Iran's review of the US peace proposal may lead to regional stability, reducing regime fall risks and shifting focus from military to diplomatic solutions.

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The Iran conflict's impact on oil supply could lead to global economic strain, highlighting vulnerabilities in energy security and market stability.

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The ECB's stance may lead to sustained inflationary pressures, impacting economic stability and influencing future monetary policy decisions.

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The ongoing enforcement underscores geopolitical tensions, impacting global trade routes and complicating diplomatic resolutions in the region.

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Escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz could disrupt global oil supply, heightening geopolitical risks and impacting international markets.

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Bitcoin Magazine

From NYSE Gut Punch to ‘One App for Money’: Exodus Bets Self‑Custody Can Power Everyday Life

On stage, co-founder and CEO JP Richardson opened by talking about the company’s derailment at the New York Stock Exchange in May 2024, when Exodus flew 130 employees, friends, and family to Manhattan only to learn the night before that regulators had pulled its listing. 

He described the reversal as a rule change at “the 11th hour” that left a room of supporters stunned and forced the company back into private status despite having, in his telling, followed the playbook. 

That episode ended months later after the U.S. election, when Exodus finally listed on NYSE American in January with the same team, ticker, and business, but under a new administration more open to digital asset companies.

Richardson framed that saga as proof that Exodus can absorb political and regulatory shock while holding to a single principle: money belongs under user control.

Exodus, founded in 2015 in Omaha, built a self-custodial wallet that stores keys on user devices and routes swaps across multiple liquidity providers, offering access to Bitcoin and other assets without ever holding customer funds in company accounts.

Fixing the “pub test” and app sprawl

The CEO argued that crypto still fails normal users on basic usability. He recounted an early experience helping a friend download four different wallets and write a 12-word seed phrase on a cocktail napkin, a ritual he said still defines too many products a decade later. Richardson called this the “pub test”: if a friend in a bar cannot safely set up a wallet without resorting to napkins, the industry has missed the mark. 

He extended that critique to chain tribalism, insisting that consumers do not care whether payments settle on Solana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, or Base as long as the experience works.

To make the point concrete, he asked the audience to pull out their phones and count how many apps they use for money. The typical screen, he said, shows a bank app, person-to-person payment apps, a brokerage account, and often a separate crypto wallet. 

He cast this fragmentation as a structural problem that leaves consumers juggling providers who do not share their interests. 

Exodus wants to replace that cluster with “one app” that holds digital assets, connects to card networks, and routes payments while keeping users in self-custody.

Owning the rails: Monavate, Baanx and Exodus Pay

A central reveal at the summit was the closing of the Monavate and Baanx UK acquisitions, a move that shifts Exodus from “renting the rails to owning them,” in Richardson’s phrase. 

Monavate and Baanx supply regulated card issuing, acquiring, and processing infrastructure in the UK and EU, including BIN sponsorship, Visa and MasterCard membership, and fraud systems that already support crypto brands such as Ledger and MetaMask. 

Exodus previously agreed to acquire their parent, W3C Corp, in a roughly $175 million deal aimed at building an on-chain payments stack; the company later enforced a $70 million secured loan against that group in UK receivership to protect its position.

With those assets, Exodus gains the ability to issue and process cards directly rather than acting as a program that rides on third-party rails. 

CFO James Gernetzke said the combined platform now supports six layers of activity, from the core wallet and swap engine to stablecoin issuance, card programs, and banking rails, giving Exodus “owner economics” on each step of a transaction. 

On stage, he walked through a £100 purchase example, explaining that where Exodus once retained a fraction of the economics as a client of Monavate and Baanx, it now captures a larger share through interchange, processing fees, and interest on float.

Richardson and Gernetzke both made it clear that Exodus is trying to grow past a trading‑centric model after a peak year in 2025, when it generated $121.6 million in revenue and $11 million in adjusted EBITDA on a base of roughly 1.5 to 1.6 million monthly active users.

In early 2026, the limits of that dependence on crypto cycles came into sharper focus: preliminary first‑quarter results show revenue falling to $22.7 million from $36.0 million a year earlier, a $36.4 million net loss on digital assets, and a 22% quarter‑over‑quarter drop in exchange volume to $1.18 billion, even as monthly active users held at 1.5 million and funded users slipped to 1.4 million.

Gernetzke described the tight correlation between trading revenue and Bitcoin’s price as a ceiling the company needs to break. 

Exodus Pay, now live in all 50 states, is the clearest expression of that strategy. Embedded in the core wallet, it lets users spend USD‑backed stablecoins, Bitcoin, and other assets anywhere Visa or Apple Pay works, while keeping keys in self‑custody and turning every checkout into interchange, processing, and float income. 

Later in the Summit at a fireside chat, Richardson cast that stack as infrastructure not only for today’s users but for AI agents that will execute autonomous payments across the same rails.

This post From NYSE Gut Punch to ‘One App for Money’: Exodus Bets Self‑Custody Can Power Everyday Life first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy (MSTR) Stock Pops 9% As Bitcoin Price Pumps Back to $78,000

Shares of Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) surged roughly 9% on Friday as Bitcoin clawed back to the $78,000 level.

This movement comes just days after Executive Chairman Michael Saylor delivered a headline-grabbing keynote at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas.

MSTR climbed above $180 per share during Friday’s session, building on a prior close near $165. The move tracked Bitcoin’s intraday advance, which pushed BTC to $78,961 as of Friday afternoon, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.

The rally is building up a welcome reprieve for MSTR investors who have endured a brutal stretch — the stock remains down more than 70% from its November 2024 all-time high above $457.

The price action comes amid a broader recovery in Bitcoin that has been grinding higher since a sharp pullback to the mid-$60,000s earlier this year. Bitcoin surged past the $78,000 mark last week as well, propelled by short liquidations and improving macro sentiment following reports of progress in U.S.-Iran diplomatic negotiations. 

Polymarket contracts on May 1 BTC pricing showed 100% confidence the asset would finish in the $78,000–$80,000 range.

As a leveraged proxy for Bitcoin, MSTR tends to amplify BTC’s moves in both directions. Strategy currently holds approximately 818,334 Bitcoin on its balance sheet — roughly 3.9% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist — acquired at an average cost of around $66,385 per coin.

Saylor: Strategy’s STRC is booming

The stock pop also comes on the heels of fresh enthusiasm generated by Saylor’s keynote at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas last week.

Rather than focusing on Bitcoin price targets or more Bitcoin purchases, Saylor’s pitch centered on STRC — Strategy’s Bitcoin-backed preferred stock — and a sweeping thesis that digital credit is poised to cannibalize trillions of dollars in the legacy credit market.

“The world’s $300 trillion credit market is a much bigger opportunity than the world’s roughly $2 trillion Bitcoin market, and Strategy has built the first product to bridge the two,” Saylor argued during the keynote.

STRC, which pays an 11.5% monthly variable dividend and trades on Nasdaq, has grown to approximately $8.5 billion in notional value in under nine months — larger, Saylor claimed, than the entire existing universe of monthly-paying preferred securities combined. 

“This is going viral,” he told the audience.

BlackRock’s iShares Preferred & Income Securities ETF has already taken a roughly $210 million position in STRC.

Saylor said STRC has financed the acquisition of approximately 77,000 BTC year-to-date in 2026, roughly ten times the net inflow of all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs combined over the same period. 

This post Strategy (MSTR) Stock Pops 9% As Bitcoin Price Pumps Back to $78,000 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Exodus (EXOD) Announces Official UFC Deal and Revised, Self-Custody Money App

JP Richardson, co-founder and CEO of Exodus Movement (NYSE American: EXOD), opened part of the Exodus Summit today in Omaha, Nebraska, with an announcement about where he thinks the company’s customers already are.

Exodus is becoming the official payments partner of the UFC, Richardson said, with the partnership going live June 1. 

This launch coincides with the UFC staging its “Freedom 250” fight event on the White House lawn to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, making it the first UFC event held on those grounds. Branding will appear inside the octagon, in broadcast spots, and through activation footprints at the venue itself.

“As the fans walk through the gates, you’re gonna see Exodus activation footprints everywhere at the White House,” Richardson said.

Richardson framed the deal in two dimensions: brand exposure and trust. For a financial application, trust is not a marketing metric but rather a result of a solid product. 

Consumers do not experiment with unrecognized brands when their money is involved, and Richardson argued that the UFC’s reach, 700 million fans across 165 countries, provides the kind of repeated, high-stakes visibility that accelerates that trust-building at a scale few media properties can match.

The deal is multi-year. Richardson described the target demographic as crypto-curious, young and digitally native — one that already aligns with what Exodus has spent over a decade building toward. 

A deep dive into Exodus Pay

Later in the day, Ain Sonayen, Chief Product Officer, delivered what amounted to a formal retirement notice for the wallet category, at least as Exodus defines it.

Sonayen’s argument was precise: a wallet is a starting point, not a destination. Exodus began as a wallet because that was the primary entry point for people getting into Bitcoin and crypto in 2014. That era, he said plainly, is over. 

The company is repositioning as a money platform — what Sonayen called a “money OS,” or operating system for money — built around three core experiences: stablecoin cash for everyday spending, crypto for ownership, and expanded utility for more sophisticated users.

Exodus Pay is the first layer of that platform. It ships now, available across all 50 states, with global expansion planned later in 2026. Users can fund the app via Apple Pay, bank transfer, or existing crypto balances. 

Spending works anywhere Visa is accepted. Peer-to-peer sends are free and instant, requiring only a phone number — including to recipients who have not yet installed Exodus, who receive the funds upon signup.

The self-custody distinction matters here more than it might appear. Competing payments products hold user balances on their own balance sheets. If a company freezes an account, the money stops. Exodus Pay keeps private keys on the user’s device; the company never takes custody of the funds. 

In a post-GENIUS Act regulatory environment, that architecture carries both compliance and competitive weight. The stablecoin market exceeded $300 billion in circulation earlier this year, and Exodus Pay said it is among the first consumer products to launch within that framework.

Sonayen also outlined the revenue logic. Payments businesses do not win on transaction volume alone; they win on balances. 

Exodus Pay is engineered to keep money inside the ecosystem — users add funds, earn rewards in any asset including Bitcoin, spend with their card, and earn again. The revenue stack includes stablecoin balances, card interchange, foreign exchange, on-ramps, and utility expansion over time.

CFO James Gernetzke, quoted in the company’s press release, called Exodus Pay “recurring, scalable, and fully ours” following record Q4 earnings — language that signals the company views this launch as the beginning of a fundamentally different business model, not a feature release.

This post Exodus (EXOD) Announces Official UFC Deal and Revised, Self-Custody Money App first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Galoy Pushes Deeper Into U.S. Banking With All-in-One Bitcoin Platform

Galoy is widening its push into U.S. banking at a moment when many institutions still wrestle with how, or whether, to bring Bitcoin into their product stack. 

Ahead of this week’s Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, Galoy unveiled an expanded version of its Bitcoin-native core banking platform, aiming to turn a fragmented set of experiments into something closer to a coherent operating model for banks and credit unions.

The update bundles six core use cases into a single system: Bitcoin-backed lending, Lightning payments, stablecoin payments aligned with emerging legislative frameworks, Bitcoin exchange under the OCC’s riskless principal model, custody options, and embedded wallet infrastructure. 

Rather than replacing existing core systems, Galoy said the software acts as a “sidecar,” a layer that sits alongside legacy rails. That framing reflects a reality inside most institutions, where replacing core infrastructure remains a multi-year effort few are willing to undertake.

For many banks, the most tangible entry point may be BTC-backed lending. The logic feels familiar. Lenders already understand collateralized loans tied to equities or real estate. Bitcoin introduces volatility, but the structure maps onto existing credit practices. 

What has been missing is tooling that can handle real-time collateral monitoring and liquidation triggers without adding operational strain. Galoy’s platform leans into that gap, offering LTV tracking, accounting systems, and approval workflows that resemble traditional credit processes.

Addressing bitcoin uncertainty

The company also introduced three tools meant to address a quieter obstacle: uncertainty. 

Regulatory posture in the U.S. has shifted in tone but remains complex. Galoy’s “Regulatory Radar” aggregates guidance from federal and state agencies into plain language summaries, a nod to compliance teams that need interpretation as much as raw information.

Meanwhile, its “Portfolio Analyzer” and “LTV Risk Scenarios” tools speak to a deeper concern inside banks: how BTC exposure behaves under stress. By pre-loading data from thousands of U.S. financial institutions, the analyzer allows executives to see how a Bitcoin lending book might fit within their balance sheet. 

The risk scenarios tool pushes further, modeling how sharp price moves could ripple through collateral and capital.

Behind the product expansion sits a broader shift in tone across the industry. A few years ago, Bitcoin in banking often lived in innovation labs or pilot programs. Now, the conversation has moved closer to revenue lines and risk committees. That shift brings a different kind of scrutiny. 

Last year, Galoy launched Lana, software that enables smaller banks to offer bitcoin-backed loans, aiming to expand access and drive down high borrowing rates as more institutions enter the market. 

This post Galoy Pushes Deeper Into U.S. Banking With All-in-One Bitcoin Platform first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strike CEO Jack Mallers Announces Lending Proof-of-Reserves, Volatility-Proof Loans, and Backs Tether Merger Plan

Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced a series of product updates and strategic moves Wednesday, including the launch of lending proof-of-reserves, a new “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed loan structure built with Tether, and a $2.1 billion credit facility. 

He also said he supports a proposal by Tether Investments to merge Strike with Twenty-One Capital and bitcoin miner Elektron Energy.

Mallers said Strike’s bitcoin-backed loan and line-of-credit business has grown since launch, with users drawn to the ability to borrow against bitcoin rather than sell it. 

He described bitcoin as a savings account for many customers and said Strike cut its rate tiers across the board. Pricing now ranges from approximately 10.5% APR for loans under $250,000 to approximately 7.49% APR for loans above $5 million.

Strike announced the first iteration of its lending proof-of-reserves, which gives borrowers the ability to verify that their collateral is present and segregated in a distinct on-chain address. 

“We want you to trust us and know that we are who we say we are,” Mallers said. The disclosure mechanism was developed in partnership with Tether, which Mallers credited with helping Strike build the transparency infrastructure.

The two companies also jointly developed what Mallers called “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed loans, a structure that removes the risk of forced liquidation when bitcoin prices fall or broader markets drop. 

Mallers said the segregated collateral product is available now through Strike’s private client desk, and the volatility-proof loan feature is available to customers as part of the bitcoin-backed lending suite.

Mallers announced that Strike has secured a $2.1 billion credit facility, which he said gives the company capacity to meet demand at any order size within its lending business.

Merger proposal

Earlier Wednesday, Tether Investments published a proposal to merge Twenty-One Capital with Strike and Elektron Energy, a large-scale bitcoin mining operator that manages approximately 50 EH/s, or roughly 5% of the current Bitcoin network hashrate. 

Tether said the combined entity would integrate bitcoin treasury holdings, mining, financial services, lending, and capital markets under a single listed platform.

Mallers said he backs the plan. “Simply put, I think it’s a great idea,” he said, adding that building a Bitcoin company — not a narrow payments app — was his founding goal. Elektron founder Raphael Zagury has been proposed as President of the combined entity under the plan.

The bitcoin company quadrant and Maller’s vision

Mallers used a quadrant framework onstage to argue that the Bitcoin industry has a gap at the intersection of high conviction and high operating income. 

He placed crypto exchanges in the high-income, low-conviction corner, saying they run profitable businesses but list many coins and build products across asset classes. He placed bitcoin treasury companies in the high-conviction, low-income corner, describing them as deeply committed to bitcoin but limited in operating business scope. 

He cited Coinbase as an exchange that could carry more bitcoin on its balance sheet, and praised MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor while drawing a distinction between a treasury strategy and a product strategy. “I love him and his company,” Mallers said of Saylor, “but I want to build bitcoin products.”

His answer to the gap was a four-pillar model: a financial services arm covering brokerage, custody, lending, payments, treasury, and prime services; bitcoin infrastructure spanning energy, power generation, mining, hardware, and hosting; a capital markets operation built around loan-book securitization, mining revenue securitization, bitcoin-backed debt, and structured products; and a mergers-and-acquisitions function targeting profitable bitcoin businesses across software, custody, payments, energy, and distribution. 

The stated goal of the M&A arm, as presented on his slide, is to give “every dollar of operating income one job: buy more Bitcoin.”

Mallers closed by saying a platform of that scope could “change the world with its products” and cited a phrase he has used throughout his career: “Fix the money, fix the world.”

This post Strike CEO Jack Mallers Announces Lending Proof-of-Reserves, Volatility-Proof Loans, and Backs Tether Merger Plan first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

The most dangerous stablecoin scam probably looks nothing like what most people picture. There's no anonymous founder, no Discord full of bots, no promise of returns that defy basic economic logic.

Instead, it has a professional ticker, institutional branding, and a name that tens of millions of people have trusted with their savings for generations. That's the premise at the center of a regulatory alert Hong Kong's monetary authority issued this week, and it deserves considerably more attention than a fraud warning typically receives.

On April 28, the HKMA warned the public that tokens carrying the tickers “HKDAP” and “HSBC” had appeared in the market without being issued by or associated with any licensed stablecoin issuer, and that both licensed issuers had confirmed they hadn't released any regulated stablecoins yet.

The institutional gravity those names carry in the minds of ordinary consumers, built over more than a century of banking history, was the vehicle for the deception, and that's a fundamentally different kind of scam from anything the stablecoin market has had to contend with before.

The HSBC scam that doesn't need to promise anything

To understand why this is so structurally different from ordinary token fraud, it helps to know what HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial actually represent in this context.

On April 10, the HKMA granted its first stablecoin issuer licences to the two institutions under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025. From a pool of 36 applicants, only these two were approved, a roughly 5.6% approval rate that shows just how demanding the regime was at launch.

CryptoSlate covered the passage of the enabling legislation in May 2025 and the activation of the licensing regime that August. The framework was built around credibility as its central premise: full reserve backing, identity-verified wallets, and ongoing disclosure requirements embedded from the outset.

HSBC plans to launch a Hong Kong dollar-denominated stablecoin in the second half of 2026, fully backed at all times by high-quality liquid assets held in segregated accounts, integrated into its PayMe platform and the HSBC HK Mobile Banking App. PayMe alone serves over 3.3 million users, giving the bank an immediate retail distribution channel the moment the product goes live.

Anchorpoint, a joint venture backed by Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and HKT, is targeting a phased rollout of its HKDAP token from the second quarter of 2026, with each token backed 1:1 by high-quality HKD-denominated reserves. CryptoSlate reported on the formation of the Anchorpoint joint venture and its early HKMA filing as the licensed HKD stablecoin competition first took shape.

As of the HKMA's April 28 alert, neither product has reached a single consumer. The fake tokens appeared in a window that the real ones hadn't filled yet. Crypto scams usually depend on psychological pressure: extravagant promises, manufactured urgency, and the gradual erosion of a target's skepticism.

But bank-name fraud is completely different. The institutional gravity is already established in the public mind; the scammer simply rents it. A consumer who'd scroll past an unknown token might pause at one bearing the HSBC name, an institution with US$3.2 trillion in assets and a 160-year operating history.

They probably won't think to check whether the licensed stablecoin has actually launched yet, because the licensing announcement was real, widely covered, and entirely legitimate, and that genuine legitimacy does most of the scammer's work for them.

Why is Hong Kong particularly exposed?

The HKMA had flagged this risk category as early as July 2025, warning publicly that any entity claiming licensed status was misrepresenting itself and that transacting with unlicensed stablecoins would be done entirely at the user's own risk.

The regulators anticipated the problem well in advance. The fraudulent tokens appeared on schedule anyway, which tells you something important about the limits of legal deterrence when the underlying incentive structure is this favorable to scammers.

Under Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance, violators face fines of up to HK$5 million and possible prison sentences of seven years for unauthorized issuance or false claims of licensed status. The penalties are severe, and the framework is sophisticated on almost every dimension.

What makes Hong Kong's situation particularly delicate is that the territory's entire digital asset strategy rests on public confidence in exactly the kind of regulatory credential these scammers are imitating. A

The city has been building out a regulated digital asset ecosystem with considerable ambition and consistency: spot ETFs in 2024, stablecoin licensing in 2025, and ongoing work on derivatives frameworks and tokenized capital structures. The whole architecture depends on the public understanding that “licensed” carries a specific, verifiable guarantee that separates legitimate products from the rest of the market.

The HKMA granted licences to Anchorpoint and HSBC specifically because they demonstrated the capability to manage risks properly, with credible use cases and development plans, in addition to meeting the relevant licensing requirements under the Ordinance.

HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue framed the milestone as an important step toward digital assets that could address real pain points in economic activity and support Hong Kong's position as a serious financial centre.

Fake HSBC tokens undermine that positioning before the real product has reached a single user, which is a particularly costly form of reputational damage in a jurisdiction whose value proposition depends so heavily on being seen as a trustworthy, well-governed hub.

There's also a timing vulnerability here. Both HSBC and Anchorpoint are still in preparatory phases, completing technology testing, implementing risk management systems, and building compliance infrastructure before any regulated token goes to market.

The HKMA expects regulated stablecoins in Hong Kong to launch around the mid to second half of 2026. The gap between getting a license and actually launching a stablecoin is a period of heightened exposure: the institutional legitimacy is already public knowledge, and the consumer-facing verification tools aren't yet in use.

The authentication problem that scales

For HSBC and Anchorpoint, this is a preview of a challenge that'll only intensify as bank-issued stablecoins become more common globally. In traditional finance, a banking brand conveys something legally specific: regulatory oversight, consumer protections, a named institution with audited balance sheets, and supervisory accountability.

In crypto markets, a token ticker is a string of characters that anyone can replicate and distribute within minutes. That asymmetry persists even within the most rigorous licensing regimes in the world, because those regimes bind institutions while the imitation operates purely on names.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters said Hong Kong's push into stablecoins and tokenized deposits could “lay the foundation for a new era of digital trade settlement.” That's quite ambitious, and it depends heavily on consumers being able to distinguish the real product from imitations in a market where that distinction isn't always obvious.

Banking brands that took generations to build can be cloned in a token name in minutes, which means the authentication infrastructure around bank-branded tokens has to be treated as a core product requirement alongside reserves and compliance frameworks, not as an afterthought addressed after launch.

That means wallet-level verification of authentic tokens, public registries kept current and accessible, coordination with exchanges to flag unauthorized use of institutional names, and sustained consumer education that makes checking a licensed issuer's register feel as natural as checking an FDIC badge on a bank's website.

The HKMA already maintains a public register of licensed stablecoin issuers, and the legal framework is designed to refer consumers there as the first point of verification. The harder institutional work is making that register something ordinary people actually consult before transacting, rather than a compliance tool that operates in the background.

The broader implication extends well beyond Hong Kong. As more jurisdictions develop regulated stablecoin frameworks and more financial institutions enter the space, the menu of credible names available for imitation grows alongside the legitimate market.

The global stablecoin market was sitting at roughly $315 billion in total market capitalization at the time of the HKMA's warning, dominated almost entirely by dollar-denominated tokens from Tether and Circle.

Bank-branded alternatives are still a small and largely unlaunched category. The scammers, it seems, are already treating them as the next opportunity.

The post Fake HSBC bank stablecoins hit the market showcasing dangerous new crypto scam wave appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Christopher Harborne is British-born, Cambridge-educated, and has lived in Thailand since 1996. He goes by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, holds Thai citizenship, and controls a reported 12% stake in Tether, the stablecoin issuer behind roughly $184 billion in circulating USDT.

According to the Guardian's investigation, he's also the single largest donor in the history of UK party politics, having directed more than £24 million toward Reform UK and its predecessor movements since 2019.

So, a man who doesn't live in the UK, whose fortune is tied to a global crypto infrastructure company operating outside any single jurisdiction, has been bankrolling a party that leads current opinion polling with a platform built around sovereign identity and anti-establishment politics.

Whether that looks hypocritical or like rational self-interest depends entirely on your view of what political money is supposed to represent, and that question is exactly what the UK government has now moved to resolve. The way it's gone about doing so reveals just how poorly existing political finance law was designed for the crypto era.

A stake in Tether, a stake in politics

Harborne's wealth is rooted in early crypto. According to the Guardian, he began buying Bitcoin in 2011 and became a major Ethereum holder by 2014, with those early positions now accounting for a substantial portion of his net worth.

His reported 12% stake in Tether is where the numbers get really, really big. The company generates roughly $10 billion in annual profit and has been described as one of the most profitable companies per employee in history, meaning even a minority stake translates into serious wealth. Harborne's lawyers have stressed that he's a passive investor with no executive role and no control over company policy, a distinction that matters when assessing what his donations to a UK political party actually represent.

What we know from these reports is pretty thin: Harborne is a wealthy individual whose fortune happens to be tied to crypto infrastructure, and he's chosen to direct a significant portion of that fortune into UK politics. His £9 million donation in late 2025, confirmed by the Electoral Commission, set a record as the largest single contribution by a living person to a UK political party. A further £3 million followed in March 2026, according to the Guardian, bringing his total to more than £24 million since 2019, which represents roughly two-thirds of all funding Reform UK has ever received.

The convergence between Harborne's financial interests and Reform's political platform deserves attention. Nigel Farage has made crypto advocacy a central element of his pitch to voters, promising a state-owned Bitcoin reserve, a 10% flat capital gains tax on crypto, and significant deregulation of the digital asset sector. Reform has pushed back against the Bank of England's proposed stablecoin limits, arguing that privately issued stablecoins should be encouraged and that a state-backed digital currency would give the Bank “unprecedented control” over financial activity. The party has also been among the first UK political groups to accept donations in BTC and other digital assets.

Reform has denied that donors have influenced policy decisions. What these facts tell us, clearly enough to have drawn regulatory attention, is how closely the interests of the party's dominant financial backer and its official political platform happen to align.

What the UK government just changed

The Rycroft Review, an independent inquiry commissioned by the government in December 2025 and published on March 25, 2026, provided the formal basis for the new measures. Led by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, the review found that the UK faces a persistent and worsening problem of foreign financial interference in its political system.

Communities Secretary Steve Reed told the House of Commons that the threat “has become arguably more acute,” citing the complexity of tracing overseas funds and the opacity of cryptocurrency ownership as the two most significant vulnerabilities in the existing framework.

The government's response covered both. British citizens living abroad who remain on the UK electoral register now face an annual cap of £100,000 on political donations, including loans and other regulated transactions. All crypto donations to political parties are subject to an immediate moratorium, effective from March 25, with no threshold and no exceptions. Both measures are being written into the Representation of the People Bill with retrospective effect, giving political parties 30 days from the legislation's passage to return any donations that fall outside the new rules, after which criminal enforcement begins.

The crypto moratorium is framed as a holding measure, with the conditions for lifting it tied to regulatory progress. The Electoral Commission had previously acknowledged that digital assets “present particular challenges and risks in meeting electoral law requirements,” and Rycroft stopped short of calling for a permanent ban.

Given that crypto regulation in the UK is still being developed, with the FCA slowly working through frameworks for stablecoins, custody, and staking, meeting the traceability threshold the government has set is going to take time.

Electoral reform advocates have argued the measures still don't go far enough: in the year before the 2024 general election, UK political parties received 18 separate donations of £1 million or more. The overseas cap addresses one pathway into that system. The domestic donation landscape, where large contributions from UK-resident individuals remain entirely uncapped, is a separate problem the government hasn't moved on from.

What this means for insurgent parties, future donors, and elections

The impact falls most immediately on Reform UK. Harborne's contributions have represented such a disproportionate share of the party's total funding that the £100,000 annual cap would reduce his permissible donations by more than 99% going forward.

The party currently holds eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons and has depended on major donations to operate at a national scale in ways its membership base and fundraising infrastructure couldn't otherwise support on their own. The next general election is scheduled for 2029, and the gap between where Reform's donor base is now and where it needs to be for a credible national campaign is significant.

The structural issue extends well beyond Reform. Newer parties face the same foundational challenge everywhere: they don't have the union networks, legacy business relationships, or decades-old donor pipelines that established parties rely on.

A single major donor can compress years of organizational development into a single transaction, funding staff, advertising, and event infrastructure in a way that lets a small party compete nationally almost immediately. Capping overseas donors at £100,000 closes a specific version of that pathway, and the broader questions about donor concentration in democratic politics remain open.

The residency question is where the policy gets philosophically interesting. Citizenship has traditionally been treated as the primary marker of belonging to a political community, and Harborne retains his British citizenship in full.

The new framework treats residency as the more meaningful standard when it comes to political funding at scale, reasoning that people who live under the daily consequences of a country's laws and policies should carry greater weight in shaping its elections. It's a defensible position, and it reflects a coherent democratic intuition. It's also one that will face growing pressure as crypto wealth continues to internationalize, producing a class of globally mobile investors whose political affiliations and financial interests span multiple jurisdictions at once.

The Rycroft Review flagged threats from Russia, China, Iran, and allied countries alike, recognizing that financial interference in democratic processes is a broad and evolving risk. Crypto's foundational architecture is decentralized, pseudonymous, and designed to function across borders without institutional intermediaries.

Those properties are what make USDT useful for moving value globally, and they're what make regulators uncomfortable about tracing the origins of large political donations made in digital assets.

As crypto wealth scales and enters more political systems through direct party funding, media ownership, and advocacy groups, democracies are going to need clearer answers about what they're actually trying to regulate: foreign interference, donor concentration, crypto opacity, or all three simultaneously.

The UK's new rules represent a credible early attempt at drawing that line, and the 2029 election will tell us whether it was enough.

—

The Guardian's reporting on Christopher Harborne formed the basis of the reported facts in this article. CryptoSlate has not independently verified all elements of that reporting.

The post A Tether-linked billionaire poured £22M into UK politics – Now new donation rules may close the door appeared first on CryptoSlate.

XRPL currently holds about $3.6 billion in real-world assets, excluding stablecoins, split roughly between $1 billion in distributed assets and $2.6 billion in represented assets.

That 71% tilt toward represented assets means XRPL's RWA growth is concentrated in a model in which blockchain serves as a record-keeping and reconciliation layer, with tokens anchored to real-world contracts and commitments held within controlled platform structures.

RWA.xyz defines distributed assets as tokenized assets that can be moved off the issuing platform and transferred peer-to-peer. Represented assets stay inside the issuing platform, with blockchain recording and reconciling claims tied to real-world assets.

Most RWA coverage focuses on the distributed category. XRPL's $2.6 billion in represented assets sits in the infrastructure-and-recordkeeping segment of the market.

RWA.xyz's asset page shows JMWH with a total value of $1.76 billion, up 104.79% over 30 days, and an inception date of Jan. 13.

Each JMWH token represents one real megawatt-hour of energy backed by energy companies. That single asset accounts for roughly half of XRPL's total RWA value and about 70% of its represented RWA segment.

Why energy fits this model

Commodities, and energy in particular, present operational problems that go well beyond investor access.

Production allocation, contract execution, delivery confirmation, consumption tracking, billing, ESG reporting, and audit trails are the core workflows, and they require shared, trustworthy records among parties with different back-office systems.

Justoken, the issuer behind JMWH, focuses on commodities, energy, and natural resources. Its Enertoken product, developed in partnership with Argentine energy producer YPF Luz, positions blockchain as infrastructure for energy production and trading.

A March 2026 announcement described Enertoken as enabling companies and large consumers to contract, manage, and monitor energy digitally, integrating cost simulation, contract execution, consumption tracking, billing, and real-time reporting while improving auditability and ESG compliance.

RippleX's Luke Judges described in an interview that JMWH's design is a verifiable record of ownership and fulfillment, with the blockchain serving as the ledger for those commitments.

Why XRPL fits this use case

XRPL's native feature set aligns with controlled institutional commodity workflows.

Its Multi-Purpose Token documentation describes compliance, control, and metadata as embedded directly into the token layer, with native authorization, freeze, clawback, rich metadata, and delegated administration capabilities.

For energy operators, the ability to freeze or restrict token movement fits the represented-asset model.

Metadata embedding supports the traceability and certification data that energy and sustainability workflows demand.

Tokenized commodities across all networks now stand at $8.1 billion in distributed and represented counts, up 7.43% over 30 days, while tokenized US Treasuries sit at nearly $15 billion.

Commodities are already large enough as a category that a single energy-linked represented asset can materially shift a network's RWA profile.

XRPL's current composition of 301 RWA projects and $150.8 million in 30-day RWA transfer volume reflects a network-building effort focused on commodity and energy infrastructure.

Evolving as a commodity hub

If JMWH proves to be an entry point for a broader shift in the category, more energy, commodity, and natural resource workflows will adopt the same represented asset model on XRPL.

Issuers needing compliance controls, audit trails, metadata, and low-complexity delegated administration have a functional fit within XRPL's native feature set.

YPF Luz is a major Argentine energy producer. If the Enertoken model scales or attracts comparable partnerships in other markets, XRPL's RWA value could push toward $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion over the next one to two quarters.

RWA.xyz's 30-day data show commodities growing across multiple networks, and the Enertoken model offers a documented proof of concept for what energy-sector blockchain adoption can look like when the goal is operational infrastructure.

One-hit wonder

JMWH alone accounts for roughly half of XRPL's total RWA value and the majority of its represented asset segment.

If the growth reflects a single large-scale tokenization phase by one issuer, XRPL's position in the RWA league table could stall or reverse as rapidly as it rose.

The measurement uncertainty around the dashboard jump adds to that risk. If part of the step-up reflects data normalization or reclassification, the true growth in committed real-world energy value may be smaller than the headline number implies.

The represented asset model also carries a structural ceiling. Tokens held within controlled platforms prioritize auditability, compliance, and reconciliation. Capital is drawn to on-chain yield and DeFi composability, driving flows toward open distribution models, leaving commodity infrastructure plays to compete on operational fit.

If the RWA market continues rewarding open distribution, XRPL's commodity niche could remain exactly that, with total RWA value drifting back toward $2.4 billion to $3 billion if represented-asset growth fails to broaden beyond a handful of controlled programs.

The evidence supports an infrastructure thesis for XRPL, and any XRP token demand beyond network fees and settlement mechanics stays indirect and hard to quantify.

Whether Justoken and YPF Luz expand Enertoken beyond its current phase, and whether comparable issuers in energy, agriculture, or other commodity sectors adopt XRPL's represented-asset infrastructure, will determine XRPL's positioning.

A pipeline of new programs across multiple commodity categories would confirm durable category specialization. A market dominated by JMWH alone would confirm concentration risk and leave the network's RWA profile exposed to a single issuer's roadmap.

The post Why XRP Ledger is becoming a $3.6B hot spot for tokenized energy commodities appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Global equity funds pulled in over $15 billion in the week through Apr. 1, then $23.47 billion, $31.26 billion, and finally $48.72 billion in the week through Apr. 22.

Global money-market funds simultaneously bled a $173.24 billion outflow in the week through Apr. 15, the biggest single-week exit from cash since at least September 2018.

Together, the figures create a roughly $292 billion risk-on signal, combining $118 billion of global equity fund inflows across four weeks with a separate $173 billion weekly exit from cash.

Coinbase and Glassnode's Q2 Institutional Outlook puts BTC's daily return correlation with the S&P 500 at 0.58 in the fourth quarter of 2025, while its relationship with gold stays negligible.

When capital flows toward risk, it flows toward the asset class Bitcoin currently behaves like.

The more pointed detail comes from Coinbase's survey of 91 global investors, comprising 29 institutions and 62 non-institutions, conducted between Mar. 16 and Apr. 7.

Among institutional respondents, 75% view Bitcoin as undervalued, while 61% of non-institutional crypto investors hold the same view. Only 7% of institutions and 11% of non-institutions see BTC as overvalued.

Those numbers describe a market where buyers of size still see room to the upside. Capital rotating into risk meets an asset that its most sophisticated holders still consider cheap, held by a market yet to rewire itself for euphoria.

The on-chain picture

BTC supply moved within the last three months fell 37% during the first quarter, while supply that had not moved for more than a year rose 1%.

Speculative holders who bought at higher prices cycled out through the drawdown, and long-duration holders accumulated.

The Puell Multiple fell to 0.7 in the first quarter, implying miner revenue ran about 30% below its one-year baseline, a zone that has historically coincided with accumulation periods.

Long-term holder balances rose while exchange balances fell, and stablecoin supply climbed from $308 billion to $320 billion, meaning dry powder stayed inside the crypto market during the selloff.

Options open interest grew 2.4%, and perpetual futures open interest recovered roughly 8.6%, painting a market that absorbed its deleveraging and rebuilt at a measured pace.

The bull case

If April's equity rotation continues to broaden into high-yield credit, private credit, and emerging-market risk, Bitcoin sits in the path of that capital.

EPFR described a “marked increase in risk appetite,” with high-yield bond funds posting their first inflow since mid-February and private credit flows hitting an eight-week high.

In that scenario, institutional conviction in undervaluation and cleaner on-chain positioning create a repricing path with genuine room to run. Coinbase's survey respondents are positioned for caution, which means an improving macro backdrop catches them under-owned.

A 12% to 20% gain from current levels over the rest of the second quarter would put BTC in the $87,500 to $94,000 range and could be driven solely by sustained institutional rotation.

The dollar softening, already visible in last week's intervention-driven move, which pushed the dollar index down 0.8%, adds a secondary tailwind.

Bitcoin has tended to track global dollar liquidity closely, and softer financial conditions favor risk assets at the margin.

The bear case

Coinbase's own formal stance for the second quarter stays neutral, and the conditions it would need to see before turning more constructive, such as a definitive end to the Middle East conflict, oil retreating, and inflation easing, have yet to arrive.

Oil staying elevated and the Fed kept pinned by persistent inflation would flip Bitcoin's equity correlation from tailwind to headwind. If macro desks rotate back toward cash, as they did in early March, BTC trades as a liquidity beta on the way down.

In that setup, macro dominance overrides the conviction of institutional undervaluation. Survey respondents may believe BTC is cheap and still sit on the sidelines as geopolitical uncertainty drives their positioning.

The on-chain accumulation data would hold as a longer-term constructive read, but a renewed macro shock would overwhelm those readings in the short run.

A drawdown of 8% to 15% from current levels, to roughly $66,500 to $72,000, is consistent with the scale of prior macro-driven BTC corrections and would require only a return to March's defensive flow pattern.

The rest of the quarter pivots on whether April's equity and credit rotation proves durable or snaps back on the next geopolitical headline, and whether Bitcoin's correlation with equities stays elevated or drifts toward a more independent path as crypto-specific flows begin to dominate price action.

The constructive case rests on broader markets taking on more risk again, while Bitcoin's most informed holders remain under-owned for a clean recovery.

The post Wall Street’s $292 billion risk-on rotation just created a new bullish setup for Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoSlate.

XRP's estimated leverage ratio has flattened at low levels, while price has held near $1.39, with a market cap of $85.7 billion and roughly $1.75 billion in daily volume.

CryptoQuant analyst PelinayPA flagged that traders reduced speculative exposure, and the price didn't follow them down. When leverage runs hot into a rally, crowded longs introduce fragility, and the unwind tends to mirror the move.

CoinGlass puts XRP open interest at roughly $2.48 billion, sizable and distributed across a market that has shed the crowded positioning that dominated earlier rallies, meaning a fresh positioning that can return to a cleaner book.

New long-side leverage entering a cleaned-up market can push price harder and faster, with less stale positioning to shake out first.

Meanwhile, spot weakness can also close the difference if demand fades and leverage stays subdued, price drifts lower until spot and derivatives reach a new equilibrium.

Institutional rails and a cleaner legal backdrop

CME launched XRP futures in May 2025, with more than $19 million in notional volume on the first day, and CME XRP options are live as well.

Those products expand the ways traders can express views, hedge positions, and re-enter leveraged positions on regulated rails, representing a structural upgrade over the retail-dominated derivatives environment that characterized XRP's earlier volatile episodes.

The regulatory backdrop has also cleared since the SEC ended its case against Ripple and Franklin Templeton filed for an XRP ETF in early 2025, reflecting asset manager appetite extending beyond Bitcoin.

XRP's market structure now operates without the legal uncertainty that once pushed major venues to delist the token and kept institutional allocators on the sidelines.

CoinShares reported $119.6 million of XRP product inflows in the week of Apr. 7, the largest weekly figure since mid-December 2025.

The following week saw $56 million in outflows, and the week ending Apr. 24 saw inflows return to $25 million, with year-to-date XRP flows at $147.8 million and assets under management at nearly $2.6 billion.

There is active institutional engagement, present and capable of scaling, with enough room for further accumulation.

Network activity on the XRPL adds another dimension to the coiled condition. In March, daily payments climbed to roughly 2.7 million, AMM pools grew to about 27,000, and tokenized asset value jumped 35% in 30 days.

Leverage meets depth and liquidity

Fresh long-side positioning, returning to a market that has already absorbed its speculative excess, creates the mechanics for a faster move.

CME's regulated rails provide institutional participants with a cleaner entry mechanism, and year-to-date product inflows stay positive.

Kaiko's market structure work found that XRP carried the highest average 1% market depth among major ETF applicants in mid-2025, with its share of US spot volume climbing to its highest level since before the SEC lawsuit triggered widespread delistings.

Depth and liquidity mean that returning leverage can find real size to work with.

How quickly XRP can re-lever once sentiment turns is shown in Binance data, as XRP open interest climbed to $450 million over the past 24 hours, up 1.7%.

In a bull resolution, a working range of roughly $1.55 to $1.80 over the next four to eight weeks is plausible, driven by cleaner derivatives positioning, expanding institutional access, and a broader crypto market that CoinShares data shows still attracting net year-to-date inflows.

Retail fails to absorb leverage unwind

The divergence between low leverage and firm price holds only while buyers defend the range.

A sustained drop in spot demand closes the gap to the downside, as leverage stays low, buyers thin out, and prices fall toward a level where derivatives and spot realign.

The mixed April product flows show how quickly institutional sentiment can pivot into a week of $56 million in outflows occurring between two inflow weeks, with no obvious catalyst.

A CoinGecko report stated that the total crypto market cap fell 20.4% in the first quarter, and spot trading volume on centralized exchanges dropped 39.1%.

XRP's calmer leverage profile is emerging in a market still healing from a difficult quarter, with geopolitical risk and Fed rate expectations capable of rotating capital toward safety.

A cleaned-up book also carries fewer buyers positioned to defend a breakdown, a market with less crowded positioning moves fast in either direction. In a bear resolution, XRP retreats toward roughly $1.15 to $1.28, consistent with prior macro-driven corrections at this scale.

Two signals frame whether open interest climbs back above recent highs across multiple consecutive weeks, and whether institutional product flows turn consistently net positive.

Several consecutive inflow weeks, with open interest climbing through them, would confirm that institutional positioning has turned.

The post XRP’s leverage has been flushed out while price holds – and the next move is now wide open appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Whale Alert reported that the Tether Treasury has officially minted another 1,000,000,000 USDT on the Ethereum network. This move comes at a critical juncture for the market, as traders look for signals of the next major price movement for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Why Did Tether Mint 1 Billion USDT?

According to Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, this billion-dollar transaction is an "inventory replenish". In simple terms, these tokens are "authorized but not issued" transactions. This means they are held in the Treasury’s inventory to meet future issuance requests and chain swaps.

However, historically, such massive minting events often precede a surge in market activity. When the demand for stablecoins rises, it usually suggests that institutional players and whales are preparing to enter positions or that the market requires more "dry powder" to maintain trading volume across major exchanges.

Key Highlights of the Minting:

• Amount: 1,000,000,000 USDT
• Network: Ethereum (ERC-20)
• Status: Authorized but not yet in active circulation
• Purpose: Inventory replenishment for upcoming demand

How does Minting Stablecoins affect Crypto Prices?

The immediate effect of a USDT minting is often psychological. Investors view the creation of new stablecoins as a bullish signal. More $USDT in the ecosystem generally leads to increased buying pressure for $BTC and other altcoins.

1. Liquidity Boost: A larger supply of USDT ensures that there is enough liquidity to handle large trades without causing extreme slippage.
2. Market Confidence: Tether’s growth, backed by its recent Q1 2026 profit report of $1.04 billion, reinforces confidence in the stablecoin's stability.
3. Price Volatility: While the tokens are currently in the treasury, their eventual release into the market often coincides with high volatility.

Transparency and Reserves

Tether has recently faced increased scrutiny, but its 2026 attestations show a robust reserve buffer. The company currently holds over $141 billion in U.S. Treasuries, alongside significant holdings in physical gold and Bitcoin. For users who prioritize security, comparing Tether’s performance against other assets in a hardware wallet remains a standard practice for long-term holders.

Bitcoin Reaches $80,000 Milestone: What Happens Next?

Bitcoin ($BTC) made headlines this morning, May 4, 2026, by surging past the major psychological resistance of $80,000. This move marks the highest price point for the leading cryptocurrency since January, sparking a wave of optimism across the digital asset market.

The breakout was fueled by a "short squeeze" and positive geopolitical developments regarding "Project Freedom" in the Middle East, which eased global risk concerns. After peaking at approximately $80,617, the BTC price has seen a slight healthy adjustment, currently trading around $79,740.

Why is Bitcoin Price UP?

• Institutional Demand: Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a massive $630 million inflow last Friday, providing the necessary liquidity for this morning's push.
• Geopolitical Relief: News of successful negotiations in the Strait of Hormuz has allowed risk assets like $Bitcoin to flourish as the "digital gold" narrative evolves.
• Technical Short Squeeze: Over $300 million in short positions were liquidated in 24 hours, accelerating the upward momentum as traders were forced to buy back their positions.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC/USD Chart Breakdown

The current daily chart reveals a decisive shift in market structure. After weeks of consolidation, the bulls have successfully breached the primary resistance zone.

The Support and Resistance Flip

Looking at the technical indicators, the $76,086 level, which previously acted as a ceiling, has now been established as a firm support floor (highlighted by the recent green accumulation circle on the chart).

• Current Resistance: The intraday high of $80,617 is the immediate hurdle.
• Bullish Target: If Bitcoin maintains its position above $79,000, the next technical target is $84,000, followed by a long-term projection toward $94,490.
• RSI Indicator: The Relative Strength Index is currently at 64.71. While this shows strong buying momentum, it remains below the "overbought" threshold of 70, suggesting that the rally has more room to run before a major correction is required.

Accumulation Zones

The chart highlights a significant accumulation zone near $65,581. This area served as the base for the current rally. As long as Bitcoin stays above the mid-range support of $76,086, the crypto news cycle is likely to remain dominated by "buy the dip" sentiment.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Can BTC Reach $100,000 in May?

Many analysts are now updating their Bitcoin price predictions following this morning's action. The decisive break of $80,000 has shifted the short-term momentum to "Strong Bullish."

• Short-Term (Weekly): A consolidation between $78,500 and $81,000 is expected to build a new base.
• Mid-Term (May 2026): If ETF inflows continue at the current pace, a retest of $85,000 is highly probable by mid-month.
• Optimistic Scenario: Some institutional targets now range from $94,000 to $130,000 for the second half of 2026, provided the current macro-economic stability holds.

Bitcoin Price Targets: Key Price Levels

As the market digests the 80k milestone, the "Early Query Confirmation" suggests that buyers are still in control, though a brief period of sideways movement would be a healthy sign of market maturation at these levels.

The dream of becoming a crypto millionaire often centers around high-utility tokens like XRP. As we navigate through May 2026, Ripple’s native asset remains one of the most discussed tokens in the digital finance space. With its deep integration into global banking systems and the resolution of long-standing regulatory hurdles, investors are asking: is it still possible to hit the seven-figure mark with XRP this year?

Current Market Status: The $1.40 Consolidation Phase

As of May 3, 2026, XRP is trading at approximately $1.39, showing a steady consolidation pattern. For the past several months, the price has been oscillating within a tight range between $1.30 and $1.45.

This sideways movement is often viewed by technical analysts as a "coiling" phase. Historically, when XRP spends significant time consolidating after a macro-uptrend, it builds the necessary liquidity for a breakout. Current on-chain data shows that whale transactions exceeding $100,000 have stabilized, and while the Network Value to Transactions (NVT) ratio spiked recently, the overall sentiment remains cautiously optimistic as Ripple expands its banking partnerships to over 13,000 institutions.

XRP Price Prediction 2026: The Road to $3.00

Looking toward the end of 2026, many analysts set a "bull case" target for XRP at the $3.00 mark. This would represent more than a 115% increase from current levels.

Why $3.00 is the Target:

• Institutional Adoption: Ripple's transition into a premier treasury platform for cross-border payments.
• Post-Halving Dynamics: The trailing effects of the Bitcoin halving often reach their peak in the second year (2026), lifting the entire altcoin market.
• ETF Inflows: Speculation regarding a spot XRP ETF has provided a consistent floor for the price.

While $3.00 is a significant psychological and technical resistance level—flirting with its all-time high—it is a realistic ceiling for the 2026 calendar year according to current market trends.

The Millionaire Math: What Your Investment Returns

To understand if $XRP can make you a millionaire, we must look at the cold, hard numbers. If we assume the price hits the optimistic $3.00 target by December 2026, here is how various investment tiers would perform starting from today's price of ~$1.40:

As the table demonstrates, even a substantial $50,000 investment would "only" yield around $107,000. While a 100%+ return outperforms almost any traditional stock market index, it is far from the "millionaire maker" status many retail investors hope for in a single year.

What is Actually Needed to Become an XRP Millionaire?

To hit a $1,000,000 valuation by 2026, one of two things must happen: either a massive increase in capital or an unprecedented (and unlikely) price surge.

• The Capital Requirement: To have $1M when XRP hits $3.00, you would need to own approximately 333,333 XRP. At today’s price of $1.40, that requires an initial investment of roughly $466,666.
• The Price Requirement: If you only have $10,000 to invest today, XRP would need to reach a price of $140 per token for you to become a millionaire.

Final Verdict

Can XRP make you a millionaire in 2026? If you are starting with a small or moderate amount of capital (under $10,000), the answer is likely no. However, XRP remains a strong candidate for steady, institutional-backed growth. It is a "wealth builder" rather than a "lottery ticket."

Coinbase announced that a "bipartisan deal" has been reached on a pivotal provision within the long-awaited crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act. This breakthrough addresses one of the most contentious sticking points between the crypto industry and traditional banking sectors: the treatment of stablecoin rewards.

For years, the absence of a federal regulatory framework has kept trillions of dollars in institutional capital on the sidelines. With this compromise, the path to a regulated, transparent, and highly liquid U.S. crypto market is clearer than ever.

What Happened to Crypto Today?

Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad, confirmed on May 1, 2026, that a compromise was finalized by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks. The deal specifically resolves disputes over how stablecoin issuers can offer rewards without being classified as interest-bearing bank deposits. By bridging this gap, the CLARITY Act is now expected to move forward in the Senate, potentially ending the "regulation by enforcement" era that has dominated the SEC's approach to digital assets.

What is the CLARITY Act?

The Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act is a comprehensive market structure bill designed to:

• Define Jurisdictions: Clearly delineate the boundaries between the SEC and the CFTC.
• Establish Disclosure Regimes: Mandate transparency for token issuers and exchanges.
• Regulate Stablecoins: Provide a federal framework for stablecoin issuance and reserves.
• Protect Consumers: Implement anti-fraud and anti-manipulation measures similar to traditional equity markets.

Why This Deal Unlocks Trillions

The primary barrier to institutional entry hasn't been a lack of interest in Bitcoin or Ethereum, but a lack of legal certainty. Large asset managers and pension funds cannot risk capital in a "regulatory gray area."

Reducing Market Manipulation

The bill introduces rigorous oversight of crypto exchanges. By mandating wash-trading prevention and transparency in order books, the bill aims to reduce the volatility caused by bad actors. For institutions, this means a "cleaner" market that mirrors the safety of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Stablecoin Reward Compromise

The "bipartisan deal" mentioned by Coinbase focuses on stablecoin yields. Banks feared that high-yield stablecoins would drain their deposit bases. The compromise allows for rewards based on platform usage and activity rather than "passive yield" that mimics a bank account.

"We protected what matters—the ability for Americans to earn rewards based on real usage of crypto platforms," stated Faryar Shirzad.

Clarity Act and Crypto Prices: What's the Relation?

Regulatory clarity is historically a bullish catalyst for the crypto market. When the U.S. provides a "seal of approval" via legislation, it often triggers a global domino effect.

• Increased Liquidity: Institutional "on-ramps" will become more robust.
• Product Innovation: Banks may soon offer native crypto custody and trading services directly to retail customers.
• ETF Expansion: Clearer rules could lead to a wider variety of crypto-based financial products beyond just BTC and ETH.

Timeline: What’s Next for the Bill?

The bill still faces a race against time. With the 2026 midterms approaching, the Senate Banking Committee must move to a markup vote before the summer recess. However, with backing from the Treasury Department and now major industry players like Coinbase, the momentum is at an all-time high.

The "deadline" for significant progress is widely considered to be May 25, 2026. If the CLARITY Act passes this hurdle, the U.S. could officially become the global hub for digital finance by the end of the year.

On May 3, 2026, the cryptocurrency market witnessed one of the most drastic "u-turn" price movements of the year. LAB token, the native asset of the Lab Network, experienced a catastrophic 70% decline within 24 hours of reaching its all-time high.

After a relentless 364% rally that propelled the token from under $0.70 to a peak of $3.64, the multi-chain trading terminal's ecosystem suddenly buckled under intense selling pressure. For many retail investors who entered during the peak of the hype, the rapid descent has sparked urgent questions regarding the project's long-term viability and the mechanics behind the crash.

Why Did LAB Crash?

The primary reason for the $LAB token crash was a textbook "sell the news" event triggered by the launch of the Lab Network mobile application. Investors had been accumulating the token in anticipation of the May 3 release, but once the product went live, large holders (whales) began liquidating their positions to realize profits, overwhelming the remaining buy orders.

"LAB reached an all-time high of $3.64 before a flash crash plunged the price by over 80% in specific trading pairs, with 24-hour contract liquidations surpassing major platforms."

What is the Lab Network?

The Lab Network is a browser-based and mobile trading terminal designed to aggregate execution across multiple blockchains, including Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain.

Founded by Dubai-based entrepreneur Vova Sadkov, the project aims to simplify the DeFi experience. Instead of switching between Raydium, Uniswap, and PancakeSwap, users can execute spot, limit, and perpetual trades from a single interface. The LAB token serves as the utility backbone, offering:

• Fee Discounts: Reduced costs for active traders.
• Buyback & Burn: 80% of protocol revenue is allegedly used to buy back LAB from the market.
• Governance: Voting rights on future chain integrations.

Why did LAB Token Crash 70%

The crash was not a single event but a sequence of technical and psychological triggers that decimated the token's market cap in hours.

1. Parabolic Exhaustion

The 364% surge leading up to the crash pushed the Relative Strength Index (RSI) into extreme overbought territory. Technical analysts often view an RSI above 80 as a signal that a correction is imminent. As the price hit $3.64, the lack of fresh capital to sustain the vertical move made the "glass floor" extremely fragile.

2. Strategic "Exit Liquidity"

On-chain data tracked by analysts suggested that institutional backers, including those from earlier funding rounds involving Amber Group and Cypher Capital, may have been moving assets. While the team advocates for a "deflationary flywheel," the sudden influx of millions of tokens onto exchanges provided the necessary exit liquidity for early participants at the expense of late-coming retail buyers.

3. High-Frequency Liquidations

Because LAB offers perpetual futures with up to 40x leverage, the initial price dip triggered a "liquidation cascade." Long positions were forced to sell automatically as prices dropped, creating a self-reinforcing downward spiral that was further exacerbated by the token's relatively low circulating supply of 230.4 million.

LAB Token Snapshot

LAB Coin Future: Can LAB Recover?

Vova Sadkov and the Lab Network team have remained active on social media, claiming that the crash is a "natural market correction" and that the protocol's fundamentals remain strong with over $800M in lifetime volume.

However, the "pump and dump" optics are difficult to shake. For the token to recover, the project must prove that its AI-driven transaction optimization and fee-sharing models can generate enough organic demand to offset the massive supply of 1 billion tokens.

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Why DOGEBALL Is The Best Crypto Presale To Buy Now With Real Utility And Growing Demand

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The post DOGEBALL Presale Just Got Extended Giving Buyers Another Chance At $0.0004 appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Payward now owns a full U.S. derivatives stack — an FCM, DCM, and DCO — after closing the Bitnomial deal.
• Spot margin launches first on Kraken, with CFTC-regulated perpetuals and options rolling out shortly after.
• The $550M acquisition values Payward’s equity at $20B, with a confidential SEC S-1 filing already submitted.
• B2B partners including banks and fintechs can now offer regulated U.S. derivatives via a single Payward integration.

Bitnomial acquisition by Payward, the parent company of Kraken, is now officially closed. The deal hands Payward the first fully CFTC-licensed crypto-native derivatives stack in the United States.

It includes a Futures Commission Merchant, a Designated Contract Market, and a Derivatives Clearing Organization.

Together, these licenses allow regulated spot margin, perpetuals, and options for eligible U.S. clients. The rollout begins on Kraken, with NinjaTrader also included in the plan.

A Purpose-Built Derivatives Infrastructure Joins the Payward Group

Bitnomial is a Chicago-based digital asset derivatives exchange. The company spent over a decade building its regulatory framework from the ground up.

Unlike traditional platforms adapted for crypto, Bitnomial was designed with digital assets as the core. That distinction made it a strategic target for Payward.

The acquisition was first announced on April 17, 2026. Payward agreed to pay up to $550 million in cash and stock. The transaction valued Payward’s equity at $20 billion. Final terms were not disclosed upon closing.

Bitnomial will continue operating within the Payward group after the deal. Its existing licenses, regulatory structure, and third-party businesses remain fully intact.

Payward plans to scale the Bitnomial team as U.S. derivatives operations grow. This approach preserves compliance while expanding the platform’s reach.

Co-CEO Arjun Sethi was direct about what the deal delivers. “Closing this deal brings a regulated US derivatives stack to Payward, its clients and partners,” Sethi said.

He described it as “a broker, exchange, clearinghouse purpose-built for digital assets, not adapted to them.” He added that spot margin on Kraken launches first, with perpetuals and options to follow, all under CFTC regulation.

Partner Network and Global Reach Get a Regulated U.S. Channel

The Bitnomial acquisition also opens a new channel for Payward’s B2B partners. Banks, brokerages, fintechs, and payment providers can now offer regulated U.S. derivatives to their clients.

This runs through Payward Services, the company’s infrastructure platform. Partners integrate through a single connection alongside existing product offerings.

Payward described the deal as foundational for its product roadmap. “This is the foundation that enables Payward to bring CFTC-regulated spot margin, perpetuals and options to eligible US clients on Kraken and NinjaTrader,” the company stated.

Those existing products also include crypto trading, tokenized equities, staking, and on/off-ramps. Adding regulated U.S. derivatives strengthens the overall infrastructure offering considerably.

Outside the U.S., Payward already operates regulated derivatives businesses in two major markets. It acquired a licensed crypto futures platform in the UK back in 2019.

A regulated EU derivatives offering then launched in 2025. The Bitnomial deal completes the company’s multi-year international derivatives build-out.

Earlier in May, Payward also disclosed a $200 million investment from Deutsche Börse Group. The firm operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and provides clearing infrastructure across Europe.

Separately, Payward confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the SEC in November. A public listing remains a possibility on the horizon.

The post Kraken Parent Payward Closes Bitnomial Deal, Gains Full U.S. Crypto Derivatives Licenses appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Joby Aviation’s Q1 2026 financial results arrive after market close on May 5
• Regulatory certification advancement from the FAA represents the primary catalyst — new developments on trials or documentation could significantly impact shares
• Operating expenses remain under intense scrutiny; management projected $340M–$370M expenditure for the first half of 2026
• Blade Air Mobility operations anticipated to generate the majority of the company’s $105M–$150M full-year 2026 revenue forecast
• UAE service commencement still targeted — management indicated plans to transport initial passengers in Dubai during 2026

Joby Aviation unveils its first-quarter 2026 financial performance following Tuesday’s closing bell on May 5. Shares finished Friday’s session at $9.25, posting a 0.65% gain.

Joby Aviation, Inc., JOBY

Profitability expectations remain absent from analyst forecasts. As a company still in its development stage, market participants understand the current reality. What shareholders truly seek is confirmation that the roadmap toward commercial air taxi operations remains intact.

Share price volatility over the trailing twelve months — ranging from $6.18 to $20.95 — demonstrates the polarized investor sentiment surrounding the company. Wall Street’s consensus price target stands at $13.25, representing approximately 43% potential appreciation from present levels.

Regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration constitutes the most critical milestone ahead. The company has demonstrated tangible advancement — confirming its inaugural FAA-compliant aircraft achieved flight readiness, announcing an 18-point progression in Stage 4 regulatory work, and reporting that vehicles designated for Type Inspection Authorization testing entered production.

Given the current development phase, incremental progress no longer satisfies market expectations. Shareholders demand evidence that certification nears completion. Fresh information regarding sophisticated testing protocols, regulatory agency interaction, or flight operations conducted with FAA-designated pilots will determine market reaction.

Conversely, any indication of postponements could revive anxieties about commercial service timeline extensions.

Operating Expenditure Faces Intense Examination

Joby concluded the fourth quarter of 2025 holding $1.4 billion in liquid assets and near-term investments. Subsequently, the company secured another $1.2 billion through capital raises, elevating total liquidity to $2.6 billion.

This provides substantial financial cushion. However, capital consumption continues at an aggressive pace. The company deployed $157 million during Q4 exclusively, while forecasting $340M–$370M in first-half 2026 cash utilization — excluding a $33 million Ohio facility acquisition.

First-quarter cash consumption figures will receive careful attention. Results aligning with projections should reassure investors. Overruns, however, will provide ammunition for skeptical analysts.

The Blade Air Mobility acquisition offers some immediate revenue generation. Joby purchased Blade’s short-distance aviation operations serving the New York metropolitan area for $125 million in August 2025. Before the transaction finalized, Blade had already transported over 50,000 passengers.

During Q4, Joby generated $31 million in aggregate revenue, with $21 million attributed to Blade operations. For calendar year 2026, management anticipates $105M–$150M in total sales, with Blade contributing the lion’s share.

Middle East Operations Remain Active Priority

During its previous quarterly discussion, Joby management stated the company maintains “plans to carry first passengers in the UAE this year.” Any clarification regarding this schedule — whether encouraging or concerning — will attract significant investor attention.

The Dubai market represents more than simply an inaugural commercial territory. It serves as validation that Joby is transitioning from research and development into actual operations. Consequently, investors will demand concrete details: ground infrastructure development, pilot certification programs, flight path configurations, and initial deployment specifics.

Among Wall Street analysts covering the stock, Joby receives a Hold rating consensus from eight firms — comprising two Buy recommendations, four Hold ratings, and two Sell opinions.

The first-quarter disclosure won’t resolve all outstanding questions. However, it should provide clarity on whether operational execution matches management’s narrative.

The post Joby Aviation (JOBY) Stock: Critical Q1 Earnings Report Looms Tuesday appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Blockstream CEO Adam Back invests €1.1M in Capital B via warrant issuance
• Transaction increases Back’s ownership to 9.97% on fully diluted basis
• Capital B stock climbs over 6.5% following investment announcement
• Company modifies convertible bond terms to enhance conversion flexibility
• Fresh capital supports Bitcoin accumulation strategy amid market conditions

Capital B, the French-listed Bitcoin treasury firm, has closed a €1.1 million ($1.28 million) investment from Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream. The transaction, structured through warrant issuance, strengthens the company’s financial position as it pursues aggressive Bitcoin accumulation amid current market dynamics.

Strategic Warrant Structure Supports Treasury Growth

The investment involves 10 million share subscription warrants issued to Back at €0.11 per warrant. Each instrument grants the holder rights to purchase one newly issued share at €0.84, with the final price determined by Capital B‘s Bitcoin-backed modified net asset value (mNAV).

According to company disclosures, the exercise price represents 130% of the recent five-day volume-weighted average price, calculated at mNAV 1.1 per share. This mechanism directly ties potential equity dilution to the firm’s underlying Bitcoin treasury performance, creating alignment between warrant holders and Bitcoin appreciation.

Following this transaction, Back’s position has grown substantially. He now controls over 39.5 million shares on a fully diluted basis, representing 9.97% of the company’s expanded capital structure. This positions him among Capital B’s most significant strategic stakeholders.

Bitcoin Pioneer Expands European Treasury Investments

Adam Back brings significant credibility to Bitcoin treasury investments. As the inventor of Hashcash—the proof-of-work mechanism referenced in Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin whitepaper—Back remains a respected figure in cryptocurrency circles.

His Capital B investment follows a similar move in late April, when Back participated in Connecting Excellence Group’s $794,000 funding round. That transaction positioned XCE as one of just two European Bitcoin treasury firms to secure capital last month, highlighting Back’s focused strategy on this emerging investment category.

Capital B plans to deploy the new capital toward its core Bitcoin accumulation mandate. The company currently maintains a treasury of 2,943 BTC, valued at approximately $234 million at current prices. This position ranks Capital B as the 25th largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury globally, according to Bitcointreasuries.net tracking data.

Market Response and Revised Bond Terms

Capital B’s stock price surged more than 6.5% on Monday following the warrant announcement. Despite remaining down over 16% year-to-date through 2026, the positive market reaction demonstrates investor confidence in strategic backing from prominent Bitcoin figures.

Concurrent with the warrant deal, Capital B restructured terms governing its OCA B-04 convertible bonds previously subscribed by Back. The conversion price dropped from €5.174 to €2.59 per share, substantially lowering the threshold for conversion into equity.

Under the revised structure, bondholders receive one additional warrant for each converted bond. The company also eliminated the share price condition that previously restricted conversion timing. Back can now convert his bond holdings at will prior to maturity, providing enhanced liquidity and flexibility. Management cited current market realities as motivation for these adjustments, aiming to strengthen conversion incentives during volatile market conditions.

The post Capital B Secures €1.1M Investment from Blockstream’s Adam Back for Bitcoin Holdings appeared first on Blockonomi.

Quick Overview

• Nvidia (NVDA) continues its dominance in AI semiconductors, with data-center momentum and forward guidance under investor scrutiny
• AMD (AMD) challenges the AI accelerator market while serving as a bellwether for chip sector vitality
• Broadcom (AVGO) benefits from customized AI silicon and infrastructure investment by hyperscale platforms
• Palantir (PLTR) generates buzz with its AI Platform, though premium pricing raises eyebrows
• Microsoft (MSFT) integrates artificial intelligence throughout Azure, Microsoft 365, and business applications, with cloud expansion as the critical performance indicator

As May 2026 arrives, market participants are demanding substance over hype in the artificial intelligence sector. Gone are the days when simply mentioning AI would lift a stock. Today’s investors require tangible evidence — confirmed revenue streams, expanding profit margins, and financial results proving that AI capital expenditures deliver returns. These five equities sit at the epicenter of this evolving narrative.

Nvidia (NVDA)

Nvidia maintains its position as the undisputed champion of AI semiconductor technology. The company’s advanced GPUs form the backbone of data centers operated by cloud giants, corporations, and artificial intelligence researchers globally.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

Beyond silicon manufacturing, Nvidia’s ecosystem extends into networking equipment, development software frameworks, and comprehensive data-center solutions. This diversified approach creates multiple touchpoints throughout the AI infrastructure stack.

With substantial growth already baked into share prices, market watchers are focused on whether quarterly results and forward-looking statements can match elevated expectations.

AMD (AMD)

Advanced Micro Devices positions itself as an emerging challenger in AI acceleration technology, a domain where Nvidia currently maintains commanding market share.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD

Market participants closely monitor AMD’s data-center sales figures, AI graphics processor adoption rates, and management’s outlook for upcoming quarters. Robust performance from AMD would indicate strengthening conditions across the broader AI server ecosystem.

With an earnings announcement scheduled this month, AMD ranks among the most scrutinized names for traders seeking near-term catalysts.

Broadcom (AVGO)

Broadcom represents an alternative narrative within AI semiconductors. Rather than competing in general-purpose GPUs, the company specializes in bespoke AI processors, networking components, and cloud backbone technology.

As technology titans develop proprietary AI architectures, Broadcom captures demand for application-specific integrated circuits. The company’s fortunes correlate directly with hyperscale infrastructure budgets, making it a reliable barometer for sustained capital commitment.

Investors question whether this expenditure momentum persists through May and beyond into the year’s latter half.

Palantir (PLTR)

Palantir ranks among the most discussed AI software enterprises currently. The company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform has captured attention from individual and professional investors alike, while commercial customer acquisition complements its traditional government contracting business.

The optimistic perspective centers on converting AI enthusiasm into accelerated revenue expansion.

Valuation represents the counterargument. Trading at elevated multiples, Palantir faces investor skepticism about whether financial performance can validate current pricing. Any disclosure regarding client acquisition or platform traction could significantly impact share performance.

Microsoft (MSFT)

Microsoft represents perhaps the largest AI opportunity in public markets while simultaneously offering the most established business foundation.

Artificial intelligence permeates the company’s product portfolio — from Azure cloud services to Microsoft 365 productivity tools, GitHub developer platforms, and enterprise applications. This creates diversified revenue channels linked to AI implementation.

Azure expansion metrics command the greatest investor attention. Cloud platform growth provides the clearest evidence that corporate AI expenditure translates into measurable sales.

Concluding Analysis

Microsoft maintains substantial capital allocation toward data-center expansion and AI capabilities. The central question remains whether these investments sustain cloud revenue acceleration and profitability enhancement.

Nvidia dominates semiconductor technology. AMD pursues market share. Broadcom capitalizes on infrastructure buildouts. Palantir emerges as the software-focused AI opportunity. Microsoft synthesizes cloud computing, enterprise solutions, and artificial intelligence within a single corporate structure.

The post Top 5 AI Stocks for May 2026: Nvidia (NVDA), AMD, Broadcom Lead Investor Watchlist appeared first on Blockonomi.

Institutions are buying Bitcoin (BTC) at more than five times the rate miners are producing it, and according to Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards, that gap has historically come right before huge price gains.

In a post on May 4, Edwards said every instance in the past of this demand-to-supply ratio produced an average return of 24% over the following month, which, from current levels, would take BTC to around $96,000.

What the Data Shows

The 500% figure comes from tracking daily institutional purchases, primarily by public companies and ETFs, against the roughly 450 BTC mined each day since the 2024 halving.

“Every time it’s been this high before, price has shot up over the next week,” stated Edwards. “The average return in prior cases is +24% over 1 month from here, that would take it to around $96K.”

Earlier today, Bitcoin pushed past $80,000 for the first time since January. It had been trading at levels from $78,000 to $80,500 within the last 24 hours, per CoinGecko, and had risen by 20% over the last 30 days.

The rise sparked a wave of forced liquidations, which resulted in the loss of more than $162 million worth of short positions over the course of 24 hours, based on data from CoinGlass.

Trading volume also jumped 95% in 24 hours to around $34 billion.

Other analysts have added weight to the bull case, though with varying degrees of conviction. For instance, trader Taiki Maeda wrote that he expects Strategy to buy $2 to $3 billion worth of Bitcoin over the next two weeks via its STRC instrument, with the acquisitions likely to “accelerate into May 14th.”

On his part, chartist Ali Martinez pointed to a multi-decade ascending trendline that BTC has bounced from in 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022, arguing that the recent dip to $65,000 suggests “the bottom could be in.”

The Other Side of the Coin

BTC’s crossing above $80,000 is on the heels of a 12% rise last month, but according to CryptoQuant, the increase was fueled almost exclusively by perpetual futures interest, not spot trading.

It noted that Bitcoin’s apparent demand indicator, which tracks 30-day on-chain spot activity, stayed negative throughout the entire April rally.

“The divergence between rising price and contracting spot demand is one of the clearest on-chain signals that price gains are speculative rather than structural,” the firm wrote, adding that this demand structure mirrors what was seen at the start of the 2022 bear market.

The post Institutional Demand at 500% of Bitcoin Supply Could Drive BTC to $96K: Analyst appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – Steinhausen, Switzerland, May 4th, 2026]

Swiss-regulated TrustLinq, the first platform to enable direct fiat settlement from self-custodial crypto wallets to third-party bank accounts, has integrated Ripple Payments into its live payment infrastructure. The integration extends TrustLinq’s fiat settlement reach across major global corridors, enabling faster and more cost-efficient local payouts in over 80 currencies across more than 170 countries.

TrustLinq CH AG, a Swiss-regulated crypto to third-party fiat settlement service, is now processing live transactions through Ripple Payments, the cross-border payments infrastructure operated by Ripple, the leading provider of blockchain-based enterprise solutions across traditional and digital finance. The integration adds Ripple’s infrastructure and enables real-time, multi-rail settlement across fiat and digital assets for TrustLinq’s existing payment rail stack, which already includes SEPA, SWIFT, ACH, Faster Payments, and more than 170 countries, over 80 currencies, including 60 local banking corridors.

TrustLinq’s core function is distinct from standard crypto off-ramps. Users fund a payment from their own self-custodial stablecoin wallet, and TrustLinq settles it directly as a local bank transfer in fiat to the recipient’s bank account. No exchange or bank account is required by the sender. The recipient does not need a crypto wallet or a TrustLinq account. The payment arrives as a standard local bank transfer to the recipient. Ripple Payments now forms part of the infrastructure that makes that settlement possible across an expanded range of corridors.

With more than $100 billion in processed volume globally and coverage across 60+ markets, Ripple Payments is the end-to-end solution for moving money across borders, giving institutions a faster, more transparent way to send, receive, and settle funds in both fiat and stablecoins. The addition of Ripple’s network reduces TrustLinq’s reliance on correspondent banking, extending direct local corridor access beyond the reach of traditional correspondent banking and SWIFT routing.

“TrustLinq exists to make crypto function as real money for real payments. When someone sends a supplier invoice, pays rent, or disburses contractor fees across borders, the payment arrives as a standard bank transfer in the recipient’s local currency. Integrating Ripple Payments strengthens the infrastructure behind that promise and extends our reach across corridors that matter to our users.” Lili Metodieva, Co-Founder, TrustLinq.

TrustLinq supports USDT (ERC-20 and TRC-20), USDC and EURC. The service is live and available to personal and business users at trustlinq.com.

About TrustLinq

TrustLinq CH AG is a Swiss-regulated crypto-to-fiat payment service headquartered in Steinhausen, Switzerland. The platform enables direct settlement from self-custodial stablecoin wallets to third-party bank accounts, supporting USDT, USDC and EURC in over 170 countries, more than 80 currencies, and exceeding 60 local payment corridors. Recipients require no crypto account. Senders require no exchange or bank account.

For more information, users can visit trustlinq.com

Ripple https://ripple.com/press-releases/

The post TrustLinq Integrates Ripple Payments to Expand Global Infrastructure for Direct Crypto-to-Fiat Bank Transfers appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s weekend sluggishness came to an end on Monday morning with a notable price surge above $80,500 for the first time since late January.

Most altcoins are also in the green today, with ETH going close to $2,400 and XRP reclaiming the $1.40 level. ZEC, UNI, WLFI, and ONDO are the top performers from the larger caps.

BTC Jumped Past $80K

The previous business week also began with a price surge to $79,500 at the time, but it was quickly stopped, and BTC plunged to under $76,000 by Tuesday. More volatility ensued on Wednesday before and after the third FOMC meeting for the year as BTC jumped to $78,000 ahead of the event and dipped to under $75,000 once it concluded, and it became known that the Fed won’t change the rates.

Bitcoin rebounded in the following few days, especially on Friday, after reports that Iran had sent a new peace proposal to the US. BTC jumped to almost $79,000 before it was stopped after Trump rejected it. During the mostly quiet weekend, bitcoin pumped once again to $79,200 after another proposal was sent, but the same scenario repeated once Washington said no.

The cryptocurrency went on the run in the early Monday hours, rocketing past $80,000 for the first time since January 31. It touched $80,600 on some exchanges before it was stopped and now sits inches below $80,000.

Its market capitalization has climbed to $1.6 trillion, while its dominance over the alts stands tall at 58.5% on CG.

Alts With Double-Digit Pumps

Ethereum is up to $2,370 after a 2.6% increase today, XRP is up to $1.41, while BNB has neared $630. Solana has tapped $85, while DOGE is up by 4% to a local low of over $0.11. XMR has reclaimed the $400 resistance after a 4% jump. ZEC is above $410 following a notable 7.3% surge daily.

The top 100 alts have a new rep, SKYAI. The token has skyrocketed by 40% daily to $0.60, making it the best performer. DASH (30%), SIREN (20%), and ONDO (11%) complete the double-digit price gainers club.

The total crypto market cap has added over $50 billion in a day and is up to $2.730 trillion on CG.

The post Altcoins With Double-Digit Gains as Bitcoin Rocketed to 3-Month High: Market Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price has moved past the major psychological resistance level of $80,000.

The cryptocurrency did this today for the first time since January, sparking hopes of a renewed rally and higher highs.

The move comes on the back of an increase in the broader cryptocurrency market, as altcoins are also trading well in the green over the past 24 hours.

The sector’s total capitalization is up to $2.74 trillion, with Bitcoin’s dominance at 58.6% according to CoinGecko.

Liquidations are also elevated at $357 million – an increase of around 100% for the past 24 hours, which is more or less to be expected during a sudden move like this.

Is Bitcoin’s Move Sustainable?

While the bulls take this as a cause for celebration, it might be pre-emptive to call quits to the bear market yet, at least according to some analysts. As CryptoPotato reported earlier, CryptoQuant offered insights into what drove April’s rally and whether May can offer similar outcomes.

“The divergence between rising price and contracting spot demand is one of the clearest on-chain signals that price gains are speculative rather than structural. Apparent demand stayed negative across the full April price surge, confirming the absence of fundamental demand support.” The firm said.

That said, it’s interesting to see if the move beyond $80,000 can be sustained.

It’s also important to note that it’s Monday – this is usually when Strategy announces whether or not it has bought any BTC during the past week, so the sudden spike might have also been caused by them, although this remains to be seen later through the day.

The post Bitcoin Price Pushes Above $80,000 for First Time Since January appeared first on CryptoPotato.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X on April 29 that Washington’s sanctions campaign is now going after Iran’s “access to crypto,” alongside oil exports, shipping networks, and shadow banking channels.

It is the first time the Treasury has named digital assets so explicitly in the context of the Iran pressure campaign, and it puts crypto squarely in the middle of a geopolitical dispute that has already been moving Bitcoin’s price for weeks.

Treasury Links Crypto to Iran Sanctions Push

In the post, Bessent said the Treasury, through what he called “Economic Fury,” had targeted Iran’s shadow banking system, crypto access, weapons procurement networks, and the Chinese “teapot” refineries that buy Iranian crude.

According to him, the measures had disrupted “tens of billions of dollars of revenue” that otherwise would have been used to fund terrorism, adding that Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, was nearing storage capacity, a situation he said could force production cuts worth roughly $170 million a day in lost revenue.

Still, the crypto mention is what stood out, as for years, sanctions enforcement focused on banks, oil traders, and shipping firms. Putting digital assets in the same sentence as shadow banking and weapons procurement is a signal that Treasury believes crypto is being used not just for small transfers but as part of actual trade settlement infrastructure.

According to market analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera, the latest action designated 35 entities and individuals under two existing executive orders. He named UK-registered Shuqun Ltd, which allegedly transferred more than $70 million for Iranian crude on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company through 2024, and Fratello Carbone Trading Limited, which reportedly moved more than $20 million.

The total number of Iran-related targets under Economic Fury has now passed one thousand since February 25. Perera’s reading of Bessent’s language was that the warning was not primarily directed at Tehran. It was directed at every bank, exchange, and intermediary anywhere in the world that processes Iranian flows.

Why Crypto Keeps Coming Up in the Hormuz Dispute

This is not the first time crypto and Iran have collided in the markets this month, with the Financial Times reporting on April 8 that Iranian officials were demanding Bitcoin payments for ships seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz. When those reports emerged, BTC ran from around $68,000 to nearly $73,000.

Since then, the situation has continued to change, including information coming out on April 27 that Iran had submitted a new peace proposal through Pakistani mediators. This sent Bitcoin briefly to a 12-week high near $80,000 before it got rejected and fell back hard.

However, yesterday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran had entered a “state of collapse,” pushing oil past $100 a barrel and pulling BTC below $76,000.

Those price moves show how closely crypto now trades with geopolitical risk, energy supply concerns, and sanctions policy, and if Washington can disrupt crypto-linked settlement channels tied to Iranian trade, it may reduce one workaround for sanctions. But if alternative rails keep operating, the campaign may simply push more transactions away from the dollar system and into the yuan or digital assets.

The post Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Says the US Is Targeting Iran’s Access to Crypto appeared first on CryptoPotato.