▶️Crypto News & Updates
🔷Tether proposed a two-stage merger to combine Twenty One Capital with Strike and Elektron Energy into a single listed bitcoin-focused platform.
🔷Solana-based Exponent Finance raised $5 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital to expand its onchain yield infrastructure.
• The platform plans to launch an upgraded version next month with a fully onchain interest rate order book and strategy vaults for active yield management.
🔷Crypto onramping solution Fun raises $72 million Series A co-led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire
• The startup provides backend onramping infrastructure powering deposits, withdrawals, and settlement for some of crypto's leading apps like Polymarket, Lighter, and Aave.
🔷World Liberty Financial filed a defamation countersuit against Tron founder Justin Sun, accusing him of running a “scorched-earth pressure campaign” after his WLFI tokens were frozen.
🔷Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm, a16z crypto, has raised $2.2 billion for its fifth fund.
🔷Bullish agreed to acquire Equiniti in a $4.2 billion deal combining its tokenization infrastructure with a regulated shareholder services platform.
🔷Morgan Stanley has reportedly begun a pilot rollout of spot cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform, charging clients a 50-basis-point fee per transaction as it expands deeper into retail crypto services.
🔷Solana Foundation announced a partnership with Google Cloud to launch a payment gateway for AI agents, enabling access to and payment for APIs via Solana wallets using stablecoins on a pay-per-call basis, without requiring accounts or subscriptions.
🔷MoonPay has acquired DFlow in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $100 million. DFlow provides trade routing and DEX aggregation services and has recently accounted for around 5% to 10% of trading volume across Solana-related platforms.
🔷Polygon Labs has launched shielded stablecoin payments in its wallet, supporting USDC and USDT. Users can now choose a "Privately Send" option, which routes transfers through Hinkal’s shielded pool instead of a standard on-chain transfer.
🔷SC Ventures, the investment and fintech arm of Standard Chartered, has made a strategic investment in GSR, one of crypto’s largest market makers, becoming the firm’s first external strategic shareholder since its founding in 2013.
🔷Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the primary driver of TON and become its largest validator, with a renewed focus on technical performance. TON is expected to roll out a new website, developer tools, and performance upgrades within the next 2–3 weeks.
🔷Tom Lee’s Bitmine added 101,745 ETH last week. Its total crypto and cash holdings now stand at approximately $13.1 billion, including 5,180,131 ETH, 200 BTC, an estimated $83 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and a $200 million investment in Beast Industries.
🔷Western Union, the Largest Remittance Provider in the U.S., announced that its USD stablecoin USDPT has been launched on Solana. USDPT will primarily be used for cross-border settlement and agent clearing, with consumer-facing payment features planned for rollout in 2026.
🔷According to BitcoinTreasuries, the $142 billion Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo), owned by the Canadian government, disclosed purchasing 1.38 million shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) valued at $219 million.
🔷Tether proposed a two-stage merger to combine Twenty One Capital with Strike and Elektron Energy into a single listed bitcoin-focused platform.
🔷Solana-based Exponent Finance raised $5 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital to expand its onchain yield infrastructure.
• The platform plans to launch an upgraded version next month with a fully onchain interest rate order book and strategy vaults for active yield management.
🔷Crypto onramping solution Fun raises $72 million Series A co-led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire
• The startup provides backend onramping infrastructure powering deposits, withdrawals, and settlement for some of crypto's leading apps like Polymarket, Lighter, and Aave.
🔷World Liberty Financial filed a defamation countersuit against Tron founder Justin Sun, accusing him of running a “scorched-earth pressure campaign” after his WLFI tokens were frozen.
🔷Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm, a16z crypto, has raised $2.2 billion for its fifth fund.
🔷Bullish agreed to acquire Equiniti in a $4.2 billion deal combining its tokenization infrastructure with a regulated shareholder services platform.
🔷Morgan Stanley has reportedly begun a pilot rollout of spot cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform, charging clients a 50-basis-point fee per transaction as it expands deeper into retail crypto services.
🔷Solana Foundation announced a partnership with Google Cloud to launch a payment gateway for AI agents, enabling access to and payment for APIs via Solana wallets using stablecoins on a pay-per-call basis, without requiring accounts or subscriptions.
🔷MoonPay has acquired DFlow in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $100 million. DFlow provides trade routing and DEX aggregation services and has recently accounted for around 5% to 10% of trading volume across Solana-related platforms.
🔷Polygon Labs has launched shielded stablecoin payments in its wallet, supporting USDC and USDT. Users can now choose a "Privately Send" option, which routes transfers through Hinkal’s shielded pool instead of a standard on-chain transfer.
🔷SC Ventures, the investment and fintech arm of Standard Chartered, has made a strategic investment in GSR, one of crypto’s largest market makers, becoming the firm’s first external strategic shareholder since its founding in 2013.
🔷Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the primary driver of TON and become its largest validator, with a renewed focus on technical performance. TON is expected to roll out a new website, developer tools, and performance upgrades within the next 2–3 weeks.
🔷Tom Lee’s Bitmine added 101,745 ETH last week. Its total crypto and cash holdings now stand at approximately $13.1 billion, including 5,180,131 ETH, 200 BTC, an estimated $83 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and a $200 million investment in Beast Industries.
🔷Western Union, the Largest Remittance Provider in the U.S., announced that its USD stablecoin USDPT has been launched on Solana. USDPT will primarily be used for cross-border settlement and agent clearing, with consumer-facing payment features planned for rollout in 2026.
🔷According to BitcoinTreasuries, the $142 billion Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo), owned by the Canadian government, disclosed purchasing 1.38 million shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) valued at $219 million.
▶️Crypto News & Updates
🔷Payward, Kraken's parent company, agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments firm Reap Technologies for $600 million in cash and stock to expand further into Asia.
🔷Arbitrum DAO voted to approve the release of roughly $70 million in frozen ETH to DeFi United, the industry-backed initiative coordinating recovery efforts following the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit.
🔷Circle raised $222 million in a token presale for its new Arc blockchain at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation, with backing from a16z crypto, BlackRock, Apollo, and others.
🔷Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic raised $120 million in a Series D round led by One Peak Partners at a $670 million valuation, with backing from Deutsche Bank, Nasdaq Ventures, and existing investor JPMorgan.
🔷Bitcoin Ordinals explorer Ord.io and memecoin trading app Zap will shut down on June 1 after creator Leonidas King said the projects ran out of money and lacked a sustainable path forward.
🔷21Shares launched the first-ever Hyperliquid ETF, THYP, on Tuesday, offering investors exposure to the native HYPE token of the largest onchain perps DEX.
🔷Charles Schwab launched spot bitcoin and ether trading through Schwab Crypto for the first wave of eligible retail clients on Tuesday, charging a 75-basis-point fee per trade.
• Blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos handles trade execution and sub-custody for Schwab Crypto, while Charles Schwab Premier Bank serves as custodian.
🔷Solana-based PreStocks tokens tied to Anthropic and OpenAI fell sharply this week as both artificial intelligence companies warned unauthorized equity transfers may be void and unrecognized.
🔷Coinbase disclosed during its Q1 2026 earnings call that the company purchased $88 million worth of Bitcoin in the first quarter, further expanding its corporate BTC reserves. Coinbase currently holds 16,492 BTC—an increase of 1,103 BTC from its previous disclosure—valued at approximately $1.3 billion at current prices.
🔷Protocols with ~$2 billion in combined TVL—including KelpDAO ($1.5B), SolvProtocol ($600M), and re ($200M)—are migrating to Chainlink CCIP. However, major assets like Ethena's USDe, Etherfi's weETH, and Bitgo's WBTC still utilize LayerZero's OFT standard.
🔷Michael Saylor’s Strategy acquired 535 BTC for approximately $43 million between May 4 and May 10 at an average price of around $80,340 per bitcoin. As of May 10, 2026, the company holds 818,869 BTC acquired for approximately $61.86 billion at an average cost basis of around $75,540 per bitcoin.
🔷Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced that its ETH holdings increased to 5,206,790 ETH, up about 26,659 ETH from the previously disclosed 5,180,131 ETH. Bitmine’s total assets now stand at approximately $13.4 billion, including 201 BTC, $775 million in cash. It currently stakes 4,712,917 ETH, worth about $11.1 billion at current prices, and now holds approximately 4.31% of Ethereum’s total supply.
🔷Fluid Says Resolv Exploit Led to $21M Bad Debt, Now Fully Covered. $19.3 million in bad debt has been fully covered, with Resolv covering about $9.7 million, Fluid’s governance treasury covering $8.2 million, and the team covering $1.5 million.
🔷Kevin Warsh Confirmed as Fed Chair by Narrowest Senate Margin in History.
🔷Payward, Kraken's parent company, agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments firm Reap Technologies for $600 million in cash and stock to expand further into Asia.
🔷Arbitrum DAO voted to approve the release of roughly $70 million in frozen ETH to DeFi United, the industry-backed initiative coordinating recovery efforts following the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit.
🔷Circle raised $222 million in a token presale for its new Arc blockchain at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation, with backing from a16z crypto, BlackRock, Apollo, and others.
🔷Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic raised $120 million in a Series D round led by One Peak Partners at a $670 million valuation, with backing from Deutsche Bank, Nasdaq Ventures, and existing investor JPMorgan.
🔷Bitcoin Ordinals explorer Ord.io and memecoin trading app Zap will shut down on June 1 after creator Leonidas King said the projects ran out of money and lacked a sustainable path forward.
🔷21Shares launched the first-ever Hyperliquid ETF, THYP, on Tuesday, offering investors exposure to the native HYPE token of the largest onchain perps DEX.
🔷Charles Schwab launched spot bitcoin and ether trading through Schwab Crypto for the first wave of eligible retail clients on Tuesday, charging a 75-basis-point fee per trade.
• Blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos handles trade execution and sub-custody for Schwab Crypto, while Charles Schwab Premier Bank serves as custodian.
🔷Solana-based PreStocks tokens tied to Anthropic and OpenAI fell sharply this week as both artificial intelligence companies warned unauthorized equity transfers may be void and unrecognized.
🔷Coinbase disclosed during its Q1 2026 earnings call that the company purchased $88 million worth of Bitcoin in the first quarter, further expanding its corporate BTC reserves. Coinbase currently holds 16,492 BTC—an increase of 1,103 BTC from its previous disclosure—valued at approximately $1.3 billion at current prices.
🔷Protocols with ~$2 billion in combined TVL—including KelpDAO ($1.5B), SolvProtocol ($600M), and re ($200M)—are migrating to Chainlink CCIP. However, major assets like Ethena's USDe, Etherfi's weETH, and Bitgo's WBTC still utilize LayerZero's OFT standard.
🔷Michael Saylor’s Strategy acquired 535 BTC for approximately $43 million between May 4 and May 10 at an average price of around $80,340 per bitcoin. As of May 10, 2026, the company holds 818,869 BTC acquired for approximately $61.86 billion at an average cost basis of around $75,540 per bitcoin.
🔷Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced that its ETH holdings increased to 5,206,790 ETH, up about 26,659 ETH from the previously disclosed 5,180,131 ETH. Bitmine’s total assets now stand at approximately $13.4 billion, including 201 BTC, $775 million in cash. It currently stakes 4,712,917 ETH, worth about $11.1 billion at current prices, and now holds approximately 4.31% of Ethereum’s total supply.
🔷Fluid Says Resolv Exploit Led to $21M Bad Debt, Now Fully Covered. $19.3 million in bad debt has been fully covered, with Resolv covering about $9.7 million, Fluid’s governance treasury covering $8.2 million, and the team covering $1.5 million.
🔷Kevin Warsh Confirmed as Fed Chair by Narrowest Senate Margin in History.
Jukan, zephyr, citrini - all analysts
Irrational analyst - engineer
Bubbleboi - engineer
Suspended cap - investment
Semi analysis / fabricated knowledge - engineers/analysts
Illyquid - not sure
Fundaai - similar to citrini and semi
Irrational analyst - engineer
Bubbleboi - engineer
Suspended cap - investment
Semi analysis / fabricated knowledge - engineers/analysts
Illyquid - not sure
Fundaai - similar to citrini and semi
For now, Phoenix's OI & volume is almost non-existent. Solana c-suite elites are shilling it hard and Phoenix team is also pretty talented (i think they had built a serum competitor back in the day), but they need to get some MMs up on this perp DEX.
people making fun of $HYPE not being able to cross $50 on CT are about to delete their tweets soon imo
▶️Crypto News & Updates
🔷Coinbase became Hyperliquid's official USDC treasury deployer as an aligned quote asset (AQA)
• Native Markets, the operator of Hyperliquid's USDH, agreed to grant Coinbase the right to purchase USDH brand assets as the stablecoin begins a gradual sunset process.
🔷Bitcoin Depot announced Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas as the Nasdaq-listed crypto ATM operator moves to wind down its business.
🔷Iranian media reported the launch of Hormuz Safe, a bitcoin-settled marine insurance platform for cargo shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf.
🔷Michael Saylor’s Strategy bought another 24,869 BTC for approximately $2 billion, pushing its total holdings to 843,738 BTC ($65 billion) — the equivalent of more than 4% of bitcoin's 21 million supply cap. (Posting late here)
🔷Tom Lee’s Bitmine acquired another 71,672 ETH, expanding its total Ethereum treasury to 5.28 million ETH ($11 billion). (Also posting late)
🔷The wife of Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of Ethereum-based metaverse platform The Sandbox, was reportedly targeted in a kidnapping attempt at the family's home in Villenoy, France, after suspects posing as delivery workers allegedly tried to force her into a vehicle.
🔷Blast Layer 2-based Fantasy.top is winding down after more than two years of operations and months spent exploring alternative options.
🔷On May 22, 2026, Polymarket lost approximately $573K after a 6-year-old private key was compromised. The attacker drained funds from an internal top-up/rewards wallet on Polygon, not user funds or trading contracts.
🔷Ethereum Layer 2 Zero Network said it will shut down after one and a half years as its parent company, Zerion, redirects resources toward its API and wallet business.
🔷Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum Foundation will be a 'smaller ship,' sell less ETH amid researcher exodus.
🔷The UK sanctioned crypto exchange HTX, formerly known as Huobi, accusing the platform of supporting the Russian government through financial services linked to sanctions evasion.
🔷Vivek Ramaswamy-founded Strive bought another 1,109 BTC for roughly $85.4 million, pushing its total holdings to 16,500 BTC and making it the seventh-largest public corporate bitcoin holder.
🔷Hyperliquid rolled out validator-governed prediction markets tied to real-world events as part of its HIP-4 upgrade.
Some headlines are likely not covered. Will cover in next post.
🔷Coinbase became Hyperliquid's official USDC treasury deployer as an aligned quote asset (AQA)
• Native Markets, the operator of Hyperliquid's USDH, agreed to grant Coinbase the right to purchase USDH brand assets as the stablecoin begins a gradual sunset process.
🔷Bitcoin Depot announced Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas as the Nasdaq-listed crypto ATM operator moves to wind down its business.
🔷Iranian media reported the launch of Hormuz Safe, a bitcoin-settled marine insurance platform for cargo shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf.
🔷Michael Saylor’s Strategy bought another 24,869 BTC for approximately $2 billion, pushing its total holdings to 843,738 BTC ($65 billion) — the equivalent of more than 4% of bitcoin's 21 million supply cap. (Posting late here)
🔷Tom Lee’s Bitmine acquired another 71,672 ETH, expanding its total Ethereum treasury to 5.28 million ETH ($11 billion). (Also posting late)
🔷The wife of Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of Ethereum-based metaverse platform The Sandbox, was reportedly targeted in a kidnapping attempt at the family's home in Villenoy, France, after suspects posing as delivery workers allegedly tried to force her into a vehicle.
🔷Blast Layer 2-based Fantasy.top is winding down after more than two years of operations and months spent exploring alternative options.
🔷On May 22, 2026, Polymarket lost approximately $573K after a 6-year-old private key was compromised. The attacker drained funds from an internal top-up/rewards wallet on Polygon, not user funds or trading contracts.
🔷Ethereum Layer 2 Zero Network said it will shut down after one and a half years as its parent company, Zerion, redirects resources toward its API and wallet business.
🔷Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum Foundation will be a 'smaller ship,' sell less ETH amid researcher exodus.
🔷The UK sanctioned crypto exchange HTX, formerly known as Huobi, accusing the platform of supporting the Russian government through financial services linked to sanctions evasion.
🔷Vivek Ramaswamy-founded Strive bought another 1,109 BTC for roughly $85.4 million, pushing its total holdings to 16,500 BTC and making it the seventh-largest public corporate bitcoin holder.
🔷Hyperliquid rolled out validator-governed prediction markets tied to real-world events as part of its HIP-4 upgrade.
Some headlines are likely not covered. Will cover in next post.
Posted on substack after quite some time
https://open.substack.com/pub/kalpeshem/p/market-thoughts-and-opinions-08b
https://open.substack.com/pub/kalpeshem/p/market-thoughts-and-opinions-08b
As someone who has been in the space for nearly a decade, I'm not sure Bitcoin recovers this time.
I had huge conviction in it all those years ago, but now it feels like Saylor and Trump have poisoned the well.
You're certainly not early anymore, and I'm not saying it'll never go up again, just that there are better opportunities out there in general.
I am pivoting to trading commodity futures full time and posting memes.
I had huge conviction in it all those years ago, but now it feels like Saylor and Trump have poisoned the well.
You're certainly not early anymore, and I'm not saying it'll never go up again, just that there are better opportunities out there in general.
I am pivoting to trading commodity futures full time and posting memes.
👍4