Decentral Block Post

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.

“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. 

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.

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.

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.

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:

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

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.