck was not signature verification performance itself, but the increase in transaction and block sizes, which created additional network propagation overhead across regions.

At the same time, pqSTARK aggregation remained highly efficient. Validator signatures were compressed at roughly 43:1, helping keep consensus-layer overhead manageable despite larger signature sizes.

The report also notes that several areas remain outside the current scope of evaluation, including post-quantum replacements for P2P handshakes and KZG commitments, both of which would require broader ecosystem coordination and additional research.

BNB Chain stated that the work is intended as research and evaluation, rather than a response to any immediate security threat.

The full report is available by clicking this link HERE.

About BNB Chain

BNB Chain is one of the largest and most active blockchain ecosystems in the world, supported by a global community of developers and users. With high throughput, low transaction costs, and full EVM compatibility, BNB Chain powers scalable applications across finance, gaming, and the broader Web3 economy. For more information, users can visit www.bnbchain.org.

The post BNB Chain Publishes Research Report Exploring Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration Path for BSC appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – Abu Dhabi, UAE, May 14th, 2026]

MSU 2.0 to unveil IP expansion strategy, featuring AI creation tools and a unified on-chain content hub.

MapleStory N marks its first anniversary with major gameplay milestones, sustained ecosystem growth, and new updates to deepen player engagement.

MapleStory Universe (MSU), the blockchain-powered expansion of Nexon’s iconic MapleStory franchise, today marks its first anniversary following the launch of MapleStory N on May 15, 2025. Over the past year, the platform has recorded more than 150 million cumulative on-chain transactions and surpassed 3.82 million accounts registered, reflecting sustained participation from a global player base and continued development of the ecosystem.

One year in, MSU is entering its next phase with the introduction of MSU 2.0, an expansion designed to transform how intellectual property (IP), builders, and players interact in a shared digital environment, supported by AI creation tools and on-chain infrastructure. MSU 2.0 will be implemented throughout 2026 to 2027, as new features will be progressively developed and released for the builders.

A Benchmark Launch That Set a New Standard

MSU launched in May 2025 as one of the largest debuts in the Web3 gaming ecosystem. Built on the MapleStory IP, the pre-launch Scroll NFT campaign recorded approximately 1.7 million scrolls minted, officially confirmed as the largest NFT mint in Avalanche network history. On launch day, MSU-related weekly active addresses on the Avalanche network increased by 549 percent, reflecting strong user interest and anticipation surrounding the title’s release.

Following launch, the marketplace has continued its strong performance, with more than 446,716 buyers and sellers transacting daily on average. To date, MSU has accounted for 23.3% of total activity on the Avalanche network, representing a substantial share of activity across leading chains. MSU’s native NXPC token was also listed on seven major exchanges at launch, including Binance, Bybit, Upbit, and Bithumb.

Sunyoung Hwang, CEO, Nexpace, said: “What began as one of the largest launches in Web3 gaming has developed into a platform built for long-term participation. In the past year, we focused on building the infrastructure and discipline required to support our community over the long term. Ever since then, MSU has evolved beyond a single game into infrastructure for creation, commerce, and participation. That shift defines what it means for an IP to become an economic system and a foundation for the next generation of online worlds.”

Introducing MSU 2.0, the Next Chapter for MapleStory Universe

MSU is now advancing into its next phase through the rollout of MSU 2.0, an expansion designed to turn IPs from friction-heavy, abstract assets into programmable, on-chain commerce. Designed to broaden participation across the ecosystem and support new forms of creation, distribution, and commercialization, MSU 2.0 reflects the continued evolution of MapleStory Universe from a single game environment into a scalable platform.

Hwang added: “MSU 2.0 is the next phase of our growth journey. Our goal is to expand the role of IP from something people experience to something they can actively build with, share, and grow together, akin to an infinite IP playground. From here, our priority is to build the infrastructure that will support a larger and more connected IP ecosystem.”

At the core of MSU 2.0 is VIBE IP, a new tech stack built on two foundational pillars that redefine what it means to build with IP on-chain. The first pillar transforms IP access by providing builders access to gameplay and behavioral data from MapleStory N through dedicated APIs, turning IP from brand assets to living, data-rich foundation to create on in accordance with applicable privacy laws. The second pillar establishes an on-chain builder economy on the Henesys chain, built on an Avalanche L1streamlining IP licensing, revenue settlement, and payments into a single system.

Together, these pillars are supported by blockchain infrastructure and AI-powered creation tools. Blockchain allows seamless licensing, payment and settlement, fully on-chain, while AI-powered “vibe coding” allows anyone’s idea to become a full-scale product, enabling broader participation in building and launching IP-driven content. This foundation positions MSU to onboard additional Nexon IPs over time, building an AI-powered and On-chained IP multiverse, with the VIBE IP tech stack gradually rolling out in phases over the coming months.

MapleStory N One-Year Anniversary Update

MapleStory N, the flagship game by MSU, has delivered a series of milestones over the past year that reflect sustained player engagement across the ecosystem. The year-end winter update generated more than 130,000 user inflows, with approximately three-quarters representing new users. This update also drove in-game spending to its highest level since the immediate post-launch period, with player spending outpacing rewards distributed, reflecting a more active and sustainable in-game economy driven by deeper engagement.

Building on this momentum, MapleStory N is now more accessible to mainstream players. Casual users can engage with the game like any traditional MMORPG, with less blockchain hurdle. Web3 features have been refined to deliver meaningful value while maintaining a seamless gameplay experience, making the platform easier for a broader audience to adopt.

As MapleStory N enters its second year, the development team will roll out waves of in-game updates at an accelerated pace, expanding gameplay and introducing new challenges. This will be supported by a steady cadence of major releases throughout the year, including highly anticipated Black Mage update and other milestone content. MSN will also introduce a new MVP system designed to provide ongoing benefits to dedicated players and keep them motivated to continue playing. Starting with the MVP system, MSN plans to continuously expand the program by introducing more diverse criteria and rewards, ensuring that a wider range of players can be recognized and rewarded over time. For more information, users can visit the official website.

About NEXPACE

NEXPACE, an innovative blockchain company based in Abu Dhabi, pioneers an IP-expansion initiative powered by blockchain technology and NFTs to build a community-driven ecosystem. With a mission to redefine interactive entertainment, NEXPACE creates a vibrant space for exploring, sharing, and engaging with diverse content and gameplay crafted by community members.

At the heart of NEXPACE’s ecosystem are principles of transparency, security, and trust, empowering builders to freely share their ideas and enabling users to enjoy immersive experiences. By fostering a culture of creative expression, NEXPACE envisions a secure, collaborative environment that unites ecosystem participants in a thriving digital community.

The post MapleStory Universe Marks One Year of Live Ops, Surpasses 150M On-chain Transactions, Entering MSU 2.0 Phase appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum’s network recorded its highest realized profits in three weeks on Thursday, with $74.58M booked in a single spike even as the asset’s price fell roughly 5.5% over the past three days.

The data, published by on-chain analytics firm Santiment, points to a specific group of sellers: traders who bought ETH when it was trading below $2,000 during February and March and are now cashing out while they still can.

Who’s Selling and Why It Makes Sense

Santiment’s analysis is worth sitting with for a moment, because the headline number looks strange at first. Prices are down, yet profit-taking is at a three-week high, but the explanation is straightforward once you know what to look for.

ETH spent much of February and March below the $2,000 mark, a period Santiment described as one of “war fears and notably uncertain times in crypto.” Traders who accumulated during that window are still sitting on gains even after this week’s decline, and many have decided to act on them.

Furthermore, separate analysis by CryptoQuant contributor Rei Researcher shows that deposit addresses on Binance spiked to roughly 9,000 ETH, the highest in over a year, with inflow bars confirming selling pressure concentrated around the $2,260 price zone.

The Santiment data also shows that four-hour candles have been compressing near $2,241, a sign of elevated distribution activity. More transactions across a network mean more realized profit-and-loss events, and when volume is elevated, those modest individual gains pile up quickly into large network-level totals.

Santiment’s guidance for traders is to “lean cautious” but stop short of turning outright bearish. The firm is watching for a spike in realized losses as a potential bottoming signal, and advises against aggressive positioning until the distribution phase shows clear signs of ending.

A Technically Fragile Picture

The selling activity is hitting Ethereum at a structurally vulnerable moment, as noted by analyst Keith Alan, who said that the cryptocurrency briefly broke above its macro trend line before being rejected at the 21-week simple moving average and has since slipped below a cluster of technical levels near $2,280.

Should ETH not be able to recapture the 21-week moving average, Alan found a series of support zones to monitor: $2,196, followed by $2,060, with a breach beneath this area possibly clearing the way for $1,892 and beyond.

As per CoinGecko figures, ETH remained trading considerably above the $2,200 mark as of writing but had lost close to 2% from the previous day and 3% over a week. The cryptocurrency is currently roughly 54% off its all-time high of slightly above $4,950 recorded in August 2025.

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