Record highs signal investor optimism, but fragile geopolitical deals and inflated tech valuations pose significant future risks.

The post Wall Street hits new closing highs on tech strength and Middle East deal hopes appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Tesla's Cybercab could revolutionize the ride-hailing industry by drastically reducing operational costs and energy consumption, challenging competitors.

The post Tesla’s Cybercab starts production with record-breaking efficiency numbers appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin's decentralized governance and slow upgrade process may drive investors to faster-adapting networks amid looming quantum threats.

The post Security experts warn Bitcoin faces urgent quantum risks as adversaries stockpile encrypted data appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Kalshi's strategic hire enhances regulatory trust, potentially setting a precedent for increased oversight and legitimacy in prediction markets.

The post Kalshi hires former FBI analyst Tyler Neff to lead surveillance efforts appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Rising US-Iran tensions in the Strait of Hormuz could destabilize global oil markets and hinder diplomatic resolutions, impacting geopolitical stability.

The post US-Iran tensions rise as Aguilar hints at strategic escalation in Strait of Hormuz appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Coinkite Launches Coldcard MK5: Major UX Upgrades to Flagship Bitcoin Hardware Wallet

Coinkite the Bitcoin-only hardware wallet manufacturer, recently released the MK5, a significant quality of life and user experience upgrade to the MK4 Coldcard, building on the strong security foundations set by its predecessor. The MK5 comes in many colors and styles. Today, I will review the Orange and Glow in the dark versions, as well as their form factor and user experience upgrades, to answer the question: are the upgrades to the device worth the money? 

Building on the well-known and trend-setting MK4 security platform, which brought two secure element chips from different manufacturers and an MCU to the same device. The MK5 focuses instead on quality of life, improving the NFC connectivity, reworking the buttons and plastic chassis of the hardware wallet, as well as adding a much larger screen, among other new features. This is the first hardware upgrade to the Coinkite MK line since the launch of the MK4 in 2022, integrating into it some of the technologies debuted by the Coldcard Q in 2023.

What is new with the MK5 Coldcard?

The big upgrades to the UX are immediately visible; the screen, for one, is much larger, perhaps 30% bigger. Their announcement blog describes it as a “1.54-inch display protected by Gorilla Glass,” which does look and feel much sturdier than older models.

The next obvious upgrade is the buttons. Unlike the MK4 buttons, which are indented, requiring your fingers to go into the socket to get a click, the MK5 buttons are almost at par with the chassis of the device, making them much easier to press. The press feels good, it clicks, giving the user a solid tactile feedback. Much more comfortable than the warm, slightly uncomfortable, unresponsive feel of a touch screen, as seen in other hardware wallets. 

You also quickly notice the chassis has been redesigned. The screen section no longer pops out above the keyboard; instead, it’s all one rectangle with comfortable curved edges. It looks more modern, more elegant, while keeping that cypherpunk transparency that shows off the underlying hardware, a signature design principle of Coinkite products. 

The MK5 also comes with a button and screen protector half case that slides and clicks in and out. It can be entirely removed and fits perfectly from the back of the device, exposing the USB power input at the bottom of the device without issue. 

NFC Push Transactions

Last but not least, Coinkite doubles down on NFC support with the MK5. An acronym for near field communication, the NFC antenna is an increasingly popular tech stack in the Bitcoin industry. From NFC tap to pay lightning Bolt cards with cool designs and laser eyes, or Coinkite’s own Tapsigners, to Cashu’s tap to send features developed by Calle. 

NFC is a powerful alternative to other wireless connection technologies like Bluetooth or Wifi, which some hardware wallet providers have adopted, but come with some arguable downsides, mainly their range. Unlike the alternatives, NFC is short-range by design; we are talking centimeters in range, whereas Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are talked about in tens of meters. So the paranoid level threat that someone with a long-range antenna pointed at your house might catch a transaction in transit or be able to connect to your device remotely, vanishes. 

There’s also no multi-step device connection protocol with NFC; phones either have the feature on and off, the app starts scanning, and transmission can occur. No pin codes, no sifting through lists of Bluetooth-powered devices. Much simpler UX in theory. It is also far superior in terms of user experience to the SD card transmission of pre-signed transactions back and forth from laptops or phones. While NFC may technically cross the ‘airgapped’ line in the MK4 and MK5, NFC still has the best qualities of all wireless connectivity options, and is set to off in the default settings. Similar to the option to connect the MK5 to a computer via USB for data transmission, the NFC antenna can also be severed at a hardware level by scratching off a specific wire within the hardware. 

Coinkite’s NFC push Tx software is open source and much smaller in terms of lines of code than Bluetooth or Wifi. The full NFC push Tx code is open source. The client web app side of the protocol has no license defined and is presumably meant to be integrated by any web application. While the hardware side of the code is public, but is limited by the non-commercial use license.

The Colors of the MK5

Playing into the Bitcoiner’s hunger for collectibles, the MK5 comes in a wide range of cases, such as gold flaked transparent gray, gorgeous orange and even glow in the dark! I got to play with the Orange and blue glow-in-the-dark version, though I kind of wish I’d gotten my hands on the gold flaked one.

Nevertheless, the designs are beautiful, transparent enough to see the hardware, but colorful enough to be stylish. Here’s what they look like in practice. 

Supply Chain Security

The packaging was also very interesting; the box containing the hardware came with a purchase order of the items, which were inside tamper-proof security bags. These bags had pretty strong plastic, not something you can easily rip, requiring a knife to slice through them. The bags were also marked with a unique number, seen in the pictures below. Inside the bag, another plastic strip contained the same number. And when the devices were first powered on, they displayed the same number on the screen. This is a flash memory code that gets set up per device at the factory. Making interception and manipulation of the firmware of hardware that much more difficult. The next level would be to notify the user of the bag number via email or behind a login on the site, so they can have a side channel to verify the number as well.

If you see anything off with the packaging, you are encouraged to take pictures and reach out to Coinkite support. 

The battery and exposed hardware device in the picture below is the COLDPOWER Adapter by Coinkite, which I happened to have laying around and figured I’d test out as well. It is meant to give the device power entirely airgapped, no cables connected to any computer whatsoever, as even a malicious Wifi repeated plugged into a power outlet could transmit signals across the power wires (lol). 

Things to improve?

Integration of NFC Push Tx with mobile wallets was a bit inconsistent. I tried Cove, Bull Bitcoin and Nunchuck. Of the three, Nunchuck had the best integration, with Cove not far behind. Bull Bitcoin seems to have disabled the feature or hidden it quite well. Cove is a young project likely to improve leaps and bounds in the coming months, while Nunchuck a very advanced and powerful wallet, took me a few minutes to figure out but ultiumetly turned out to be the best interface of the three.

Even with a stronger NFC antenna, I had to remove my phone’s ridiculously thick case in order to get a reliable data transmission, but that’s not the end of the world. 

Conclusion: Is the MK5 worth the money to upgrade? 

As a proud owner of what I now realize is an ancient MK3, the move to an MK5 is a significant upgrade, and the low cost of $167 plus shipping, I’d say it is a no-brainer. That’s a whole generation of security and UX upgrades that I did not realize I needed.

For active users of the MK4, the bigger screen and better buttons are definitely an improvement in quality of life, and the better NFC antenna will likely yield dividends as well by making transaction flows smoother. Again, compared to other hardware wallets in the market, the price is very reasonable.

For passive MK4 owners who make a couple of transactions a year, however, the juice might not be worth the squeeze. They are still getting firmware updates and get all the security benefits, and likely won’t miss the improved UX that much. 

Disclaimer: Coinkite provided Bitcoin Magazine with a couple of free MK5 Coldcards to use for the purpose of testing their product for review.

This post Coinkite Launches Coldcard MK5: Major UX Upgrades to Flagship Bitcoin Hardware Wallet first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

U.S. Treasury: The United States Has Seized Nearly $1 Billion of Iran’s Crypto

Speaking at the Reagan National Economic Forum, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that the U.S. has seized roughly $1 billion in Iran-linked cryptocurrency as part of a broader campaign to choke off Tehran’s financial networks.

The disclosures come amid one of the most intense military confrontations the Middle East has seen in decades.

On February 27, 2026, the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury — a coordinated airstrike campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, military infrastructure, and Revolutionary Guard command centers. 

Iran retaliated with ballistic missile strikes across the region, hitting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and Iraq. A fragile ceasefire was brokered in early April and is still in the works, but the economic war never stopped.

Enter Operation Economic Fury. Ordered by President Trump and executed by the Treasury Department, the campaign is designed to systematically dismantle every financial lifeline Tehran has left. 

Since its launch, OFAC has sanctioned over 1,000 Iran-linked entities, frozen bank accounts held by Revolutionary Guard-affiliated businesses, and — according to Bessent — reached directly into crypto wallets. 

The largest single action came in late April, when Tether confirmed it froze $344 million in USDT across two Tron blockchain addresses linked to the IRGC, after blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis identified on-chain patterns consistent with known Iranian military wallets. One wallet held roughly $213 million; the other, $131 million.

The total seizure figure has since climbed past $500 million — and Bessent’s most recent comments suggest the running total is approaching $1 billion.

“We will track the funds that Tehran is urgently attempting to transfer abroad and target all financial avenues linked to the regime,” Bessent said.

Bitcoin as a means of payment in Iran

Back in April, Iran reportedly planned to require ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay transit tolls in Bitcoin during a temporary ceasefire with the U.S.

The policy aimed to bypass sanctions and traditional banking rails, giving Iran a way to collect revenue while maintaining control over a critical global oil chokepoint.

The move pushed bitcoin into a geopolitical spotlight, raising operational and legal risks for shipping firms while highlighting how digital assets could be used in sovereign-controlled trade routes.

This post U.S. Treasury: The United States Has Seized Nearly $1 Billion of Iran’s Crypto first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Declares War on Clarity Act, Calls Coinbase’s Armstrong ‘Full of Sh*t’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has drawn a battle line in Washington: the Clarity Act, as written, is dead on arrival — and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the enemy driving it.

In a Fox Business interview on Friday, Dimon unloaded on the pending crypto market structure legislation, calling it a threat to the financial system and a gift to an industry that wants the privileges of banking without the responsibilities.

“It allows cryptocurrency firms to effectively pay interest on deposits — stablecoins or something like that — without the protection that they should have,” Dimon said. “It has almost no legal protections.”

His core argument: if a crypto platform walks like a bank and talks like a bank, it needs to be regulated like one. That means Anti-Money Laundering compliance, Bank Secrecy Act obligations, FDIC insurance, capital requirements, liquidity rules, and the full weight of financial oversight that traditional banks carry. The Clarity Act, in his view, lets crypto firms skip all of it.

The fight over stablecoin rewards sits at the center of the dispute. Banks say allowing crypto exchanges to pay customers for holding stablecoins would accelerate deposit flight from traditional institutions — a ticking clock on the business model that has defined American banking for a century. 

Crypto advocates counter that such incentives are a natural evolution of payments infrastructure. The bill’s markup is approaching, and neither side is backing down.

Dimon also flagged the AML problem with cross-border stablecoin payments.

“The first one may be legitimate,” he said, “the second one may be a sex trafficker.” Once money lands in a digital wallet overseas, it can move to a third wallet, a fourth — with no visibility and no accountability. That, he said, is the unresolved risk hiding beneath the optimism around stablecoin utility.

Dimon: Coinbase CEO Armstrong is full of sh*t

But Dimon reserved his sharpest words for Armstrong. The Coinbase CEO, he claimed, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington to push the legislation through. “No one is going to bow down to this guy,” Dimon said, calling Armstrong “full of sh*t.” 

It was not the first time — Dimon made similar remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.

JPMorgan is not alone. The American Bankers Association, community banks, and credit unions are aligned in opposition to the bill’s current form.

Dimon made clear this is a fight — not a negotiation. “We’ll fight it,” he said. “If we lose, we lose. But it will be fought.”

This post JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Declares War on Clarity Act, Calls Coinbase’s Armstrong ‘Full of Sh*t’ first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Retired Couple Loses $76,000 Life Savings to Bitcoin ATM Scam, Sues Bitcoin Depot in Federal Court

A class action filed in Idaho accuses the now-bankrupt crypto ATM operator of profiting from fraud while leaving vulnerable consumers unprotected.

A retired Idaho couple has filed a federal class action lawsuit against Bitcoin Depot Inc., alleging the company’s ATM network served as a pipeline for scammers who drained their entire retirement savings — $76,000 — over five consecutive days in August 2025.

Karen and Robert Lacey, named plaintiffs in Lacey et al. v. Bitcoin Depot Inc., et al. (Case No. 1:26-cv-00288-DKG), say fraudsters posing as Norton customer service representatives and FBI agents convinced them their accounts were tied to child pornography and illegal gambling investigations. 

The scammers directed the couple to deposit cash at Bitcoin Depot ATMs between August 9 and August 13, 2025. To reinforce the deception, the fraudsters caused wireless networks labeled “FBI” to appear on the Laceys’ phones — signals that remained visible for months after the deposits.

The 43-page complaint, filed May 11, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, charges that Bitcoin Depot processed each transaction “without meaningful intervention” despite what it calls clear warning signs: first-time users making large cash deposits while on phone calls with unknown parties. 

The lawsuit further alleges the company charges fees of up to 50% per transaction and relies on on-screen warning stickers — a safeguard the plaintiffs call “demonstrably ineffective”.

After Karen and Robert’s son filed a federal crime complaint, Bitcoin Depot issued two $1,000 refund checks — an amount the lawsuit states did not cover even the fees the company collected. Karen Lacey, who was retired when the fraud occurred, has since returned to the workforce, now working rotating hospital shifts.

The complaint cites Bitcoin Depot’s own SEC filings, which state its services “may be exploited to facilitate illegal activity such as fraud” and that its risk management “may not be sufficient”. 

Federal Trade Commission data show Bitcoin ATM fraud losses increased nearly tenfold between 2020 and 2023, with a median victim loss of $10,000. By 2025, the FBI reported Americans lost $333 million to Bitcoin ATM fraud — more than 10,000 victims in a single year.

Bitcoin Depot filing for bankruptcy 

The lawsuit arrives as Bitcoin Depot’s corporate position collapses. The company filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 18, 2026, and shut down its entire network of more than 9,000 ATMs across North America. The company had earlier disclosed a $3.6 million Bitcoin theft from its own wallets in March 2026 and reported a 49.2% revenue decline in Q1 2026.

Plaintiffs seek a jury trial, injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, restitution of fees paid, and attorney’s fees. 

This post Retired Couple Loses $76,000 Life Savings to Bitcoin ATM Scam, Sues Bitcoin Depot in Federal Court first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CFTC 24/7 Advisory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The CFTC has moved true Bitcoin perpetual futures from an offshore-liquidity debate into a US-regulated test case, with KalshiEX LLC now approved to list BTCPERP and Coinbase Financial Markets receiving separate staff-level relief for access to certain Deribit products.

The Commission approved KalshiEX LLC's BTCPERP contract as a futures contract, allowing the CFTC-registered designated contract market to list a no-expiry bitcoin perpetual tied to the spot price of BTC.

In a separate move the same day, CFTC staff confirmed that certain Deribit digital commodity derivatives described by Coinbase Financial Markets may be treated as foreign futures when routed through Coinbase's registered futures commission merchant structure.

Chairman Mike Selig cast the Kalshi order as delivery on his pledge to onshore crypto asset perpetuals and as a path for one of crypto's most liquid market segments to exist inside the US regulatory framework.

Together, the actions turn the US perpetuals debate from a theoretical onshoring promise into a live market-structure test. One path puts a Bitcoin perpetual directly on a US-regulated exchange. The other gives Coinbase a conditional staff-level route for US clients to reach global crypto derivatives liquidity through its CFM, Coinbase Bermuda, and Deribit affiliates.

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The industry reaction leaned into the market-access point while showing how differently public companies and exchanges read the same CFTC actions.

Michael Saylor tied the guidance to Bitcoin holders and MicroStrategy's broader Bitcoin-backed credit strategy. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong emphasized the customer-access angle and the size of the global market US users could not previously reach through regulated domestic channels.

Those reactions are useful market context. The legal boundary still sits in the CFTC order and staff letter.

The distinction is central to the market impact. Perpetual futures are among crypto's most heavily traded instruments because they let traders hold directional exposure without rolling expiring contracts. The regulatory question is whether that structure can fit US futures rules while containing the leverage, liquidation, and collateral risks that made offshore perps so dominant and so volatile.

Two routes opened at once

Kalshi's approval carries different legal weight because it is a Commission order. The CFTC issued the order under Section 5c(c)(4) of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission Regulation 40.3, finding that listing BTCPERP as a futures contract would be consistent with the CEA and the agency's rules.

The CFTC release says Kalshi submitted the contract on May 29, while the order identifies the submission date as May 28. The approval itself is dated May 29.

Coinbase's path is different. The CFTC's Market Participants Division issued an interpretation and no-action position in response to Coinbase Financial Markets. Staff said the Deribit products described in the request may be categorized as foreign futures under Regulation 30.1.

Staff also said it would not recommend enforcement action under specified conditions tied to customer digital assets and payment stablecoins posted as margin through Coinbase affiliates.

That split shapes durability and scope. The Kalshi route tests whether a US exchange can list a perpetual directly under CFTC product approval. The Coinbase route tests whether a registered FCM can provide US customers with supervised access to foreign-board-of-trade products while meeting conditions regarding margin, disclosures, and affiliate controls.

Institutional onboarding can begin now, options on Deribit are live through CFM, and perpetual futures will follow, according to Coinbase. Broader access, including retail, is expected later, the company said.

A Kalshi launch note described the offering as the first US perpetuals product and said US investors will soon be able to access CFTC-regulated crypto perpetual futures on its platform. The company also said it aims to launch crypto perpetuals on more than a dozen currencies pending regulatory reviews.

What the CFTC approved on Kalshi

The Kalshi order describes BTCPERP as a cash-settled derivative referencing the US dollar spot price of one BTC as measured by the CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Real Time Index. The contract will trade in units of one ten-thousandth of a Bitcoin and can trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week, subject to Kalshi trading halts.

Its defining feature is the absence of a fixed expiration date. Traditional futures converge to spot at expiry because delivery or final cash settlement pulls the contract toward the underlying market. A perpetual has no final settlement, so the convergence mechanism must operate continuously.

The CFTC order says BTCPERP uses periodic funding payments between long and short holders based on the difference between the contract's mark price and the underlying reference price.

If the contract trades above spot, longs pay shorts. If it trades below spot, shorts pay longs. Payment pressure gives traders an economic incentive to push the perpetual price back toward the Bitcoin reference price.

The agency's reasoning depends heavily on Bitcoin's market structure. The order says Bitcoin trades continuously across broadly distributed venues, making the reference price observable while the contract trades. It also points to bitcoin's deep, active, continuous spot market and to 24/7 spot trading that lets arbitrageurs respond while the perpetual trades.

That makes the order consequential and bounded. The CFTC said the analysis is limited to BTCPERP and similarly structured perpetual contracts that reference Bitcoin or other digital commodities with deep, active, continuous spot market trading. It excludes other asset classes from the analysis, and contract categorization remains on a case-by-case basis.

The novelty caveat keeps the legal significance in focus. CFTC product records show Bitnomial products labeled perpetual futures were certified in May 2026, and Coinbase Derivatives previously filed for a nano Bitcoin Perp Style Futures product with a long-dated December 2030 expiry.

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CryptoSlate covered Coinbase's US perp-style launch in 2025 and later noted that true no-expiry perps differ from long-dated workarounds.

The practical takeaway: Kalshi has received a formal CFTC approval for a true no-expiry Bitcoin perpetual, while Coinbase received a separate staff-level route for global derivatives access. That is a concrete opening for US-regulated perpetuals, with the next approvals still tied to product design, market depth, and the agency's current posture.

Why Coinbase remains part of the story

The Coinbase action has less durability than a Commission order, but it could shape near-term market access because it connects US clients to Deribit, a venue Coinbase data describe as large by trading volume and open interest.

Coinbase said crypto derivatives account for roughly 80% of global crypto trading volume and that US customers have lacked a regulated route to much of that liquidity. In a prior investor update after the Deribit acquisition closed, Coinbase said Deribit had more than $185 billion in July 2025 trading volume and roughly $60 billion in platform open interest.

The CFTC staff letter is technical because the route is technical. CFM is a registered FCM. It plans to offer customers access to certain digital commodity derivatives listed on Deribit FZE, described in the letter as an affiliated foreign board of trade.

Customer orders would move through Coinbase Bermuda Limited, an affiliated foreign broker, to Deribit.

Staff also addressed margin treatment. The no-action position covers specified circumstances where CFM posts customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins with its foreign broker affiliate to margin foreign futures and options positions, even where the foreign broker has a right of re-use over those assets.

The relief is tied to conditions, including Coinbase ownership links, disclosures, operational controls, acknowledgments, and use of customer digital assets only for margining or securing customer obligations.

That makes the Coinbase path useful for distribution and reach while leaving a thinner precedential footprint than Kalshi's order. It shows how staff may treat the foreign-market access question while preserving the Commission's ability to revisit the interpretation.

That distinction is practical for venues, brokers, and customers because it affects who can rely on the signal and how quickly product access can scale.

The staff letter's legal posture is conditional. Its positions represent the Market Participants Division only, are not binding on the Commission or other CFTC staff, depend on the facts presented, and can be modified, suspended, terminated, or restricted.

The liquidity test comes next

The CFTC has been moving toward this moment for more than a year. In April 2025, an agency request for comment asked about perpetual derivatives, including their uses, benefits, risks, market integrity issues, customer protection questions, retail trading, clearing, and risk management.

The move also fits a broader US push to adapt regulated derivatives plumbing to crypto's always-on market. CryptoSlate previously covered CME's move toward 24/7 crypto futures and options, another attempt to reduce the mismatch between legacy market hours and continuously traded crypto spot markets.

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The agency now has two working models in the market: a domestic exchange product approved by the Commission and a staff-cleared foreign futures access path through a registered FCM. Both could help pull some perpetual activity into supervised US channels. Liquidity still has to follow.

Those questions remain unresolved. Regulated venues will have to offer enough product breadth, margin efficiency, funding quality, and broker distribution to compete with offshore exchanges. If Kalshi's BTCPERP launches with competitive funding and access terms, and if Coinbase can scale Deribit access from institutions toward broader clients, some flow may move into channels the CFTC can monitor more directly.

If the products remain limited, expensive, or operationally slower than offshore venues, the approval may carry more weight as a regulatory precedent than as an immediate liquidity shift.

The next signals are practical: Kalshi's launch terms, Coinbase's timing for perpetual futures through CFM, the treatment of retail access, the assets the CFTC will allow beyond Bitcoin, and whether formal rulemaking or Congress later turns today's agency posture into something harder to reverse.

The post Bitcoin perps just got a US green light, but one catch could decide everything appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STRC stress narrows Strategy’s room for error

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strategy faces a 4-month window

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Price discovery changes the internal math

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

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

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

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

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

Hash rate may no longer follow BTC price alone

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bitcoin gets the tighter market it needs

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

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

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

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

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

AI wins the allocation decision

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

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

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

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

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

The split is the outcome

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Clarity Act and where it stands

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

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

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

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

The floor math

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

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

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

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

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

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

What seven votes decide the Clarity Act's fate?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

$80,000 as the macro confirmation line

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

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

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

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

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

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

The bid PCE left open

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Landscape of Corporate Crypto Banking

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

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

Why Revolut Business is a Leading Choice for Companies

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

Key Advantages for Corporate Accounts

• Native Crypto Tools: Unlike traditional entities that require third-party integrations, the platform features native capabilities to buy, sell, and hold over 30 digital assets directly within the corporate dashboard.
• Rapid Multi-Currency Liquidity: Businesses can hold, exchange, and transfer more than 25 fiat currencies using interbank exchange rates. This facilitates frictionless off-ramping from regulated exchanges straight into your corporate fiat reserves.
• Granular Governance: Issue instant corporate virtual or physical cards to your global team, apply strict spend limits, and automate approval workflows for outward corporate transactions.

Plan and Cost Structure

The platform is designed to scale organically alongside your company's transactional volume. It operates on a transparent, tiered monthly subscription model:

• Free Plan (€0/month): Ideal for early-stage startups and lean teams testing corporate setups. Includes basic local account features and standard team access.
• Grow Plan (~€25/month): Tailored for expanding businesses. Features reduced foreign exchange fees, dedicated allowances for fee-free international transfers, and advanced expense approvals.
• Scale Plan (~€100/month): Designed for high-volume corporate operations. Automatically expands fee-free transfer caps and drops foreign exchange markups significantly.
• Enterprise Custom: Bespoke pricing structures built specifically for large-scale institutional entities with massive cross-border or localized payment volumes.

In-Depth Core Features and Crypto Ecosystem Benefits

If you are an entrepreneur or work closely with international clients, crypto projects, digital asset exchanges, or Web3 firms, a corporate setup here offers structural benefits across everyday accounting and advanced blockchain positioning.

Comprehensive Global Infrastructure

• Multi-Currency Engineering: Maintain unique accounts across 25+ distinct currencies, execute payments to over 150 countries globally, and tap into local account details for EUR, GBP, and USD seamlessly.
• Corporate Card Issuance: Set up unlimited corporate virtual cards, deploy employee cards with strict integrated spending limits, utilize instant freeze/unfreeze toggles, and use single-use virtual cards to block online merchant fraud. This is highly optimal for digital marketing budgets across Google Ads, X Ads, and SaaS or AI subscriptions.
• Automated Expense & Integrations: Accelerate compliance by uploading invoices via the mobile app, leveraging automated ledger mapping, and executing rigorous team approval workflows. The platform pairs natively with accounting and automation engines like Xero, QuickBooks, Shopify, Zapier, Slack, and Google Workspace.

Advanced Crypto Integration & Revolut X

For Web3 corporate setups, the platform provides deep asset exposure via direct token procurement (including $Bitcoin, $Ethereum, $Solana, and $XRP). Furthermore, the rollout of Revolut X introduces a dedicated professional-grade crypto exchange built to handle deep liquidity. It utilizes a transparent maker/taker fee architecture (0% maker, 0.09% taker fees) alongside integrated TradingView charting tools, shifting far beyond simple retail app swaps.

MiCA Compliance and Long-Term Stability

The platform prepared ahead of the European Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory deadlines, securing its primary EU crypto operational approval via Cyprus. Looking down the pipeline, its parent organization is actively driving digital ledger innovation, testing a native, asset-backed GBP-denominated stablecoin in real-world environments under the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Regulatory Sandbox framework.

Where the Core Counterweights Lie

• Dedicated Trading Limitations: While Revolut X significantly optimizes corporate trading execution, high-frequency desks or massive on-chain treasury deployments still lean heavily toward dedicated institutional venues like Binance, Bybit, or Kraken.
• Tiered Fee Mechanics: Standard account crypto swap rates carry significant markups. Mitigating these costs requires stepping into premium corporate subscription tiers.
• Localized Regulatory Shifts: Operating corporate crypto frameworks in regions like Germany requires ongoing tracking of local BaFin compliance strategies, though MiCA provides an overall unified European legal ceiling.

The Landscape of Corporate Crypto Banking

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

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

Streamlined Company Registration and Setup

One of the primary advantages of utilizing a digital-first platform is the speed of corporate onboarding. Traditional institutions can take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to finalize a business account setup. Revolut Business slashes this timeline to 24–72 hours through automated photo and video identification systems, allowing new companies to become operational almost immediately.

This agility is particularly beneficial for German structures like the GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) or UG (Unternehmergesellschaft), which traditionally face slow institutional bureaucracy during corporate formation.

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

Alternative Crypto-Friendly Corporate Accounts

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

1. Vivid Money (Vivid Business)

Vivid Money provides highly flexible corporate accounts suitable for modern corporate structures, including companies in formation. Operating under strict European regulatory standards, its business sector fully supports corporate digital asset management. Through its integrated brokerage tools and dedicated "Crypto Earn" feature, corporate entities can trade over 150 digital coins and stake specific corporate crypto balances to earn up to 8% APY passively with complete liquidity.

If you open an account using our referral link, you benefit from:

• €150 if you open a company account
• Free 2 months on any tariff plan
• Up to 4% annual interest rate
• Free visa cards with up to 10% cashback

-> Get Started with Vivid Money here

2. Bankera

Bankera is an explicitly crypto-friendly digital alternative designed specifically for companies dealing with digital assets, crypto brokers, and Web3 projects. Operating via a licensed European Electronic Money Institution (EMI), Bankera provides corporate clients with a dedicated European IBAN, support for SEPA Instant and SWIFT payments, and tailored "Crypto Exchange" corporate pricing models that accept funds sourced from blockchain operations.

3. Deutsche Bank (Institutional Backing)

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

Key Criteria for Selecting a Corporate Bank Account

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

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

How to Get Started with a Crypto-Friendly Account

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

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

To register your business and secure an agile corporate account, you can access the streamlined signup interface directly via the Revolut corporate portal.

Global Stocks Rally While Crypto Sentiment Remains Weak

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

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

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

Altcoins Recover Slightly, but the Crypto Market Lacks Conviction

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

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

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

Why Is the Crypto Market Not Following the Stock Rally?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Altcoins Need for a Real Recovery

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

A real recovery would likely require:

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

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

Crypto Market Outlook: Delayed Rally or Continued Weakness?

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

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

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

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

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

Why AI and Blockchain are the Future of Investment

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

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

Top 3 AI Coins to Consider in 2026

1. Bittensor (TAO): The Decentralized Brain

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

Why TAO is a Strong Contender

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

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

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

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

The Investment Thesis for RENDER

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

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

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

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

The Role of AI in DeXe

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

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

3 AI Coins to Consider in 2026

Crypto Market Crash Continues Across Major Coins

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

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

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

S&P 500 Hits New High While Crypto Falls

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

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

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

Why Bitcoin Is Not Following the Stock Market Rally

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crypto Market Outlook

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

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

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

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

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

Why is Bitcoin Crashing?

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

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

Crypto Crash: Ethereum and XRP Suffer Major Breakdowns

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

Ethereum ($ETH) Slices Below $2,000

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

Ripple ($XRP) Crashes Past Key Supports

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

How Trump is Trying to Salvage the Market

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

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

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

Crypto Analysis: Breaking Down the Crypto Price Dumps

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

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

ETF Outflows and Leverage Flush: $744 Million Wiped Out

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

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

Dimon vowed to fight the passage of the crypto market structure bill until the bitter end.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. has "outright grabbed" roughly $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies from Iran via seizures.

Celsius founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky hopes to have his prison sentence vacated, claiming a legal conflict tied to Sam Bankman-Fried.

Coinbase can offer U.S. customers access to offshore crypto perpetual futures, a risky form of leveraged crypto trading, the CFTC said Friday.

The world's biggest PC maker surged 109% in May after AI revenue hit 38% of quarterly sales. Goldman Sachs more than doubled its target.

A fresh DTCC RWA bridge sparked a 50% XLM decoupling, proving why priced-in March news and spot ETFs aren't enough to lift the heavyweight XRP.

Shiba Inu feeling a relief as exchange flows turn negative ahead of the weekend.

The cryptocurrency market remains under pressure, with most major assets struggling to regain momentum and clinging to key support zones after weeks of sustained weakness.

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has declared that the banking sector will launch an all-out legislative war to block or fundamentally reshape the impending Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has issued a stark warning that the legislative window for passing the highly anticipated Digital Asset Market Clarity Act will likely slam shut until 2030 if Congress fails to act immediately.

TLDR:

• FBI crypto seizure crackdown marks one of the largest crypto forfeitures in US history.
• Authorities tied 127,000 bitcoin seizure to Prince Holding Group CEO Chen Zhi fraud network.
• Operation Blackout dismantled scam compounds across Asia and freed nearly 2,000 trafficked workers.
• IC3 reported 72,000 crypto fraud complaints in 2025 with losses exceeding $7.5 billion total.

The FBI has seized roughly $8 billion in cryptocurrency in a sweeping international crackdown on scam compounds.

Authorities also arrested hundreds of suspects tied to coordinated fraud and money laundering networks. The operation stretched across Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa, targeting organized criminal infrastructure. 

Officials linked the case to one of the largest crypto forfeitures in U.S. enforcement history.

FBI Crypto Seizure Crackdown Targets $8B Scam Compound Networks

The FBI crypto seizure crackdown centered on more than 127,000 bitcoin tied to Chen Zhi, according to Fox News reporting. The assets pushed total recovered crypto to over $8 billion at the time of seizure. 

Valuations may have exceeded $15 billion during earlier market peaks. Officials described the action as a historic asset recovery milestone.

Chen Zhi leads Cambodia-based Prince Holding Group, which authorities accuse of running large-scale fraud operations. Federal charges include wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. 

Investigators allege the network operated guarded compounds targeting global online scam victims. Law enforcement continues expanding related financial probes.

Authorities also linked the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army to scam compound activity in Myanmar. The armed group operates in conflict regions and faces U.S. sanctions for prior fraud involvement. 

Officials classify it as a transnational criminal organization tied to cyber-enabled theft. Investigators flagged its links to broader Chinese organized crime networks.

The seizure forms part of a wider enforcement push against coordinated crypto-enabled fraud systems. Agencies said these networks combine digital scams with forced labor operations. 

Multiple jurisdictions supported asset tracing and crypto wallet identification efforts. The scale of recovered funds highlights the industrial nature of the fraud economy.

Operation Blackout Exposes Global Crypto Fraud and Trafficking Pipelines

Operation Blackout coordinated multiple enforcement actions, including Zephyr Exodus, Sand Dollar, and Haochen. These operations targeted scam compounds operating across Asia and the Middle East. 

Authorities seized additional crypto assets and dismantled recruitment pipelines used by criminal groups. Officials said the campaign disrupted cross-border fraud infrastructure.

The FBI reported freeing nearly 2,000 trafficked workers during coordinated raids on scam facilities. Victims were often recruited under false job promises and then forced into scam operations. 

The Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded about 72,000 fraud complaints in 2025. Reported losses exceeded $7.5 billion, with officials warning of underreporting.

Investigators partnered with Starlink to track terminals used in scam compound communications. The cooperation led to the suspension of more than 7,000 terminals in Myanmar. 

Authorities said criminal groups used satellite links to evade traditional monitoring systems. The disruption weakened multiple active fraud hubs across the region.

Operation Level Up focused on victim identification and fraud prevention across crypto investment schemes. The FBI notified about 8,935 victims who were unknowingly exposed to scams. 

Officials estimated the intervention prevented roughly $562 million in losses. The program aims to reduce exposure to high-volume crypto fraud networks.

The post FBI Crypto Seizure Hits Record $8B in Global Scam Crackdown appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Cash App Investing selected Apex Clearing after an extensive evaluation to support its next phase of growth.
• Apex’s AscendOS platform offers real-time processing, 24×5 trading, and multi-asset class support for users.
• Existing Cash App features like dividend reinvesting and Round Ups remain fully intact under the new partnership.
• The API-first infrastructure gives Cash App the flexibility to roll out new investment products at a faster pace.

Cash App Investing has selected Apex Clearing Corporation as its new clearing provider, marking a key move in its growth strategy. The partnership combines Cash App’s user-focused investing tools with Apex’s AscendOS technology platform.

Cash App Investing serves millions of customers through Block, Inc.’s Cash App, which reports more than 59 million monthly transacting actives. The alliance is designed to support continued scaling and product innovation for everyday investors.

A Technology-Driven Alliance Built for Growth

Apex was chosen following an extensive evaluation process by Cash App Investing. The decision reflects a clear need for real-time, scalable infrastructure.

Apex’s AscendOS platform is built specifically for modern digital investing environments. It supports high-volume, concurrent user activity without sacrificing compliance or security.

Cash App Investing customers will continue using the familiar Cash App interface throughout the transition. The partnership preserves existing features such as dividend reinvesting and the Round Ups tool.

Apex’s infrastructure adds robust security protocols to the experience. These systems are designed to handle real-time processing at significant scale.

Apex CEO Bill Capuzzi spoke directly to the reliability element of the deal. “Real-time technology, reliability that earns trust, and a partner built to support their momentum,” he said.

He added that Cash App has built something remarkable for everyday investors. In his view, the collaboration positions Cash App to continue scaling its platform and user base.

The technology stack also opens access to multiple asset classes for future product development. This broadens the potential roadmap for Cash App Investing going forward.

Both firms went through an extensive evaluation before finalizing the arrangement. The outcome reflects a shared focus on infrastructure that can grow with user demand.

Expanding Capabilities Through AscendOS

Logan Kolar, CEO of Cash App Investing, pointed to the API-first design as a decisive factor. “Apex’s real-time infrastructure and API-first approach give us the flexibility to innovate quickly,” he stated.

He added that the platform ensures customers receive the reliability and protection they expect. The alignment in mission—making investing more accessible—drove the strategic fit between both firms.

AscendOS brings capabilities that extend well beyond standard clearing functions. The platform supports a variety of account types alongside multiple asset classes.

It also enables 24×5 trading, which is increasingly expected in digital investing environments. These features allow Cash App to expand its offerings without building infrastructure from scratch.

The API-first architecture supports rapid feature development cycles across the board. Cash App can roll out new tools without long delays in the development process.

The system also maintains regulatory compliance throughout that process. Speed and security are built to work together rather than compete.

For everyday investors using Cash App, surface-level changes will remain minimal. The core benefit lies in the infrastructure supporting their accounts behind the scenes.

Improved reliability, faster processing, and a wider future product range are the expected outcomes. The partnership sets the stage for what both companies describe as the next chapter of growth.

The post Cash App Investing Partners With Apex Clearing to Scale Its Platform appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• SEC Chair Paul Atkins said he expects the CLARITY Act to pass Congress and become law.
• The bill aims to establish clear rules separating digital commodities from securities.
• Senate Banking Committee approval has moved the CLARITY Act closer to a full vote.
• The framework seeks to keep crypto innovation and investment activity within the United States.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins has expressed confidence that the CLARITY Act will clear Congress and receive President Donald Trump’s signature.

His remarks arrive as crypto market structure legislation gains momentum in Washington, bringing the United States closer to establishing a comprehensive framework for digital assets.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins Sees CLARITY Act Becoming Law

SEC Chair Paul Atkins delivered a strong vote of confidence for the CLARITY Act during a recent interview, signaling growing optimism around crypto legislation in the United States.

According to Atkins, Congress is expected to approve the measure, allowing President Trump to sign it into law and provide a formal legal foundation for digital asset oversight.

Atkins emphasized that regulatory uncertainty has remained one of the largest obstacles facing the crypto industry.

He explained that businesses often struggle to determine which regulations apply to their products, creating unnecessary costs and delays. Without clear rules, many firms have chosen to develop and launch services outside the United States.

The SEC Chair stated that the CLARITY Act would help resolve those concerns by establishing a statutory framework for digital assets.

He noted that regulatory certainty would allow innovators to operate domestically while giving investors greater confidence in the market.

His comments come as the Senate Banking Committee advances the legislation toward a full Senate vote. The bill’s progress marks one of the most important developments for crypto regulation in recent years and reflects increasing support for a structured approach to digital asset oversight.

CLARITY Act Aims to Define Crypto Rules and Strengthen US Leadership

A central objective of the CLARITY Act is to create clear distinctions between digital commodities and securities. The legislation is designed to reduce overlap between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, providing market participants with a more predictable regulatory environment.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also backed efforts to move the bill forward. Supporters argue that the framework would help prevent conflicting interpretations from federal regulators while encouraging blockchain innovation within the United States.

Atkins maintained that America already holds a leading position in global crypto markets but warned that maintaining that advantage requires clear and consistent regulation. He said previous uncertainty pushed innovation offshore and limited opportunities for domestic growth.

The CLARITY Act aligns with President Trump’s broader goal of making the United States a global center for digital asset development.

While additional legislative hurdles remain, the bill’s recent progress has increased expectations that comprehensive crypto market structure reform could soon become a reality.

For the crypto industry, the coming Senate vote now represents one of the most closely watched developments in Washington as lawmakers move toward establishing long-term rules for the digital asset economy.

The post SEC Chair Paul Atkins Predicts CLARITY Act Passage and Trump Approval appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• NEAR market capitalization jumped from $2.7 billion to nearly $3.8 billion within days.
• NEAR Intents has processed over $19 billion in volume across 35+ blockchain networks.
• Chain abstraction technology aims to simplify cross-chain transactions for users and AI agents.
• Protocol revenue surpassed $8 million after the fee switch activation and buyback mechanism.

NEAR Protocol has emerged as one of the week’s strongest crypto narratives after a sharp rise in market capitalization.

The move comes as investors increasingly focus on the network’s AI infrastructure, cross-chain capabilities, and growing adoption of products designed for autonomous digital economies.

NEAR Protocol Gains Momentum as Investors Reassess AI Strategy

NEAR Protocol spent much of the previous market cycle away from the spotlight. While many projects focused on short-term attention, the network concentrated on building infrastructure aimed at long-term adoption.

That strategy is now drawing renewed interest as artificial intelligence becomes a dominant theme across technology and digital assets.

The recent market cap surge reflects that changing perception. During the past seven days, NEAR’s valuation climbed from roughly $2.7 billion to nearly $3.8 billion before stabilizing above previous levels.

More importantly, the network maintained a higher valuation range after the initial rally, indicating continued demand despite market volatility.

At the center of the investment thesis is NEAR’s focus on chain abstraction. Traditional blockchain interactions often require users to manage multiple wallets, bridges, and gas tokens.

NEAR aims to remove those barriers by creating a system where multiple networks operate as a unified environment.

This vision extends beyond human users. As AI agents become more capable of performing economic tasks, blockchain infrastructure must support seamless execution across ecosystems. NEAR’s architecture is increasingly being viewed as a framework designed for that future.

Recent ecosystem commentary has emphasized user-owned AI, confidential inference, and AI-native applications as major areas of development. These initiatives are helping position NEAR Protocol as more than a conventional Layer 1 blockchain.

NEAR Intents Growth Strengthens Ecosystem Fundamentals

A major contributor to the growing attention around NEAR Protocol is the rapid expansion of NEAR Intents. The product allows users to express desired outcomes while network participants handle execution and routing behind the scenes.

According to ecosystem data, Intents has processed more than $19 billion in all-time volume. The platform currently connects liquidity across over 35 blockchains and supports more than 135 assets. This growing reach has expanded its role within decentralized finance infrastructure.

Network activity has also translated into measurable revenue generation. Since the fee switch was activated, NEAR has generated more than $8 million in revenue directed toward token buybacks.

At the same time, confidential transaction volume continues to expand alongside support for emerging asset categories.

The protocol’s economic structure is also evolving. Its token supply is fully unlocked, while a halving-related upgrade reduced maximum annual inflation by 50%.

Combined with increasing network usage, these developments are strengthening the project’s economic foundation.

As a result, investors appear to be evaluating NEAR Protocol through a different lens. The conversation is increasingly centered on whether the network can become critical infrastructure for AI agents operating across the broader digital economy.

The post NEAR Protocol Gains Momentum as Investors Back AI-Powered Blockchain Vision appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Ethereum whale wallets accumulated 17.41 million ETH, representing nearly 22% of the total supply.
• Santiment data showed major holders buying aggressively during Ethereum’s latest market weakness.
• ETH remained below key resistance levels as traders monitored support near the $1,850 zone.
• Analysts projected a potential downside to $1,560 if Ethereum loses its weekly support structure.

Ethereum whale accumulation Santiment data reveals that large wallets reached a nine-week high in ETH holdings.

In the meantime, traders are closely monitoring the critical $1,850 support level for signs of Ethereum’s next directional move.

Whales Quietly Increase ETH Exposure During Market Weakness

Santiment reported that wallets holding at least 100,000 ETH collectively control 17.41 million ETH, marking the highest balance recorded in nearly two months.

The development surfaced while retail sentiment remained cautious across the crypto market. Many short-term traders responded defensively to Ethereum’s declining price structure.

Meanwhile, high-value holders appeared focused on positioning ahead of potential long-term recovery conditions.

Santiment shared the latest on-chain trend through a market update on X, noting that major Ethereum addresses steadily increased holdings during the correction.

The divergence between declining prices and rising whale balances quickly fueled discussions surrounding smart money activity.

Growing concentration among large holders may also tighten exchange liquidity over time. As more ETH shifts into long-term storage wallets, the circulating supply available for immediate selling gradually declines. That setup can increase volatility once broader demand returns to the market.

Institutional players often accumulate during periods of weak sentiment rather than during euphoric rallies. Ethereum’s continued dominance across decentralized finance, stablecoin settlements, tokenization, and smart contract activity may explain why large holders remain confident despite current uncertainty.

Ethereum Price Risks Deeper Correction Below $1,850

Ethereum’s technical structure now sits near a decisive support area that analysts continue monitoring closely. Market participants identified the $1,850 level as a major defensive zone capable of shaping Ethereum’s medium-term direction.

Recent price action reflected persistent weakness across higher timeframes. Ethereum repeatedly failed to reclaim resistance near $2,282 while remaining trapped beneath the 50-week simple moving average. At the same time, tightening volatility conditions signaled the possibility of a sharp directional breakout.

Analysts warned that a confirmed weekly close below $1,850 could accelerate downside pressure rapidly. Once higher-timeframe support zones fail, traders often shift away from aggressive dip-buying strategies and prioritize defensive positioning.

The first downside target currently sits near the $1,560 region, where Ethereum previously established strong support during earlier correction phases. However, sustained bearish momentum could expose ETH to deeper losses toward the $1,070 area over time.

Even with growing technical pressure, on-chain activity continues painting a different picture beneath the surface. Large holders continue to increase exposure during periods of weakness, suggesting sophisticated investors still view current market conditions as a strategic accumulation phase rather than a breakdown in Ethereum’s broader network strength.

The post Ethereum Whale Buying Surges as ETH Tests Critical Support appeared first on Blockonomi.

Ethereum (ETH) briefly plunged below the $2,000 threshold this week for the first time since March 29. While the price has since stabilized and is currently trading near $2,002, it still remains almost 60% below August’s high of nearly $5,000.

But data suggest that ETH’s largest whales are accumulating again

ETH Whales Tighten Grip on Supply

Wallets holding at least 100,000 Ethereum now collectively own 17.41 million ETH, the highest level in nine weeks. These holdings account for 22.03% of Ethereum’s total supply and mark a 10-week high.

The latest findings come after Santiment reported that the asset’s fall below $2,000 triggered a wave of “buy the dip” calls from retail traders. According to the analytics firm, crypto markets typically react to sharp declines in two ways: either fear takes over, and traders begin abandoning the asset, or optimism grows as traders view lower prices as a buying opportunity.

The second reaction appeared to be dominating sentiment around ETH despite the recent weakness, which essentially meant that retail traders were increasingly confident that the decline represented a discounted entry point rather than a warning sign of deeper downside.

However, Santiment warned that excessive optimism from the crowd has historically been a bearish signal, as retail traders often misread market direction during volatile periods. The firm went on to add that a stronger buying opportunity may emerge once the current FOMO fades and sentiment shifts toward panic, which it described as a more typical setup seen near market bottoms.

Downside Targets

Bearish technical signals have not completely disappeared from the market. Crypto analyst Ali Martinez, for one, said Ethereum could see accelerated downside pressure if it records a weekly close below the $1,850 level.

Based on the broader channel structure, Martinez identified two potential downside targets following the rejection. The first target stands around $1,560, which he described as interim structural support, while the second target sits near $1,070, which marks the lower boundary of the crypto asset’s multi-year range.

The post Ethereum’s Largest Wallets Now Control Over 22% of Supply Amid Fresh Accumulation Wave appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Crypto venture capital activity slowed in Q1 2026 following the exceptionally strong pace recorded in Q4 2025, according to a new report from Galaxy Digital.

Venture firms invested roughly $4 billion across 355 crypto and blockchain-focused deals during the quarter, which is a 50% decline in capital invested quarter-over-quarter and a 16% drop in deal count.

VC Market Loses Steam

Despite the pullback, activity remained well above many of the quarterly levels seen during the 2023-2024 market downturn. Galaxy Research found that the decline was driven mainly by the absence of the very large later-stage financings seen in Q4 2025, while smaller seed and early-stage rounds continued to close at a relatively steady pace.

If annualized, Q1’s pace would imply approximately $16 billion invested during 2026, below 2025’s nearly $20 billion total but still stronger than much of the previous two years. The historical relationship between Bitcoin prices and crypto venture investing has weakened compared with earlier cycles in 2017 and 2021. While Bitcoin reached new highs in late 2025, venture activity remained uneven, and both Bitcoin prices and venture funding declined in Q1 2026, though the drop in invested capital was more severe than the decline in deal activity.

Later-stage startups accounted for the majority of funding during the quarter, as this cohort captured roughly 57% of all invested capital, while earlier-stage companies received the remaining 43%. By deal count, however, early-stage activity remained significant, even as the share of pre-seed deals declined to 19% and later-stage transactions rose to one-quarter of completed deals.

Galaxy said that this trend indicates the growing maturity of the crypto industry and the increasing presence of larger, revenue-generating companies.

Meanwhile, median crypto deal sizes also reached new all-time highs above $4.5 million in Q1 2026, even as valuations pulled back slightly from the record levels reached in Q4 2025.

Among the sectors tracked by Galaxy Research, the Trading/Exchange/Investing/Lending category attracted the most venture funding by a wide margin after raising roughly $2.6 billion, or nearly three-fifths of all capital invested during the quarter. The same category also led in deal count with 74 transactions.

Wallet startups ranked second in capital raised with roughly $270 million. Galaxy also found that startups founded in 2018 received the largest amount of capital in Q1 at $1.3 billion, while younger startups founded in 2024 and 2025 dominated overall deal count.

US Leads Crypto Deals

Geographically, the United States continued to dominate crypto venture activity, as it accounted for over 70% of all invested capital and 43.5% of total deals completed during the quarter. Bahrain and Singapore followed the US in capital share, while the United Kingdom ranked second by deal count.

On the fundraising side, investors allocated nearly $1.1 billion to eight new crypto-focused venture funds, the fewest new funds launched in a quarter since Q3 2020.

Galaxy said fundraising conditions remain difficult due to macroeconomic pressures, lingering effects from the 2022-2023 crypto market turmoil, growing institutional interest in artificial intelligence, and competition from spot crypto ETFs and digital asset treasury companies for investor capital.

The post Crypto VC Funding Falls 50% After Massive Q4 2025 Surge: Galaxy appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Global stocks have been making new highs recently, but Bitcoin (BTC), the biggest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization, is trading at almost 42% below its lifetime highs.

This split has left crypto investors searching for answers, especially since the market has lumped the two asset classes together under the “risk-on” label.

Diverging Drivers Between Equities and Bitcoin

According to market researchers at XWIN Japan, the reason for the divergence is simple: stocks and BTC are running on “different engines.”

They noted that equity gains are tied to growth in AI-linked earnings, capital spending from firms like Nvidia, and share buybacks, as well as steady ETF inflows. As such, investors can point to profit growth that is real and visible.

However, Bitcoin does not carry earnings or cash flow, with its price depending on new capital entering the market, which leaves it more exposed to liquidity shifts.

Right now, per XWIN’s assessment, that capital isn’t arriving. Recall that spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded notable outflows during the second half of May, with data from SoSoValue showing that since May 15, the funds have lost more than $3.5 billion. In that time, the biggest outflows were recorded on May 18 ($648.64 million) and May 27 ($733.43 million). There hasn’t been a single green day since the $131.31 million that flowed in on May 14.

XWIN’s analysts also pointed out that in past strong cycles, the price of Bitcoin was often backed by growing user activity. But currently, the asset is increasingly resembling a market where price is elevated while participation is fading. And that, they said, is the key difference.

“Stocks rise because companies generate profits. Bitcoin rises when new liquidity and new participants return,” they explained.

As a result of the above, investors have been allocating more funds to stocks, which they see as “profit growth assets,” while taking away from those that depend on liquidity, including BTC.

And it’s not all talk. As noted by analyst Ash Crypto earlier today, the Nikkei crossed 66,500 for the first time ever on May 29, with Japanese stocks adding about $3.2 trillion this year alone. The story was the same in Korea, whose KOSPI also hit a new all-time high, adding 150 trillion won to its total market value.

What Bitcoin Needs

As the Nikkei and KOSPI shone, Bitcoin yesterday crashed to about $72,600 per CoinGecko data, with market watchers suggesting it may have been affected by the resumption in hostilities between the USA and Iran, as well as someone offloading a huge $1.3 billion position in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT.

The flagship crypto has since dragged itself back above $73,000, but that’s hardly impressive, considering that it had been trading close to $78,000 at some point in the last seven days. The current price also represents a drop of more than 4% in the past month, as well as a nearly 32% decline year-on-year.

To turn things around, XWIN’s analysts stated that Bitcoin needs stronger ETF flows, a rise in its on-chain activity, and improvement in the Coinbase Premium. They also believe that a weaker dollar could help bring about a more sustained revival for the cryptocurrency.

The post Why Bitcoin Is Falling Behind Record-Breaking Stocks appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Market Data

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

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

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charts

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

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

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

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

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

Bitcoin Options Expiry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spot Market Outlook

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

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

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

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

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