Risk appetite across traditional and cryptocurrency markets saw a sharp rise this week, helping United States cryptocurrency funds recover the capital lost to the correction of February and March, amassing over $7.5 billion worth of weekly inflows.

Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed its old all-time high on May 21, two days after President Donald Trump confirmed ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in a May 19 X post.

Meanwhile, popular analyst and Global Macro Investor CEO Raoul Pal warned of more fiat currency debasement, urging investors to gain more exposure to cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as these assets “will never be this cheap again.”

Exponential currency debasement: “You don’t own enough crypto, NFTs”

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs can help investors protect their eroding purchasing power during an era of exponential currency debasement, according to analysts and industry leaders.

Investing in digital assets is becoming increasingly important in the “world of the exponential age and currency debasement,” according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.

“You don’t own enough crypto. When you do, you don’t own enough NFT’s, as art is upstream of wealth. Both will never be this cheap again,” Pal said.

NFTs are “the single best long term store of wealth I know and you get to buy it before network effects kick in,” he added in another response.

Source: Raoul Pal

“There is some validity to the statement that NFTs, and in extension art, become a vehicle for the wealthy once a certain level of wealth is reached,” wrote Nicolai Sondergaard, research analyst at Nansen, calling it a “natural move” for asset diversification.

“For traders and investors, further down the wealth curve, NFTs are partially about speculating on future returns,” he told Cointelegraph, adding that NFTs also benefit from the allure of strong communities, beyond just wealth creation.

Continue reading

US crypto funds top $7.5 billion inflows in 2025 as investor appetite grows

Crypto investment products in the United States have attracted over $7.5 billion worth of investment in 2025, with a fifth week of net positive inflows last week signaling growing investor demand for digital assets.

US-based crypto investment products attracted $785 million worth of investment last week, pushing the year-to-date (YTD) total to over $7.5 billion, according to a May 19 report by digital asset manager CoinShares.

The latest figure marks the fifth consecutive week of net positive flows, following nearly $7 billion in outflows during February and March.

Weekly crypto asset flows, USD, million. Source: CoinShares

The United States accounted for the bulk of inflows, with $681 million, followed by Germany at $86.3 million and Hong Kong at $24.4 million.

Crypto flows by country. Source: CoinShares

Investor demand for risk assets such as cryptocurrencies staged a significant recovery after the White House announced a 90-day pause on additional tariffs on May 12, which marked a 24% cut for import tariffs for both the US and China.

A day after the announcement, Coinbase exchange saw 9,739 Bitcoin worth more than $1 billion withdrawn from the exchange — the highest net outflow recorded in 2025, signaling that institutional appetite was “accelerating,” according to Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch.

Continue reading

VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence. 

Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.

The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21. 

“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.

RWAs are among crypto’s fastest-growing segments. Source: RWA.xyz

Continue reading

Yield-bearing stablecoins surge to $11 billion, now 4.5% of market: Report

Yield-bearing stablecoins have soared to $11 billion in circulation, representing 4.5% of the total stablecoin market, a steep climb from just $1.5 billion and a 1% market share at the start of 2024.

One of the biggest winners is Pendle, a decentralized protocol that enables users to lock in fixed yields or speculate on variable interest rates. Pendle now accounts for 30% of all yield-bearing stablecoin total value locked (TVL), roughly $3 billion, according to a report from Pendle compiled by analysts from Spartan Group and Modular Capital shared with Cointelegraph.

The report noted that stablecoins make up 83% of its $4 billion total value locked, a sharp rise from less than 20% just a year ago. In contrast, assets such as Ether (ETH), which historically contributed 80%–90% of Pendle’s TVL, have shrunk to less than 10%.

Traditional stablecoins like USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC) do not pass on interest to holders. With over $200 billion in circulation and US Federal Reserve interest rates at 4.3%, Pendle estimates that stablecoin holders are missing out on more than $9 billion in annual yield.

Pendle TVL share by assets. Source: Pendle

Continue reading

Tether surpasses Germany’s $111 billion of US Treasury holdings

Tether, the $151 billion stablecoin issuance giant, has surpassed Germany in United States Treasury bill holdings, showcasing the benefits of a diversified reserve strategy that has helped the firm navigate the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, has surpassed Germany’s $111.4 billion worth of US Treasurys, data from the US Department of the Treasury shows.

Foreign countries by US Treasury holdings. Source: Ticdata.treasury.gov

Tether has surpassed $120 billion worth of Treasury bills, the firm shared in its attestation report for the first quarter of 2025. That makes Tether the 19th largest entity among all counties in terms of T-bill investments.

“This milestone not only reinforces the company’s conservative reserve management strategy but also highlights Tether’s growing role in distributing dollar-denominated liquidity at scale,” wrote Tether in the report. 

During 2024, Tether was the seventh-largest buyer of US Treasurys across all countries, surpassing Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, Norway, Hong Kong and numerous other countries, Cointelegraph reported in March 2025.

Continue reading:

DeFi market overview

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.

Worldcoin (WLD) rose over 32% as the week’s biggest gainer in the top 100, followed by the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token, up over 30% on the weekly chart.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.

Risk appetite across traditional and cryptocurrency markets saw a sharp rise this week, helping United States cryptocurrency funds recover the capital lost to the correction of February and March, amassing over $7.5 billion worth of weekly inflows.

Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed its old all-time high on May 21, two days after President Donald Trump confirmed ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in a May 19 X post.

Meanwhile, popular analyst and Global Macro Investor CEO Raoul Pal warned of more fiat currency debasement, urging investors to gain more exposure to cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as these assets “will never be this cheap again.”

Exponential currency debasement: “You don’t own enough crypto, NFTs”

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs can help investors protect their eroding purchasing power during an era of exponential currency debasement, according to analysts and industry leaders.

Investing in digital assets is becoming increasingly important in the “world of the exponential age and currency debasement,” according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.

“You don’t own enough crypto. When you do, you don’t own enough NFT’s, as art is upstream of wealth. Both will never be this cheap again,” Pal said.

NFTs are “the single best long term store of wealth I know and you get to buy it before network effects kick in,” he added in another response.

Source: Raoul Pal

“There is some validity to the statement that NFTs, and in extension art, become a vehicle for the wealthy once a certain level of wealth is reached,” wrote Nicolai Sondergaard, research analyst at Nansen, calling it a “natural move” for asset diversification.

“For traders and investors, further down the wealth curve, NFTs are partially about speculating on future returns,” he told Cointelegraph, adding that NFTs also benefit from the allure of strong communities, beyond just wealth creation.

Continue reading

US crypto funds top $7.5 billion inflows in 2025 as investor appetite grows

Crypto investment products in the United States have attracted over $7.5 billion worth of investment in 2025, with a fifth week of net positive inflows last week signaling growing investor demand for digital assets.

US-based crypto investment products attracted $785 million worth of investment last week, pushing the year-to-date (YTD) total to over $7.5 billion, according to a May 19 report by digital asset manager CoinShares.

The latest figure marks the fifth consecutive week of net positive flows, following nearly $7 billion in outflows during February and March.

Weekly crypto asset flows, USD, million. Source: CoinShares

The United States accounted for the bulk of inflows, with $681 million, followed by Germany at $86.3 million and Hong Kong at $24.4 million.

Crypto flows by country. Source: CoinShares

Investor demand for risk assets such as cryptocurrencies staged a significant recovery after the White House announced a 90-day pause on additional tariffs on May 12, which marked a 24% cut for import tariffs for both the US and China.

A day after the announcement, Coinbase exchange saw 9,739 Bitcoin worth more than $1 billion withdrawn from the exchange — the highest net outflow recorded in 2025, signaling that institutional appetite was “accelerating,” according to Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch.

Continue reading

VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence. 

Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.

The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21. 

“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.

RWAs are among crypto’s fastest-growing segments. Source: RWA.xyz

Continue reading

Yield-bearing stablecoins surge to $11 billion, now 4.5% of market: Report

Yield-bearing stablecoins have soared to $11 billion in circulation, representing 4.5% of the total stablecoin market, a steep climb from just $1.5 billion and a 1% market share at the start of 2024.

One of the biggest winners is Pendle, a decentralized protocol that enables users to lock in fixed yields or speculate on variable interest rates. Pendle now accounts for 30% of all yield-bearing stablecoin total value locked (TVL), roughly $3 billion, according to a report from Pendle compiled by analysts from Spartan Group and Modular Capital shared with Cointelegraph.

The report noted that stablecoins make up 83% of its $4 billion total value locked, a sharp rise from less than 20% just a year ago. In contrast, assets such as Ether (ETH), which historically contributed 80%–90% of Pendle’s TVL, have shrunk to less than 10%.

Traditional stablecoins like USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC) do not pass on interest to holders. With over $200 billion in circulation and US Federal Reserve interest rates at 4.3%, Pendle estimates that stablecoin holders are missing out on more than $9 billion in annual yield.

Pendle TVL share by assets. Source: Pendle

Continue reading

Tether surpasses Germany’s $111 billion of US Treasury holdings

Tether, the $151 billion stablecoin issuance giant, has surpassed Germany in United States Treasury bill holdings, showcasing the benefits of a diversified reserve strategy that has helped the firm navigate the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, has surpassed Germany’s $111.4 billion worth of US Treasurys, data from the US Department of the Treasury shows.

Foreign countries by US Treasury holdings. Source: Ticdata.treasury.gov

Tether has surpassed $120 billion worth of Treasury bills, the firm shared in its attestation report for the first quarter of 2025. That makes Tether the 19th largest entity among all counties in terms of T-bill investments.

“This milestone not only reinforces the company’s conservative reserve management strategy but also highlights Tether’s growing role in distributing dollar-denominated liquidity at scale,” wrote Tether in the report. 

During 2024, Tether was the seventh-largest buyer of US Treasurys across all countries, surpassing Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, Norway, Hong Kong and numerous other countries, Cointelegraph reported in March 2025.

Continue reading:

DeFi market overview

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.

Worldcoin (WLD) rose over 32% as the week’s biggest gainer in the top 100, followed by the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token, up over 30% on the weekly chart.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.

Risk appetite across traditional and cryptocurrency markets saw a sharp rise this week, helping United States cryptocurrency funds recover the capital lost to the correction of February and March, amassing over $7.5 billion worth of weekly inflows.

Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed its old all-time high on May 21, two days after President Donald Trump confirmed ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in a May 19 X post.

Meanwhile, popular analyst and Global Macro Investor CEO Raoul Pal warned of more fiat currency debasement, urging investors to gain more exposure to cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as these assets “will never be this cheap again.”

Exponential currency debasement: “You don’t own enough crypto, NFTs”

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs can help investors protect their eroding purchasing power during an era of exponential currency debasement, according to analysts and industry leaders.

Investing in digital assets is becoming increasingly important in the “world of the exponential age and currency debasement,” according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.

“You don’t own enough crypto. When you do, you don’t own enough NFT’s, as art is upstream of wealth. Both will never be this cheap again,” Pal said.

NFTs are “the single best long term store of wealth I know and you get to buy it before network effects kick in,” he added in another response.

Source: Raoul Pal

“There is some validity to the statement that NFTs, and in extension art, become a vehicle for the wealthy once a certain level of wealth is reached,” wrote Nicolai Sondergaard, research analyst at Nansen, calling it a “natural move” for asset diversification.

“For traders and investors, further down the wealth curve, NFTs are partially about speculating on future returns,” he told Cointelegraph, adding that NFTs also benefit from the allure of strong communities, beyond just wealth creation.

Continue reading

US crypto funds top $7.5 billion inflows in 2025 as investor appetite grows

Crypto investment products in the United States have attracted over $7.5 billion worth of investment in 2025, with a fifth week of net positive inflows last week signaling growing investor demand for digital assets.

US-based crypto investment products attracted $785 million worth of investment last week, pushing the year-to-date (YTD) total to over $7.5 billion, according to a May 19 report by digital asset manager CoinShares.

The latest figure marks the fifth consecutive week of net positive flows, following nearly $7 billion in outflows during February and March.

Weekly crypto asset flows, USD, million. Source: CoinShares

The United States accounted for the bulk of inflows, with $681 million, followed by Germany at $86.3 million and Hong Kong at $24.4 million.

Crypto flows by country. Source: CoinShares

Investor demand for risk assets such as cryptocurrencies staged a significant recovery after the White House announced a 90-day pause on additional tariffs on May 12, which marked a 24% cut for import tariffs for both the US and China.

A day after the announcement, Coinbase exchange saw 9,739 Bitcoin worth more than $1 billion withdrawn from the exchange — the highest net outflow recorded in 2025, signaling that institutional appetite was “accelerating,” according to Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch.

Continue reading

VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence. 

Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.

The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21. 

“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.

RWAs are among crypto’s fastest-growing segments. Source: RWA.xyz

Continue reading

Yield-bearing stablecoins surge to $11 billion, now 4.5% of market: Report

Yield-bearing stablecoins have soared to $11 billion in circulation, representing 4.5% of the total stablecoin market, a steep climb from just $1.5 billion and a 1% market share at the start of 2024.

One of the biggest winners is Pendle, a decentralized protocol that enables users to lock in fixed yields or speculate on variable interest rates. Pendle now accounts for 30% of all yield-bearing stablecoin total value locked (TVL), roughly $3 billion, according to a report from Pendle compiled by analysts from Spartan Group and Modular Capital shared with Cointelegraph.

The report noted that stablecoins make up 83% of its $4 billion total value locked, a sharp rise from less than 20% just a year ago. In contrast, assets such as Ether (ETH), which historically contributed 80%–90% of Pendle’s TVL, have shrunk to less than 10%.

Traditional stablecoins like USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC) do not pass on interest to holders. With over $200 billion in circulation and US Federal Reserve interest rates at 4.3%, Pendle estimates that stablecoin holders are missing out on more than $9 billion in annual yield.

Pendle TVL share by assets. Source: Pendle

Continue reading

Tether surpasses Germany’s $111 billion of US Treasury holdings

Tether, the $151 billion stablecoin issuance giant, has surpassed Germany in United States Treasury bill holdings, showcasing the benefits of a diversified reserve strategy that has helped the firm navigate the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, has surpassed Germany’s $111.4 billion worth of US Treasurys, data from the US Department of the Treasury shows.

Foreign countries by US Treasury holdings. Source: Ticdata.treasury.gov

Tether has surpassed $120 billion worth of Treasury bills, the firm shared in its attestation report for the first quarter of 2025. That makes Tether the 19th largest entity among all counties in terms of T-bill investments.

“This milestone not only reinforces the company’s conservative reserve management strategy but also highlights Tether’s growing role in distributing dollar-denominated liquidity at scale,” wrote Tether in the report. 

During 2024, Tether was the seventh-largest buyer of US Treasurys across all countries, surpassing Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, Norway, Hong Kong and numerous other countries, Cointelegraph reported in March 2025.

Continue reading:

DeFi market overview

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.

Worldcoin (WLD) rose over 32% as the week’s biggest gainer in the top 100, followed by the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token, up over 30% on the weekly chart.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.

It’s been 30 years since computer scientist Ben Goertzel wrote his first line of AI code, already convinced that artificial intelligence should be decentralized. Today, as the world approaches the dawn of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), who leads this breakthrough could have profound consequences for the future of humanity.

Speaking with Cointelegraph at the Consensus conference in Toronto, Canada, Goertzel said, “We’re likely to be able to launch AGI that can think and generalize beyond its training and programming within the next one to three years.”

His project, SingularityNET, is a decentralized ecosystem building a global marketplace for AI services. Along the way, it has secured partnerships with Mind Network and Filecoin Foundation, invested $53 million in a modular supercomputer dedicated to decentralized AGI, and completed a token merger with Ocean Protocol and Fetch.ai to unify efforts in decentralized AI development.

In 2024, Goertzel founded the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, the world’s largest open-source initiative dedicated to decentralized AGI.

SingularityNET and the ASI Alliance are “probably the only serious AGI R&D team outside of Big Tech, certainly the only one in the crypto space, and I don’t mean any slight against others doing cool AI stuff in the crypto space,” Goertzel said. 

For Goertzel, these milestones represent a return to first principles. After decades spent developing AI and championing decentralization, the broader tech world is finally catching up, turning once-radical ideas into drivers of multi-trillion-dollar industries. 

Goertzel and Sam Bourgi at the Consensus conference in Toronto, Canada. Source: CointelegraphThe substance behind decentralization

“In ’93, ’94, ’95, it became clear to me AI should be decentralized,” Goertzel said.

He wrote his first decentralized AI code the following year using a beta version of Java, then founded his first AI company in New York in 1997.

At the time, the internet Goertzel was working with was itself decentralized, so it seemed only natural that AI should be, too.

“What I didn’t foresee then was that the internet would become so centralized, actually, because at that point the internet really was decentralized,” he said.

The internet’s subsequent evolution watered down the foundation of decentralization. “Later on, what happened is, you have Google, you have Facebook, you have Tencent — you have these companies making huge centralized mirrors of the internet on these massive data centers,” he said. 

However, for the next leap into AGI, Goertzel sees decentralization as a foundational safeguard against the monopolization and misuse of the technology. That principle is embedded in the architecture of SingularityNET, Hyperon, and the upcoming ASI Chain, a modular blockchain designed for decentralized AI.

His argument is that AGI must be decentralized from the ground up, not adopted later, if it is to benefit humanity rather than serve concentrated power.

“The way the post-AGI period goes may be quite different depending on whether the decentralized ecosystem plays a role in it or not,” he said, adding:

“We are hoping that we, in collaboration with other decentralized teams, will be the first or among the very first to make it happen.”Goertzel’s ideas on AI and decentralization gained broader mainstream attention after his appearance on episode 1211 of the Joe Rogan Experience: Source: PowerfulJRE

Related: The next frontier for crypto will be decentralizing AI

A brief foray into decentralized money

Perhaps due to his anarchist leanings and desire to “make anarchism real in cyberspace,” Goertzel explored the idea of decentralized money back in the 90s.

As interesting as it sounded back then, Goertzel and his friends concluded that transaction times would be too slow and expensive, rendering the idea impractical.

Just a few decades later, a person or entity named Satoshi Nakamoto created the first successful implementation of decentralized money known as Bitcoin (BTC). Ironically, its transactions are still slow and expensive — perhaps by design or due to its growing popularity — so Goertzel’s early skepticism wasn’t entirely misplaced. 

He also admitted that, at the time, he and his friends simply “weren’t good enough at business to hit on the idea of money laundering, selling drugs and guns online and so forth as a business model.” 

He was perhaps half-joking in a nod to the darknet marketplace Silk Road, which enabled anonymous transactions using Bitcoin until it was seized by authorities in 2013.

Magazine: Advanced AI system is already ‘self-aware’ — ASI Alliance founder

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s performance in the current bull market and a new cohort of buyers reflect a maturing market and widening adoption.

A 50% rise in hashrate and a 63% jump in Realized Cap highlight investors’ confidence in Bitcoin.

A recent report from Fidelity Digital Assets explored how the current Bitcoin market cycle reflects a shift toward a maturing market where the rate of adoption deepens and expands.

At block height 892,500—marking 25% progress into the current halving epoch—Bitcoin traded between $82,500 and $85,000, representing a 31% increase from its value on April 19, 2024, when the fourth halving reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC.

Bitcoin: halving cycles compared. Source: Fidelity Digital Assets

Fidelity’s senior research analyst Daniel Gray emphasized Bitcoin’s network resilience, noting a 50% surge in hashrate since the halving. This increase signals strong miner commitment despite reduced rewards. Unlike previous cycles marked by post-halving rallies, the 2024–2025 phase has been characterized by steadier, more measured growth.

The Puell Multiple—an indicator of miner revenue relative to Bitcoin’s price—has stabilized, suggesting that the market is adjusting to lower issuance without significant volatility. The report explains,

“Bitcoin’s more muted returns likely reflect a market that is digesting several extrinsic tailwinds and headwinds, which have inevitably caused some uncertainty.”

Historically, this mid-epoch phase has coincided with new all-time highs—an event that occurred this week. Fidelity noted that this growth could extend into Q2 2025, potentially redefining Bitcoin’s position as a credible asset class in modern portfolios.

Bitcoin’s Realized Cap is a significant indicator of this evolution, which measures cumulative net capital inflows. Since the 2024 halving, the Realized Cap metric has surged 63%, climbing to $915 billion from $561 billion, underscoring the scale of capital entering the market.

Bitcoin realized cap milestones. Source: Glassnode

This trend fits within Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory, where Realized Cap has risen with each halving, indicating a maturing asset with substantial growth progression.

Key drivers behind this Bitcoin bull market

The current bull market cycle is also distinguished by record-breaking levels of institutional investor and corporate-level participation. The approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US in January 2024 has ushered in $134 billion in inflows, while monthly trading volumes on platforms like Binance soared past $1 trillion in March 2024—a massive leap from just $11 billion in January 2018.

Public companies’ strategic accumulation of Bitcoin, most notably Strategy, now holding 576,230 BTC, also sets a new industry blueprint. Firms like Metaplanet Inc., Bitcoin Group SE, and Semler Scientific have since followed suit, validating Bitcoin’s role as a corporate treasury asset this cycle.

Thus, Gray asserts that Bitcoin’s fundamentals and global recognition are “stronger than ever,” signaling a cycle of growth, institutional anchoring, and market resilience.

Related: Bitcoin’s new all-time high has traders asking: Is BTC price overheating at $111K?

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.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s performance in the current bull market and a new cohort of buyers reflect a maturing market and widening adoption.

A 50% rise in hashrate and a 63% jump in Realized Cap highlight investors’ confidence in Bitcoin.

A recent report from Fidelity Digital Assets explored how the current Bitcoin market cycle reflects a shift toward a maturing market where the rate of adoption deepens and expands.

At block height 892,500—marking 25% progress into the current halving epoch—Bitcoin traded between $82,500 and $85,000, representing a 31% increase from its value on April 19, 2024, when the fourth halving reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC.

Bitcoin: halving cycles compared. Source: Fidelity Digital Assets

Fidelity’s senior research analyst Daniel Gray emphasized Bitcoin’s network resilience, noting a 50% surge in hashrate since the halving. This increase signals strong miner commitment despite reduced rewards. Unlike previous cycles marked by post-halving rallies, the 2024–2025 phase has been characterized by steadier, more measured growth.

The Puell Multiple—an indicator of miner revenue relative to Bitcoin’s price—has stabilized, suggesting that the market is adjusting to lower issuance without significant volatility. The report explains,

“Bitcoin’s more muted returns likely reflect a market that is digesting several extrinsic tailwinds and headwinds, which have inevitably caused some uncertainty.”

Historically, this mid-epoch phase has coincided with new all-time highs—an event that occurred this week. Fidelity noted that this growth could extend into Q2 2025, potentially redefining Bitcoin’s position as a credible asset class in modern portfolios.

Bitcoin’s Realized Cap is a significant indicator of this evolution, which measures cumulative net capital inflows. Since the 2024 halving, the Realized Cap metric has surged 63%, climbing to $915 billion from $561 billion, underscoring the scale of capital entering the market.

Bitcoin realized cap milestones. Source: Glassnode

This trend fits within Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory, where Realized Cap has risen with each halving, indicating a maturing asset with substantial growth progression.

Key drivers behind this Bitcoin bull market

The current bull market cycle is also distinguished by record-breaking levels of institutional investor and corporate-level participation. The approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US in January 2024 has ushered in $134 billion in inflows, while monthly trading volumes on platforms like Binance soared past $1 trillion in March 2024—a massive leap from just $11 billion in January 2018.

Public companies’ strategic accumulation of Bitcoin, most notably Strategy, now holding 576,230 BTC, also sets a new industry blueprint. Firms like Metaplanet Inc., Bitcoin Group SE, and Semler Scientific have since followed suit, validating Bitcoin’s role as a corporate treasury asset this cycle.

Thus, Gray asserts that Bitcoin’s fundamentals and global recognition are “stronger than ever,” signaling a cycle of growth, institutional anchoring, and market resilience.

Related: Bitcoin’s new all-time high has traders asking: Is BTC price overheating at $111K?

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.

Web3 developer platform Alchemy has acquired HeyMint, a California-based non-fungible token (NFT) launchpad, in a move designed to enhance the company’s smart wallet infrastructure. 

The undisclosed funding deal will see HeyMint’s infrastructure embedded within Alchemy as it seeks to simplify user onboarding for Web3 applications, the company disclosed on May 23. HeyMint’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Flor Ronsmans De Vry, joins Alchemy as part of the deal. 

While not a household name in crypto, HeyMint attracted more than 1 million users over its first two years of operations. It was the launchpad behind $38 million in NFT sales and supported the Web3 efforts of major brands, including The Sandbox, Universal Music Group and Ubisoft. 

In 2023, HeyMint facilitated NFT sales for the Partnership for Central America, a private sector coalition that included Mastercard.

The HeyMint acquisition is Alchemy’s second funding deal this month. The company recently acquired Dexter Lab, a real-time data infrastructure provider for Solana, for an undisclosed amount. 

Source: Cointelegraph

Related: VC Roundup: 8-figure funding deals suggest crypto bull market far from over

Crypto mergers, acquisitions are heating up

2025 is shaping up to be a more active year for crypto mergers and acquisitions (M&As), especially in the United States, where regulatory clarity and a pro-industry administration are encouraging dealmaking.

There has been a flurry of high-profile deals in recent weeks, including Robinhood’s acquisition of Canadian digital asset operator WonderFi for $179 million and Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his crypto exchange is eyeing more M&A opportunities.

One of the biggest acquisitions was completed in April when Ripple purchased prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion — a deal the payments company said would expand its horizons within institutional finance. 

Beyond M&As, crypto venture capital funding has also been on the rise. PitchBook data revealed that, while the number of deals declined last quarter, the value of investments more than doubled compared to a year earlier.

A highlight of crypto-backed venture deals in 2024. Source: Pitchbook

Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs: Inside story 

Key points:

Bitcoin joins risk assets in a knee-jerk reaction to the latest instalment of the US trade war, this time focused on the EU.

BTC price action dives up to 4% before recovering with $110,000 now a resistance level.

Traders demand that price holds higher levels going forward to protect bullish momentum.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw flash volatility into the May 23 Wall Street open as news headlines liquidated longs.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewBitcoin trips as Trump says EU talks “going nowhere”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting lows of $107,367 on Bitstamp before rebounding.

This marked daily losses of up to 4% as markets reacted to comments from US President Donald Trump over tariffs on the European Union.

“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. 

“Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”Source: Truth Social

US stocks reacted immediately at the open, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index down 1% and 1.2%, respectively, at the time of writing.

Reflecting on the latest developments, crypto market participants were unsurprised, given the existing precedent for tariff-related volatility.

“Nice aggregate flush of long leverage & de-risk selling from spot,” popular trader Skew summarized in a post on X.

“All driven by headlines once again.”Binance Bitcoin futures market data overview. Source: Skew/X

Data from monitoring resource CoinGlass put 4-hour liquidations at nearly $350 million, with the 24-hour tally at over $500 million.

Total crypto liquidations (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

“There’s the break from the compression with a push from Trump. Markets worldwide obviously not liking the news,” fellow trader Daan Crypto Trades continued. 

“Will have to see where this settles today and how BTC ends up performing relative to equities now the trade uncertainty is back.”BTC/USDT 15-minute chart. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

Commenting on the macro outlook, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter suggested that the Trump administration was caught between a rock and a hard place.

“We have now learned: Too much tariff pressure causes the basis trade to unwind. Too little tariff pressure causes inflation expectations to rise,” it wrote in part of an X response. 

“Now, President Trump must find a middle ground to maintain tariffs but also suppress treasury yields WITHOUT Fed cuts.”

Kobeissi referred to the Federal Reserve’s unwillingness to hasted interest rate cuts despite declining inflation — a key ingredient in further risk-asset upside.

Related: Bitcoin buyer dominance at $111K suggests ‘another wave’ of gains

Elsewhere, traders eyed key BTC price levels to preserve going forward as the market sought a rebound.

“We need to hold the green zone,” trader Crypto Caesar argued alongside a chart showing an area of interest immediately below $110,000.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Crypto Caesar/X

Another trader, Poseidon, acknowledged the comparative lack of resistance above spot price, keeping the door open to easy upside.

Don’t forget: above here, it’s nothing but thin air. No resistance in sight.$BTC pic.twitter.com/ugQEGQIcpD

— Poseidon (@CryptoPoseidonn) May 23, 2025

“Front ran $110K tag,” Skew continued alongside a chart of order book liquidity concentrations.

“Important level from here for the market to auction above (key for continuation).”

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.

Opinion by: Grigore Roșu, founder and chief executive officer of Pi Squared

For some, the audacity of questioning the primacy of blockchain in Web3 is borderline heretical. The idea that decentralization and progress could exist without blockchains seems absurd to those who built careers around Bitcoin, Ethereum, and their descendants. Given blockchain’s well-documented scaling limits, however, there is an argument to be made that Web3 doesn’t actually need blockchains to thrive. Instead, it requires payment systems and verifiable settlement systems that are super fast. Blockchains are just one way to achieve that, not the only way.

While blockchain solved the double-spending problem, it introduced its own architectural burden: the rigid fixation on total ordering, dictating that every transaction must wait its turn in a global queue, processed through a monolithic consensus mechanism. Initially, this made sense in the context of payments, where security and simplicity were paramount. Still, in the context of Web3, where complex applications require speed, flexibility, and scale, this same mechanism has become a constraint. It imposes a kind of serialized tyranny, throttling throughput and locking developers into a narrow lane of design options. 

The undeniable influence of FastPay

Mobile remittance app FastPay proved that double-spending can be avoided differently without a total order. This inspired systems like Linera, which use independent local orderings while maintaining global verifiability, proving that a different, more scalable future is possible and already underway. FastPay also inspired the likes of POD and Sui’s single-owner objects protocol. If FastPay had been invented before Bitcoin, blockchain might never have captured the cultural or technical imagination in the way that it did.

Recent: Beijing to invest in blockchain, integrate into infrastructure

Some will no doubt argue that total ordering is essential for financial integrity or that without blockchains, decentralization itself unravels. These concerns, however, mistake a particular implementation of trustlessness for trustlessness itself. What truly underpins decentralized systems is the verifiability of a transaction, not the precise order in which it happened relative to every other global transaction. 

Blockchain’s growing pains are still on display

While Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade sought to improve transaction throughput through “blobs,” the core architecture remains tied to total ordering. Even with Solana’s introduction of the Lattice system, the network continues to suffer outages caused by bugs and excessive load. Additionally, the explosion of L2s is more a workaround than a solution, offloading transactions from mainnets only to reintroduce them later in delayed batches, resulting in an endless cycle of what is essentially congestion management.

The rise of flexible payment and settlement protocols

Like in legacy tech circles, the “evolve or die” mantra certainly applies to investors and builders anchored to traditional blockchain architectures. Moving forward, protocols prioritizing flexible, verifiable payment systems and settlement over rigid total ordering will unlock far greater throughput and better user experiences. As decentralized applications evolve and autonomous agents driven by AI begin interacting with blockchains, the cost of sequencing everything in order will become a competitive liability.

There have already been signs of this tectonic shift taking place, with the growing adoption of modular blockchain frameworks like Celestia underscoring a broader recognition that classical blockchains are too inflexible. Data availability layers, execution shards and offchain verification mechanisms are all attempts to decouple blockchain’s trusted validation from its limiting sequencing model. While these efforts may not break entirely from the past, they point unmistakably toward a future of more adaptable infrastructure.

A new role for blockchain

This doesn’t mean blockchain will disappear, but it must evolve. Looking ahead, its most enduring role may be as a universal verifier, less a master ledger and more of a decentralized notary within a broader, more agile stack. While this is a necessary evolution, unfortunately, it’s hard to see how that shift will be smooth, as too much capital, ideology and career risk is tied up in the legacy narrative. 

Many venture funds, DeFi protocols, and “Ethereum killers” are financially and reputationally invested in keeping the blockchain central. But history has little mercy for technological incumbents that cling to yesterday’s model. Just as the internet outgrew its early walled gardens, Web3 is poised to move beyond the rigidity of block-based sequencing. The fruits from the next wave of infrastructure will belong to those who understand and capitalize on this inflection point. 

Opinion by: Grigore Roșu, founder and chief executive officer of Pi Squared.

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.

The top 220 holders of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin met yesterday at the president’s golf course in Virginia for an exclusive dinner and purported meet-and-greet.

Attendees spent a grand total of $148 million for an “ultra-exclusive VIP reception with the president,” which crypto industry advocates and critics alike saw as a potential opportunity to discuss crypto policy with the president. 

The crowd contained a number of foreign crypto executives and influencers who otherwise would not have access to the US president, raising questions around corruption and foreign influence. 

Concerns were further augmented when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to release a list of attendees, stating that the event was a private affair outside of Trump’s presidential duties.

However, some attendees spoke to the press or took to social media to talk about the dinner. Here are just a few:

Justin Sun

Tron founder Justin Sun was the largest TRUMP tokenholder at the gala, which was reportedly enough to earn him a special watch, presented in a special ceremony. 

Sun was awarded a watch in a ceremony at the event. Source: Justin Sun

Sun’s presence at the event was particularly controversial. Last year, he faced a lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the alleged “orchestration of the unregistered offer and sale, manipulative trading, and unlawful touting of crypto asset securities.”

The SEC asked for a reprieve in late February, just over a month since Trump’s inauguration and the subsequent 180 in federal agencies’ approach toward regulating crypto. 

Outside the crypto dinner, Sun posted on May 21 that he would be spending a week in Washington, DC to have “meaningful conversations that will help shape the next chapter of blockchain’s future” in the United States.

Kain Warwick

Kain Warwick, founder of crypto exchange operator iFinex, told The New York Times on May 12 that he was attending the event after stocking up on enough TRUMP to break the top 25 investors on the leaderboard. 

Warwick said he wanted to have a shot at meeting the president, or someone on his team, to talk crypto — specifically decentralized finance (DeFi), which is getting less attention in the current crop of crypto bills circulating the US Congress.

“If you assume Trump and 10 people within the Trump team are there, now you’ve got a one in 15 shot of having a conversation with one of them,” he said.

Vincent Liu

Vincent Liu, chief investment officer of crypto trading, VC and market-making firm Kronos Research, attended the event, posting pictures of the menu and Trump’s brief speech.

A photo of the menu at Donald Trump’s memecoin dinner. Source: Vincent Liu

Liu wrote, “Simply by holding the Trump token, individuals have an unprecedented opportunity to meet the President of the United States.” 

He had previously told Cointelegraph, “The decision to acquire the [TRUMP] token was not political. It was based on identifying early momentum, cultural relevance and potential market catalysts.”

Related: US lawmaker introduces anti-corruption bill ahead of Trump’s dinner

His firm stated that “alpha” — i.e., exclusive or difficult-to-obtain information that could move markets — was “on the menu.” 

Lamar Odom

Also in attendance was two-time National Basketball Association champion Lamar Odom. While many other crypto entrepreneurs in the audience were focused on policy, Odom used news of his attendance to plug his own memecoin, ODOM.

Lamar Odom writing an X post while attending Trump’s memecoin dinner. Source: Lamar Odom

Odom launched his memecoin less than a week before the dinner on May 14. The anti-addiction-themed memecoin (Odom had a public battle with substance addiction) is issued on the Solana blockchain.

The coin itself had a 20% “Trump Dinner Program” staking scheme, where TRUMP holders could stake their coins with Odom’s project, ostensibly to enable him to attend the dinner event, and receive ODOM airdrops in return. Odom himself will hold 5% of all ODOM.

Sangrok Oh

CEO of Seoul- and Tokyo-based cryptocurrency management firm Hyperithm, Sangrok Oh was the 13th-largest TRUMP holder with a wallet containing over $3 million worth of the token, according to the Straits Times. 

Oh told The New York Times that he had arrived with a batch of red “Make Crypto Great Again” hats to give away at the dinner and expected to speak directly with the president. “It’s kind of a fund-raiser […] And he’ll always be good to his sponsors.”

Oh has been critical of the slow regulatory progress for crypto in the countries where his company operates. 

Anonymous attendees

In addition to crypto execs and sports stars, the event also noted a few anonymous or pseudonymous crypto traders and entrepreneurs in attendance. 

Among them was “Ice,” co-founder of the Singaporean crypto company MemeCore. Their company’s chief business development officer, Cherry Hsu, told Sherwood News that Trump’s rise “represents the power of memes to influence culture, perception, and movements — principles that align with MemeCore’s vision of a decentralized, community-driven future.”

“Ogle,” a cybersecurity adviser to Trump’s own World Liberty Financial crypto enterprise, as well as the pseudonymous co-founder of blockchain ecosystem Glue, also attended. Ogle said they were going out of curiosity, more than anything, and did not endorse Trump personally. “I’m hoping it’ll be fun — and hoping they’ll serve McDonald’s.”

Another anonymous attendee was “Cryptoo Bear,” a crypto trader and occasional news reporter who posts primarily in Japanese. Cryptoo Bear made no political statements about the event, mainly posting about the swag and the food. They did say they were promised a photo op with the president, but it didn’t pan out. 

Source: Cryptoo BearDinner “guests” across the picket line

Outside the country club, US senators and former staffers attended the event as part of a protest.

Bloomberg reported that protestors shouted “Shame!” and “I hope you choke on your dinner!” at attendees. Critics of the event widely consider it to be a glaring example of corruption in Washington and within the Trump administration. 

Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, joined the protest. “The spirit of the Constitution was that no one elected would be selling influence to anyone,” he said, “because it’s to be government by and for the people.”

Ken Papaj, a former Treasury Department official, said, “Every time there’s a transaction, he gets a transaction fee? Just unconscionable what he’s doing.”

The dinner comes at a pivotal time for the crypto industry in the US, where the industry is pushing hard for Congress to pass friendly regulations. Trump’s ties may complicate matters, however, as lawmakers have introduced anti-corruption bills targeting crypto and politicians.

Senate Democrats are also taking aim at the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act, introducing a slew of amendments addressing Trump’s crypto businesses. 

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