Decentral Block Post

The Australian crypto industry has called on the newly reelected Labor government to urgently make digital asset legislation a top priority to ensure Australia doesn’t fall further behind global markets.

The incumbent Australian Labor Party was returned in a landslide on May 3, picking up 54.9% of the two-party-preferred vote, against the Liberal and National Parties on 45.1%. Both parties went to the election promising crypto law reform, but only the opposition pledged to deliver draft legislation within 100 days.

Coinbase managing director for APAC John O’Loghlen said on May 5 the reelected Albanese Government has the “opportunity and the responsibility to move quickly on this issue” and called for a Crypto-Asset Taskforce to be established within its first 100 days “with the aim of bringing forward legislation that protects consumers, promotes innovation, and stops the exodus of talent and capital to other markets.”

Joy Lam, Binance’s head of global regulatory and APAC legal, said the exchange has been consulting with Treasury officials since late 2023 about its proposed legislation, and it was now time for action.

“Timing is really quite critical now because obviously it's something that has been discussed and kicked around for quite a few years,” she told Cointelegraph in an interview on May 2.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States bought up nearly six times as many Bitcoin as were produced by miners over the last week.

The US-based Bitcoin (BTC) funds bought a whopping 18,644 Bitcoin over the past week when only 3,150 BTC were mined for the period, reported asset allocator HODL15Capital on May 4.

This accumulation by institutions and ETF issuers represents almost six times the amount of the asset being produced since miners only generate 450 coins per day.  

The total inflow for the past five trading days was around $1.8 billion, with a net outflow on April 30, according to Farside Investors. There has only been one outflow day since April 16, as the inflows have mirrored market recovery. 

Last week’s accumulation followed an increase in BTC spot prices in early May when the asset gained 4% to reach a six-week high of $97,700 on May 2. However, the asset has since retreated to the $94,000 level, which is the same price it traded at this time seven days ago. 

OpenAI says it ignored the concerns of its expert testers when it rolled out an update to its flagship ChatGPT artificial intelligence model that made it excessively agreeable.

The company released an update to its GPT‑4o model on April 25 that made it “noticeably more sycophantic,” which it then rolled back three days later due to safety concerns, OpenAI said in a May 2 postmortem blog post.

The ChatGPT maker said its new models undergo safety and behavior checks, and its “internal experts spend significant time interacting with each new model before launch,” meant to catch issues missed by other tests.

During the latest model’s review process before it went public, OpenAI said that “some expert testers had indicated that the model’s behavior ‘felt’ slightly off” but decided to launch “due to the positive signals from the users who tried out the model.”

“Unfortunately, this was the wrong call,” the company admitted. “The qualitative assessments were hinting at something important, and we should’ve paid closer attention. They were picking up on a blind spot in our other evals and metrics.”

Malicious actors appear to have infiltrated the New York Post’s X account in an attempt to scam crypto users on the microblogging platform. 

Some X users from the crypto community have recently reported having received a private message from the New York Post’s X account inviting them to feature in a podcast and to contact them via Telegram. 

The spurious messages were first discovered on May 3 by Kerberus founder and CEO Alex Katz, who shared a screenshot of a message made out to be from author and journalist Paul Sperry via the official nypost account. 

“What’s interesting about this case is that the scammer gained unauthorized access but didn’t post a Pump.fun address or wallet drainer. Instead, they’re messaging users and then directing them to Telegram,” observed cybersecurity engineer and NFT collector “Drew”.

Related: ‘I’m sick’ — Scammers use AI, fake ID of crypto influencer to steal $4M

The Solana Foundation has confirmed that a zero-day vulnerability that allowed an attacker to potentially mint certain tokens and even withdraw those tokens from user accounts has been fixed. 

A May 3 post-mortem from the Solana Foundation said that the security vulnerability, first discovered on April 16, could have allowed an attacker to forge an invalid proof affecting Solana’s privacy-enabling “Token-22 confidential tokens.”

There is no known exploit of the vulnerability, and Solana validators have since adopted the patched version, the foundation said.

Solana zero-day security bug affected Token-22 confidential tokens

The Solana Foundation said the security vulnerability concerned two programs: Token-2022 and ZK ElGamal Proof.

Token-2022 handles the main application logic for token mints and accounts, while ZK ElGamal Proof verifies the correctness of zero-knowledge proofs to show accurate account balances.

Toymaking giant Mattel is putting the brakes on its Hot Wheels Virtual Garage non-fungible tokens, pending a decision on the collection’s future.

There will be no future releases of any new NFT series or feature drops for the “foreseeable future,” Mattel said in an update on its website. The company said it will decide on the “long-term future” of Mattel digital collectibles.

“Your unwavering support and enthusiasm for the Hot Wheels Virtual Garage has been legendary, and we’re incredibly grateful to have been on this journey with you,” the company said.

“As we evaluate the changing world of virtual collectibles, we’ve determined the time has come to end our Series and Feature Drops in 2025 and onward.”

There are no plans for any new NFT series or feature drops for Mattel's Hot Wheels Virtual Garage. Source: Mattel Creations

In the meantime, users’ hot wheel NFT collections, the Mattel Digital Collectibles Marketplace, the community Discord and other channels will continue to operate as normal through at least 2025, according to Mattel.

Key points:

Bitcoin’s positive sentiment should remain intact if BTC price stays above the 20-day EMA near $92,000.

Several altcoins show bullish chart patterns in the 4-hour and 1-day timeframes.

Bitcoin (BTC) has given back some of the gains over the weekend, and the price has pulled back to the breakout level of $95,000. Buyers will have to successfully hold the $95,000 level to keep the bullish momentum intact.

Bitcoin network economist Timothy Peterson said in a post on X that Bitcoin could surge to a new all-time high and reach a target of $135,000 in the next 100 days if certain conditions are met. Peterson believes a drop in the CBOE Volatility Index below 18 could trigger a “risk-on environment” favoring Bitcoin. The other crucial points needed for the Bitcoin rally are a fall in interest rates and a solid performance in the above-average performing months of June and July. 

The father of an unnamed crypto entrepreneur was freed by police in Paris, France, during a law enforcement raid of the property where the man was held captive for ransom over several days.

According to reporting from Le Monde, the May 3 raid resulted in five arrests. Local outlet Le Parisien also said the kidnappers demanded between 5 million and 7 million euros, or up to $7.9 million, to release the captive man.

Although the details on the identity of the victims remain scant, likely for security reasons, the crypto entrepreneur and his father co-owned a crypto marketing firm based in Malta, French media reports.

This incident features similarities to the kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland in France in January 2025. Balland was also held for a crypto ransom until he was freed by law enforcement officers in a rescue operation.

Unfortunately, this latest incident also follows a string of similar ransom attempts around the world targeting crypto users and their loved ones in an attempt to extort funds from individuals perceived to hold a sizable amount of wealth.

The government of Maldives signed an agreement with MBS Global Investments, a Dubai-based family office, to develop a $9 billion crypto and blockchain hub in Malé, the capital of the South Pacific archipelago nation.

According to a report from the Financial Times, the agreement, which was signed on May 4, was done in the hopes of moving the Maldives away from reliance on tourism and fisheries by attracting foreign direct investment into blockchain and Web3 technologies.

The project outlines plans for the Maldives International Financial Centre, an 830,000-square-meter facility that will reportedly employ up to 16,000 individuals.

Completing the project will take an estimated five years and the capital requirements for the ambitious development are more than the $7 billion in annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the Maldives.

The geographic location of Maldives. Source: Worldometer

The planned crypto hub reflects the growing importance of the crypto industry worldwide. However, the Maldives' ambitions to become a global center for financial technology must contend with well-capitalized, established jurisdictions like Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor hinted at an impending Bitcoin (BTC) purchase, marking the fourth consecutive week of purchases by the BTC treasury company.

The company's most recent acquisition occurred on April 28 when Strategy purchased 15,355 BTC, valued at over $1.4 billion at the time, bringing the company's total holdings to 553,555 BTC.

According to data from SaylorTracker, Strategy is up approximately 39% on its investment, representing over $15 billion in unrealized gains.

Strategy’s history of Bitcoin acquisition. Source: SaylorTracker

Bitcoin investors continue closely monitoring the company, which has been a major driver of direct institutional exposure to BTC by popularizing the Bitcoin corporate treasury concept and indirectly through institutions holding Strategy's stock in their investment portfolios.

Related: Strategy ends April up 32% in best month since November as Q1 earnings loom

Key takeaways

Bitcoin and crypto traders can rely on automated orders on their trading platform to limit losses and secure gains.

Stop-loss orders in Bitcoin trading started as manual risk management in the early 2010s. Now, they have become advanced, automated tools on today’s exchanges.

In the algorithm era and bot pestering, proper trading tools like stop-loss and take-profit orders will help you protect your trades.

Setting up advanced BTC trading strategies doesn’t guarantee a successful risk management plan. Monitoring the market regularly helps you understand current conditions. This way, you can avoid strategic mistakes.

Stop-loss and take-profit orders in trading were used long before Bitcoin. In traditional financial markets, they were already used as a risk management and profit-securing tool.

Opinion by: Markus Bopp, CEO of TAP Protocol

Not long ago, the idea of Bitcoin as a government-backed reserve asset seemed like a stretch. The US Federal Reserve’s move to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve marks a clear turning point. Once dismissed as a speculative asset or niche investment, Bitcoin is increasingly being treated by some governments and financial institutions as a national store of value.

This evolution puts blockchain development at a crossroads. On one hand, memecoins, once dismissed as internet jokes, have dominated transaction volumes and social buzz on leading platforms. On the other hand, institutions and governments are taking the world’s most popular cryptocurrency — Bitcoin (BTC) — seriously and investing in infrastructure to secure it for the long term.

If Bitcoin is to be treated like gold, it must be secured like gold. Very soon, we will see governments and institutions seek to secure Bitcoin in what will no doubt look like a digital Fort Knox. With more institutional and instrumental influence over the most valuable digital asset in the world, verifiable storage, hardened security protocols and structures built on resilience will become paramount. 

This shift could raise the stakes for developers. As institutional adoption rises, so does the demand for specialized developers capable of delivering institutional-grade security and long-term stability.

Key points:

Bitcoin attacks liquidity clustered close to spot price into the weekly close.

Market commentators eye significant BTC price levels below $95,000.

The Fed’s upcoming interest rate decision is the key macro event to watch next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell toward $95,000 into the May 4 weekly close as traders braced for more macro-induced downside.

Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is evolving from an abstract concept to a practical financial tool as institutional players increasingly test and deploy blockchain-based infrastructure at scale.

This past week alone saw a flurry of announcements from both traditional financial institutions and blockchain-native firms advancing their RWA initiatives.

On April 30, BlackRock filed to create a digital ledger technology shares class for its $150 billion Treasury Trust fund. It will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.

The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY).

On the same day, Libre announced plans to tokenize $500 million in Telegram debt through its new Telegram Bond Fund (TBF). The fund will be available to accredited investors and usable as collateral for onchain borrowing.

Binance has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kyrgyzstan’s National Agency for Investments to introduce crypto payment infrastructure and blockchain education in the country.

The MoU was formalized during the inaugural meeting of the Council for the Development of Digital Assets, attended by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, the exchange said in a May 4 press release.

As part of the agreement, Binance will introduce Binance Pay to Kyrgyzstan, enabling crypto-based transactions for visitors and residents.

The partnership also focuses on educational collaboration. Binance Academy will work with Kyrgyz government agencies and financial institutions to develop blockchain-focused learning programs.

“Binance is excited to partner with the National Agency for Investments of the Kyrgyz Republic to drive forward the development of crypto-assets in the region,” Kyrylo Khomiakov, Binance’s regional head for Central and Eastern Europe, said.

A group of US Senate Democrats known for supporting the crypto industry have said they would oppose a Republican-led stablecoin bill if it moves forward in its current form.

The move threatens to stall legislation that could establish the first US regulatory framework for stablecoins, according to a May 3 report from Politico.

Per the report, nine Senate Democrats said in a joint statement that the bill “still has numerous issues that must be addressed.” They warned they would not support a procedural vote to advance the legislation unless changes are made.

Among the signatories were Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Andy Kim — all of whom had previously backed the bill when it passed through the Senate Banking Committee in March.

The bill, introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty, is formally known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

Bitcoiners and United States government officials have criticized Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’ decision to veto a bill that would have allowed the state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves.

“This will age poorly,” Casa co-founder and cypherpunk Jameson Lopp said in a May 3 X post. Bitcoin (BTC) entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano said, “Imagine the ignorance of a politician to believe they can make investment decisions.”

Call for government officials who understand Bitcoin is “the future”

“If she can’t outperform Bitcoin, she must buy it,” Pompliano said. Crypto lawyer Andrew Gordon said, “We need more elected officials who understand that Bitcoin and crypto are the future.”

Source: Julian Fahrer

Wendy Rogers, who co-sponsored the bill with State Representative Jeff Weninger, also voiced her disappointment.

“Politicians don’t understand that Bitcoin doesn’t need Arizona. Arizona needs Bitcoin,” Rogers said.

OKX founder and CEO Star Xu has publicly defended the crypto exchange after Tron founder Justin Sun accused it of failing to act on a law enforcement request to freeze stolen funds following a recent hack of Tron’s official X account.

“OKX also has consumers protection policy according to law, we can’t freeze a customer’s funds according to your personal X post or an oral communication. I think you should understand it as the CEO of HTX,” Xu said in an X post.

OKX says there is no communication in the spam box, either

Xu said that the crypto exchange had not received any related correspondence through OKX’s official channels. “Our LE cooperation team just checked the email, including the spam box; we haven’t received any request related with this case,” Xu said.

Source: Star Xu

In what is now an unavailable X post, but was screenshotted by Xu, Sun had earlier claimed that OKX has not responded to a “freeze notice” sent to its official email address from a “relevant law enforcement agency.” Sun said that he had no other way to contact OKX’s compliance department.

“These stolen funds do not belong to me; I’m acting to protect the community,” Sun said. On May 3, Tron DAO told its 1.7 million X followers that its account had been compromised. Tron explained that during the breach, an unauthorized party posted a malicious crypto token contract address, sent direct messages, and followed unfamiliar accounts.

Warren Buffett, the CEO of publicly traded investment company Berkshire Hathaway, announced at the company's annual shareholder meeting that he will step down by the end of 2025, and his chosen successor will take over as CEO, pending approval from Berkshire's board of directors.

According to CNBC, Buffett reiterated that Greg Abel, the company's vice chairman of non-insurance operations, who was previously named by Buffett as his successor, will take over. The Berkshire founder announced:

"The time has arrived when Greg should become the Chief executive officer of the company at year-end, and I want to spring that on the directors effectively and give that as my recommendation."

Buffett added that he would stay at the company in an advisory role "but the final word would be what Greg decided," the CEO said. Buffett's decision to step down as CEO comes at a time when Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on cash reserves of roughly $348 billion.

Buffett speaking at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder conference. Source: CNBC

The legendary stock investor has repeatedly called the growing US national debt unsustainable and issued warnings on the increasingly unstable macroeconomic environment that has taken a toll on the stock market.

Related: Galaxy Digital plans Nasdaq listing as crypto stocks post strong rebound

Bitcoin (BTC) mining firms should hold their mined Bitcoin and use it as collateral for fiat-denominated loans to pay operating expenses instead of selling BTC and losing the upside of an asset that miners expect to surge in price, according to John Glover, chief investment officer at Bitcoin lending firm Ledn.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Glover said that holding onto the BTC carries several benefits including, price appreciation, tax deferment, and the potential to make extra revenue by lending out BTC held in corporate treasuries. The executive added:

"If you are mining, you are generating all this Bitcoin. You understand the thesis behind Bitcoin and why it is likely going to continue to appreciate in the future. You do not want to sell any of your Bitcoin."

This debt-based approach is similar to companies like Strategy, which issue corporate debt and equity to finance Bitcoin acquisition and profit from the diverging fundamentals of BTC and the fiat currencies the corporate capital raises are denominated in.

BTC mining hashprice, a metric used to gauge miner profitability, has collapsed as ever-increasing computing resources are deployed to secure the network. Source: Hashrate Index

Bitcoin-backed loans could be a valuable lifeline for miners struggling in the highly competitive industry, which is facing increased pressure due to the ongoing trade tensions brought on by the Trump administration's protectionist trade policies and macroeconomic uncertainty.

Related: Riot Platforms secures $100M ‘Bitcoin-backed’ loan from Coinbase