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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says his firm will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit.

“We are always looking at M&A opportunities,” said Armstrong on Bloomberg Television on May 14.

He added that the firm has a large balance sheet that can be put to use.

The firm revealed in its latest revenue report that its balance sheet has strengthened, ending the first quarter with $9.9 billion in US dollar resources.

“Part of the benefit of being a public company is, you have a liquid currency to do that,” he said, adding: “We are looking at acquisition opportunities; doesn’t mean we swing at every pitch. We want it to be the right opportunity.”

European law enforcement in January arrested 17 suspects of a “mafia crypto bank” who are said to have laundered over 21 million euros ($23.5 million) in crypto for criminal entities in China and the Middle East.

The money laundering services were allegedly carried out on behalf of other criminal networks engaged in migrant smuggling and drug trafficking, Europol said in a May 14 statement.

Spanish authorities said the criminal organization ran a secret informal money transfer system called hawala and was often compensated in crypto.

A total of 17 individuals were arrested — 15 in Spain, one in Austria and one in Belgium — while 4.5 million euros ($5 million) worth of items were seized, including cash, crypto, 18 vehicles, four shotguns and several electronic devices.

Of the 4.5 million euros, 183,000 euros ($205,000) came as crypto. Another 421,000 euros ($471,000) in cash was seized from 77 bank accounts tied to the criminal organization, which one Spanish news outlet described as a “mafia crypto bank.”

US Democrat lawmakers have sent a letter to the US Treasury demanding access to suspicious activity reports (SARs) on several Trump-backed crypto projects as part of the latest probe into the president’s digital ventures. 

Penned by representatives Gerald Connolly, Joseph Morelle, and Jamie Raskin, the May 14 letter asks Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for all SARS filed since 2023 related to World Liberty Financial (WLF) and the Official Trump (TRUMP) token. 

Financial institutions in the US must file SARs with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau within the Department of the Treasury, when they detect suspicious activity, including potential money laundering or fraud. 

Source: Oversight Committee Democrats

The sweeping probe asks for any SARs mentioning WinRed, America PAC, Elon Musk, political action committee, PAC, Trump, World Liberty Financial, WLF, TRUMP, MELANIA and Justin Sun, no later than May 30. 

The Democratic lawmakers say their probe is to “determine whether legislation is necessary to prevent violations of campaign finance, consumer protection, bribery, securities fraud, and other anti-corruption laws” and to guard against “financial misconduct connected to prospective or current federal officials.” 

Update (May 15, 2:12 am UTC): This article has been updated to add a comment from eToro Australia’s Robert Francis.

Crypto and stock trading platform eToro has seen its share price gain nearly 30% during its debut on the Nasdaq after the company made a last-minute boost to its initial public offering.

Shares in eToro Group Ltd (ETOR) closed May 14 trading at $67, up 28.9% from its initial offering price of $52, according to Yahoo Finance. It brings the company’s market value to over $5.5 billion.

Its stock price shot to a high of $74.26 during the trading day before cooling and has also slightly dipped by 0.7% after the bell to $66.53.

EToro shares shot up and then traded sideways on the company’s debut US offering. Source: Yahoo Finance

The day before, on May 13, eToro boosted its IPO to $620 million after pricing its shares above its previously suggested range of between $46 to $50 each. 

Too many crypto startups are pricing themselves out of venture capital funding by chasing valuations far exceeding their revenues, according to Dan Tapeiro, the CEO of crypto-focused venture capital firm 10T Holdings.

“For some reason, founders and CEOs think that they should be raising capital at 50 to 80 times revenue. So that makes it very hard for us to make a return for our liquidity providers,” Tapeiro said while speaking in a panel discussion at the Consensus conference in Toronto on May 14.

“So a lot of those deals we just pass almost automatically, even businesses that we really like, we won't invest in if the price isn't reasonable in the beginning.”

10T Holdings has passed on over 200 companies for similar reasons, including the now-bankrupt FTX, BlockFi and Celsius, Tapeiro said. 

Tapeiro said 10T Holdings looks for crypto projects that have valuations above the $400 million to $500 million range with a valuation-to-revenue ratio of 10x or less.

Host of Crypto In America Eleanor Terrett (left) moderating a discussion with Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead (middle) and Dan Tapeiro (right) at the Consensus conference. Source: Cointelegraph

VCs often prefer lower valuations because they offer more upside potential with less risk.

Key takeaways:

Google search data and app rankings show retail Bitcoin investor demand near 6-month lows.

Retail investor interest typically peaks 1 week after BTC breaks all-time highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) retail traders are known for entering the market during periods of euphoria, typically after strong monthly gains or a new all-time high. This time is no different, with Bitcoin approaching $104,000 on May 14 while general public interest and retail activity continue to lag.

Analysts estimate that in 2025, retail investors were the largest net sellers of BTC, while institutions were the main buyers. But if historical patterns hold, a surge in retail appetite is likely to occur about one week after Bitcoin surpasses the $109,350 mark.

Key Takeaways:

Dogecoin's active addresses surged 528% to 469,477.

DOGE’s futures open interest rose 70% to $1.65 billion, indicating strong speculative interest.

On May 13, Dogecoin (DOGE) witnessed a staggering 528% increase in active addresses, soaring from 74,640 to 469,477, signaling robust network activity and growing investor interest. This surge followed an update to 21Shares’ filing for a spot Dogecoin ETF, receiving acknowledgement from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The financial services firm confirmed the development on X on May 14.

Dogecoin active addresses. Source: Glassnode

The filing, which aims to track DOGE’s price, aligns with similar efforts by Bitwise and Grayscale, hinting at potential mainstream adoption. This news fueled market optimism, leading to a rise in the memecoin’s network activity. 

Key takeaways:

A longer-term ETH price rally is dependent on SEC approval of in-kind ETF creation and staking to attract more investors.

AI adoption and Ethereum layer-2 growth must drive onchain activity to restore the network’s deflationary burn mechanism.

Ether (ETH) surged 43.6% between May 7 and May 14, but its current price of $2,600 still falls short of the 2021 peak of $4,868. Some analysts argue that the current bullish momentum is “just the beginning of a much larger and aggressive uptrend,” raising the likelihood of a near-term rally to $5,000.

However, the catalysts for a new ETH all-time high in 2025 remain uncertain, particularly in the face of intensifying competition.

The Ethereum Foundation has launched a security initiative aimed at supporting the broader adoption of onchain technologies, according to a May 14 announcement. The effort is part of an ongoing push to strengthen Ethereum's role in programmable digital assets.

Fredrik Svantes, a protocol security research lead, and Josh Stark from the Ethereum Foundation management team will be the initial co-chairs of the initiative. Three contributors to the Ethereum ecosystem — samczsun, Medhi Zerouali, and Zach Obront — will help guide the project.

Called the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative, the effort seeks to analyze, improve, and communicate to Ethereum developers areas where security can be improved, including user experience, wallet security, smart contract security and infrastructure.

According to DefiLlama, Ethereum still is the leading ecosystem for decentralized finance (DeFi), having held between 50-60% of the total value locked across all blockchains since May 2022. The network's TVL stands at nearly $80 billion as of May 14.

Blockchains by total-value-locked. Source: DefiLlama

“Achieving Trillion Dollar Security is only possible with the support of the broad Ethereum ecosystem,” the Foundation said in a statement. “Billions of individuals are each comfortable storing more than $1,000 onchain, collectively amounting to trillions of dollars secured on Ethereum," it added.

Bitfarms clocked a first-quarter net loss of $36 million, widening from a $6 million loss in the same period a year earlier, as the Bitcoin miner pivots from mining to high-performance computing for artificial intelligence applications. 

The miner posted $67 million in sales for the quarter ended March 31, up 33% from the year prior. However, gross profit margin for Bitfarm’s mining operations declined to 43% from 63% year-over-year, the company said in its first quarter earnings release. 

The lower margins reflect pressure from Bitcoin’s (BTC) April 2024 “halving” as well as volatility in Bitcoin’s price. Halvings occur every four years and cut the number of BTC mined per block in half, reducing Bitcoin miners’ profitability. 

In the first quarter of 2025, Bitcoin’s spot price swung from more than $100,000 in January to less than $80,000 in March, according to data from Google Finance. The cryptocurrency trades at more than $103,000 per coin as of March 14. 

Bitfarms’ quarterly operating performance. Source: Bitfarms

Related: Bitcoin mining stocks down after Microsoft scraps data center plans

Adrienne Harris, the head of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), said New York has an “outsized role to play” in the crypto ecosystem, particularly in shaping regulatory frameworks for digital assets.

During a panel on May 14 at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, she said the NY estate is frequently asked to provide guidance on regulators. “With respect to federal regulation and legislation [...] members of Congress are often coming to us [NYDFS] asking about our process, about our regulations, about guidance, how they should be thinking about legislation,” Harris said.

Interview with Adrienne Harris (pictured left). Source: Cointelegraph

According to Harris, the NYDFS was “unnecessarily tough” and lacked resources in the past. Now, under her purview, she said the NYDFS is “tough but fair,” noting that the digital currency oversight team has since doubled in size.

Harris took over as superintendent of the NYDFS in September 2021 after spending time working in the educational, nonprofit, and private sectors. In New York State, crypto businesses must either obtain a BitLicense or a limited-purpose trust charter.

“We've added nine pieces of regulatory guidance, so it's still very tough to get a BitLicense or a limited-purpose trust charter,” Harris said. “But I think [...] the proof is in the pudding when you see that FTX, Voyager, Celsius, didn't pass our test and therefore couldn't do business.”

Crypto founders headed to Washington, DC, to meet with lawmakers ahead of another expected vote on a stablecoin bill that initially failed in the Senate, according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

In a May 14 X post from the US Capitol rotunda, Armstrong said as many as “60 [crypto] founders” had gathered in DC to support the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, being considered in the Senate and a draft of the market structure bill moving through the House of Representatives.

The Coinbase CEO said the Senate could consider another vote on the GENIUS Act “hopefully tomorrow” after it failed to get enough support from Democrats on May 8.

“Like any good negotiation, there’s a lot of details to work out at the last minute, but we’ve been stressing the urgency of this,” said Armstrong.

Coinbase CEO in Washington, DC on May 14. Source: Brian Armstrong

Many Democratic lawmakers have said they will not support any crypto-related legislation without a specific carve-out for US President Donald Trump profiting from his digital asset ventures, such as his TRUMP memecoin and his family-backed company World Liberty Financial. A Democratic staffer told Cointelegraph that there had been no indication that Republicans intended to address these concerns, while a person familiar with the matter said doing so would be unconstitutional.

VanEck has launched a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to invest in stocks and financial instruments offering exposure to the digital economy, the asset manager said on May 14.

The VanEck Onchain Economy ETF (NODE) is listed on the Cboe exchange and aims to provide investors with broad exposure to companies operating in the blockchain ecosystem, including crypto miners, exchanges, infrastructure providers, and crypto-oriented financial technology platforms, VanEck said in a press release. 

The NODE ETF will also “consider any company that has clearly communicated plans to engage in this space, as evidenced through public filings, earnings calls or investor materials,” VanEck said.

Additionally, the fund, which will be actively managed, may also invest in crypto-related financial instruments but will not hold any cryptocurrencies directly, according to the press release. 

“As new companies enter the universe through IPOs, spinouts or strategy shifts, we will continuously update our investable universe,” Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital asset research and the NODE ETF’s portfolio manager, said in a statement. 

Key points:

Bitcoin remains above $100,000, but buyers are struggling to sustain prices above $105,000.

Strong altcoin performances suggest an altseason has started.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading above $103,000, with buyers attempting to drive the price to the all-time high of $109,588. Research firm Santiment said in a post on X that Bitcoin whales and sharks, holding 10 to 10,000 Bitcoin, accumulated 83,105 Bitcoin in the past 30 days, suggesting that “it may be a matter of time” before Bitcoin's all-time high is taken out.

Along with Bitcoin, analysts are also gradually turning positive on altcoins. A host of factors, such as falling Bitcoin and USDT dominance and a rally in select altcoins, suggest that an altcoin season may be around the corner.

Zerebro developer Jeffy Yu has been found alive at his parents’ home in San Francisco, days after faking his suicide on a livestream that launched a supposed posthumous memecoin past $100 million.

Yu’s case isn’t the first time crypto has blurred the line between real death, faked death and something in between. 

From missing founders to sealed caskets, the industry has a long history of exits that left behind more questions than closure.

Here are five unsettling cases — real, staged or unresolved — that continue to haunt the crypto world.

1. Jeffy Yu faked his death, then his crypto pumped

A clip of Yu broadcasting his “suicide” circulated on May 4. The video showed him smoking a cigarette before pulling the trigger, then the camera dropped.

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin’s realized cap has grown by $30 billion since April 20, reflecting steady investor confidence and new capital inflows.

A Bitcoin price consolidation pattern forecasts a potential 10% breakout by next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to show strong bullish momentum as fresh capital inflows signal potential new price highs in the coming week. In an X post, Glassnode reported that Bitcoin’s Realized Cap, which measures the total value of BTC based on the price at which each coin last moved, grew by $30 billion since April 20, growing at a 3% monthly rate in May. The current realized cap is $900 billion.

Bitcoin Realize cap. Source: Glassnode

Though slower than the 8% spike in late 2024 when BTC hit $93,000, this growth reflects steady investor confidence and new capital entering the market.

Tanim Rasul, chief operating officer at Canadian crypto exchange NDAX, said Canada “got it wrong” categorizing stablecoins as securities in 2022, and the country needs to realize that every other regulatory regime is looking at stablecoins as payment instruments.

Rasul made the remarks during a panel on May 13 at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, pointing to Europe's crypto regulatory framework as a model for Canada to consider:

“I’m sure the regulators are wondering if this was the right choice to approach stablecoins as a security. […] I would just say, look at MiCA, look at the way they’re approaching stablecoins. It’s a payment instrument. It should be regulated as such.”

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) classified stablecoins as “securities and/or derivatives” in December 2022, following “recent events in the crypto market,” such as the dramatic collapse of crypto exchange FTX just a month before.

Related: What Canada’s new Liberal PM Mark Carney means for crypto

Canadian Web3 Regulation panel at Blockchain Futurist Conference. Source: Cointelegraph

The agency elaborated on stablecoin rules in February and October of 2023, placing such tokens under the umbrella of “value-referenced crypto assets.”

Key points:

Bitcoin continues to range around $103,000 as bulls struggle to keep upside momentum going.

Traders favor short-term BTC price gains eventually returning, while overall faith in the bull market varies.

Fed rate cuts seem increasingly far off despite encouraging inflation data.

Bitcoin (BTC) hugged familiar territory around the May 14 Wall Street open as traders awaited fresh US macro cues.

Update (May 14 at 6:58 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from the Blockchain Association.

Summer Mersinger, one of four commissioners currently serving at the US financial regulatory body Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will become the next CEO of the digital asset advocacy group the Blockchain Association (BA). 

In a May 14 notice, the Blockchain Association said its current CEO, Kristin Smith, would step down for Mersinger on May 16, allowing an interim head of the group to work until the CFTC commissioner assumes the role on June 2. Though her term at the CFTC was expected to last until April 2028, the BA said Mersinger is set to leave the agency on May 30.

The departure of Mersinger, who has served in one of the CFTC’s Republican seats since 2022, opens the way for US President Donald Trump to nominate another member to the financial regulator. Rules require that no more than three commissioners belong to the same political party. 

Like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the CFTC is one of the significant US financial regulators whose policies impact digital assets. Lawmakers in Congress are currently working to pass a market structure bill to clarify the roles each agency could take in overseeing and regulating crypto.

Opinion by: Mike Cahill, co-founder and CEO of Douro Labs

Despite the institutional frenzy around crypto and the ubiquitous narrative of democratized access to investing, most of the world population is still barred from traditional wealth-building. 

Take the US, for example — here, the top 10% of earners own more than 90% of all stocks. On a global scale, it gets even worse: Billions of individuals don’t have the financial literacy, digital tools or minimum funds required to even access the most basic investment opportunities. 

Traditional institutions must do more than just invest in crypto to ameliorate this disparity — they must start employing digital assets for new use cases altogether. 

The facet of TradFi that is most ripe for disruption is equities. Investing in shares of private companies is an opportunity historically reserved only for the wealthy and hyper-connected. It is often siloed within the most economically advanced nations. Enhancing access to equities worldwide can be achieved, however, by injecting decentralized technology into three fundamental components of our financial system: price, execution and settlement.

The French interior minister reportedly plans to meet cryptocurrency professionals in the aftermath of a violent kidnapping attempt on the family of a crypto exchange executive in Paris.

According to a May 14 France24 report, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has invited crypto professionals to meet him after a brazen attempt to kidnap the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium.

”I will assemble businesspeople working in cryptocurrencies, and we have a few of those in France, at the interior ministry to work with them on their security,” Retailleau reportedly told the Europe 1/CNews broadcaster.

On May 13, three masked men attacked Noizat’s daughter while she was walking in Paris’ 11th district with a man and her son. The attackers tried to force Noizat’s daughter and her son into a white van.

Related: Teens kidnap Las Vegas man at gunpoint, stealing $4M in crypto

Passersby intervened, with one scaring the assailants while brandishing a fire extinguisher before throwing it at them as they fled. The event is now being investigated by local authorities, with the vehicle used being found abandoned nearby on the same day.

Key takeaways:

Ethereum’s market dominance has hit overbought RSI levels not seen since May 2021, historically followed by major pullbacks.

ETH/USD is showing a bearish divergence on the four-hour chart, hinting at a potential 10–15% price correction.

Despite the near-term risks, some analysts view a pullback as a “buy-the-dip” setup before a possible move toward $3,500–$3,800.

Ether (ETH) has surged over 50% month-to-date in May, vastly outperforming the broader crypto market’s 15.25% gain. The rally has pushed Ethereum’s market dominance (ETH.D) toward the critical 10% threshold for the first time since March.

South Korea could soon follow Hong Kong in legalizing spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as the country’s top presidential candidates have expressed pro-crypto positions.

Still, some industry observers remain cautious about the likelihood of near-term regulatory change.

“All three major South Korean presidential candidates support #Bitcoin ETFs and institutional investment,” Ki Young Ju, the founder and CEO of onchain data platform CryptoQuant, wrote in a May 14 X post.

Currently, Bitcoin ETFs and institutional crypto investments are banned in South Korea, meaning that “100% [of the] volume comes from retail,” Ju added.

From left: Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, People Power Party presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo and New Reform Party presidential candidate Lee Jun-seok. Source: Ki Young Ju

Related: Bitcoin more of a ‘diversifier’ than safe-haven asset: Report

An artificial intelligence training image data set developed by decentralized AI solution provider OORT has seen considerable success on Google’s platform Kaggle.

OORT’s Diverse Tools Kaggle data set listing was released in early April; since then, it has climbed to the first page in multiple categories. Kaggle is a Google-owned online platform for data science and machine learning competitions, learning and collaboration.

Ramkumar Subramaniam, core contributor at crypto AI project OpenLedger, told Cointelegraph that “a front-page Kaggle ranking is a strong social signal, indicating that the data set is engaging the right communities of data scientists, machine learning engineers and practitioners.“

Max Li, founder and CEO of OORT, told Cointelegraph that the firm “observed promising engagement metrics that validate the early demand and relevance” of its training data gathered through a decentralized model. He added:

“The organic interest from the community, including active usage and contributions — demonstrates how decentralized, community-driven data pipelines like OORT’s can achieve rapid distribution and engagement without relying on centralized intermediaries.“

Li also said that OORT plans to release multiple data sets in the coming months. Among those is an in-car voice commands data set, one for smart home voice commands and another for deepfake videos meant to improve AI-powered media verification.

Bitcoin’s fluctuating correlation with US equities is raising questions about its role as a global safe-haven asset during periods of financial stress.

Bitcoin (BTC) exhibited a strong negative correlation with the US stock market when analyzing the short-term, seven-day trailing correlation, according to new research from blockchain data provider RedStone Oracles, shared exclusively with Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin, S&P 500, 7-day rolling correlation. Source: Redstone Oracles

However, RedStone said that the 30-day indicator signals a “variable correlation” between Bitcoin price and the S&P 500 index, with the correlation coefficient ranging from -0.2 to 0.4.

This fluctuating correlation suggests that Bitcoin “doesn’t consistently function as a true hedge for equities” due to its lack of a strong negative correlation below -0.3, which is needed for “reliable counter movement during market stress,” the report said.

Bitcoin, S&P 500, 30-day rolling correlation, 1-year chart. Source: Redstone Oracles

Related: $1B Bitcoin exits Coinbase in a day as analysts warn of supply shock

Key takeaways

Fake crypto investment platforms give themselves away in a few obvious ways.

Many use fake reviews, incorrect contact information and unrealistic promises to lure you in.

The best approach is a healthy dose of skepticism. Watching for these red flags will keep you safe while investing.

The burgeoning cryptocurrency market, with its lack of centralized authority and a constant flow of inexperienced users, makes digital assets a prime target for scammers. Fake crypto investment platforms are a common scam method, masquerading as useful services for crypto traders.

Before signing up for any crypto investment platform, it’s essential to learn the telltale signs of a scam. 

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, may become the top publicly traded equity one day, according to a Strategy analyst.

Strategy will be the “number one publicly traded equity in the entire market” because of its future financial strength enabled with Bitcoin (BTC), Strategy analyst Jeff Walton predicted in the new Financial Times documentary, Michael Saylor’s $40 billion Bitcoin bet.

The company currently holds about 568,840 Bitcoin, worth roughly $59 billion, and Walton said that advantage could push it past all other publicly listed firms in the future.

“Strategy holds more of the best assets and the most pristine collateral on the entire planet than any other company, by multiples,” Walton said.

Strategy raised $12 billion in 50 days

The analyst pointed to the firm’s ability to rapidly raise capital as another indicator of its strength. In November 2024, Strategy raised $12 billion in just 50 days.

Kazakhstan has the potential to become a leading crypto hub in Central Asia if regulatory restrictions are eased, according to Kanysh Tuleushin, the country’s first vice minister of digital development, innovation and aerospace industry.

In a recent op-ed for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper, Tuleushin said digital mining and smart policy shifts could position Kazakhstan as a regional leader in blockchain innovation.

“If all restrictions were lifted and digital asset trading was allowed across Kazakhstan, the impact could be significant,” he wrote.  

“Kazakhstan might become Central Asia’s crypto hub,” Tuleushin added, suggesting that broader legalization and taxation could add hundreds of billions of the country’s tenge currency to the national budget.

He called for nationwide crypto rules, transparent exchanges and legal crypto ATMs.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back its decision on a proposed spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the cryptocurrency industry now looking to the deadlines for the Polkadot and XRP-based ETFs in June.

The SEC pushed its decision on listing Grayscale’s spot Solana (SOL) Trust ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to October 2025, according to a May 13 filing by the securities regulator.

Delay on Grayscale’s Solana ETF. Source: SEC

The decision came the week after the SEC delayed its ruling on Canary Capital’s Litecoin (LTC) ETF, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart wrote in a May 5 X post.

Source: James Seyffart

Spot ETFs are viewed as key drivers of liquidity and institutional adoption for digital assets. For Bitcoin (BTC), the US spot Bitcoin ETFs accounted for an estimated 75% of new investment after launching, which helped BTC recapture the $50,000 mark in February 2024, a month after the ETFs debuted for trading.

While a Solana ETF may generate only a fraction of the inflows of Bitcoin ETFs, it could increase Solana’s institutional adoption in the long term by offering investors a “regulated investment vehicle” that may still attract billions of dollars in capital, Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, told Cointelegraph.

High-net-worth clients across Asia are gradually pivoting away from US dollar-based investments, favoring gold, cryptocurrencies and Chinese assets instead, according to financial services giant UBS Group.

“Gold is getting very popular,” Amy Lo, the Swiss bank’s co-head of wealth management for Asia, said during Bloomberg’s New Voices event held in Hong Kong on May 13.

She cited rising geopolitical uncertainty and persistent market volatility as primary factors behind the shift. Investors, traditionally concentrated in US-centric assets, are now seeking broader exposure across alternative asset classes, including crypto, commodities and other currencies.

Lo said “volatility is definitely here to stay,” prompting clients to rebalance toward perceived safe havens and growth opportunities in new regions.

China, after years of muted interest, is also regaining traction among the ultra-wealthy. Lo noted that clients who previously avoided exposure to China are now proactively asking about investment opportunities.