Today's Crypto Pulse
Morpho secures $175M to expand institutional DeFi lending
DeFi lending protocol Morpho raised $175 million in a financing round co‑led by a16z crypto, Paradigm and Ribbit Capital. The capital will be used to broaden its institutional lending infrastructure. Morpho already manages over $11 billion in deposits and serves major crypto firms such as Galaxy, Anchorage Digital, Bitwise, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.
Also developing:
By the numbers: BitMine Immersion Technologies acquires 126,971 ETH for $207M
The Quantity Theory of Crypto: What Is Bitcoin Worth as a Medium of Exchange?
John Lewis applies the quantity theory of money to Bitcoin, treating it solely as a medium of exchange. He shows that Bitcoin's price equals the value of transactions it supports divided by its fixed supply and velocity, revealing that current transaction volumes ($14 billion on Lightning and $146 billion retail‑grade) cannot justify the $70,000 price level. The analysis outlines scenarios—from illicit payments to global‑currency status—producing price estimates ranging from $19,000 to over $6 million, highlighting the extreme sensitivity to velocity and usage. Lewis concludes that without substantial payment adoption, Bitcoin’s valuation as a transaction medium remains speculative.
Crypto Liquidations Near $1 Billion in 24 Hours as Leverage Unwinds
Crypto markets saw a massive liquidation event, with $934.24 million wiped out in a single 24‑hour window. The cascade erased roughly 167,400 leveraged accounts, dominated by long positions that bet on price rebounds. Bitcoin contributed $363 million and Ethereum $240 million of the...
Stablecoins Were Supposed to Bypass Credit Cards, but Now Visa Is Winning Crypto Card Payments
Crypto‑card spending has surged to roughly $600 million per month, with $7.2 billion in cumulative on‑chain volume across 24 million transactions. About 90 % of these transactions are settled through Visa, and USDT alone represents 62.5 % of the volume. Jupiter Global’s USDC‑backed card saw...
DeFi’s Automated Yield Protocols Were Built for Retail, Now They Just Add Another Layer of Risk
Automated yield vaults like Stake DAO’s vsdCRV promised one‑click exposure to Curve’s boosted returns, but a breach on Arbitrum allowed an attacker to mint 5.4 trillion counterfeit vsdCRV tokens and swap about 43.8 ETH (≈$88 k) before liquidity caps limited the haul. The...
Crypto Capital Flows to US, UAE as EU Cracks Down
🇪🇺EU LAUNCHES MASSIVE CRYPTO CRACKDOWN €10,000 cash ban. €1,000 crypto KYC threshold. Privacy coins fully banned. AMLR rules take effect July 1, 2027. All exchanges must verify ID above €1,000. Monero, Zcash, and Dash will be completely removed from EU platforms. Meanwhile: 🇺🇸 US pushing...
Influence360 Debuts AI-Driven Web3 KOL Platform with Real Attribution
Influence360 has launched the first AI‑powered, data‑rich Web3 KOL platform, offering global creator discovery, smart‑contract escrow and real‑time performance tracking. The debut follows a benchmark of 143 KOLs that highlighted payment gaps and the need for measurable campaigns, positioning the...
SoFi Launches SoFiUSD, the First U.S. National‑bank‑issued Stablecoin for 15 Million Users
SoFi Technologies has made its dollar‑backed stablecoin, SoFiUSD, available to roughly 15 million members of its banking app, becoming the first U.S. national bank to embed a stablecoin directly into a retail platform. The token is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars...
Kalshi Faces Federal Insider‑Trading Probe as Enforcement Unit Ramps Up Investigations
Kalshi, the top U.S. prediction‑market platform, is under a federal insider‑trading probe as its enforcement chief Robert DeNault declares monitoring the "No. 1 priority." The firm says it launched more than 200 investigations in 2025 and has already exceeded that count...
Stablecoins, AI Agents, and The Future of Global Banking
In this episode, a16z partner Angela Strange talks with Dalip Tasman, founder and CEO of Jeeves, about how the company is building a stablecoin‑native financial operating system for global enterprises. Tasman explains Jeeves' rapid growth—10x revenue and 8x volume—driven by...
Bitcoin Slips Below $74,000 for the First Time Since April as On-Chain Data Shows Momentum Stalling
Bitcoin slipped below $74,200 on May 27, marking the second breach of the $75,000 level in May and the first sub‑$74k close since April. The dip follows a wave of spot ETF outflows that have drained roughly $2.26 billion in two...
Tagus Bytes (28.05.26)
A massive crypto liquidation wave erased roughly $959 million of derivatives open interest in a single day, driven by a $897 million purge of leveraged long positions. Bitcoin fell to a six‑week low while Ethereum’s price dropped faster, reflecting a risk‑off shift...
Bitcoin Analysis Today: BTC Tries to Turn the 72,900 Flush Into a Bullish Pivot
Bitcoin futures slipped to a low of about $72,900 before snapping back above the 73,145 and 73,350 high‑volume zones. The rebound is viewed as a tactical repair, but the market remains neutral until price sustains above the VWAP‑aligned 73,750 level....
CFTC Seeks to Vacate Gemini Settlement in Sharp Enforcement Reversal
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has teamed with Gemini Trust Company to ask a New York federal court to vacate the judgment from their 2022 enforcement case. The agency says a post‑settlement review shows the original complaint would not meet...
Finloop and Marketnode Expand Tokenised Finance Across Asia
Finloop, a Hong Kong wealth‑tech platform, and Singapore’s Marketnode have forged a strategic partnership to accelerate tokenised finance between the two financial hubs. The alliance will focus on cross‑border product distribution, development of compliant digital‑asset infrastructure, and shared market intelligence....
Diverging Trends: Ether Slides Below $2,000 While Futures Open Interest Hits Record High of 16 Million ETH
Ether slipped below $2,000 on May 28, marking its first sub‑$2,000 close since March and a near‑8% weekly decline. At the same time, ether futures open interest surged to a record 16.39 million ETH, roughly $32.5 billion in notional value, indicating heavy...
Why Solana Wallets Can Hold Reclaimable SOL in Unused Accounts
Solana’s rent‑exempt model requires each on‑chain account to hold a small SOL deposit. When token, stake or program accounts become empty, the deposited SOL remains locked inside those accounts until the owner explicitly closes them. Wallets that have traded, staked...
ETF Outflows and Macro Fear Put Bitcoin and Ethereum Under Pressure
Bitcoin slipped 2.02% to $74,326 as a $1.29 bn BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust block trade sparked institutional de‑risking. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $333.6 m of net outflows over seven consecutive days, while Ethereum ETFs logged an 11‑day, $506 m outflow streak, the longest...
Bitcoin Funding Spike Shows Longs Defending $70K: Will ETF Outflows Reverse Bulls’ Efforts?
Bitcoin’s funding rate has turned positive, suggesting long‑biased investors are defending the $70,000 support level. Retail traders now hold about 62% long exposure, a position that historically precedes 82% positive seven‑day returns. Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows of $200 million...
Bitcoin Falls Further as BTC Miners Pivot to AI, Pro-Crypto Legislation Stalls
Bitcoin slipped below $75,000, breaking its recent correlation with the AI‑fuelled stock market rally. The decline coincided with publicly listed miners, such as TeraWulf, reallocating capital toward AI high‑performance computing, including a new 1‑GW capacity in Kentucky. At the same...
Utility Links Boost Interest, Not Guarantees Price Gains
Assets with direct utility connections to larger networks have historically seen increased interest when the parent network gains adoption. Flare's integration with XRPL through Oracle mechanism creates a structural relationship. Whether that translates to price movement depends on liquidity flows,...
Zero‑fee Fiat On‑ramp Expands Aave’s Regulated DeFi Access
Aave users will be able to move fiat into Aave through a vertically integrated zero-fee on-ramp, making DeFi more accessible to the mainstream. The FCA approval in the UK, combined with our CBI MiCA license for the EEA/EU, is a strong...
Tether Teams with Georgia to Launch GEL₮, the Country’s First Official Stablecoin
Tether and the Government of Georgia announced a partnership to issue GEL₮, a stablecoin pegged to the Georgian Lari. The move leverages Tether’s $190 billion USD₮ market cap and Georgia’s advanced digital‑asset framework, positioning the nation as a regional hub for...
ETH Falls Below $2k as Futures Interest Spikes
ETH just crashed below $2,000 Heavy selling pressure is hammering it, yet futures open interest just hit a new all-time high. This massive divergence screams aggressive shorting. Keep an eye on this. https://t.co/b1lqYCvWG8
Cash App Goes Live With Fee-Free USDC Transfers, Framing Stablecoins as a Path to Bitcoin
Block’s Cash App, serving about 59 million monthly active users, now lets customers send and receive USDC on Solana, Ethereum, Polygon and Arbitrum without any wallet setup or fees for a limited time. Transfers settle directly from the user’s USD balance,...
May 2026 Global Regulatory Brief: Digital Finance (Prediction Markets, Digital Collateral and Cryptoasset Capital Rules)
In May 2026 Bloomberg highlighted four major digital‑finance regulatory moves. The U.S. CFTC filed lawsuits against New York and Wisconsin to preserve federal jurisdiction over prediction markets and launched its first insider‑trading enforcement case, seizing $404,000 in illicit gains. Japan’s JPX,...
Crypto Needs Private Stablecoins Beyond Volatile Zcash
"Privacy might feel great when Zcash is up 30%. It doesn't feel great when it's down 30%. We need private stablecoins" Kain on the obvious thing in crypto that nobody has landed yet "I went down the Zcash rabbit hole and the...
Neutral Bridge Asset Enables Swaps Beyond Atomic Limits
Atomic swaps only work when both sides want exactly what the other offers. Once preferences differ, they fail. A neutral bridge asset fixes this by routing value between assets. Think of paying for groceries with Apple stock. The merchant wants...
Base Enables Australia’s First Retail AUD Stablecoin Payment on Coinbase Layer‑2
A Sydney takeaway restaurant completed Australia’s first retail‑level payment using the AUDD stablecoin on Coinbase’s Base Layer‑2 network. The transaction settled in seconds without Visa or Mastercard, highlighting a new, low‑cost payments rail backed by a regulated Australian stablecoin issuer.
Wall Street Gets New Crypto Rival After Texas Bank Completes Regulatory Pivot
United Texas Bank (UTB) has completed an OCC‑approved conversion from a Texas state charter to a national charter, giving it the same federal licensure and direct Federal Reserve access as major Wall Street banks. The bank already processes roughly $10 billion...
OpenZeppelin Pushes Back After Ex-CTO Declares All of DeFi Unsafe
Former OpenZeppelin CTO Manuel Aráoz warned that AI has made all of DeFi unsafe, urging friends and family to exit even blue‑chip protocols such as Aave and MakerDAO. OpenZeppelin swiftly rejected his claim, pointing to its track record of securing...
Agentic Economy Demands On‑Chain Privacy, Says Ill
Illia Polosukhin is one of the eight authors behind "Attention Is All You Need", the transformer paper that kicked off the modern LLM era. He's also co-founder of NEAR Protocol, and this week he's arguing that the agentic economy can't...
Payward Gets Into Selling Trader Evaluation Challenges with Kraken Prop
Kraken, the crypto exchange owned by Payward Inc., has launched Kraken Prop, a proprietary trading program that funds skilled traders with up to $200,000 of capital. Participants pay a non‑refundable evaluation fee ranging from $20 to $800 and trade in a...
Rep. Bryan Steil Leads Bitcoin ETF Push as Crypto Industry Pumps $864K Into Campaign
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) is championing legislation for a Bitcoin exchange‑traded fund after First Trust CEO Jim Bowen contributed $100,000 to his Victory Fund and a crypto‑backed PAC spent $764,000 on media. The move intensifies the clash between lawmakers seeking...
Southeast Asia Blockchain Week 2026 Accelerates Institutional Digital‑Asset Adoption
Southeast Asia Blockchain Week 2026 wrapped up in Bangkok after two days of panels, roundtables and an AI hackathon, bringing Thai and Indonesian regulators together with regional banks and global crypto firms. The event signaled a decisive move from experimental...
Lotus Protocol - Credit Curves for DeFi Lending
Lotus Protocol is designing a single‑pool DeFi lending market that supports multiple risk tranches, each defined by its own loan‑to‑value (LLTV) threshold. The model uses cascading supply, allowing unused junior‑tranche liquidity to flow down and deepen senior‑tranche borrowing while isolating...
Hacker Mints 5.4 Trillion Tokens in StakeDAO Exploit, Nets $91K
StakeDAO’s deployer private key was compromised, allowing an attacker to forge a LayerZero cross‑chain message on Arbitrum and mint 5.44 trillion vsdCRV tokens. The hacker swapped a portion of the counterfeit tokens for about 43.8 ETH, roughly $91,000, and bridged the proceeds...
DeFi Security Matures: AI Boosts Resilience, Ops Remain Weak Point
Not a good take. DeFi infra today is materially more resilient than in prior cycles (partially also thanks to AI). Also DeFi has improved across the board over the years: - better risk engines + lending market structures - formal verification, audits, bug bounties -...
Avalanche Pledges $15M to Launch Aave V4
Avalanche has committed up to $15M incentives for Aave V4 deployment for native assets and a dedicated RWA hub. Avalanche has been always a strong partner for Aave and built a very strong DeFi community over the years. Excited for the proposal...
Tiny X402 Payments Expose the Approval Gap Holding AI Agents Back
The agentic payment protocol x402 saw its adjusted volume plunge 77% from $5.15 million to $1.19 million, while transaction count fell 41% before rebounding to 2.89 million in May 2026, averaging $0.52 per payment. The market now runs on high‑frequency, sub‑dollar API and...
Crypto Volatility, Massive Block Trade, Tokenized Stocks
Crypto things you might have missed: -Volatility trap forming for $XRP -Crypto fights back vs Liz Warren on Ripple OCC charter -$1.3B IBIT block trade (biggest ever) -Bitcoin drops below $75K -DTCC + @StellarOrg to tokenize stocks -ETH & SOL treasuries join Russell indexes
Polymarket Rolls Out $50 Bonus Codes for New Users Ahead of NBA, NHL and MLB Playoffs
Polymarket extended its $50 invite‑code promotion to new U.S. users on May 26, 2026, covering the NBA Western Conference Finals, NHL finals and a Mariners MLB game. The offer gives a $50 trading credit after a $20 deposit, aiming to...
Falcon Finance And Anchorage Digital Bank Launch fUSD Stablecoin On Ceffu With 3% Institutional Rewards Target
Falcon Finance and Anchorage Digital Bank have introduced fUSD, a U.S. dollar‑pegged stablecoin that complies with the GENIUS Act and is issued by an OCC‑chartered bank. Each token is backed 1:1 by cash, short‑dated Treasuries and repo, with Deloitte providing...
DTCC, SDF Plan to Enable Tokenization of DTC’s Custodied Assets on Stellar Network
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and the Stellar Development Foundation announced a partnership to tokenize assets held by the Depository Trust Company (DTC) on the Stellar public blockchain. A December 2025 SEC no‑action letter clears the regulatory path,...
CME Adds AVAX and SUI Futures, Broadening Crypto Derivatives
NEW: CME Group launches $AVAX and $SUI futures, expanding crypto derivatives beyond $BTC, $ETH and $SOL
Why Institutions Need Confidential Blockchain Transactions - Jeremy Jeremy | ATC #613
In this episode, Stephen Sargent interviews Jeremy Donato, COO of Zama, about the role of fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) in providing programmable confidentiality for financial institutions entering the digital asset space. Donato explains how Zama’s technology lets transactions remain encrypted...
"The Banks Are Feeling FOMO" On Bitcoin Lending W/ SALT Lending CEO Shawn Owen | BMP Ep 10
In this episode, Bitcoin Magazine host Brandon Green chats with SALT Lending CEO Shawn Owen about the rapid evolution of Bitcoin lending, from early skepticism to institutional adoption. Owen highlights SALT's new "Salt Switch" product offering rates as low as...
Hyperliquid Targets Robinhood with $12B Crypto‑Derivatives Push
Hyperliquid, a $12 billion crypto‑derivatives platform, now controls about 60% of global on‑chain open interest and processed $2.9 trillion in 2025 activity. By expanding into retail crypto options and futures, it seeks to replicate Robinhood’s frictionless model while tying token buybacks to...
StablR Hack Creates $13.5M in Unbacked Stablecoins, $2.8M Stolen
StablR, a Malta‑based stablecoin issuer, froze its USDR and EURR tokens after a 1‑of‑3 multisignature wallet was compromised, allowing attackers to mint $13.5 million of unbacked stablecoins and walk away with roughly $2.8 million. The breach highlights key security and regulatory risks...
Avalanche Ranked Among Fastest Blockchains as AVAX Slides 94% From Peak
Fool.com analysts highlighted Avalanche's sub‑second transaction finality and theoretical 1,190 TPS throughput, positioning it as one of the crypto sector’s speed leaders. Despite that, AVAX has lost 94% of its value since its November 2021 high, underscoring a disconnect between technical...
Spot HYPE ETFs Record 1.04% Market Capture in 10 Days
🚨 According to Kairos Research, spot HYPE ETFs absorbed 1.04% of the total HYPE market cap within their first 10 trading days. This marks the STRONGEST debut among all spot crypto ETFs to date. https://t.co/VK12MwXmdb