Update (May 26, 9:27 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Truth Media and Technology Group.

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, is planning to raise $3 billion in a mix of equity and convertible bonds to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the Financial Times reported. The move would position the company to follow the footsteps of crypto treasury companies like Strategy.

In a statement to the FT, the company denied any plans for a Bitcoin treasury. “Apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources,” it reportedly said. Cointelegraph has reached out for further comment, but has not received a response at the time of publication.

Trump Media will issue $2 billion in equity and $1 billion in convertible bonds, a type of asset that can be converted into equity at a later date. The size of the raise may change, the FT cited sources familiar with the matter as saying.

The equity is expected to be sold at market price as of the close on May 23. On that day, the share price closed at $25.72, marking a 4.6% increase on the day. Trump Media’s market capitalization was $5.7 billion as of May 23.

Trump Media and Technology Group share price on May 23. Source: Google Finance

The company is following a similar approach to that pioneered by companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, Semler Scientific and others, allocating part of their funds to Bitcoin (BTC). Betting on crypto provides a hedge against inflation and keeps them from becoming “zombie companies,” some of the companies have said.

Related: Strategy bags 4,020 Bitcoin as price briefly breaks $110K

Trump Media’s move may increase scrutiny

The move may also result in more scrutiny toward the Trump family’s growing crypto businesses. Democratic lawmakers have pushed back against bipartisan bills over the Trump family’s crypto dealings, with some staging protests against the memecoin dinner Trump hosted on May 22.

Trump’s crypto ties include non-fungible token collections, the Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania (MELANIA) memecoins, decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial and a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Critics say that Trump’s crypto ventures pose a conflict of interest, especially as he could hold influence over an industry he stands to profit from.

According to the report, Trump transferred his 53% share in Trump Media and Technology to a revocable trust managed by Donald Trump Jr.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Update (May 26, 9:27 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Truth Media and Technology Group.

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, is planning to raise $3 billion in a mix of equity and convertible bonds to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the Financial Times reported. The move would position the company to follow the footsteps of crypto treasury companies like Strategy.

In a statement to the FT, the company denied any plans for a Bitcoin treasury. “Apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources,” it reportedly said. Cointelegraph has reached out for further comment, but has not received a response at the time of publication.

Trump Media will issue $2 billion in equity and $1 billion in convertible bonds, a type of asset that can be converted into equity at a later date. The size of the raise may change, the FT cited sources familiar with the matter as saying.

The equity is expected to be sold at market price as of the close on May 23. On that day, the share price closed at $25.72, marking a 4.6% increase on the day. Trump Media’s market capitalization was $5.7 billion as of May 23.

Trump Media and Technology Group share price on May 23. Source: Google Finance

The company is following a similar approach to that pioneered by companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, Semler Scientific and others, allocating part of their funds to Bitcoin (BTC). Betting on crypto provides a hedge against inflation and keeps them from becoming “zombie companies,” some of the companies have said.

Related: Strategy bags 4,020 Bitcoin as price briefly breaks $110K

Trump Media’s move may increase scrutiny

The move may also result in more scrutiny toward the Trump family’s growing crypto businesses. Democratic lawmakers have pushed back against bipartisan bills over the Trump family’s crypto dealings, with some staging protests against the memecoin dinner Trump hosted on May 22.

Trump’s crypto ties include non-fungible token collections, the Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania (MELANIA) memecoins, decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial and a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Critics say that Trump’s crypto ventures pose a conflict of interest, especially as he could hold influence over an industry he stands to profit from.

According to the report, Trump transferred his 53% share in Trump Media and Technology to a revocable trust managed by Donald Trump Jr.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Update (May 26, 9:27 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Truth Media and Technology Group.

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, has rebuffed a report that it’s planning to raise $3 billion in a mix of equity and convertible bonds to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The Financial Times reported the company’s plan on May 26, citing six people briefed on the matter, but Trump Media told the outlet that, “apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.”

Trump Media did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

If Trump Media implements the reported plan, it would position the company to follow the footsteps of crypto-buying companies like Strategy.

The Financial Times reported that Trump Media was planning to issue $2 billion in equity and $1 billion in convertible bonds, a type of asset that can be converted into equity at a later date and that the size of the raise may change.

The equity was expected to be sold at market price as of the close on May 23. On that day, shares of Trump Media (DJT) closed at $25.72, marking a 4.6% increase on the day. Trump Media’s market capitalization was $5.7 billion as of May 23.

Trump Media and Technology Group share price on May 23. Source: Google Finance

The company’s reported plan follows a similar approach to that pioneered by companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, Semler Scientific and others, allocating part of their funds to Bitcoin (BTC).

Betting on crypto provides a hedge against inflation and keeps them from becoming “zombie companies,” some of the companies have said.

Related: Strategy bags 4,020 Bitcoin as price briefly breaks $110K

Trump Media’s move may increase scrutiny

The move could have also resulted in more scrutiny toward the Trump family’s growing crypto businesses. Democratic lawmakers have pushed back against bipartisan bills over the Trump family’s crypto dealings, with some staging protests against the memecoin dinner Trump hosted on May 22.

Trump’s crypto ties include non-fungible token collections, the Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania (MELANIA) memecoins, decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial and a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Critics say that Trump’s crypto ventures pose a conflict of interest, especially as he could hold influence over an industry he stands to profit from.

According to the report, Trump transferred his 53% share in Trump Media and Technology to a revocable trust managed by his son, Donald Trump Jr.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin price is capped at the $110,000 level due to sellers and a decrease in spot volumes. Leverage use is driving current rallies into this resistance level.

Traders are watching today’s volumes to see if emerging intraday trends are followed at the US open on May 27.

Bitcoin (BTC) price staged a mild recovery over the weekend, but gains above $110,000 are being capped by selling. Data from Glassnode shows “net distribution” (selling) from the cohort holding more than 10,000 Bitcoin, but cohorts below this level have continued to accumulate. 

Trend accumulation score. Source: X / Glassnode

The spot and futures cumulative volume delta at Binance exchange reflect persistent selling when BTC price approaches the $110,000 level.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart CVD (spot and futures). Source: TRDR.io 

The Sunday (May 25) futures market-driven surge back to $110,000, following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had contacted him, suggesting a roughly one-month extension to delay the 50% EU tariffs that were slated to start on June 1.

President Donald Trump. Truth Social

Compared to last week’s data funding rates have cooled, especially at Hyperliquid (orange line), where trader James Wynn alternated between a $1.2 billion 40x long position and a $500 million leveraged short position, both of which are now closed. 

Bitcoin funding rates at exchanges. Source: Velo

In terms of taking out the resistance seen at $110,000, flows could possibly remain suppressed as US markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday, so the daily open market demand seen by the spot Bitcoin ETFs, which accounted for $8.36 billion in BTC purchasing since the start of April, are paused for the day. 

Spot Bitcoin ETF netflows. Source: SoSoValue 

Liquidation heatmap data crypto analytics platform TheKingfisher shows margin traders are overweight on the long side, with the potential for liquidations starting below $109,000 to $107,000. 

Bitcoin short-term liquidation map data: Source: X / TheKingfisher

On the other hand, CoinGlass data hints that a BTC price push through the $110,000 resistance could trigger a short liquidation that could quickly result in a rally to $114,000.

CoinGlass BTC/USD liquidation map: Source: CoinGlass

In terms of the purely technical-focused price outlook for the week, traders are likely watching today’s price action to see if any futures and spot CEX market upside is followed by bullish flow into the March 27 equities and TradFi crypto markets open. 

Related: BTC price seeks $155K ‘trigger’ — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

As things currently stand, a block of asks can be seen at $114,000 and $119,000 at Coinbase Pro, while bids start at $104,000 and intensify as the price draws closer to $102,000-$100,000.

BTC/USD Coinbase 4-hour chart. Source: TRDR.io

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Some of blockchain’s earliest adopters are now deeply “entrenching” themselves in decentralized AI, with ecosystems like Bittensor (TAO) emerging as growth engines. These platforms are reshaping traditional venture capital models, enabling the best ideas to organically attract community support, staking and liquidity without the need for institutional gatekeepers.

That was one of the key takeaways from Cointelegraph’s interview with Chris Miglino, the co-founder and CEO of DNA Fund, a digital asset investment firm he runs alongside fellow serial entrepreneurs Brock Peirce and Scott Walker.

DNA Fund manages, among other things, five distinct funds across a range of strategies, such as a high-yield fund, an algorithmic trading fund, an AI compute fund, a liquid token fund and a venture fund — serving both company and investor capital. 

DNA Fund CEO Chris Miglino, right, and Cointelegraph’s Sam Bourgi at a DNA House event in Toronto, Canada. Source: Cointelegraph

Miglino, who hosted Cointelegraph at a DNA House event during the Consensus conference in Toronto, Canada, was particularly excited about the firm’s AI compute fund.

“The biggest thing that we’re working on in the whole ecosystem is our AI compute fund, where we’ve been entrenched into the TAO ecosystem,” said Miglino, referring to Bittensor, a decentralized, open-source machine learning network.

Bittensor’s backers say the network stands out for its subnets, which enable specialized, incentive-based marketplaces built around a specific AI or machine learning use case. 

DNA Fund is “actively mining on different subnets,” having committed roughly $50 million worth of compute to the TAO ecosystem, Miglino said. 

“We’re willing and ready to talk to anybody that wants to launch inside that ecosystem,” he said.

A snapshot of Bittensor subnets. Source: Taostats

Related: The next frontier for crypto will be decentralizing AI

“Decentralized AI is consuming everything we’re doing”

Decentralized AI — the framework for developing and deploying artificial intelligence systems across a distributed network rather than a centralized authority — is currently the main focus at DNA House, Miglino said.

It’s “consuming everything we’re doing,” he said. 

For Miglino, this paradigm has the opportunity to be “bigger than anything that’s ever existed […] I think it has the opportunity to be bigger than Bitcoin.”

While that may appear as a herculean task, given Bitcoin’s (BTC) $2.1 trillion market cap and status as the first successful decentralized monetary system of the information age, technologists broadly agree that AI will profoundly reshape human society.

The AI takeover will become more apparent by the 2030s, when the technology is projected to become the world’s valuable tech sector. Source: United Nations Trade and Development

DNA House is betting that ecosystems like Bittensor will drive that transformation in a decentralized way by offering developers the ability to launch businesses without having to raise outside capital: 

“Develop on the ecosystem, get validators that believe in your idea, [and] that’ll attract the miners and the validators together and all of a sudden you’re in business. You don’t need to go out and raise a ton of money from a bunch of VCs.”

The idea that AI’s future will be decentralized is far from fringe. One of the earliest pioneers of artificial general intelligence, Ben Goertzel, told Cointelegraph that he realized the need for decentralization in AI as far back as the early 1990s, before even writing his first line of AI code.

Magazine: AI cures blindness, ‘good’ propaganda bots, OpenAI doomsday bunker: AI Eye

X Money, the payment and banking app tipped by Elon Musk in 2022 after he acquired Twitter, has started beta testing, Musk confirmed in an X post on May 25.

Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a fan X account focused on Elon Musk and Tesla, took to X on May 25 to report that Musk has confirmed that X is “launching X Money soon.”

Source: Elon Musk

The billionaire businessman subsequently jumped on the X thread to confirm the news, writing that the test will be a “very limited access beta at first.”

“When people’s saving are involved, extreme care must be taken,” he wrote.

X Money expects to launch in 2025

Musk’s confirmation comes amid X Money’s planned launch this year, according to the platform’s X account.

Source: X Money

Musk’s silent confirmation of X Money trials followed a series of reports suggesting the platform may launch this year based on alleged software code leaks in January.

X has been actively working to obtain multiple transmitter licenses for X Money across the United States, having secured 41 such licenses at time of publication, according to the Nationwide Multi-State Licensing System.

X Money plans date back to 2022

Some of the early public indications of Musk’s plans to integrate payments into X date to October 2022, when Musk referred to his $44 billion Twitter acquisition as “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

In 2023, Twitter rebranded to X, with CEO Linda Yaccarino disclosing that the social media app planned to feature “unlimited interactivity,” support multiple media formats, and feature payments and banking. At the time, many speculated that the platform would likely support cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

The payment platform was reportedly expected to be launched in mid-2024.

Related: OpenAI is building ‘X-like social network’ to rival Elon Musk — Report

The platform apparently gathered more steam with US President Donald Trump taking office in January and appointing Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency’s Workforce Optimization Initiative (DOGE).

Heavily involved in administration through DOGE, Musk quickly received pushback from US officials like US Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who criticized X’s payment platform plans in February. 

“Musk has lost money hand over fist on X. So he has this idea of X becoming a big money platform where he would get everyone’s personal financial data,” Warren said, referring to Musk’s efforts to dismantle her agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Opinion by: Rowan Stone, CEO at Sapien

AI is a paper tiger without human expertise in data management and training practices. Despite massive growth projections, AI innovations won’t be relevant if they continue training models based on poor-quality data. 

Besides improving data standards, AI models need human intervention for contextual understanding and critical thinking to ensure ethical AI development and correct output generation.

AI has a “bad data” problem

Humans have nuanced awareness. They draw on their experiences to make inferences and logical decisions. AI models are, however, only as good as their training data.

An AI model’s accuracy doesn’t entirely depend on the underlying algorithms’ technical sophistication or the amount of data processed. Instead, accurate AI performance depends on trustworthy, high-quality data during training and analytical performance tests.

Bad data has multifold ramifications for training AI models: It generates prejudiced output and hallucinations from faulty logic, leading to lost time in retraining AI models to unlearn bad habits, thereby increasing company costs.

Biased and statistically underrepresented data disproportionately amplifies flaws and skewed outcomes in AI systems, especially in healthcare and security surveillance.

For example, an Innocence Project report lists multiple cases of misidentification, with a former Detroit police chief admitting that relying solely on AI-based facial recognition would lead to 96% misidentifications. Moreover, according to a Harvard Medical School report, an AI model used across US health systems prioritized healthier white patients over sicker black patients. 

AI models follow the “Garbage In, Garbage Out” (GIGO) concept, as flawed and biased data inputs, or “garbage,” generate poor-quality outputs. Bad input data creates operational inefficiencies as project teams face delays and higher costs in cleaning data sets before resuming model training.

Beyond their operational effect, AI models trained on low-quality data erode the trust and confidence of companies in deploying them, causing irreparable reputational damage. According to a research paper, hallucination rates for GPT-3.5 were at 39.6%, stressing the need for additional validation by researchers.

Such reputational damages have far-reaching consequences because it becomes difficult to get investments and affects the model’s market positioning. In a CIO Network Summit, 21% of America’s top IT leaders expressed a lack of reliability as the most pressing concern for not using AI.

Poor data for training AI models devalues projects and causes enormous economic losses to companies. On average, incomplete and low-quality AI training data results in misinformed decision-making that costs companies 6% of their annual revenue.

Recent: Cheaper, faster, riskier — The rise of DeepSeek and its security concerns

Poor-quality training data affects AI innovation and model training, so searching for alternative solutions is essential.

The bad data problem has forced AI companies to redirect scientists toward preparing data. Almost 67% of data scientists spend their time preparing correct data sets to prevent misinformation delivery from AI models.

AI/ML models may struggle to keep up with relevant output unless specialists — real humans with proper credentials — work to refine them. This demonstrates the need for human experts to guide AI’s development by ensuring high-quality curated data for training AI models.

Human frontier data is key

Elon Musk recently said, “The cumulative sum of human knowledge has been exhausted in AI training.” Nothing could be farther from the truth since human frontier data is the key to driving stronger, more reliable and unbiased AI models.

Musk’s dismissal of human knowledge is a call to use artificially produced synthetic data for fine-tuning AI model training. Unlike humans, however, synthetic data lacks real-world experiences and has historically failed to make ethical judgments.

Human expertise ensures meticulous data review and validation to maintain an AI model’s consistency, accuracy and reliability. Humans evaluate, assess and interpret a model’s output to identify biases or mistakes and ensure they align with societal values and ethical standards.

Moreover, human intelligence offers unique perspectives during data preparation by bringing contextual reference, common sense and logical reasoning to data interpretation. This helps to resolve ambiguous results, understand nuances, and solve problems for high-complexity AI model training.

The symbiotic relationship between artificial and human intelligence is crucial to harnessing AI’s potential as a transformative technology without causing societal harm. A collaborative approach between man and machine helps unlock human intuition and creativity to build new AI algorithms and architectures for the public good.

Decentralized networks could be the missing piece to finally solidify this relationship at a global scale.

Companies lose time and resources when they have weak AI models that require constant refinement from staff data scientists and engineers. Using decentralized human intervention, companies can reduce costs and increase efficiency by distributing the evaluation process across a global network of data trainers and contributors.

Decentralized reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) makes AI model training a collaborative venture. Everyday users and domain specialists can contribute to training and receive financial incentives for accurate annotation, labeling, category segmentation and classification.

A blockchain-based decentralized mechanism automates compensation as contributors receive rewards based on quantifiable AI model improvements rather than rigid quotas or benchmarks. Further, decentralized RLHF democratizes data and model training by involving people from diverse backgrounds, reducing structural bias, and enhancing general intelligence.

According to a Gartner survey, companies will abandon over 60% of AI projects by 2026 due to the unavailability of AI-ready data. Therefore, human aptitude and competence are crucial for preparing AI training data if the industry wants to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Data infrastructure for AI model training requires continuous improvement based on new and emerging data and use cases. Humans can ensure organizations maintain an AI-ready database through constant metadata management, observability and governance.

Without human supervision, enterprises will fumble with the massive volume of data siloed across cloud and offshore data storage. Companies must adopt a “human-in-the-loop” approach to fine-tune data sets for building high-quality, performant and relevant AI models.

Opinion by: Rowan Stone, CEO at Sapien.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Cryptocurrency has emerged as a defining issue in South Korea’s snap presidential election, with candidates vying for support from a growing base of digital asset investors across generations.

All three front-runners have rolled out crypto-friendly proposals. These include the legalization of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the easing of banking rules that currently restrict fiat-to-crypto trading to just five platforms.

The June 3 vote is slated to come around two years early, triggered by the impeachment of former president Yoon Suk-yeol after his controversial declaration of martial law in late 2024. Though quickly overturned by lawmakers, the abrupt power grab led to a political crisis and his eventual removal from office.

Yoon’s 2022 campaign leaned heavily on promises to reform crypto regulations — largely aimed at younger voters. This time, the political focus on digital assets has only intensified, as older generations begin to pour significant wealth into digital assets.

Three leading presidential candidates have promised pro-crypto policies.Presidential election debate clash on stablecoins

This election has three leading candidates, and all of them have promised to advance the local crypto economy.

Lee Jae-myung of the opposing Democratic Party lost to Yoon in the last election and returns with a second crypto-friendly campaign.

Kim Moon-soo is running under the current ruling party, the People Power Party (PPP). Former president Yoon has distanced himself from the PPP ahead of the election, leaving Kim to define a new direction for the fractured conservative base.

Lee Jun-seok was once the youngest-ever leader of the PPP. He is now leading his own newly formed Reform Party, a minor party he founded in January 2024 after splitting with the ruling bloc.

“The political sphere has actively embraced [cryptocurrencies] as a key campaign agenda,” Park Sung-jun, head of the Blockchain Research Center at Dongguk University, told Cointelegraph.

“Driven by the transition to a digital economy, the push for transparency in political funding, the spread of blockchain-based political participation technologies and growing demands for investor protection, [crypto] has emerged as a significant economic, social and political issue in South Korea.”

Lee Jae-myung and Kim have both pledged to ease strict banking rules that require crypto exchanges to partner with licensed banks to offer fiat services — a system that has created a near-monopoly of just five approved platforms. The structure in place excludes corporate participation, as it requires users to open accounts at partner banks using their legal identities.

Lee has also proposed launching a stablecoin pegged to the won to reduce reliance on tokens issued abroad.

Related: South Korean crypto emerges from failed coup into crackdown season

Lee Jun-seok pushed back, noting that South Korea once had a won-pegged algorithmic stablecoin, TerraKRW (KRT), part of the Terra ecosystem that suffered a multibillion-dollar collapse.

“Lee Jae-myung proposes launching another stablecoin without presenting any safeguards. What assets will back it? How will market risks be handled? How will we avoid repeating past failures? There are no answers,” Lee Jun-seok said in a Facebook post, criticizing his opponent for turning stablecoins into a “slogan.”

The two candidates clashed again on stablecoins during a live debate, where Lee Jae-myung argued for the safety of centralized and fiat-backed stablecoins.

Presidential candidates quiz each other on the difference between USDT and USDC. Source: National Election Broadcasting Debate Commission

Lee Jae-myung was Yoon’s opponent in the 2022 election when he also championed crypto-friendly policies. However, he was less aggressive than Yoon, who made several pro-crypto pledges. Some of them, like lifting bans on play-to-earn (P2E) gaming and initial coin offerings, were never implemented.

Lee Jun-seok reportedly called gaming South Korea’s “second semiconductor industry,” which made up more than a fifth of the country’s total exports in 2024. He pledged to target 10% of the global gaming market through regulatory support in taxation, exports and talent development. He added that regulations that dismiss blockchain-based P2E games accelerate the exodus of creative industries.

P2E games remain banned under local regulations, but interest has recently surged among investors following the launch of a new title by Nexon, one of South Korea’s biggest game developers, along with a new cryptocurrency tied to its in-game economy.

Nexon shares have soared since the company launched its own crypto. Source: Tokyo Stock Exchange via Google FinanceCrypto promises test old and new voter bases

South Korea had 9.7 million Know Your Customer-verified crypto investors by the end of 2024, a 25% increase from the first half of the year, according to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Investors in their 30s saw the biggest growth, up 29%, followed by those in their 40s (27%), while investors over 50 increased by 25%.

The FIU’s findings show that older investors have larger holdings. By year-end, 221,000 investors held at least 100 million won (about $73,000) in crypto. Of those, 172,500 — or 78% — were over 40.

Related: XRP and Solana race toward the next crypto ETF approval

In February, the head of the financial industry association urged regulators to approve Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, citing rising demand among older investors. He argued that ETFs offer safer exposure than direct investment.

The approval of Bitcoin ETFs has been a key campaign pledge for both Lee Jae-myung and Kim. The move follows growing global momentum after the US, the world’s largest market and a key South Korean trading partner, gave the green light to spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024.

Presidential hopefuls ignite institutional interest in South Korea’s retail-driven crypto market. Source: Ki Young Ju

“Cryptocurrencies play a certain role in our society, but they are ultimately one of the global trends. As the US took the lead, we’ve ended up following in its footsteps. It’s a bit disappointing — we could have taken the lead ourselves,” Cho Jaewoo, assistant professor of social science at Hansung University, told Cointelegraph.

However, the nation’s Capital Markets Act is a barrier that does not recognize crypto as eligible assets underlying ETFs. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is also reviewing legal pathways to allow Bitcoin ETFs under its dedicated crypto committee.

Lee ahead in presidential election voter survey

Yoon’s failed coup accelerated the presidential election and brought renewed urgency to unresolved issues in the local crypto industry.

“In the 2022 presidential election, cryptocurrency was viewed as speculative and untrustworthy. But by the 2025 election, it had emerged as a key policy issue, with major candidates pushing for institutionalization and financial productization in response to the investment realities faced by young people,” Park from Blockchain Research Center said.

South Korea is one of the world’s largest crypto markets. In Q1 2024, the Korean won ranked as the most-traded fiat currency against crypto, driven largely by retail investors. Institutional players remain on the sidelines, awaiting their turn as the FSC prepares to launch pilot trading for professional investors.

FSC’s planned schedule for a phased introduction of institutional crypto investment in 2025.

Crypto policies were once seen as campaign strategies to sway younger voters, but this year, they’re seen as an economic and social issue that impacts multiple generations. In this election, older generations are entering the digital sphere, accelerating calls for regulated investment vehicles, such as ETFs.

“Things have changed a lot. There were even questions and answers about virtual assets during the presidential debates, and related discussions seem to be much more active. In the past, people looked at it with skepticism, but now it feels like the public is approaching it more neutrally and making their own judgments,” Cho said.

Lee Jae-myung leads the latest voter survey by local media and Next Research. Source: Maeil Business Newspaper

Lee Jae-myung and Kim are the two leading candidates, according to local media surveys, with Lee leading Kim at 44.9% to 35.9%, according to a survey conducted from May 23 to 25. Lee Jun-seok is far behind at 9.6%, though he gained almost 3% from the preliminary survey conducted a week prior. 

The 21st presidential election is scheduled to take place on June 3. 

Magazine: Crypto scam hub expose stunt goes viral, Kakao detects 70K scam apps: Asia Express

Bitcoin’s recent all-time high may be linked to ongoing issues in the Japanese bond market, possibly signaling BTC’s growing recognition as a hedge against instability in the traditional financial (TradFi) system.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price rose to a new all-time high of $112,000 on May 22, before retracing to change hands above $109,700 at the time of writing on May 26, Cointelegraph data shows.

While some attributed the rally to geopolitical developments, including US President Donald Trump’s announcement of Russia–Ukraine ceasefire talks on May 19, macroeconomic factors appear to be playing a larger role, according to market analysts.

BTC/USD, 1-year chart. Source: CointelegraphJapan bonds hit yield record

Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch, pointed to growing concerns around Japan’s sovereign credit outlook, highlighting a spike in the country’s long-term bond yields.

Japan 30-year LSEG government bonds yield. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 30-year yield on Japanese bonds reached a new all-time high of 3.185% on May 20, 2025, before retreating to 3.115% on May 23, TradingView data shows.

Related: $1M Bitcoin by 2030: Big names predict massive debt-driven BTC rally

Government bonds are typically considered safe-haven assets. But when yields rise sharply, it often signals investor concerns about fiscal sustainability and repayment risk. Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 250%, compared to Germany’s 62%, yet both countries had 30-year bond yields near 3.1% on May 21, noted The Kobeissi Letter.

“Because yields are increasing, sustainability becomes more of an issue, meaning credit risk increases, meaning yields increase even more,” Dragosch said. “And so you end up in this kind of fiscal debt doom loop.”

Dragosch said the growing volatility in Japan’s bond market could be prompting some institutional investors to reconsider Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against sovereign default risk.

“This is now affecting other bond markets, especially the US Treasury market,” Dragosch added.

Source: The Kobeissi Letter

Related: Crypto, NFTs are a lifeboat in the sinking fiat system: Finance Redefined

Sovereign risk drives crypto appeal

Japan’s bond market instability raises sovereign credit risk concerns, leading to more Bitcoin adoption among TradFi participants, Dragosch told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Bitcoin is an immutable asset. It’s free of counterparty risk. It’s a hedge against sovereign risk and sovereign default.”

“Perceived default risk continues rising, yields continue rising? This is a rough benchmark of why Bitcoin could be heading toward $200,000,” Dragosch said, adding that this remains conditional on continued Bitcoin accumulation by corporations and exchange-traded fund (ETF) holders.

Bitcoin ETF inflows, monthly, all-time chart. Source: Sosovalue

Meanwhile, the US spot Bitcoin ETFs are less than $1.3 billion away from surpassing the monthly inflow record of $6.49 billion from November 2024, Cointelegraph reported on May 23.

Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins ‘powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest, May 11 – 17