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Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, a Japanese listed company accumulating Bitcoin (BTC), announced on X that he met with Junichi Kanda, a member of the House of Representatives from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), to discuss Japan's Bitcoin strategy. Kanda had previously participated in an event hosted by Metaplanet last March.

An anonymous Solana address starting with GyBRmk has sold 21,911 SOL, worth approximately $1.85 million, after holding the tokens for two years, according to Lookonchain. The address deposited the funds to Binance about two hours ago, a move typically interpreted as a precursor to selling. The wallet had accumulated 20,200 SOL roughly two years prior at an average price of $144. Despite earning 1,711 SOL ($145,000) in staking rewards, the sale is estimated to have resulted in a trading loss of $1.05 million.

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Sei (SEI) starting at 9:00 a.m. UTC on May 19 to support a network upgrade.

Jack Yi, founder of LD Capital, said on X that investors should wait for opportunities to buy on dips rather than hastily chasing highs for the time being. He stated that the essence of investing and trading lies in controlling greed and managing fear. Yi predicted that the market could soon enter the biggest "fear zone" of this cycle, and investors who bought Bitcoin at recent highs may experience the last major correction. He added that the cryptocurrency industry is currently facing several structural problems, including diminished interest from the younger generation, a focus of traditional capital on the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, an increase in celebrities taking short-term profits, and a lack of innovation from major industry projects. These factors are dampening market sentiment and could lead to increased volatility in the future, he noted.

The CLARITY Act could be derailed if it does not pass a full floor vote before August, according to Greg Cipolaro, head of research at crypto services firm NYDIG. Cointelegraph reported that Cipolaro identified the realistic timeframe for a vote as June to early August, warning that the bill could be scrapped entirely if postponed until after the midterm elections. He noted that potential scheduling delays and negotiations over stablecoin and DeFi regulations are key variables. Cipolaro added that if the bill passes, the resulting regulatory clarity would likely increase institutional investment.

Boundless (ZKC), a decentralized zero-knowledge (ZK) computing marketplace built on Risk Zero, has announced the launch of its first network upgrade, Surge. The upgrade introduces several key improvements: - Up to a 25% increase in proof capacity - Up to a 50% reduction in proof costs - A 99% reduction in RPC costs - Expansion to multiple chains, including Taiko and Base The Boundless team stated that the upgrade will enable them to offer a more optimized service for all users requiring zero-knowledge proofs.

Bridge-related hacks have become more frequent in the cryptocurrency industry this year, according to PeckShield. The security firm reports that as of May 18, there have been a total of eight such incidents, resulting in losses of $328.6 million.

Concerns are re-emerging that Bitcoin could repeat a historical pattern of sharp declines in May during U.S. midterm election years, though analysts are divided on the risk. According to Cointelegraph, crypto analyst Merlijn Enkelaar noted that BTC fell significantly in May of both 2018 and 2022, which were midterm election years. He suggested a similar trend could unfold this year, potentially pushing BTC down to $33,000. However, CoinEx Senior Analyst Jeff Ko countered that past plunges were driven by specific negative events—such as the Mt. Gox collapse, China's ICO regulations, Federal Reserve tightening, and the failures of Terra and FTX—rather than simple seasonality. Ko argued that the market structure has changed significantly due to the introduction of spot ETFs, corporate Bitcoin acquisitions, and progress on the CLARITY Act in the U.S. Congress. He believes the probability of a 70-80% crash, similar to past cycles, is low this time.

Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine (BMNR) and co-founder of Fundstrat, has identified rising oil prices as the biggest short-term factor behind Ethereum's recent weakness. He stated on X that the surge in oil prices over the last six weeks has been a primary driver of ETH's price decline, noting that the inverse correlation between the two assets is at an all-time high. Lee suggested that if oil prices reverse their trend and begin to fall, ETH could experience a price recovery. He clarified, however, that this is a short-term dynamic. For the medium to long term, Lee believes growth in areas like tokenization and AI agents could fuel a rise in ETH, adding that the cryptocurrency will show stronger performance this year.

Hyperliquid's (HYPE) perpetual futures platform, TradeXYZ, is emerging as a new way to value unlisted companies after listing pre-market perpetuals for Cerebras Systems (CBRS) and SpaceX (SPCX), The Block reported. The analysis highlighted that during the Cerebras listing, Hyperliquid's pricing closely mirrored the real-time opening price, expanding investment opportunities for retail investors. Amir Hajian, a researcher at Keyrock, commented that perpetual futures markets could solve the low liquidity and leverage trading issues that have been problematic for unlisted stock trading. However, concerns persist regarding potential price manipulation and regulatory risks associated with derivatives, as they do not grant actual stock ownership. TradeXYZ currently records a daily trading volume of $6 billion within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

The following shows estimated liquidation volumes and position ratios for major crypto perpetual futures over the past 24 hours: - BTC: $182.96 million liquidated (88.25% longs) - ETH: $257.45 million liquidated (95.08% longs) - SOL: $27.94 million liquidated (95.9% longs)

South Korea's digital asset industry is facing a severe crisis under the leadership of Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Eog-weon, The Fact reported. The situation has escalated following poor first-quarter earnings from major South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb, and a decision by Coinone to enter a legal battle against sanctions from financial authorities. This has created an unprecedented situation where all three of the country's major exchanges are engaged in administrative lawsuits with financial authorities. A series of sanctions by the FSC's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is seen as a direct blow to the exchange industry. Additionally, a provision in the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, championed by Chairman Lee, that would limit the equity stakes of major shareholders in exchanges has been identified as a key obstacle to industry development. People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon noted that a staggering 160 trillion won (approx. $115.9 billion) in domestic capital flowed to overseas markets in 2025. He described this as a "painful indicator" of how far the country's capital market efficiency and institutional capacity lag behind global standards.

The Bitcoin DeFi protocol Alex (ALEX) has submitted a governance proposal to overhaul its token economy mechanism. The proposal includes three key changes: ending ALEX community incentive payments, formally concluding the 2024 Treasury Grant Program (TGP 2024), and introducing a token buyback and burn mechanism funded by protocol revenue. The plan aims to reduce the circulating supply of ALEX and increase the token's value. The governance vote on the proposal began today, May 18, and will conclude on June 1.

The passage of the CLARITY Act would satisfy 90% of the conditions required by the cryptocurrency industry, said Patrick Witt, a U.S. White House cryptocurrency advisor, Cointelegraph reported.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov announced on X that the WETH loan-to-value (LTV) ratio has been restored to its pre-hack levels on all networks affected by the recent rsETH exploit. The restoration applies to six platforms: Aave V3 Ethereum Core, Ethereum Prime, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea. As a result, users can once again use WETH as collateral for borrowing and for collateral and debt swaps without restrictions.

According to PeckShield, the hacker behind the Verus Ethereum cross-chain bridge exploit has swapped the stolen assets for approximately 5,402.4 ETH. The initial theft included 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC. CoinNess previously reported that the hack resulted in damages of $11.58 million.

Current cryptocurrency market trading volume has contracted to levels below the 2022 bear market bottom, according to on-chain analyst EmberCN. The analyst noted that while major cryptocurrency prices remain well above their December 2022 lows, trading volume has fallen sharply. For Bitcoin, the average daily trading volume for the BTC/USDT pair on Binance has dropped from approximately $2 billion in December 2022 to around $500 million. Although Bitcoin's price is about 4.5 times higher than it was at the 2022 low, its trading volume is just one-fourth of that level. Ethereum's average daily trading volume has also halved from $400 million to $200 million over the same period. EmberCN suggested that if the magnitude of the previous cycle's decline were applied to the current market, this cycle's bottom could be around $31,000 for Bitcoin and $1,150 for Ethereum.

On-chain analyst Tom Wan noted that ETH utilization has fallen below 90%, with the ETH borrowing rate (APY) dropping to 1.9%. He explained that following the hack of the rsETH LayerZero bridge, deposits of wstETH and weETH decreased by approximately $1.2 billion and $1.76 billion, respectively. However, Wan added that the profitability of looping leverage strategies based on wstETH and weETH has recently turned positive again, making the potential recovery of ETH leverage demand a key point for the market to watch. He also mentioned that there is speculation in the market that some funds could move to alternative lending protocols such as Spark and Morpho.

Kelp DAO, which was previously affected by a $292 million hack, announced on its official X account that it will no longer support rsETH bridging on 20 cross-chain bridges after June 15. The discontinuation will affect bridging on OP, MANTA, Mode, SCR, X Layer, ZK, ZRC, SWELL, HEMI, BERA, S, HyperEVM, Unichain, TAC, AVAX, XPL, STABLE, MEGA, MON, and MOVE. Kelp DAO advised users holding rsETH on these chains to bridge their assets to the Ethereum mainnet. It added that a fee of 100 USDC per address will be charged for bridging after the deadline.

Three X account hacks over the past month, including that of GameStop meme stock figure Roaring Kitty, were carried out by the same organization, according to on-chain analyst Specter. Specter stated on X that after Roaring Kitty's account was compromised on May 11, the Solana memecoin RKC was issued. The hackers, who had pre-loaded several wallets with the token, sold off their holdings as the price surged, netting over $600,000. "By tracing the wallet fund flows, it was determined that this group had accumulated over $14 million by issuing fraudulent tokens like USOR and VDOR using the same method," Specter explained. The analyst added that the group uses influencers to promote their schemes on platforms like Telegram and then uses the resulting retail buying pressure as exit liquidity. The fund trail also overlaps with a $2.45 million wstETH phishing attack from 2024. "This is an organization that will use any means, including phishing and hacking, to find opportunities to make money," Specter warned, advising users not to connect their wallets to unknown platforms.

A Bitcoin whale address starting with 0xB4d has sold an additional $15.46 million worth of WBTC, according to on-chain analyst ai_9684 xtpa. This brings the address's cumulative sales over the past three days to $35.73 million. The address, known for its frequent interactions with block builder Titan builder, still holds approximately $125 million in on-chain assets. About 95% of these holdings are reportedly in ETH and WBTC.

The Verus Ethereum cross-chain bridge has been targeted in a suspected hack, resulting in approximately $11.58 million in losses, Blockaid reported on X.

Binance Research has analyzed four on-chain indicators suggesting that selling pressure on Bitcoin is weakening. The firm pointed to several factors: - Over 60% of addresses have held BTC for more than one year. - Long-term holders are dominating the market. - The supply of BTC on exchanges is decreasing. - Short-term holders have moved out of unprofitable positions. The analysis notes that the amount of dormant supply is at an all-time high, speculative short-term traders have largely exited the market, and a recent partial price recovery has allowed short-term holders to return to profitability, alleviating sell-side pressure. Binance Research added that these indicators suggest a low probability of new selling pressure emerging, concluding that the current market phase exhibits a typical pattern often seen before a sustained rebound.

Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin has explained that regarding the issue of state storage, even if only a hash (Merkle root) is stored on-chain while users hold the actual data, the data needed for proof verification must still be stored and updated. On X, Buterin added that the size of this verification data could eventually approach the size of the entire state. "Solutions exist, but they require significant trade-offs and complex components compared to Ethereum's current structure," he noted. His comments follow an explanation from DeFi content creator marilyn100x.eth, who previously highlighted Ethereum's long-term state storage cost problem. The creator explained that EIP-8037 addresses this by increasing the cost of creating new contracts, accounts, and storage slots, rather than imposing a continuous storage fee.

Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital and known as the 'New Bond King,' said there will be no interest rate cut at the next Federal Reserve policy meeting. According to BlockBeats, he argued that a rate cut is impossible with the U.S. two-year Treasury yield trading about 50 bp above the federal funds rate. Gundlach predicted that due to rising oil prices from the war in Iran, U.S. inflationary pressures are building again, forecasting that the next Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading will be in the 4% range, based on DoubleLine's model. Commenting on the stock market, he noted that valuations are very expensive and speculative, but corporate earnings continue to exceed expectations and are fueling a speculative frenzy.