Today's top news highlights:
Binance Futures will launch OPENAIUSDT U-margined Pre-IPO perpetual contracts.
Binance Futures will launch multiple USDT-margined TradFi perpetual contracts.
Hyperliquid announces support for a canonical results market based on off-chain events.
Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, *Magnifica Humanitas*, focusing on AI and human dignity.
Regulation & Macro
The United States and Iran are discussing a plan to open the Strait of Hormuz approximately 30 days after the two countries reach an agreement to end hostilities. Iran will clear mines within 30 days, after which all ships from all countries will be allowed free and safe passage, and Iran will cease charging transit fees. The ceasefire agreement reached in early April will be extended for 60 days, during which time the two sides plan to negotiate on Iran's nuclear program. The draft agreement between the US and Iran allows for the free opening of the strait and the clearing of mines. The US has pledged to ease its blockade of Iranian ports, allow Iran to sell and export oil, provide specific sanctions waivers, and consider easing oil sanctions in stages. Qatari mediation has facilitated an understanding with the US regarding frozen Iranian financial assets, and the two sides are likely to announce an agreement tomorrow.
Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, *Magnifica Humanitas*, focusing on AI and human dignity.
Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, *Magnifica Humanitas*, focusing on human dignity and social responsibility in the context of rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and digital technologies. The document emphasizes that AI should serve the common good of humanity, rather than undermine human autonomy, creativity, and moral responsibility; it calls on governments, technology companies, and international organizations to establish ethically sound technology governance frameworks to prevent algorithmic discrimination, surveillance abuse, and excessive wealth concentration.
Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs recently banned the prediction market platform Polymarket, deeming it an online gambling platform for offering "bets and speculation on events that are not yet settled," violating local laws. Polymarket had previously launched a betting market on when President Prabowo Subianto would "step down as president," with the contracts going live the day after Prabowo announced plans to tighten controls on exports of commodities such as coal and palm oil. Indonesian authorities also stated they are investigating all social media accounts associated with Polymarket.
Qatari media: Strait of Hormuz to open in phases
Iranian officials have indicated that the Strait of Hormuz will be opened in phases.
Project Updates
Alipay announced that its "AI Payment" has completed 300 million AI-powered payments and supports 95% of general-purpose AI agent frameworks, becoming the world's first large-scale commercially available AI-native payment infrastructure. Simultaneously, Alipay launched the world's first Token Pay service and AI Wallet product. Together with its previously launched AI Pay and AI Pay services, Alipay has built a full-stack AI-native payment system for the AI era, covering complete services from authorization to management, from payment to settlement, and from security to trust. Currently supported general-purpose AI agent frameworks include Qianwen, JVS Claw, Claude code, and Hermes Agent; smart devices such as Qianwen AI Glasses, Rokid, and Future Smart AI Headphones; smart cockpits from companies like Li Auto, Chery, Geely, and Dongfeng; and leading AI tool platforms such as TRAE SOLO, Qoder, and Kouzi.
Binance will remove several spot trading pairs, including APT/ETH and CTSI/BTC.
Binance will remove and cease trading the following spot trading pairs at 11:00 AM UTC on May 29, 2026: APT/ETH, CTSI/BTC, DOT/ETH, FLOKI/FDUSD, MAV/USDC, S/BTC, SAGA/BTC, STEEM/BTC, and WIF/FDUSD.
Binance Futures will launch OPENAIUSDT U-margined Pre-IPO perpetual contracts.
Binance Futures will launch OPENAIUSDT U-margined Pre-IPO perpetual contracts on May 26, 2026 at 16:30 (UTC+8).
Ondo Finance founder Nathan Allman has passed away unexpectedly, and Ian De Bode, who has long served as president of Ondo, will take over as CEO.
Scammers profited at least $400,000 by placing fake Uniswap ads on Google.
Scammers have been using Google search to deliver malicious phishing ads impersonating Uniswap, resulting in at least $400,000 in losses. On-chain analyst b-block points out that fake Uniswap websites are stealing funds from multiple wallets. Stacy Muur, founder of Web3 marketing agency Green Dots, stated that Google has ignored this issue for years, with paid fake ads consistently ranking above legitimate search results. A report from the security alliance SEAL states that phishing activity on Google search increased significantly in March, with attackers using bidding or compromised legitimate advertising accounts to deliver ads impersonating crypto protocols. SEAL has blocked over 356 malicious ad links, and this activity has continued for over a year without showing signs of slowing down.
Binance Futures will launch multiple USDT-margined TradFi perpetual contracts.
Binance Futures will launch NBISUSDT perpetual contracts at 21:30 on May 26, 2026, WDCUSDT perpetual contracts at 21:35, ARMUSDT perpetual contracts at 21:40, BEUSDT perpetual contracts at 21:45, and COHRUSDT perpetual contracts at 21:50.
Cybersecurity analysts have discovered a new fileless remote access Trojan (RAT) called RemotePE, which is believed to be being used by the Lazarus Group, linked to North Korea, to attack banks and cryptocurrency companies. This Trojan runs entirely in memory, making it difficult to detect with traditional antivirus and forensic tools. Attackers impersonate employees of trading companies via Telegram, using fake Calendly and Picktime links for social engineering attacks. The malware is chained through three stages: DPAPILoader, RemotePELoader, and RemotePE, without ever touching the file system. In the first four months of 2026, the Lazarus group stole approximately $577 million in crypto assets, accounting for 76% of global crypto thefts. Since 2017, the group has stolen a total of $6 billion.
Hyperliquid announces support for a canonical results market based on off-chain events.
Hyperliquid now supports canonical outcome markets based on off-chain events. These markets are published by automated news feed software that runs as part of regular on-chain operations. Validators vote on the deployment and settlement of canonical markets based on various factors, including the clarity, correctness, and subjective quality of the market rules.
Kohaku, an Ethereum Foundation subsidiary, has released an SDK for wallet-level privacy integration.
The Kohaku Initiative, part of the Ethereum Foundation, has released a software development kit (SDK) that allows direct integration of privacy protocols such as Railgun, Tornado Cash, and Privacy Pools into wallet interfaces without intermediaries. This SDK enables all privacy protocol transactions to be routed through the 4337 mempool, allowing users to control their privacy independently without relying on centralized relayers. The team has already implemented private transactions with 4337 mempool relay functionality, and integration with Tornado Cash and Privacy Pools is under development. Kohaku aims to make end-to-end privacy the default option for Ethereum users by abstracting the complexity of privacy protocol interactions. Developers have created CLI-based wallet demos, and wallets such as Ambire are being integrated, while a browser-based wallet extension is also under development. Kohaku is also developing support for post-quantum accounts, multi-signature, and hardware wallets.
Unitree Robotics' IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board will be reviewed on June 1st.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange Listing Review Committee is scheduled to hold its 31st review meeting of 2026 on June 1, 2026, to review the initial public offering (IPO) of Unitree Robotics.
The SquidRouterModule on the Ethereum and Base networks is under continuous attack. Within approximately two hours of the attack, 86 Gnosis Safe wallets were emptied, resulting in a loss of about $3 million. The attackers then exchanged all the stolen tokens for DAI through a Uniswap V3 liquidity pool under their control and consolidated them into a single address, which currently holds approximately $3.07 million worth of DAI.
Squid clarified that it was not affected by the Gnosis Safe vulnerability incident.
Blockaid earlier reported that a third-party Gnosis Safe module was exploited on Basescan and Ethereum, causing approximately $3.2 million in losses. The victims were 86 Gnosis Safe tokens that had added the contract as a trusted Safe Module. The contract, named "SquidRouterModule" on Basescan, was not developed, deployed, or operated by Squid; it was merely a third-party smart wallet product integrating protocols from Squid and other parties. Squid emphasized that its core protocol and contract architecture were different and unaffected, and that Squid user funds, authorizations, and integrations remained unaffected.
ICON announced that it will shut down its public blockchain and migrate to SODAX by the end of 2026.
The public blockchain project ICON Network will officially shut down and permanently cease operations on December 31, 2026, retaining only read-only historical query functionality. The deadline for migrating tokens from ICX to SODA is the same day; transactions exceeding this deadline will no longer be possible. From September 30, 2026, the migration channel will be adjusted to only support one-way exchanges from ICX to SODA. This signifies the project's full transition to the cross-chain execution and liquidity infrastructure SODAX. Currently, it has connected to 18 networks and migrated all of ICON's protocol-owned liquidity to SODAX for cross-chain exchanges, lending, and other services. Users holding ICX must complete the migration through SODA Exchange before the deadline; centralized exchanges will gradually support automatic conversion.
Tom Lehman, co-founder of Layer 2 network Facet, has proposed including EIP-8182 in Ethereum's Hegota upgrade, scheduled for the second half of 2026. This proposal aims to provide Ethereum with native privacy transfer functionality for ETH and ERC-20 tokens through a protocol-level "Shielded Pool." EIP-8182 employs a UTXO architecture, eliminating the need for administrator keys, proxy contracts, or pause mechanisms, and verifies transactions using Groth16 zero-knowledge proofs. Lehman argues that current privacy protocols suffer from fragmented anonymity sets due to user dispersion, weakening privacy protection. A unified protocol-level privacy pool can be shared by all wallets and applications. This solution supports privacy transfers to any existing Ethereum address or ENS name without requiring the creation of a dedicated privacy address. EIP-8182, along with EIP-8141 and EIP-8250, is currently a leading candidate proposal for upgrading the privacy infrastructure of Hegota.
PeckShield: WUSD/GLOVE liquidity pool attacked, resulting in losses of approximately $207,000.
The WUSD/GLOVE project on Ethereum suffered an attack, resulting in a loss of approximately $207,000. After obtaining the funds, the attackers converted the stolen assets into approximately 98 ETH and transferred them to the privacy protocol Railgun.
Investment and financing news
Opinions & Analysis
Crypto analytics platform Swissblock stated that Bitcoin is sliding into a high-risk environment due to continued institutional selling, with its Bitcoin Risk Index currently at 33 points, placing it in the high-risk zone. Glassnode reported that US Bitcoin ETFs have recorded net outflows almost every trading day since May 7th, with over two weeks of continuous institutional selling signals increasing pressure on the supply side. CoinEx's chief analyst, Jeff Ko, stated that spot ETFs have seen outflows exceeding $2 billion in the past two weeks, indicating that institutional risk appetite remains marginally sensitive. News of a new US strike on Iran on Tuesday morning further exacerbated the risk, causing Bitcoin to fall by 1%.
Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood predicts Bitcoin's price will reach $750,000 over the next five years, with a base case of $1.25 million and an optimistic target of $1.25 million. She points to the gold alternative narrative, Bitcoin's use as an insurance tool, and institutional adoption as key drivers of the price increase.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated that as large tech companies, governments, and AI expand surveillance, currency privacy will "become absolutely necessary," which is why he makes Zcash his second-largest holding.
WSJ: Stablecoins are essentially "private currencies" and may pose a risk to the financial system.
The Wall Street Journal published an article stating that although the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts are pushing for the compliance of stablecoins, stablecoins are essentially "private currencies" and may pose structural risks to the financial system. Stablecoins operate on fragmented, private infrastructure and lack the uniformity of the traditional dollar system; while USDT and USDC are pegged to the dollar, their prices may still deviate from $1. Stablecoin issuers have an incentive to increase returns by allocating high-risk, low-liquidity assets, which could trigger depegging and concentrated redemptions if asset values decline. Stablecoins account for 84% of illicit crypto activities, mainly involving sanctions circumvention and money laundering, with real-world economic payment scenarios accounting for less than 1%. Stablecoins are repeating the private currency experiment path of the 19th-century American "free banking era," and in the future, they may need to be subject to stricter regulation like banks and more deeply integrated into the central bank system.
Important data
Bloomberg: Bitcoin volatility falls to a nine-month low, crypto market enters a breathing space.
Bitcoin volatility fell to a nine-month low, with the Bitcoin Volmex implied volatility index dropping to 36.11 on Monday, its lowest level since September of last year. US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of approximately $1 billion in May, reversing a two-month streak of net inflows. Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, stated that retail investor interest is shifting towards other trading opportunities. Rajiv Sawhney, head of international portfolio management at Wave Digital Assets, noted that volatility selling has become one of the hallmark trades recently, with long-term holders, miners, and large funds generating revenue from their holdings by selling volatility.
Digital asset investment products saw a net outflow of $1.47 billion last week, marking the second consecutive week of net outflows and the third largest single-week outflow in 2026. The cumulative outflow over the two weeks reached $2.54 billion. Bitcoin saw an outflow of $1.315 billion, the largest single-week outflow in 2026, with year-to-date net inflows decreasing to $2.6 billion from $3.9 billion last week. Ethereum saw an outflow of $223 million. The US saw an outflow of $1.425 billion, Switzerland $16.2 million, Canada $12.5 million, and Hong Kong $12.2 million. XRP saw an inflow of $31.8 million, Near $9 million, Solana $7.7 million, Sui $2.9 million, and multi-asset inflows $4.7 million.
ETH whale nemorino.eth invested $16.74 million to buy 7,908 ETH.
ETH whale nemorino.eth bought 7908.3 ETH on-chain via Cowswap 13 hours ago, at an average price of $2117.46, for a total investment of $16.74 million. Of this, 2372.71 ETH were purchased with leverage by borrowing 5 million DAI through Spark staking.
Whale Evaded opened a short position of 525.34 BTC with 40x leverage, worth $40.26 million.
Whale Evaded (@ICanPlug) opened a short position of 525.34 BTC with 40x leverage an hour ago, worth $40.26 million. Two days ago, it opened a long position of 53,500 ZEC (5x leverage) worth $33.3 million, which is currently showing a floating loss of over $1.48 million.
Kraken redeemed 50,600 ETH from EigenCloud 11 hours ago, equivalent to approximately $107 million.
Eleven hours ago, the exchange Kraken redeemed 50,600 ETH ($107 million) from the restaking project EigenCloud. The total TVL of the restaking sector has decreased from $31 billion in August last year to $11 billion, and the TVL of the leading project, EigenCloud (formerly Eigenlayer), has decreased from $22 billion to $5.5 billion.
A major whale sold a total of 321,600 HYPE tokens in the past 24 hours, earning $19.88 million.
A major whale sold a total of 321,574 HYPE tokens in the past 24 hours, earning $19.88 million, at an average price of $61.81. It currently still has 30,005 HYPE tokens (worth $1.78 million) pledged.
There is a price difference of up to 45% between ESPORTS on-chain and Binance Futures, with negative funding fees. The current on-chain price is $0.04072, while the current Binance Futures price is $0.0492, a difference of 20.8%. Reason: Gate, MXC, and Bitget have all suspended token deposits, causing a price difference between on-chain and centralized exchanges that cannot be balanced. The Binance Futures price index references Gate (10.52%), MXC (15.78%), Bitget (15.78%), PancakeswapV3 (52.63%), and Binance Futures (5.26%). When the latest price of a price source deviates more than 3% from the median price of other prices, the value of that price source is intervened at 1.03 or 0.97 times. Because prices on other centralized exchanges are much higher than on-chain prices due to deposit suspensions, the Binance Futures price is distorted.
Within 11 hours, a set of addresses associated with the project sold 253 million ESPORTS, cashing out 17.29 million USDT, representing 28% of the total ESPORTS supply. The price of ESPORTS has fallen 95% from $0.70 to $0.035. These ESPORTS were first sold for approximately 26,000 BNB, and then exchanged for 17.29 million USDT.
Garrett Jin, an agent of the "1011 Insider Whale," has increased his HYPE holdings to 184,182 coins, worth $11 million. He still holds a 5x long position in BTC and a 3x short position in ZEC, with unrealized losses exceeding $1.7 million.
Multiple addresses associated with the ESPORTS project collectively sold off ESPORTS tokens on the BSC chain, causing the coin to drop by over 90% in approximately two hours. From 18:18 to the present, these addresses have sold approximately 178 million ESPORTS tokens, in exchange for approximately 19,049 BNB, equivalent to approximately $12.76 million.
