US House Speaker Mike Johnson has brushed off corruption concerns surrounding President Donald Trump’s dinner for the top holders of his memecoin and dodged answering whether the list of attendees should be released in the interest of transparency.

Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 25 that he knew nothing about Trump’s May 22 memecoin dinner and opted not to share his opinion on the event, which 35 House Democrats have called for the Justice Department to investigate.

“We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country,” Tapper told Johnson. “I really have a difficult time imagining that if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn’t be outraged.”

“Look, I don’t know anything about the dinner,” Johnson answered, claiming he “was a little busy this past week,” focusing on passing a $1.6 trillion federal budget funding bill.

“I’m not going to comment on something I haven’t even heard about. I’m not sure who was there or what the purpose was.”

Johnson then claimed Trump was “the most transparent president” in history and “has nothing to hide.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper (left) speaking with House Speaker Mike Johnson (right). Source: CNN

Democrats have called for the list of attendees of Trump’s crypto dinner event to be released, as they suspect Trump may be accepting foreign investments in violation of federal bribery statutes or the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution.

Under the emoluments clause, the US president is barred from accepting any gift from a foreign state without the approval of Congress.

Bloomberg reported on May 7 that a majority of the attendees at the memecoin dinner would likely be foreign nationals.

Trump invited those who were among the top 220 largest holders of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin to his event at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

The most notable attendee was the Chinese-born Tron CEO Justin Sun, the largest holder of the TRUMP token and the biggest backer of the Trumps’ crypto platform World Liberty Financial.

Sheldon Xia, the CEO of Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange BitMart, posted pictures to X of himself at the event, while Australian crypto entrepreneur Kain Warwick told The New York Times on May 12 that he would attend the event after stocking up on enough TRUMP to break into the top 25 investors on the leaderboard.

In a separate May 22 press conference, several Democrats called for the release of Trump’s memecoin dinner list.

One of those speaking was Senator Elizabeth Warren, a fierce crypto critic who called Trump’s memecoin dinner an “orgy of corruption.”

Democrats call for Trump to cut crypto ties entirely

Several House Democrats, led by Maxine Waters, introduced the “Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act” on May 22 to prevent Trump and his family from profiting off crypto while in office. 

Trump has used the “power of the presidency to shamelessly promote and profit” from a series of crypto ventures, Waters said in a statement.

Related: Senators plan to amend GENIUS Act to address Trump family’s stablecoin

Waters pointed to the TRUMP memecoin, which she claims has increased Trump’s net worth by over $350 million, as well as his involvement in World Liberty Financial and the platform’s stablecoin, USD1.

An additional 14 US lawmakers supported the bill, including Nydia Velázquez, Brad Sherman and Gregory Meeks.

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American banking and financial industry advocacy groups have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to repeal its cybersecurity incident public disclosure requirements. 

Five US banking groups led by the American Bankers Association asked the regulator to remove its rule in a May 22 letter, arguing that disclosing cybersecurity incidents “directly conflicts with confidential reporting requirements intended to protect critical infrastructure and warn potential victims.”

The group, which also included the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Bank Policy Institute, Independent Community Bankers of America and the Institute of International Bankers, claimed that the rule compromises regulatory efforts to enhance national cybersecurity.

The SEC’s Cybersecurity Risk Management rule, published in July 2023, requires companies to rapidly disclose cybersecurity incidents such as data breaches or hacks. However, the banking groups argue this rule was flawed from the start and has proven problematic in practice since taking effect.

The banking bodies said that the “complex and narrow disclosure delay mechanism” interferes with incident response and law enforcement and creates “market confusion” between mandatory and voluntary disclosures. 

Public disclosure has also been “weaponized as an extortion method by ransomware criminals to further malicious objectives,” and premature disclosures worsen insurance and liability issues for companies and “risks chilling candid internal communications and routine information sharing,” the group claimed. 

Some of the banking groups’ claims and fears regarding the ruling. Source: SIFMA

The groups specifically want “Item 1.05” to be rescinded from the SEC’s rules for Form 8-K reporting and parallel reporting requirements applicable to Form 6-K. 

Form 8-K is used to publicly notify investors in US public companies of specified events, including cybersecurity incidents, that may be important to shareholders or the SEC. 

“Critically, without Item 1.05, investor interests will still be protected, and we believe they would be better served through the pre-existing disclosure framework for reporting material information, which may include material cybersecurity incidents,” the groups stated.

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The full petition included examples of confusion from participants, specific incidents of ransomware attacks and documented regulatory conflicts. 

Public crypto companies impacted 

The requirement also impacts publicly listed crypto companies such as Coinbase, which disclosed earlier this month that hackers had bribed its support staff to leak its user data.

The disclosure saw the company hit with at least seven lawsuits over the disclosure.

Coinbase said that it rejected a $20 million ransom demand after staff leaked user data in a major phishing attack, which the exchange said could cost it up to $400 million in damages.

If the SEC rescinds the requirement, it may give firms such as Coinbase more time to disclose cybersecurity incidents to the public. 

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Coinbase and two executives have been hit with another proposed class-action lawsuit over the crypto exchange’s stock price drop after disclosing a user data breach earlier this month and for allegedly failing to disclose a violation of an agreement with a UK regulator.

Coinbase investor Brady Nessler said in a May 22 lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania federal court that the data breach and the alleged broken agreement with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority resulted in a “precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares,” causing stockholders to suffer “significant losses and damages.”

Coinbase said on May 15 that its damages bill could run up to $400 million after it was hit with a $20 million extortion attempt four days earlier, with several of its customer support agents bribed to access internal systems and steal a limited amount of user account data.

Nessler claimed Coinbase (COIN) shares dropped by 7.2% to close at $244 on May 15 as a result of the disclosure. However, the stock did stage a comeback, spiking 9% and hitting $266 by the closing bell on May 16, according to Google Finance. 

Coinbase stock closed down over 3% on May 23 at $263, falling another $1.62 after the bell. COIN is up nearly 6% so far this year.

Coinbase is down from the May 23 trading session. Source: Google Finance

Nessler’s complaint is seemingly the first to argue damages caused by Coinbase’s stock drop following its breach disclosure in a series of recent class-action lawsuits over the incident.

The crypto exchange was hit with at least six lawsuits in the days after disclosing the data breach, all accusing it of mishandling the incident and failing to protect their data. 

UK agreement breach hurt stock, suit says

The FCA fined Coinbase’s UK arm $4.5 million in July 2024 for breaching a 2020 voluntary agreement preventing the exchange from onboarding customers considered high risk by the regulator.

The FCA said Coinbase onboarded 13,416 customers that the regulator considered high-risk and offered them crypto services.

Related: Coinbase presses to axe rule banning SEC staff from holding crypto

Nessler said in the suit that the fine saw Coinbase’s stock fall by over 5%, closing at $231.52 on July 25, 2024.

Nessler also claimed that Coinbase didn’t disclose it had breached this agreement when the exchange first listed its shares on the Nasdaq in April 2021, and as a result, “the market price of the Company’s securities had been artificially inflated.” 

Nessler claims that had she known about the agreement violation, she would not have purchased the stock at the “artificially inflated prices.”

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The class suit was filed on behalf of anyone who bought Coinbase stock between April 14, 2021, and May 14, 2025, and is asking for damages and a jury trial. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and chief financial officer Alesia Haas are also named as defendants.

Another lawsuit filed in Illinois on May 13, alleges Coinbase failed to notify users in writing of the collection, storage, or sharing of their biometric data and the purpose and retention schedule for their data.

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Blockstream CEO Adam Back has led a 21 million Swedish krona ($2.2 million) funding round in the Swedish health tech company H100 Group AB, which last week said it would start buying Bitcoin.

H100 said on May 25 that the funds, secured through 0% interest convertible loans, will be used to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) in line with its Bitcoin-buying pivot announced on May 22.

Back, a longtime Bitcoin cypherpunk, contributed around $1.4 million, while the remaining $800,000 came from investment firms Morten Klein, Alundo Invest AS, Race Venture Scandinavia AB and Crafoord Capital Partners.

The raise would allow H100 to buy around 20.18 Bitcoin at current market prices, which would add to the 4.39 Bitcoin that it purchased on May 22 and bring its total stash to roughly 24.57 Bitcoin.

Source: H100

H100 said the convertible loans bear no interest and will mature on June 15, 2028. The loan may be converted into shares at any time at a conversion rate of 1.3 Swedish krona (11 US cents) per share.

If H100’s share price maintains a volume-weighted average price of more than 33% above the conversion price for a cumulative total of 60 trading days, H100 has the right to mandate a conversion of the loan into equity.

A full conversion would result in the issuance of roughly 16,153,900 new shares, corresponding to a dilution of approximately 12%.

H100 shares bounced on Bitcoin buy

Shares in H100 jumped 37% on the firm’s May 22 announcement and rose another 5.33% the following day to 1.29 SEK (14 US cents), Bloomberg data shows.

Related: Cardone Capital launches 10X Miami River Bitcoin Fund

H100 sells health tools for individuals who don’t want to rely on the “reactive health system,” the company’s CEO, Sander Andersen, said in a May 22 X post.

Andersen believes “the values of individual sovereignty highly present in the Bitcoin community aligns well with, and will appeal to, the customers and communities we are building the H100 platform for.”

According to H100, the move makes it the first public company in Sweden to adopt a Bitcoin treasury policy and one of the first in Europe.

The number of companies buying Bitcoin as a treasury asset is on the rise, with 112 public firms now holding the cryptocurrency, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET data.

Ten of those corporate Bitcoin holding companies are based in Europe, making H100 one of the first in the region to adopt the trend.

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Blockchain security firm Dedaub released a post-mortem report on the Cetus decentralized exchange hack, identifying the root cause of the attack as an exploit of the liquidity parameters used by the Cetus automated market maker (AMM), which went undetected by a code “overflow” check.

According to the report, the hackers exploited a flaw in the most significant bits (MSB) check, allowing them to manipulate the values for the liquidity parameters by orders of magnitude and establish relatively large positions with a keystroke. The Dedaub security researchers wrote:

“This allowed them to add massive liquidity positions with just one unit of token input, subsequently draining pools collectively containing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tokens.”

The incident and the post-mortem update reflect the unfortunate trend of cybersecurity exploits and hacks impacting crypto and the Web3 industry.  

Executives in the industry have continually warned that industry firms must establish safeguards and protect users before regulators clamp down and impose safeguards on the industry.

The flawed MSB check. Source: Dedaub

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Cetus decentralized exchange hacked, triggering $223 million in losses

On May 22, the Cetus exchange was hacked, causing $223 million in user losses within a 24-hour period.

Cetus and the Sui Foundation also announced that Sui network validators froze a majority of the stolen assets.

$163 million of the $223 million was frozen by validators and ecosystem partners on the same day as the hack, according to the Cetus team.

Response draws criticisms and allegations of centralization

The decision to freeze the stolen funds drew mixed reactions from the crypto community, with decentralization advocates criticizing the validators for stepping in and controlling the chain.

“Sui validators are actively censoring transactions across the blockchain,” one user wrote on X, echoing many other posts.

Source: Sui

“This completely undermines the principles of decentralization and transforms the network into nothing more than a centralized, permissioned database,” the post continued.

“It’s interesting how many Web3 projects backed by VCs lean heavily on centralization, despite borrowing Bitcoin’s ethos,” Steve Bowyer wrote in a May 23 X post.

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Cardone Capital, a real estate investment firm with over $5 billion in assets under management, launched the 10X Miami River Bitcoin Fund, a dual-asset fund consisting of a 346-unit multifamily commercial property located on the Miami River in Miami, Florida, and $15 million of Bitcoin (BTC).

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Cardone Capital founder and CEO Grant Cardone said the Miami River Bitcoin Fund, which is the firm’s fourth blended investment vehicle mixing BTC and commercial multifamily real estate, will convert a portion of its monthly cash flows to BTC.

Cardone told Cointelegraph the impetus to start the fund followed a suggestion from his brother. The CEO said:

“My brother said to me, you should look at if you would have converted all your cash flow from real estate to Bitcoin and what that would have done over the last 12 years. Well, it would have taken $160 million and turned it into around $3 billion.”

“So, when I saw that, I said I am going to create a fund where we buy real estate, add bitcoin, and then use the cash flow from the real estate purchase to buy more Bitcoin,” the CEO continued.

Projected growth of the real estate fund with BTC vs traditional real estate returns. Source: Cardone Capital

The CEO also told Cointelegraph that the long-term goal of Cardone Capital is to accumulate $1 billion of real estate and $200 million in BTC, which will be held as a treasury asset, across the hybrid funds.

The funds’ unique approach of blending income-producing hard assets and Bitcoin as a store of value could disrupt the market for real estate investment trusts (REITs), market-traded funds giving investors access to baskets of income-producing properties, and other traditional commercial real estate investment vehicles.

Related: US real estate asset manager launches $100M tokenized fund with institutional backing

Onboarding users to Bitcoin by abstracting away the technical barrier to entry

The CEO added that he wants to onboard investors and tenants alike to Bitcoin and expose them to the digital asset, without them necessarily having to acquire the technical knowledge to understand how Bitcoin works.

A rewards program, paid in Satoshis, to long-term tenants, who pay on time and exhibit good renter behavior, is one idea the real estate investment firm is mulling, Cardone told Cointelegraph.

Grant Cardone, founder and CEO of Cardone Capital. Source: Cardone Capital

One of the goals of the hybrid real estate BTC funds is to drive the adoption of Bitcoin and provide investors, who would otherwise avoid Bitcoin due to having to overcome the technical barrier to entry, with exposure to the digital asset, the CEO said.

“We are onboarding people into a real estate vehicle that they understand and buying Bitcoin for them,” the CEO added.

Cardone also told Cointelegraph that he is working with other financial firms to create a hybrid Bitcoin mortgage product giving clients the ability to borrow against their combined Bitcoin holdings and equity held in a real estate investment.

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Key takeaways:

Rising bond yields reflect growing concern about fiscal stability and inflation, leading some investors to question US Treasury’s traditional role as a safe-haven asset.

Bitcoin defies conventional risk models, rising not despite worsening macro conditions, but possibly because of them.

Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to new heights amid an increasingly fragile global macroeconomic backdrop. Bond yields are surging in the US and Japan, global growth is stalling, and consumer confidence in the US is scraping historic lows.

Paradoxically, the very macro conditions that once threatened Bitcoin’s price are now fueling its rise. The shift speaks to a broader transformation in how investors interpret risk and where they seek refuge. At the center of this realignment is the US debt crisis and ballooning Treasury yields, which were once considered the safest assets in the world.

Why are US Treasury yields so important?

When US bond yields rise, the cost of servicing its national debt increases sharply — a critical issue given that US debt has now surpassed $36.8 trillion, and the interest payments are expected to total $952 billion in 2025.

US President Donald Trump made it clear on several occasions that lowering yields was among his top economic priorities. However, this may prove far more difficult than he expected, as the two most reliable methods to achieve it both need to come from the US Federal Reserve. Lowering interest rates would make newly issued bonds yield less, making existing higher-yielding bonds more attractive, pushing up their price and lowering their effective yield. Another way is through quantitative easing (QE), where the Fed would buy large amounts of bonds on the open market, thus increasing demand and lowering yields.

The Federal Reserve is currently resisting both strategies and taking caution not to reignite inflation, particularly amid the ongoing tariff war. Even if Trump finds a legal or quasi-legal way to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell, it could backfire by eroding investor confidence and producing the opposite of the intended effect.

Investors do not appreciate political meddling with the foundations of the US and global economy, and their confidence is already fragile. In times of instability, investors traditionally flock to government bonds as a safe haven. But today, the opposite is happening. Investors are turning away from Treasurys, suggesting the problems in the US economy are too large to ignore. The recent loss of the US government’s last AAA credit rating is a stark confirmation.

The worrying yield surge in the US and Japan

On May 22, the yield on the US 30-year bond hit 5.15% — its highest since October 2023, and before that, a level not seen since July 2007. The 10-year yield now stands at 4.48%, the 5-year yield at 4%, and the 2-year yield at 3.92%. 

US bond yields: 30Y, 10Y, 5Y, and 2Y. Source: TradingView

For the first time since October 2021, the US 5-Year to 30-Year bond spread has steepened to 1.00%. This suggests markets are pricing in stronger growth, persistent inflation, and a “higher for longer” rate environment. 

Related: Bitcoin price hit a new all-time high and data shows BTC bulls aren’t done yet

Compounding the problem is Japan, the largest foreign holder of US Treasurys. Japanese investors currently hold $1.13 trillion in US government debt, $350 billion more than China. For decades, Japanese institutions borrowed cheaply at home to invest in US bonds and stocks — a strategy known as the carry trade.

This era may be ending. In March 2024, the Bank of Japan started raising interest rates from -0.1% to 0.5% now. Since April, the Japanese 30-year bond yield has surged by 100 basis points, reaching an all-time high of 3.1%. The 20-year bond yields rose to 2.53%, a level not seen since 1999. 

On May 19, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba even warned the country’s parliament that his debt-strapped government’s position was “worse than Greece” — a startling admission for a country with a 260% debt-to-GDP ratio.

30-year government bonds.Source: LSEG Datastream

Interestingly, the surge in long-dated Japanese bonds wasn’t matched by shorter maturities. The 10-year bond yield is 1.53%, and the 5-year bond yield is just 1%. As Reuters noted, this suggests a strategic shift by large Japanese pension and insurance funds as the Bank of Japan “normalizes” interest rates. These institutions may now be reassessing both duration risk and foreign bond exposure, which spells potential trouble for US Treasurys if (or when) they begin unwinding their holdings.

Will bond volatility continue to impact Bitcoin price?

As the US continues down the debt spiral, and Japan might be starting its own, the global economy is nowhere near recovery, and that could be a good sign for Bitcoin.

Traditionally, rising bond yields would drag down risk assets. Yet stocks and Bitcoin continue climbing. This divergence suggests investors may be moving away from the traditional playbook. When confidence in the system erodes, assets outside it, like stocks and Bitcoin, begin to shine, even if they are considered risk-on. 

What’s more, between Bitcoin and US stocks, an increasing number of institutions choose Bitcoin. As The Kobeissi Letter noted, net 38% of institutional investors were underweight US equities in early May, the lowest since May 2023, according to BofA.

FMS US equity allowance. Source: BofA Global Research

Meanwhile, according to CoinGlass, total inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to grow, with assets under management now exceeding $104 billion, an all-time high. This surge suggests that institutional capital is beginning to recognize Bitcoin not just as a high-performing asset, but as a politically neutral store of value, akin to gold. In an era of mounting instability in fiat debt-based economies, Bitcoin is emerging as a credible alternative, offering a monetary system grounded in predictability and decentralization. With a market cap still well below gold’s $22 trillion or even the $5.5 trillion in base dollars (not including debt), Bitcoin remains significantly undervalued.

Interestingly, the current situation supports both of Bitcoin’s once-contradictory narratives: It is acting as a high-yield risk asset and a safe haven store of value. In a world where old frameworks are failing, Bitcoin’s dual role may no longer be an anomaly, but a sign of what’s to come.

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.