Decentral Block Post

Key takeaways:

XRP forms a double top and rising wedge, signaling short-term downside risk toward $1.94.

NUPL indicates traders are in denial, resembling past pre-crash phases.

Long-term charts still point to bullish targets between $3.69 and $17.

XRP (XRP) has rebounded by more than 50% in a month after forming a local low at $1.80. Improving risk appetite and prospects of an “altseason” have boosted its price.

Mobile-first blockchain Pi Network has launched a $100 million fund to invest in initiatives built on its infrastructure.

According to a May 14 announcement, the Pi Foundation is launching Pi Network Ventures with an initial investment of $100 million in Pi (PI) tokens and US dollars. The fund will invest in startups and businesses building on Pi Network or contributing to its broader ecosystem.

“This strategic program intends to invest in high-quality startups and companies across sectors, driving innovation and ecosystem growth,” Pi Network said in an X post.

The Pi Foundation, the organization behind Pi Network, is described as an “ownerless” entity focused on supporting long-term ecosystem development. The foundation said the new venture fund will draw from the 10% of Pi tokens reserved for ecosystem initiatives.

Pi Network had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication.

Private credit marketplace Pareto has introduced a new synthetic dollar aimed at linking institutional investors with decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities — a move that highlights the expanding role of stablecoins in global finance.

The newly launched USP synthetic dollar is fully backed by real-world private credit, Pareto told Cointelegraph on May 15. To mint USP, users must deposit stablecoins such as USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT), which are then held as collateral.

“USP is backed 1:1 by the stablecoins used during the minting process,” Pareto co-founder Matteo Pandolfi told Cointelegraph in a written statement.

The deposited funds are placed into Pareto’s credit vaults and lent to what the company describes as “vetted institutional borrowers,” generating yields for participants.

To maintain its peg to the US dollar, Pareto uses what it calls a “native backing” process. Each USP token is minted only when an equivalent amount of USDC or USDT is deposited, ensuring full collateralization when the token is created. An arbitrage mechanism also supports the dollar peg’s ongoing stability.

Ukraine is reportedly moving closer to adopting Bitcoin as a national reserve asset, a move that could bolster its financial resilience amid the ongoing war with Russia.

Lawmakers are reportedly working on a Bitcoin (BTC) national reserve proposal, with a draft bill in its final stages, according to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of parliament who confirmed the plan to local media outlet Incrypted.

The proposal was announced during the CRYPTO 2025 conference in Kyiv on Feb. 6. “We will soon submit a draft law from the industry allowing the creation of crypto reserves,” Zhelezniak said.

Cointelegraph reached out to Zhelezniak for comment on the bill’s status but had not received a response by publication.

Related: Bitcoin treasury firms driving $200T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back

Publicly traded company BTCS announced a $57.8 million financing agreement led by investment firm ATW Partners to purchase Ether as it expands its blockchain infrastructure strategy. 

The Rockville, Maryland-based company announced the deal on May 14, saying that the move will allow it to expand validator node operations and build recurring revenue from Ether (ETH) staking.

BTCS CEO Charles Allen said the move follows Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) high-profile Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation blueprint and will leverage Ethereum for long-term growth. 

“We are executing a disciplined strategy to increase our Ethereum exposure and drive recurring revenue through staking and our block building operations,” Allen said.

BTCS issues initial $7.8 million convertible notes

As part of the agreement, BTCS issued an initial $7.8 million tranche in convertible notes, with the option to draw an additional $50 million in funding subject to mutual agreement.

Opinion by: Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder, Animoca Brands

A discussion on digital property rights, copyright, intellectual property, the open metaverse, AI and value without physical form.

When I attend conferences and similar public events, someone almost always approaches me to ask how cryptographic tokens (fungible or non-fungible) can have value even though tokens are virtual and do not exist in the physical world. It's a surprisingly common question, especially one-on-one.

Virtual objects like NFTs and cryptocurrencies are both digital and intangible; their existence is not based in the real (physical) world, and (unlike digital currencies) they generally do not have backing by real-world institutions. 

The ability to have value (specifically, monetary worth) is crucially important regarding the open metaverse, the decentralized internet of Web3 characterized by true digital ownership (see What IS the open metaverse?).

Key points:

Bitcoin has a fight for a $100,000 price and a $2 trillion market cap on its hands this month.

Dips below six figures are “easily possible,” analyst filbfilb says, but the odds are stacked in bulls’ favor.

ETH/BTC needs to hit the 0.03 inflection point as part of an altcoin comeback.

Bitcoin (BTC) is poised for expansion with BTC price action rarely more “bullish-looking,” an analyst says.

Several investors in a non-fungible token (NFT) project, Hashling NFT, have accused its founder of misappropriating millions of dollars in profits from the project and a closely tied Bitcoin mining operation.

According to the May 14 court filing in Illinois, the plaintiffs allege that their former business partner, Jonathan Mills, lied about transferring assets from Hashling NFT and at least $3 million from the Bitcoin mining project to a holding company — Satoshi Labs LLC (formerly known as Proof of Work Labs LLC), which Mills is the founder and CEO of.

The plaintiffs have sued Mills for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, claiming that they have not received any of the equity returns that he supposedly promised. 

They also claim to have raised a combined $1.46 million from two NFT drops on the Solana and Bitcoin blockchains, but didn’t receive any returns from their investment. 

Mills allegedly began ghosting them shortly afterward, according to the plaintiffs, adding that he created a flawed shareholder agreement to falsely support his claim that the holding company controlled the project's assets.

A Singapore High Court has ruled in favor of Sonic Labs’ motion to force the Multichain Foundation to wind up in an effort to recover funds stolen during a 2023 hack.

In the May 9 judgment in the Singapore Supreme Court, Justice Kwek Mean Luck granted a request from Sonic Labs, formerly the Fantom Foundation, to declare Multichain bankrupt and appoint liquidators from global audit, tax and advisory service KPMG.

Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong said in a May 14 statement to X that the team behind the layer 1 Sonic blockchain felt it had no choice but to file a lawsuit to forcibly wind up Multichain because its former employees were being “completely uncooperative” and “hid from victims.”

“Going forward, the liquidators can now start working with other parties to initiate the process of trying to acquire funds that should eventually be returned to users if those legal proceedings are successful,” Kong said.

In July 2023, the Multichain Foundation experienced abnormally large outflows, later confirmed as a hack, leading to the loss of assets across multiple chains, including Fantom, Ethereum, BNB, Cronos and Polygon.

The US Senate could pass a key bipartisan stablecoin bill as soon as next week after removing language targeting President Donald Trump and his family’s sprawling crypto interests.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said onstage at an event by Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand With Crypto, that she thinks it's a “fair target” to have the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.

Joining her onstage was Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who hinted that the bill’s language was changed to scrap provisions that targeted Trump’s various crypto projects, which include memecoins, a crypto platform, a stablecoin and a crypto mining company that plans to go public, among others.

“When this language comes out, people will see really good refinement, a lot of progress, on things like consumer protection, and bankruptcy protection, and ethics,” Gillibrand said. “Things beyond just ‘what’s the structure?’ and ‘what’s required for an issuer?’”

Senate Democrats pulled support for the bill on May 8 and stalled its momentum, airing concerns that it wouldn’t help address multiple crypto-tied deals that will personally enrich Trump.

A major Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been shut down by the Telegram messaging service, upon which it operated.

The internet’s largest illicit marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it will shut down following Telegram’s ban of thousands of associated accounts on May 13. 

“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from now on,” read the notice on the marketplace website.

A report from Wired said that this involved banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served as the infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its vendors.

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told the outlet, “communities previously reported to us by WIRED or included in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down,” before adding that “criminal activities like scamming or money laundering are forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and are always removed whenever discovered.” 

Some criminal organizations are yet to receive the memo — crypto is traceable — and could explain the recent string of crypto-related kidnappings, says Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin. 

Law enforcement has been increasingly successful at tracing stolen funds and crypto ransom payments, resulting in a “lot of arrests,” Levin said during the 2025 Consensus crypto conference, covered by Cointelegraph.

“For whatever reason, there is a perception that’s out there that crypto is an asset that is untraceable, and that really lends itself to criminals acting in a certain way,” he said. 

“Apparently, the know that crypto is not untraceable hasn't been received by some of the organized crime groups that are actually perpetrating these attacks, and some of them are concentrated in, you know, France, but not exclusively.” 

There have been two serious crypto-related attacks in Paris so far this month. On May 13, three assailants attempted to kidnap the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.