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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