Decentral Block Post

Mining firm TeraWulf reported a net loss of approximately $61.4 million in its earnings for the first quarter of 2025, further deteriorating from the same period last year.

Revenue fell to $34.4 million from $42.4 million in the same period of 2024, according to the company's earnings report, published May 9. Cost of revenue rose sharply to $24.5 million, up from $14.4 million a year earlier.

As a result, TeraWulf's cost of revenue accounted for 71.4% of total income from operations in Q1 2025, more than double the 34% recorded in the prior-year quarter. In Q1 2024, the company posted a net loss of $9.6 million.

TeraWulf’s profit and loss statement for Q1 2025. Source: TeraWulf

TeraWulf attributed the decreased revenue to Bitcoin's (BTC) post-halving economics that reduced the block subsidy from 6.25 BTC per block mined to 3.125 BTC per block mined, rising network difficulty, and severe weather in the upstate New York area that is home to a TeraWulf mining facility.

The company is not alone in posting losses for the quarter, as the already competitive mining industry faces reduced block rewards and the macroeconomic uncertainty of geopolitical trade tensions that have created turmoil for financial markets and businesses alike.

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade doesn’t pose a threat to decentralization, according to Mallesh Pai, senior research director at blockchain software firm Consensys, describing the update as a cleanup of the behind-the-scenes “busy work” currently handled by validators.

During a May 9 Cointelegraph X Space, Pai said a validator’s chances of proposing a block or earning rewards remain tied to how much ETH they hold, adding that larger validators don’t gain any new advantages under the upgrade:

“Rewards continue to be proportional to the amount of ETH you have. […] it's not the case that if you're a big validator, you somehow have any more advantages than you did before.”

Pectra is Ethereum’s most extensive network upgrade since the Merge took place in September 2022. Pectra allows validators to stake as much as 2,048 ETH, up from the previous limit of 32 ETH. The new standard has raised community concerns about the risks of centralization on the network.

According to Pai, the Pectra upgrade has taken “a bunch of busy work that the network was doing behind the scenes and removed it.”

Pai noted that while there are about a million technical validators on Ethereum, many aren’t truly distinct — large validators often operate numerous virtual keys from a single physical machine. With the Pectra upgrade, those keys can now be consolidated — something he says they are already seeing.

A group of Democratic senators has reportedly sent a letter to leadership at the US Department of Justice and the Treasury Department expressing concerns about US President Donald Trump’s ties to cryptocurrency exchange Binance and potential conflicts of interest in regulating the industry.

According to a May 9 Bloomberg report, Democratic senators asked Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to report on the steps Binance had taken as part of its November 2023 plea agreement with US authorities, amid reports that Trump and his family had deepened connections with the exchange.

That settlement saw Binance pay more than $4 billion as part of a deal with the Justice Department, Treasury, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and had then-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao step down.

However, since Trump won the presidency in 2024, many lawmakers have accused the president of corruption from profiting off crypto while being in a position to influence laws and regulations over the industry.

Trump has launched his own memecoin — which earns the project millions of dollars in transaction fees — and offered the top tokenholders the opportunity to attend an exclusive dinner in Washington, DC. His family-backed crypto venture World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, MGX, would settle a $2 billion investment in Binance using the platform’s USD1 stablecoin.

A group of Democratic senators has reportedly sent a letter to leadership at the US Department of Justice and the Treasury Department expressing concerns about US President Donald Trump’s ties to cryptocurrency exchange Binance and potential conflicts of interest in regulating the industry.

According to a May 9 Bloomberg report, Democratic senators asked Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to report on the steps Binance had taken as part of its November 2023 plea agreement with US authorities, amid reports that Trump and his family had deepened connections with the exchange.

That settlement saw Binance pay more than $4 billion as part of a deal with the Justice Department, Treasury, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and had then-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao step down.

However, since Trump won the presidency in 2024, many lawmakers have accused the president of corruption from profiting off crypto while being in a position to influence laws and regulations over the industry.

Trump has launched his own memecoin — which earns the project millions of dollars in transaction fees — and offered the top tokenholders the opportunity to attend an exclusive dinner in Washington, DC.

Law enforcement detained the wrong person for a 2022 scam that pilfered more than $1 million worth of Bored Ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cybersecurity researcher ZachXBT said. 

In a May 9 X post, ZachXBT said he identified the wallet behind the scam and linked it to an X account that has since been deleted. 

But in 2023, law enforcement detained Sam Curry, a former Yuga Labs security researcher, at an airport as a suspect in the incident, ZachXBT said. Yuga Labs is the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. 

“It’s unfortunate to see how a security researcher was detained when stronger leads on a threat actor potentially responsible exist,” ZachXBT said.

The attacker stole 14 Bored Ape NFTs in 2022. Source: ZachXBT

Related: Crypto sleuth ZachXBT says he unmasked 50x Hyperliquid whale

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s price closely tracks global liquidity growth, with liquidity explaining up to 90% of its price movements, according to Raoul Pal.

In the long term, global liquidity continues to expand, driven by the increasing debt levels in many countries.

On a shorter timeframe, global liquidity follows a cyclical pattern, with Michael Howell projecting the current cycle to peak by mid-2026.

Bitcoin (BTC) price is notoriously sensitive to global liquidity. Some analysts go as far as calling their correlation near-perfect, with a lag of about three months. This relationship is fueling the current bullish narrative as BTC price soars back above $100,000, but how long can this trend last?

The cryptocurrency market continued to surge this past week as the overall digital asset market capitalization exceeded $3.27 trillion, an 8.6% increase over the previous week.

Bitcoin (BTC) reached a high of $103,600 on May 8 after reclaiming $100,000 for the first time since January. Its market dominance also surged above 60%, reflecting more bullish BTC sentiment. This marked the third time BTC has broken through six figures since it reached the milestone on Dec. 5, 2024, and again on Jan. 20, ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. 

The BTC rise coincided with Trump announcing a trade deal with the United Kingdom, which may include removing a 10% blanket tariff on all imports.

In the wider crypto space, Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade implemented much-needed improvements for the crypto ecosystem. The upgrade was followed by a 26% price surge for Ether (ETH), rising from $1,800 on May 7 to over $2,300 on May 9.

Total crypto market cap, 1-year chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin DeFi sees surge in mining participation despite drop in TVL

Messari's “State of Rootstock” report for 2025 showed that merged mining participation surged to an all-time high of 81% in Q1 2025, up from 56.4% in the previous quarter. The surge was attributed to onboarding major mining pools SpiderPool and Foundry. 

Galaxy Digital has been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to redomicile in the United States, setting the stage for the crypto investment company’s listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Galaxy anticipates listing on the Nasdaq, a tech-focused US stock exchange, by the middle of May, pending approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange, on which the company is already listed, and shareholder approval at a special shareholders meeting on May 9.

Shareholders at the meeting must approve redomiciling Galaxy Digital in the US state of Delaware, known for its business-friendly regulations, before the process can move forward, according to an announcement from the company.

Galaxy Digital SEC form S-4. Source: SEC

Galaxy obtained SEC approval for a Nasdaq listing in April this year, and once the company obtains the other necessary approvals, it will trade on the Nasdaq under the GLXY ticker symbol.

The company is the latest crypto firm to announce an imminent stock market listing, as institutional interest in digital assets grows and crypto matures as an asset class that increasingly interacts with traditional financial markets.

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin is driven by its ability to perform well in risk-on and risk-off environments, according to Bitcoin Suisse.

Bitcoin’s Sharpe ratio of 1.72, second only to gold, underscores its maturity as an asset, offering superior risk-adjusted returns.

A buyer-dominant market signals strong institutional and retail interest that could drive a supply squeeze and break new highs in May.

Bitcoin (BTC) price breached the $100,000 mark for the first time since January, fueling speculation of a new all-time high above $110,000 in May. According to Bitcoin Suisse, a crypto custody service provider, BTC’s bullish momentum stems from its ability to thrive in risk-on and risk-off environments since the US presidential elections. 

Opinion by: Naman Kabra, co-founder and CEO of NodeOps Network

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have become the default hardware for many AI workloads, especially when training large models. That thinking is everywhere. While it makes sense in some contexts, it's also created a blind spot that's holding us back.

GPUs have earned their reputation. They're incredible at crunching massive numbers in parallel, which makes them perfect for training large language models or running high-speed AI inference. That's why companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta spend a lot of money building GPU clusters.

While GPUs may be preferred for running AI, we cannot forget about Central Processing Units (CPUs), which are still very capable. Forgetting this could be costing us time, money, and opportunity.

CPUs aren't outdated. More people need to realize they can be used for AI tasks. They're sitting idle in millions of machines worldwide, capable of running a wide range of AI tasks efficiently and affordably, if only we'd give them a chance.

Key points:

Bitcoin continues to attack a key resistance zone below all-time highs.

“Parabolic” BTC price talk begins to resurface as bulls hold six figures after the Wall Street open.

Signs of profit-taking are increasing amid the highest prices since January.

Bitcoin (BTC) is attracting “parabolic” price targets as bulls continue to hold six figures on May 9.

Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark again on May 8 as institutional investors continue stacking sats.

Farside Investors’ data shows that spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded cumulative net inflows of $142.3 million on May 7, in a sign of “sustained institutional interest,” according to the founder of Obchakevich Research, Alex Obchakevich.

“These inflows indicate the activity of institutional investors, including hedge funds and asset managers, who continue to accumulate BTC through regulated instruments,“ he said.

The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) led with $54 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) at $39 million and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) at $37 million. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows BlackRock acquired more than 86 Bitcoin worth $8.4 million in a single transaction on May 7.

24-hour Bitcoin price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Related: Bitcoin price reclaims $100K for first time since January

Ripple’s $25 million donation to a crypto education fund has reignited conversations about how blockchain projects are building influence through academia—but in the latest episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu says that money alone isn’t enough. 

Instead, real-world use cases like student loans backed by DeFi may be crypto’s most convincing value proposition to date.

DeFi student loans

On April 30th, Pencil Finance, a project supported by Animoca Brands and its education arm Open Campus, announced a $10 million student loan financing initiative aimed at providing cheaper, blockchain-backed loans. Siu believes this type of infrastructure investment goes further than symbolic funding.

“What our industry needs a lot more is these kinds of positive-sum use cases that everyone else understands,” Siu said in the interview. “If students can receive better, cheaper and more effective opportunities and interest rates through crypto student loans, what happens? They’re going to be more pro-crypto.”

Related: The Giving Block starts disaster fund for California wildfire victims

The Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that supports development across the Ethereum blockchain, distributed $32.6 million in grants in the first quarter of 2025. 

In an allocation update, the organization reported spending on various initiatives through its Ecosystem Support Program (ESP). 

Categories included community and educational grants, zero-knowledge and cryptography. Other allocations included execution layers, developer experience and tools, layer-2 networks and overall ecosystem growth and support. 

Ethereum Foundation focuses on education and community

Of the 101 grants awarded, 32 went to community and education-focused initiatives. Recipients included educational content creators, conference organizers, bootcamps and hackathons such as ETHPrague and ETHiopia.

Sixteen projects focused on improving the developer experience and tooling. Beneficiaries included projects focusing on creating software-development kits (SDKs), building analytics platforms and validator tooling. 

Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has received regulatory approval to expand crypto derivatives trading across Europe.

Gemini secured a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), allowing the exchange to offer crypto derivatives in the European Union, it announced on May 9.

“Once we commence business activities, we will be able to offer regulated derivatives throughout the EU and EEA [European Economic Area] under MiFID II,” said Gemini’s head of Europe, Mark Jennings.

According to the exec, the MiFID II license is a big milestone in Gemini’s European expansion, putting it one step closer to offering derivatives to both retail and institutional users.

Advanced traders will get perpetual futures

Gemini’s upcoming derivatives offering in the EU and EEA will include perpetual futures and other derivatives, which will be available to advanced users of Gemini, Jennings noted.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott blamed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act’s failure on partisan politics during a Senate speech on May 8.

Scott said the vote, which failed to reach cloture in the Senate, was expected to mark a step toward greater affordability and innovation. Instead, he said, political divisions took precedence.

“Instead, we witnessed a disappointing display of political gamesmanship that puts partisan politics above policy, and obstruction above innovation, “Scott said.

The bill had previously undergone multiple amendments to address concerns raised by Democrats, including stricter requirements for stablecoin issuers and further provisions for Anti-Money Laundering.

Related: Trump tricked into pushing XRP for crypto reserve: Report

Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun has called on the government to consider adding Bitcoin to its national reserves, suggesting it could serve as a hedge against global economic uncertainty.

Ko, a legislator at-large in Taiwan’s legislative body, the Legislative Yuan, took to X on Friday to report that he had advocated Bitcoin (BTC) investment by the Taiwanese government at the National Conference on May 9.

In his remarks, Ko cited Bitcoin’s potential to become a hedge amid global economic risks and urged Taiwan to recognize the cryptocurrency alongside gold and foreign exchange reserves to boost its financial resilience.

Source: Ko Ju-Chun

Ko’s announcement came shortly after the legislator held talks with Samson Mow, who advocates for Bitcoin adoption by states like El Salvador at his BTC tech firm Jan3.

Taiwan is an export-oriented economy

Ko highlighted that Taiwan is an export-driven economy that has experienced significant fluctuations in its national currency, the New Taiwan dollar, amid global inflation and intensifying geopolitical risks.

Key points:

Bitcoin (BTC) is at its highest levels since January, and traders are eyeing key levels to watch for what’s next.

After hitting $104,000, BTC/USD is retracing to establish support, but the fate of $100,000 is among the concerns for market participants.

Current price action represents an important battleground, as measured from the $75,000 lows this year.

” Headline driven” BTC price gains draw scrutiny

Just $6,000 from new all-time highs, per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, BTC price action has stunned the market by jumping 10% in days.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin was up 4.3% on May 9, after breaking $100,000  for the first time since February.

BTC price gains trigger $800 million in short liquidations, the largest since 2021.

A bull flag on the weekly chart suggests a $182,200 target, with analysts predicting Bitcoin’s price can go as high as $1 million in 2025.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is up 4.3% on May 9 as a fresh liquidity cascade sent BTC price soaring above $100,000 for the first time in over 90 days.