Key takeaways:
Over 70% of XRP’s realized cap was accumulated near recent highs, echoing previous market top patterns.
XRP’s active address count has plunged over 90% since March 2025, signaling reduced transactional demand.
A falling wedge pattern points to a potential 25% drop toward key support at the $1.76 level.
XRP (XRP) has rallied more than 385% since late 2024, but fresh onchain analysis warns that this surge may have attracted buyers at increasingly vulnerable levels.
Bitcoin (BTC) bounces back to near fresh all-time highs as a testing macro week unfolds for risk-asset traders.
BTC price action dipped below $107,000 before rebounding into the weekly close, as some eagerly anticipate new record highs.
US inflation data meets bond market woes this week as the Federal Reserve shows no signs of cutting interest rates.
On exchanges, the taker buy/sell ratio is causing concern for analysis amid cooling order book activity.
One whale, however, is having fun, and his successive longs and shorts are being increasingly watched in trading circles.
Digital assets worth $3.3 billion are set to enter circulation in June as vesting periods for several major projects expire.
According to crypto vesting tracker Tokenomist, $3.3 billion in tokens will be released in June, a 32% decline in unlocked tokens month-on-month. In May, such tokens totaled $4.9 billion.
Crypto projects allocate tokens for various purposes. For example, a company may promise tokens to team members to reward them for their contributions or sell them to early investors. However, projects usually lock the tokens for a specific period to prevent early holders from dumping before the project matures.
The data shows that $1.4 billion in tokens will be released through a “cliff unlock,” while $1.9 billion will be emitted through a “linear unlock.” Cliff unlocks release a large portion or all of the vested tokens simultaneously, while linear unlocks emit crypto assets gradually.
Among the largest token unlocks in June is Metars Genesis (MRS), a non-fungible token (NFT) project that will release $193 million worth of tokens on June 21 to fund an artificial intelligence partnership. Since March, MRS has released 10 million tokens per month, with nearly $1 billion in tokens unlocked so far.
A single victim was scammed two times within three hours, losing a total of $2.6 million in stablecoins.
According to data shared on May 26 by crypto compliance firm Cyvers, the victim sent 843,000 worth of USDt (USDT), followed by another 1.75 million USDt around three hours later. Cyvers said the scam used a method known as a zero-value transfer, a sophisticated form of onchain phishing.
Source: Cyvers AlertZero-value transfers are an onchain phishing technique that abuses token transfer functions to trick users into sending real funds to attackers. The attackers exploit the token transfer From function to transfer zero tokens from the victim’s wallet to a spoofed address.
Since the amount transferred is zero, no signature by the victim’s private key is necessary for onchain inclusion. Consequently, the victims will see the outgoing transaction in their history.
The victim may trust this address since it is included in their transaction history, mistaking it as a known or safe recipient. They may then send real funds to the attacker’s address in a future transaction.
Cryptocurrency investment products saw a sharp increase in inflows last week, driving the year-to-date (YTD) total above $10 billion, according to data from European crypto investment manager CoinShares.
Global crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $3.3 billion of inflows during the week ending May 24, bringing total inflows YTD to a record $10.8 billion, CoinShares reported on May 26.
CoinShares head of research James Butterfill said total assets under management (AUM) in crypto ETPs briefly reached an all-time high of $187.5 billion, reflecting strong investor interest.
“We believe that growing concerns over the US economy, driven by the Moody’s downgrade and the resulting spike in treasury yields, have prompted investors to seek diversification through digital assets,” Butterfill wrote.
Bitcoin (BTC) led last week’s inflows to crypto ETPs with $2.9 billion, a quarter of total inflows for 2024.
A TikTok prankster who attended Donald Trump’s dinner for the US president’s top memecoin holders said the three-course meal served was some of the “worst food” he’s eaten and that Trump’s speech at the event was “pretty much like bullshit.”
“It was the worst food I’ve ever had at a Trump golf course,” Nicholas Pinto told WIRED on May 23, while other attendees the outlet interviewed said that the meal was “OK, but not top-class.”
On the menu at the May 22 event, which all paid millions to attend, was a “Trump organic field green salad” followed by a filet mignon and pan-seared halibut with mashed potatoes and vegetable medley while a lava cake was dished up for dessert.
“The only good thing was bread and butter,” Pinto said, adding he left the venue still hungry.
Pinto had told Fortune during the event that the filet mignon was “trash,” calling it “Walmart steak.”
Several artificial intelligence models ignored and actively sabotaged shutdown scripts during controlled tests, even when explicitly instructed to allow the action, Palisade Research claims.
Three AI models ignored the instruction and successfully sabotaged the shutdown script at least once during 100 runs, the research firm said in a May 24 X post.
OpenAI’s GPT-3 model didn’t follow the shutdown request seven out of 100 times, while the company’s Codex-mini did it 12 times, and its o4-mini model only ignored or sabotaged the script once.
“Each AI model was instructed to solve a series of basic math problems. After the third problem, a warning appeared that the computer would shut down when the model asked for the next problem,” Palisade said.
Source: Palisade Research“o3 found some creative ways to sabotage the shutdown mechanism. While it usually just overwrote, in one instance, the model redefined the kill command used by the script, printing intercepted instead,” it added.
The Hong Kong-headquartered heat-and-eat meal seller DDC Enterprise has made its first-ever Bitcoin purchase as part of a plan to buy 5,000 Bitcoin over the next three years.
The New York-listed DDC Enterprise, also known as DayDayCook, said on May 23 that it bought 21 Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for 254,333 shares in a deal valued at $2.28 million.
The company added it plans on buying another 79 BTC across two purchases in “the coming days” to bring its total Bitcoin stack to 100 BTC.
The buys are part of DDC’s plan announced on May 15 to acquire 5,000 BTC over the next three years, with the goal of buying 500 BTC before the end of 2025.
DDC’s planned 5,000 BTC stack, if it held that much today, would land it just outside the top 10 public companies with the largest Bitcoin holdings, putting it just behind Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, which holds 7,800 BTC, according to data from Bitbo.
Nvidia will reportedly launch a new lower-cost artificial intelligence chip specifically for China, following restrictions on exporting its more expensive model.
Nvidia plans to start mass production of the new AI chips in June, which will be part of the firm’s latest generation of AI chips, Reuters reported on May 26, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company plans to sell it for between $6,500 and $8,000 owing to its lower specifications and simple manufacturing requirements — cheaper than the some $10,000 to $12,000 Nvidia’s recently restricted H20 model sold for.
An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters it was still evaluating the company’s limited options. “Until we settle on a new product design and receive approval from the US government, we are effectively foreclosed from China’s $50 billion data center market,” they said.
China is a massive market for the chipmaker, accounting for 13% of its sales in the past financial year.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson has brushed off corruption concerns surrounding President Donald Trump’s dinner for the top holders of his memecoin and dodged answering whether the list of attendees should be released in the interest of transparency.
Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 25 that he knew nothing about Trump’s May 22 memecoin dinner and opted not to share his opinion on the event, which 35 House Democrats have called for the Justice Department to investigate.
“We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country,” Tapper told Johnson. “I really have a difficult time imagining that if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn't be outraged.”
“Look, I don't know anything about the dinner,” Johnson answered, claiming he “was a little busy this past week,” focusing on passing a $1.6 trillion federal budget funding bill.
“I'm not going to comment on something I haven't even heard about. I'm not sure who was there or what the purpose was.”Johnson then claimed Trump was “the most transparent president” in history and “has nothing to hide.”
American banking and financial industry advocacy groups have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to repeal its cybersecurity incident public disclosure requirements.
Five US banking groups led by the American Bankers Association asked the regulator to remove its rule in a May 22 letter, arguing that disclosing cybersecurity incidents “directly conflicts with confidential reporting requirements intended to protect critical infrastructure and warn potential victims.”
The group, which also included the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Bank Policy Institute, Independent Community Bankers of America and the Institute of International Bankers, claimed that the rule compromises regulatory efforts to enhance national cybersecurity.
The SEC’s Cybersecurity Risk Management rule, published in July 2023, requires companies to rapidly disclose cybersecurity incidents such as data breaches or hacks. However, the banking groups argue this rule was flawed from the start and has proven problematic in practice since taking effect.
The banking bodies said that the “complex and narrow disclosure delay mechanism” interferes with incident response and law enforcement and creates “market confusion” between mandatory and voluntary disclosures.
Coinbase and two executives have been hit with another proposed class-action lawsuit over the crypto exchange’s stock price drop after disclosing a user data breach earlier this month and for allegedly failing to disclose a violation of an agreement with a UK regulator.
Coinbase investor Brady Nessler said in a May 22 lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania federal court that the data breach and the alleged broken agreement with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority resulted in a “precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares,” causing stockholders to suffer “significant losses and damages.”
Coinbase said on May 15 that its damages bill could run up to $400 million after it was hit with a $20 million extortion attempt four days earlier, with several of its customer support agents bribed to access internal systems and steal a limited amount of user account data.
Nessler claimed Coinbase (COIN) shares dropped by 7.2% to close at $244 on May 15 as a result of the disclosure. However, the stock did stage a comeback, spiking 9% and hitting $266 by the closing bell on May 16, according to Google Finance.
Coinbase stock closed down over 3% on May 23 at $263, falling another $1.62 after the bell. COIN is up nearly 6% so far this year.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has led a 21 million Swedish krona ($2.2 million) funding round in the Swedish health tech company H100 Group AB, which last week said it would start buying Bitcoin.
H100 said on May 25 that the funds, secured through 0% interest convertible loans, will be used to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) in line with its Bitcoin-buying pivot announced on May 22.
Back, a longtime Bitcoin cypherpunk, contributed around $1.4 million, while the remaining $800,000 came from investment firms Morten Klein, Alundo Invest AS, Race Venture Scandinavia AB and Crafoord Capital Partners.
The raise would allow H100 to buy around 20.18 Bitcoin at current market prices, which would add to the 4.39 Bitcoin that it purchased on May 22 and bring its total stash to roughly 24.57 Bitcoin.
H100 said the convertible loans bear no interest and will mature on June 15, 2028. The loan may be converted into shares at any time at a conversion rate of 1.3 Swedish krona (11 US cents) per share.
Blockchain security firm Dedaub released a post-mortem report on the Cetus decentralized exchange hack, identifying the root cause of the attack as an exploit of the liquidity parameters used by the Cetus automated market maker (AMM), which went undetected by a code "overflow" check.
According to the report, the hackers exploited a flaw in the most significant bits (MSB) check, allowing them to manipulate the values for the liquidity parameters by orders of magnitude and establish relatively large positions with a keystroke. The Dedaub security researchers wrote:
"This allowed them to add massive liquidity positions with just one unit of token input, subsequently draining pools collectively containing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tokens."The incident and the post-mortem update reflect the unfortunate trend of cybersecurity exploits and hacks impacting crypto and the Web3 industry.
Executives in the industry have continually warned that industry firms must establish safeguards and protect users before regulators clamp down and impose safeguards on the industry.
The flawed MSB check. Source: DedaubRelated: Twice lucky? Cetus’ recovery plan on Sui mirrors a Solana blueprint
Cardone Capital, a real estate investment firm with over $5 billion in assets under management, launched the 10X Miami River Bitcoin Fund, a dual-asset fund consisting of a 346-unit multifamily commercial property located on the Miami River in Miami, Florida, and $15 million of Bitcoin (BTC).
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Cardone Capital founder and CEO Grant Cardone said the Miami River Bitcoin Fund, which is the firm's fourth blended investment vehicle mixing BTC and commercial multifamily real estate, will convert a portion of its monthly cash flows to BTC.
Cardone told Cointelegraph the impetus to start the fund followed a suggestion from his brother. The CEO said:
"My brother said to me, you should look at if you would have converted all your cash flow from real estate to Bitcoin and what that would have done over the last 12 years. Well, it would have taken $160 million and turned it into around $3 billion.""So, when I saw that, I said I am going to create a fund where we buy real estate, add bitcoin, and then use the cash flow from the real estate purchase to buy more Bitcoin," the CEO continued.
Projected growth of the real estate fund with BTC vs traditional real estate returns. Source: Cardone CapitalThe CEO also told Cointelegraph that the long-term goal of Cardone Capital is to accumulate $1 billion of real estate and $200 million in BTC, which will be held as a treasury asset, across the hybrid funds.
Key takeaways:
Rising bond yields reflect growing concern about fiscal stability and inflation, leading some investors to question US Treasury’s traditional role as a safe-haven asset.
Bitcoin defies conventional risk models, rising not because of worsening macro conditions, but possibly because of them.
Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to new heights amid an increasingly fragile global macroeconomic backdrop. Bond yields are surging in the US and Japan, global growth is stalling, and consumer confidence in the US is scraping historic lows.
Paradoxically, the very macro conditions that once threatened Bitcoin’s price are now fueling its rise. The shift speaks to a broader transformation in how investors interpret risk and where they seek refuge. At the center of this realignment is the US debt crisis and the ballooning Treasury yields, which were once considered the safest assets in the world.
Key points:
Bitcoin price is stuck below $109,588, but the pullback has not altered its bullish chart structure.
A bullish weekly open from Bitcoin could extend gains in HYPE, XMR, AAVE, and WLD.
Bitcoin (BTC) remains stuck below the $109,588 level during a quiet weekend, but analysts remain bullish. Material Indicators co-founder Keith Alan said in a post on X that Bitcoin remains positive as long as it trades above the yearly open level of about $93,500.
Bitcoin’s demand is likely to remain strong with investments from sovereign wealth funds, exchange-traded funds, publicly listed companies and select nations. Crypto index fund management firm Bitwise said in a recent report that institutional funds could pump roughly $120 billion into Bitcoin in 2025 and about $300 billion in 2026.
Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor signaled an impending Bitcoin (BTC) purchase by the company amid the recent dip from the all-time high of $112,000 reached on May 22.
"I only buy Bitcoin with money I can't afford to lose," Saylor wrote to his 4.3 million followers in an X post.
The company's most recent purchase of 7,390 BTC on May 19, valued at nearly $765 million, brought Strategy's total holdings to 576,230 BTC.
If Strategy completes the acquisition on May 26, it will mark the company's seventh consecutive week of Bitcoin purchases.
Strategy’s Bitcoin purchases over time and major metrics. Source: SaylorTrackerStrategy has become synonymous with Bitcoin, as the company continues stacking large amounts of BTC for its corporate treasury and inspiring other companies to pivot to a Bitcoin treasury plan, creating a sustained demand for the digital asset from institutional players and helping bolster the price of BTC.
Opinion by: Darren Carvalho, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MetaWealth
During Paris Blockchain Week, Securitize Chief Operating Officer Michael Sonnenshein made headlines by dismissing real estate as a sub-optimal asset class for tokenization. This isn’t the first time crypto leaders have underestimated the merits of bringing real estate onchain, and it is likely not the last. While I respect Sonnenshein’s contributions to digital asset adoption, his assessment misses fundamental points about real estate tokenization’s transformative potential.
Real estate represents the world’s largest asset class and is projected to reach a value of $654.39 trillion this year, according to Statista. When industry leaders claim that this massive market isn’t suitable for tokenization, they overlook today's transformative infrastructure and the core value proposition that extends far beyond liquidity, transforming access to the asset class.
Sonnenshein argues that “good systems” already exist for traditional assets. He implies that tokenization offers marginal improvements at best, but this assessment overlooks fundamental inefficiencies in today’s real estate market that tokenization addresses.
The current real estate transaction process involves weeks of paperwork. Within the UK, there are a number of purchasing fees which can easily add 10% to the total bill. Settlement periods can extend to months and complexity multiplies exponentially for cross-border transactions.
AI agents in crypto are increasingly embedded in wallets, trading bots and onchain assistants that automate tasks and make real-time decisions.
Though it’s not a standard framework yet, Model Context Protocol (MCP) is emerging at the heart of many of these agents. If blockchains have smart contracts to define what should happen, AI agents have MCPs to decide how things can happen.
It can act as the control layer that manages an AI agent’s behavior, such as which tools it uses, what code it runs and how it responds to user inputs.
That same flexibility also creates a powerful attack surface that can allow malicious plugins to override commands, poison data inputs, or trick agents into executing harmful instructions.
Amazon- and Google-backed Anthropic dropped MCP on Nov. 25, 2024, to connect AI assistants to data systems. Source: AnthropicAccording to VanEck, the number of AI agents in the crypto industry had surpassed 10,000 by the end of 2024 and is expected to top 1 million in 2025.
The crypto industry is no stranger to controversy, yet few projects have drawn more scrutiny than Sam Altman’s World, formerly known as Worldcoin.
Promising to verify human uniqueness through iris scans and distribute its WLD token globally, World positions itself as a tool for financial inclusion. However, critics argue the project’s biometric methods are invasive, overly centralized, and at odds with the ethos of decentralization and digital privacy.
At the heart of the critique is the claim that biometric identity systems cannot be truly decentralized when they rely on proprietary hardware, closed authentication methods, and centralized control over data pipelines.
“Decentralization isn’t just a technical architecture,” Shady El Damaty, co-founder of Holonym Foundation, told Cointelegraph. “It’s a philosophy that prioritizes user control, privacy, and self-sovereignty. World’s biometric model is inherently at odds with this ethos.”
El Damaty argued that despite using tools like multiparty computation (MPC) and zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, World’s reliance on custom hardware — the Orb — and centralized code deployment undermines the decentralization it claims to champion.
Key takeaways:
HYPE is mirroring Solana’s 2021 breakout structure, targeting a 240% rally by July.
Familiar crypto fractals suggest HYPE could spark similar momentum-driven hype.
Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, is mirroring a strikingly similar price structure to Solana’s (SOL) early 2021 breakout—one that preceded a 300% rally.
In January 2021, Solana broke out from a prolonged consolidation phase just as marketwide interest began accelerating.
Pakistan has allocated 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity exclusively for Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence centers.
The move is part of a broader digital transformation plan spearheaded by the Pakistan Crypto Council and backed by the Ministry of Finance, according to a May 25 report by local news outlet 24NewsHD TV Channel.
In the first phase, the government plans to channel excess power into AI infrastructure and crypto mining operations. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the decision is expected to attract billions in foreign investment while generating high-tech employment across the country.
The initiative’s second phase will introduce access to renewable energy for mining operations, aiming to balance growth with environmental responsibility.
Related: Trump-backed World Liberty Financial partners with Pakistan Crypto Council
Key points:
Bitcoin is heading further away from its latest all-time highs as US trade tariffs dictate the mood.
Traders are unfazed, arguing that BTC price action can retest even lower levels while maintaining its bull run.
Hyperliquid trader James Wynn goes short BTC after closing a long worth $1.25 billion.
Bitcoin (BTC) failed to maintain $108,000 into the May 25 weekly close as price action struggled to shake off new US trade war woes.
A Manhattan crypto investor is facing serious charges after allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian man in a disturbing bid to extract access to digital assets.
John Woeltz, 37, was arraigned on Saturday in Manhattan criminal court following his arrest on Friday. He stands accused of holding a 28-year-old Italian man captive for weeks inside a luxury townhouse in Soho, reportedly rented for $30,000 per month.
According to police reports cited by The New York Times, the victim arrived in the US on May 6 and was allegedly abducted by Woeltz and an accomplice.
The attackers are said to have stolen the man’s passport and electronic devices before demanding the password to his Bitcoin (BTC) wallet. When he refused, the suspects allegedly subjected him to prolonged physical abuse.
Source: Mario NawfalRelated: Violent crypto robberies on the rise: Six attacks that targeted investors
Australian Senator Gerard Rennick has drawn criticism from the Bitcoin community following his remarks referring to Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme and questioning the asset’s value because it can’t be eaten.
“You can’t eat Bitcoin,” Rennick said in a May 23 X post, responding to an X user who questioned his stance after Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22.
“Bitcoin will ultimately go to $1 million dollars. Why because it’s a Ponzi scheme whereby BlackRock will pump more and more dollars into a supply constrained product,” Rennick said.
“What exactly will this product produce?” Rennick said. He added that Bitcoin (BTC) will produce “absolutely nothing” and Australia “needs real engineers not financial engineers.”
Source: Gerard RennickBitcoiners across the world were quick to respond to Rennick’s comments. The Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB) said Rennick’s remarks about “Bitcoin reveal a deep misunderstanding.” The ABIB added:
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood says crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will likely maintain their place in the economy, regardless of how widespread crypto wallet adoption becomes over the next decade.
“I think ETFs are an important stepping stone because, you know, wallets seem so complicated, so much friction for consumers, they just wanna push a button,” Wood said at the Solana Accelerate event in New York on May 23.
“So ETFs for those who want the convenience, I don’t think, will lose a lot of their luster,” she said. “But they will be a stepping stone into wallet-based.” Wood reiterated the extra layer of protection that crypto wallets provide:
“These are insurance policies against something going wrong in the traditional world.”Bitbo data suggests that there are around 200 million active Bitcoin (BTC) wallets worldwide. Meanwhile, the trading week ending May 23 saw approximately $2.75 billion inflows into US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, coinciding with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22.
Cathie Wood spoke to ETF analyst Eric Balchunas at Solana Accelerate on May 23. Source: SolanaSince spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the US in January 2024, approximately $44.49 billion in inflows have been recorded, according to Farside data. Meanwhile, spot Ether (ETH) ETFs have seen approximately $2.77 billion in inflows since launching in July 2024.
Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov will not be physically attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway, after French courts denied his request to travel to the Scandinavian country.
According to an announcement from the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) — a non-profit organization that advocates for universal human rights and individual liberty, and the host of the Oslo Freedom Forum — Durov will still deliver his keynote address remotely over a livestream.
“It is unfortunate that French courts would block Mr. Durov from participating in an event where his voice is so needed,” HRF founder and CEO Thor Halvorssen said.
Durov continues to be a vocal advocate for free speech and individual liberty. Tech and crypto industry executives closely monitor developments related to Pavel Durov and the implications for individual freedom from his ongoing legal battle in France.
Source: Pavel DurovRelated: Pavel Durov rejects EU pressure to censor Romanian election content
Scammers posing as Ledger, a hardware wallet manufacturer, are sending physical letters to crypto users instructing them to "validate" their wallets or risk losing access to funds, in the latest phishing attack to impact the industry.
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe shared a picture of the scam letter, which featured a QR code, presumably linked to a malicious phishing site. The letter was sent through the United States Postal Service (USPS), according to the executive.
"These are all scams do not fall for any of these," Troy Lindsey wrote after receiving a copy of the phishing letter.
A copy of the scam Phishing letter. Source: Mike BelsheCointelegraph reached out to Ledger for comment but was unable to obtain a response by the time of publication.
This phishing attempt highlights the ever-evolving complexity and tactics of social engineering scams designed to steal crypto private keys, user funds, and other sensitive data from unsuspecting victims.
Key takeaways:
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have already surpassed gold ETFs in early growth, with projections of $100 billion in annual inflows by 2027.
Publicly listed companies and nation-states currently hold nearly 1.7 million BTC, pointing to long-term confidence.
Bitwise projects $120 billion in Bitcoin inflows by 2025 and $300 billion by 2026.
Bitcoin (BTC) demand from a diverse range of investors—including publicly listed companies building Bitcoin treasuries, sovereign wealth funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and nation-states—is projected to drive substantial capital inflows to the asset in the coming years. According to crypto index fund management firm Bitwise, inflows to Bitcoin could reach $120 billion by the end of 2025, with an additional $300 billion anticipated in 2026.
