Today's top news highlights:

Regulation & Macro

FOX Business: The Iranian government holds approximately $7.7 billion in digital assets.

The Iranian government controls approximately $7.7 billion in digital assets. The U.S. Treasury Department has previously frozen about $500 million in Iran-related crypto assets, including $344 million last month alone. The CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management stated that while cryptocurrencies are often seen as a tool for evading sanctions, they are actually helpful for law enforcement agencies in tracking them. The U.S. government may increase pressure on Iran by blocking cryptocurrency exchanges from accessing the U.S. banking system.

Cambodian police raided Prince Square in Phnom Penh, detaining over 100 people.

Cambodian police raided Prince Square in Phnom Penh, suspected of operating a telecom fraud operation, detaining over 100 people, including 82 Chinese nationals. Law enforcement seized a large quantity of electronic devices, including 800 mobile phones and over 100 computers. Previously, the Hong Kong High Court had granted a restraining order against Prince Group founder Chen Zhi and 42 others, along with several companies, freezing approximately HK$9 billion in assets.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has granted NewBX a virtual asset trading platform license, bringing the total number of licensed platforms to 13.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has granted Bixin, a digital asset trading platform under NewBX Limited, a license to operate a virtual asset trading platform. Bixin is authorized to conduct Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 7 (providing automated trading services) regulated activities, and has also been licensed under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance. This brings the total number of licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong to 13.

The latest round of crypto tax reforms by the US Congress will instruct the IRS to review exemptions for small transactions.

Lawmakers from both parties in the U.S. have reintroduced a revised version of the PARITY bill, a cryptocurrency tax law. The bill would instruct the IRS to review the potential impact of the small amount tax exemption, define the applicability of digital asset "laundering" rules, and clarify the tax treatment of digital assets acquired by validators through staking. Furthermore, the bill requires the IRS to review the tax burden of small-value digital asset transactions, assess how many transactions under $200 are covered by existing laws, and study the feasibility and potential abuse risks of the small amount tax exemption.

The US SEC chairman is seeking public comment on prediction market ETFs.

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking public comment on prediction market ETFs. The SEC is clearly weighing the pros and cons of such products and wants to allow more time for market feedback. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented that prediction market ETFs are a completely new concept, similar to cryptocurrencies, and the SEC wants to be fully prepared before opening the door.

The Federal Reserve is seeking public comment on a streamlined master account framework, which would allow crypto companies to access its payment system.

The Federal Reserve has issued a notice seeking comments and proposing rulemaking for payment accounts (i.e., “simplified master accounts”), allowing eligible fintech and crypto companies to access the Fed’s payment system for clearing and settlement. The Fed also encourages regional Federal Reserve banks to suspend processing new “Tier 3” master account access requests until December 2026 to improve system consistency when the framework is finalized.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce will join Regent University School of Law as a faculty member in November 2026.

Hester Peirce, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner and head of the Cryptocurrency Task Force, will join Regent University School of Law in Virginia as an associate professor in November 2026, indicating that her term at the SEC may be nearing its end. Peirce will teach courses on securities regulation, financial markets, digital assets, and public policy. Peirce is known in the crypto industry as "Crypto Mom" due to her long-standing support for the crypto sector and advocacy for regulatory transparency.

Project Updates

Binance Alpha will open its airdrop for collection and trading at 20:00 today, with a minimum requirement of 230 points.

Binance Futures will launch SPCXUSDT U-margined Pre-IPO perpetual contracts.

Binance Futures will launch SPCXUSDT U-margined Pre-IPO perpetual contracts on May 21, 2026 at 12:45 (UTC+8), with a maximum leverage of 5x.

Due to a vulnerability in the Haveno protocol, RetoSwap suffered a loss of approximately $2.7 million.

Decentralized exchange RetoSwap suffered a loss of approximately $2.7 million due to a vulnerability in the Haveno protocol. The attacker impersonated an arbitrator by sending forged ACK messages, changed node addresses to addresses under their control, and thus created compromised multi-signature wallets before funds were deposited. RetoSwap has blocked the attacker's addresses and suspended trading, and is evaluating options to help affected traders recover their losses.

OpenAI is reportedly filing for an IPO as early as this Friday, with a valuation exceeding $850 billion.

OpenAI is expected to secretly file its IPO prospectus as early as this Friday, preparing for what could be one of the largest IPOs in history. OpenAI is working with investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, planning to finalize the secret filing within the next few days or weeks. Currently, OpenAI is valued at over $850 billion in the private market. The IPO could launch as early as the fourth quarter of this year.

Syndicate Labs announced its phased closure, stating that "the rollup market has fundamentally changed."

Syndicate Labs has announced its phased closure. After five years of building on-chain developer infrastructure, the team made this necessary decision due to a fundamental shift in the Rollup market. The Rollup market has shrunk significantly, and EVM Rollups are no longer the standard. Syndicate consists of two entities: the development company Syndicate Labs and the Syndicate Network Collective, which holds governance rights over the SYND token. The latter is independent of Syndicate Labs, so SYND governance will not be immediately affected. All code is open source and permanently available.

Fantasy.top announced it will cease operations at the end of June, stating that "the TCG model is no longer economically viable."

On-chain trading card platform Fantasy.top announced it will shut down at the end of June after two years of operation. The team stated that the long-term economics of the TCG model ultimately showed its limitations, with insufficient trading volume to sustain long-term operations. All investors will receive a full refund. The main Fantasy competition will continue until June 18th, until all remaining rewards are distributed. Prediction markets, prize pools, arenas, and other games will close on May 21st.

Sui launches gas-free stablecoin transfer feature

Sui has launched a gas-free stablecoin transfer feature, allowing users and businesses to conduct peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers without paying gas fees or holding SUI tokens, reducing transaction fees to zero. This feature, powered by Fireblocks, is being rolled out gradually on the Sui mainnet. This upgrade supports multiple stablecoins, including USDsui, SuiUSDe, AUSD, FDUSD, USDB, USDC, and USDY.

The Map Protocol/Butter Network cross-chain bridge was attacked on Ethereum and BSC, resulting in a loss of approximately $110,000.

The Map Protocol/Butter Network cross-chain bridge was attacked on Ethereum and BSC. The attackers tricked the Butter Bridge V3.1 contract into directly minting approximately 1000 trillion MAPO tokens to a newly created EOA address, roughly 4.8 million times the legitimate supply of 208 million tokens. The attackers have profited approximately 52.2 ETH (about $110,000). MAP Protocol has suspended the bridge between the MAPO ERC-20 and the MAPO mainnet, and Butter Network has suspended ButterSwap.

Crypto custody company Copper is seeking to sell the company for approximately $500 million.

Cryptocurrency custody company Copper is seeking a sale at a valuation of approximately $500 million, with Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald appointed to assist in the sale. Copper's core asset is the ClearLoop settlement system, which allows network participants to complete delivery versus payment (DVP) transactions within the custody facility, eliminating settlement risk by removing assets from the blockchain. Copper shut down its corporate custody business in 2023 to focus on ClearLoop, which serves numerous institutional clients.

Y Combinator launches the "YC Crypto Deals" program, providing entrepreneurs with a range of tools to support them.

Y Combinator announced the launch of the "YC Crypto Deals" program, which will provide a range of tools to support its funded fintech and crypto entrepreneurs, including wallet services, fiat currency exchange gateways, security audits, blockchain infrastructure, and on-chain data services. Partners include Quicknode, Infinite, the Solana Foundation, Base, Coinbase, Stripe, Privy, Phantom, Circle, and many other companies.

TAC: Approximately 90% of the stolen assets have been recovered; the cross-chain bridge will resume operation after the audit is completed.

The TON network expansion project, TAC, disclosed that a security incident occurred on the TON-TAC asset bridge on May 11th. The root cause of the vulnerability was a missing verification in the sorting software. The total loss was approximately $2.86 million, involving USDT, BLUM, and tsTON. Following a public appeal, approximately 90% of the assets were returned to the multi-signature address controlled by TAC on May 14th, with the remaining 10% retained by the attackers. The cross-chain bridge remains suspended, awaiting independent review of the fixed sorting software by auditors and TON partners. The remaining funding gap will be filled by the TAC Foundation's treasury; users and the protocol suffered no financial loss.

Investment and financing news

Prediction market Kalshi raises an additional $200 million from Baillie Gifford and Layer Global.

Prediction market Kalshi raised an additional $200 million from Baillie Gifford and Layer Global, extending its previous $1 billion funding round led by Coatue Management, while maintaining its valuation at $22 billion. Kalshi had previously completed a $1 billion Series F funding round led by Coatue Management, with other participants including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Paradigm, Morgan Stanley, and ARK Invest. Kalshi's monthly trading volume exceeded $14 billion in April, with annualized revenue exceeding $1.5 billion.

Decentralized derivatives trading protocol Variational has raised $50 million in Series A funding, led by Dragonfly Capital.

Decentralized derivatives trading protocol Variational has completed a $50 million Series A funding round, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and Coinbase Ventures, among others. This follows a $10.3 million seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto. Variational aggregates liquidity from major crypto exchanges and traditional financial market makers to provide on-chain derivatives trading, including real-world assets such as oil and commodities. Its retail application Omni and OLP liquidity pools are currently invitation-only and will gradually open to the public in select jurisdictions.

Opinions & Analysis

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman says he has liquidated his ETH holdings.

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman has sold off all his ETH holdings. Another co-founder, Ryan Sean Adams, stated he remains optimistic about ETH and Bankless, but plans to step back more, with David taking the helm.

CryptoQuant: Bitcoin's price action is similar to the 2022 bear market pattern, and market sentiment has turned "extremely pessimistic."

Julio Moreno, Head of Research at CryptoQuant, stated that Bitcoin's price action is mirroring the 2022 bear market pattern, with market sentiment turning "extremely pessimistic." Bitcoin's recent rally encountered resistance at the 200-day moving average around $82,400, consistent with the situation in March 2022. Bitcoin demand has turned negative, with speculative demand in perpetual futures slowing sharply after breaking through $82,000, and spot demand contracting rapidly. US spot Bitcoin ETFs have turned net sellers. CryptoQuant's bullish rating index has fallen from 40 to 20, placing it in the "extremely bearish" zone. If the pullback continues, around $70,000 is a key support level.

Musk: SpaceX is providing AI computing services on a massive scale.

Musk stated that the recent expanded partnership with AnthropicAI demonstrates that SpaceX is providing AI computing services at scale and is in talks with other companies to offer similar services. Over time, especially with the construction of on-orbit data centers, SpaceX expects to provide AI services at an extremely high scale.

Important data

The whale loracle.hl has increased its short position in HYPE to $100 million, with unrealized losses exceeding $23 million.

The whale loracle.hl's short position in HYPE has increased to over $100 million, with a current unrealized loss of over $23 million and a liquidation price of $69.49.

Galaxy Digital's linked wallet purchased 158,100 HYPE tokens in the past two hours, worth approximately $8.8 million.

The wallet 0xBED9, associated with Galaxy Digital, bought 158,100 HYPE tokens (US$8.8 million) in the past two hours. The newly created wallet 0x4CBB withdrew 536,247 HYPE tokens (US$29.87 million) from Coinbase in the past two days.

whale loracle.hl has increased its short position in HYPE to $95.79 million.

The whale loracle.hl's short position in HYPE has already suffered a floating loss of nearly $20 million, but it is still adding to its position. Currently, it holds a short position of 1.71 million HYPE tokens ($95.79 million), with a liquidation price of $69.78.

In the past 24 hours, a16z has withdrawn a total of 259,700 HYPE tokens from exchanges, worth $13.29 million.

In the past 24 hours, a16z, the largest external holder of HYPE, withdrew a total of 259,700 HYPE tokens from various exchanges, worth $13.29 million, at an average withdrawal price of $51.17; of these, 73,000 tokens were deposited back into exchanges, and their intended use is unknown.

The "PEPE Swing Trading 100% Win Rate Giant Whale" is suspected of liquidating its positions, with accumulated losses potentially exceeding $17.12 million.

The "PEPE Swing Trading 100% Win Rate Whale" appears to be liquidating its holdings, with estimated cumulative losses of $17.12 million. In the past 12 hours, it deposited its remaining 63.9 billion PEPE tokens into Bitget, worth $2.357 million, at a deposit price of $0.000003687. Its cost basis is approximately $0.00001683. Selling would result in a loss of $8.4 million, and combined with losses from deposits made two months ago, the total loss exceeds $17.12 million. Furthermore, it also deposited tokens into other altcoins such as UNI and CAKE.

Of Strategy's top 15 institutional shareholders, 13 increased their holdings in Q1, with a combined increase of 27%.

Of Strategy's top 15 institutional shareholders, 13 increased their holdings in the first quarter of 2026, with a combined increase of 27%.

The three major U.S. stock indexes continued to rise, all gaining more than 1%.

The three major U.S. stock indexes continued to rise, all gaining more than 1%. Trump said earlier that negotiations with Iran had entered the "final stage".

Nvidia's first-quarter revenue was $81.62 billion, an 85% year-over-year increase.

Nvidia reported first-quarter revenue of $81.62 billion, an 85% year-over-year increase, exceeding analysts' expectations of $79.18 billion; earnings per share were $1.87, exceeding the expected $1.77. Data center revenue reached $75.2 billion, nearly double the $39.11 billion in the same period last year. Nvidia expects second-quarter revenue to be between $89.1 billion and $92.8 billion. Jensen Huang stated that production and shipping of the next-generation rack-mount AI system, Vera Rubin, are expected to begin in the second half of this year.

Two Grayscale-linked wallets purchased and staked a total of 510,000 HYPE tokens in the past week, amounting to approximately $24.95 million.

Grayscale is buying HYPE. In the past week, two wallets affiliated with Grayscale purchased and staked 510,387 HYPE tokens ($24.95 million). Grayscale filed its S-1 registration statement for a HYPE ETF in January.

SpaceX disclosed in its S-1 filing that it holds 18,712 bitcoins, currently worth approximately $1.45 billion.

According to SpaceX's S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for its IPO, the company holds 18,712 bitcoins, purchased at a cost of $661 million, equivalent to approximately $35,000 per bitcoin. SpaceX began purchasing bitcoins in 2021 and has since reduced its holdings. If its holdings exceed 18,000 bitcoins, it will become the seventh-largest bitcoin holder. At current bitcoin prices, these holdings are worth over $1.45 billion.

whale Garrett Jin has re-entered a long position in BTC, opening a long order of 504.4 BTC with 5x leverage.

Garrett Jin, an agent of the "1011 Insider Whale," has resumed his long position on BTC. He deposited 39.5 million USDC into Binance, then withdrew 40 million USDC from Binance using a new wallet (0x92ea) and deposited 10 million USDC into Hyperliquid. He opened a long position of 504.4 BTC ($59.11 million) with 5x leverage and bought 42,524 HYPE ($2.33 million), with a liquidation price of $62,656.49.

Anchorage's affiliated wallet purchased approximately 140,000 HYPE tokens again, worth $7.38 million.

Wallets linked to Anchorage further withdrew 142,308 HYPE from Gate and OKX, worth $7.38 million. In the past month, it has cumulatively purchased 2.527 million HYPE ($140 million) and sent these HYPE for staking.

Coinbase institutional account transferred over 660 bitcoins to unknown wallet.

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