Today's top news highlights:
The Bank of England will accept applications for stablecoins, viewing them as a "new form of money."
The US CFTC issued a no-action letter regarding event contract data reporting.
Binance Alpha will remove several tokens including PRAI, COMMON, PINGPONG, and TAKER.
Pharos (PHAROS) listed on Binance Alpha.
Consensys postpones potential IPO until at least fall due to unfavorable market conditions.
Regulation & Macro
The US Senate approved Kevin Warsh as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Warsh as the new Federal Reserve Chairman by a vote of 54 to 45. The Senate had previously approved Warsh's appointment as a Fed Governor on May 12 for a 14-year term. With the confirmation on May 13, Warsh will officially assume office after completing the necessary signing procedures at the White House, succeeding current Chairman Powell, whose term ends this Friday (May 15). However, Powell is expected to remain on the Fed Governor board. This vote was the most partisan in history: only one Democrat—Pennsylvania Senator John Fetman—joined the Republican majority in voting in favor.
The US CFTC issued a no-action letter regarding event contract data reporting.
The U.S. CFTC's Market Surveillance and Clearing & Risk Divisions issued a no-action letter recommending no enforcement action against designated contract markets, derivatives clearing organizations, and their participants for failing to comply with swap-related record-keeping requirements and to report fully collateralized event contract transaction data to swap data repositories. This move aims to streamline approval processes and ensure uniform treatment of market participants.
On the eve of the CLARITY bill's deliberations, negotiations between senators from both parties ended without result. Republican lead negotiator Cynthia Lummis stated that 99% of the content had been agreed upon, hoping to resolve the remaining 1% after committee approval. Democrats demanded compromises on ethical and conflict-of-interest issues before deliberations and disagreed on amendments to the BRCA clause. The deliberations are expected to proceed along party lines.
Fidelity has expressed its support for the CLARITY Act, stating that it offers a balanced approach to regulation and, if passed, would provide legal clarity to the digital asset market, benefit U.S. investors, and ensure U.S. leadership in the global digital asset space.
The Bank of England will accept applications for stablecoins, viewing them as a "new form of money."
Bank of England Executive Director Sasha Mills stated that stablecoins are viewed as a "new form of money," and there will be no winner-takes-all between tokenized deposits and stablecoins. The central bank will open applications for "systemic stablecoins" by the end of the year, which will be regulated by the central bank. Matthew Long, Director of Payments and Digital Assets at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said that other stablecoins are regulated by the FCA, and there is still room for pound-denominated stablecoins. Currently, 99% of global stablecoins are denominated in US dollars and do not comply with the US GENIUS Act; the UK's timeline is synchronized with the US.
US President Trump arrives in Beijing to begin his visit to China
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing by special plane on the evening of May 13 to begin a state visit to China.
Project Updates
Binance will launch an airdrop program for eligible users holding USD1 on the platform.
Starting May 15, 2026 at 08:00 (UTC+8), Binance will launch an airdrop event for eligible users holding USD1, offering a share of a total WLFI prize pool equivalent to $13 million. The event will run until June 12 at 08:00, with WLFI rewards distributed every Saturday before 02:00.
Binance Alpha will remove several tokens including PRAI, COMMON, PINGPONG, and TAKER.
Binance Alpha will remove the following tokens on May 14, 2026 at 14:00 (UTC+8): PRAI, COMMON, PINGPONG, TAKER, JANITOR, GATA, KLINK, CORL, SWTCH, ARIAIP, LONG, ZKWASM, GORILLA, ECHO, LITKEY, FIR, GM, DELABS, DONKEY, and WHY.
Binance Futures will launch PHAROSUSDT and STARUSDT USDT U-margined perpetual contracts.
Binance Futures will launch PHAROSUSDT perpetual contracts with a maximum leverage of 20x at 13:15 on May 14, 2026; and STARUSDT perpetual contracts with a maximum leverage of 3x at 13:30.
BNB Chain launches an on-chain proxy identity and payment framework based on the ERC-8004 standard.
BNB Chain has launched an on-chain agent framework that enables autonomous agents to obtain decentralized identities through the ERC-8004 standard, conduct peer-to-peer payments, delegate tasks using the ERC-8183 standard, and accumulate reputation records on 8004scan. The framework integrates multiple skill modules, including BNB Chain smart contract execution, Nodereal's MegaNode API, and Four.meme Agent Skills.
Pharos (PHAROS) listed on Binance Alpha.
Binance Alpha has listed Pharos (PHAROS). Users holding at least 200 Binance Alpha Credits can claim an airdrop of 45 PHAROS tokens on a first-come, first-served basis. Claiming costs 15 Credits. The Credit threshold automatically decreases by 5 Credits every five minutes, and users must confirm their claim within 24 hours.
KelpDAO announced that the first batch of rsETH has been transferred from Aave to the LayerZero OFT adapter, and cross-chain bridging has resumed. The rsETH contract will be unsuspended within 24 hours to resume withdrawals, and deposits will reopen within 48 hours. Staking rewards accumulated during the suspension period will be distributed to all rsETH holders. The remaining batches of rsETH will be sent over the next two weeks.
The TON network expansion project, TAC, suffered an external attack on the TON side of its cross-chain layer, resulting in a loss of approximately $2.8 million, affecting USDT, BLUM, and tsTON. TAC tokens, TON, and ERC-20 tokens crossed from Ethereum were unaffected. The cross-chain bridge is suspended; a detailed analysis report will be released within 48 hours. The team is cooperating with law enforcement to trace the funds and plans to fully compensate users and restore bridge liquidity through a legally structured sale of the foundation's TAC token treasury reserves.
Microsoft's threat intelligence team stated that attackers implanted malicious code into a software package distributed by Mistral AI via PyPI, stealing developers' login information and access tokens. The malicious code avoids Russian-language systems and may randomly delete files on some systems located in Israel or Iran. Mistral stated that one affected developer's device was compromised, but the company's infrastructure was unaffected.
Transit Finance experienced a security incident where a legacy vulnerability in an older version of its smart contract deployed on TRON was exploited, affecting a small number of users. The team has completed the investigation, isolation, and remediation; currently used contract versions were unaffected. Affected users will receive full compensation; details will be announced through official channels.
Anthropic and OpenAI's tokenization pre-IPO stocks plummeted.
Anthropic and OpenAI warned that unauthorized equity transfers might be invalid, triggering a sharp drop in related PreStock tokens on the Solana blockchain. Anthropic PreStocks fell by approximately 38%, while OpenAI PreStocks dropped by approximately 46%. Both companies emphasized that common and preferred stock are subject to strict transfer restrictions, and OpenAI warned that the related transactions might violate U.S. securities laws.
Investment and financing news
Ledger postpones its planned US IPO and is considering private financing instead.
Ledger has suspended its US IPO plans due to unfavorable market conditions and is evaluating other options, including private financing. The company had previously discussed a US IPO with Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays earlier this year, with a potential valuation of approximately $4 billion, but did not file an S-1 report. Several crypto companies have performed poorly after their IPOs in 2025; BitGo's stock price has fallen below its IPO price by approximately 36%.
US defense technology company Anduril has completed a $5 billion Series H funding round, valuing the company at $61 billion post-money. The round was led by Thrive Capital and a16z. The company projects revenue of $2.2 billion by 2025, and its revenue and headcount have nearly doubled in the past year. Anduril will increase investment in high-capacity manufacturing, AI and autonomous systems, the Lattice sensing and command and control platform, and the Arsenal-1 plant and ArsenalOS production system.
Consensys postpones potential IPO until at least fall due to unfavorable market conditions.
Consensys has postponed its potential IPO to as early as fall due to unfavorable market conditions. The company had planned to secretly file its S-1 registration statement with the SEC at the end of February, hiring JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to lead the process. In February 2026, the crypto market experienced a significant downturn, with several crypto companies suspending their IPO plans. BitGo was the only crypto-native company to go public in 2026, with its share price falling approximately 36% from its IPO price. Consensys completed a $450 million Series D funding round in early 2022, valuing the company at $7 billion.
Opinions & Analysis
CryptoQuant: Bitcoin faces downside risk after hitting a "major bear market resistance level"
A CryptoQuant report indicates that Bitcoin faces a pullback risk after touching the 200-day moving average at $82,400, a level that served as significant resistance during the 2022 bear market. Traders' unrealized profit rate reached 17.7% on May 5th, the highest since June of last year, indicating profit-taking pressure. Daily realized profits rose to their highest level since early December last week, with traders cashing out 14,600 BTC (nearly $1.2 billion) on May 4th. If the price falls, support is seen around $70,000.
A 10x Research report states that altcoin momentum is capped at the 30-day moving average, with Bitcoin still dominating. The current best allocation is BNB and TRX. SUI, ONDO, and TON may see profit-taking. ETH, HYPE, TRUMPF, and MKR should be avoided. Three major catalysts this week: the Clarity Act hearings, the power transition from Powell to Warsh, and CPI/PPI data.
X platform user Cprkrn claims that Claude AI helped him recover his Bitcoin wallet, which had been lost for nearly nine years and contained 5 BTC (approximately $400,000). On-chain data shows that the wallet had not been used since 2015 and was recently transferred. Experts say Claude's role is to assist in document analysis, not to crack encryption.
Important data
Yesterday, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $635 million. BlackRock's IBIT saw the largest net outflow at $285 million, compared to a historical total net inflow of $65.773 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares' ARKB saw net outflows of $177 million each, compared to a historical total net inflow of $1.451 billion. The total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $105.01 billion, with a net asset value ratio of 6.58%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $58.499 billion.
The wallet 0xb5E4, associated with a16z, purchased 50,168 HYPE tokens (US$1.97 million) eight hours ago. Over the past month, it has accumulated purchases of 1.64 million HYPE tokens (US$69.43 million), resulting in a paper loss of over US$6 million.
A pre-mining address containing 400 ETH was activated after being dormant for 10.8 years.
A pre-mining address that had been dormant for 10.8 years was activated, containing 400 ETH ($905,093), which was worth only $124 in 2015.
The whale qianbaidu.eth sold approximately 338,000 HYPE tokens, receiving 13.4 million USDC.
The whale qianbaidu.eth sold 338,084 HYPE tokens in the past 48 hours, acquiring 13.4 million USDC at an average price of $39.65. The whale still has 151,573 HYPE tokens (worth $5.89 million) staked.
Bitcoin “conviction buyers” holdings have increased to nearly 4 million BTC, a 300% increase since the end of 2025, worth approximately $320 billion. Bitfinex stated that the current accumulation trend represents the largest two-quarter surge in high-conviction buying since 2020, with a combination of tightening liquidity and recovering demand setting the stage for Bitcoin’s most aggressive upward expansion.
The US PPI rose 6% year-on-year in April, the highest level since December 2022.
The US PPI rose 6% year-on-year in April, the highest since December 2022, exceeding the expected 4.9%; the monthly rate was 1.4%, the highest since March 2022, exceeding the expected 0.5%.
Nvidia's market capitalization surpasses $5.5 trillion, setting a new all-time high.
BlackRock deposits $173 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum into Coinbase.
BlackRock deposited 861 BTC (approximately $69.59 million) and 44,691 ETH (approximately $103.15 million) into Coinbase, totaling approximately $173 million.
