BeInCrypto Global

Crypto traders are bracing for a risk-off Monday open after President Donald Trump signaled possible US strikes on Iran. He capped the warnings with a Truth Social image referencing nuclear escalation.
The reaction reflects fears of an oil-flow shock and renewed inflation pressure. Investors are likely to trim risk exposure into the start of the trading week.
Tuesday Situation Room Meeting Puts Markets on Edge
Trump is expected to convene a Situation Room meeting Tuesday to review military options against Iran. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are set to attend.
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On Sunday, Trump warned Iran that the “Clock is Ticking” for a deal.
He added that “there won’t be anything left of them” without one. Verified flight trackers show a US Air Force airlift moving weapons and gear to bases across the region.
Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $78,312 on Sunday, down roughly 4% over the past week. Ether (ETH) sat near $2,188 after a 7.5% weekly drop.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Performance. Source: TradingView
Both assets enter a headline-driven session technically vulnerable.
Strait of Hormuz and Oil Risk in Focus
Analysts warn that any disruption to the Strait of Hormuz could push crude sharply higher. Prior modeling pointed to $105 to $165 per barrel depending on closure duration.
Higher oil would feed into US inflation, pressure Treasury yields, and delay anticipated Federal Reserve rate cuts. That combination has historically weighed on Bitcoin during similar geopolitical shocks.
Welp – risk off Monday/Tuesday i guess,” remarked one user in a post.
Other traders remain skeptical of an immediate large sell-off without sustained upward moves in Treasury yields.
Markets will watch Tuesday’s meeting and any follow-up Truth Social posts for signs of escalation or a return to talks.
“If you send in U.S. military troops into Iran, there is going to be a political revolution in America,” said former Congresswoman Marjorie Tailor.

Kenyan detectives arrested Mildred Kache, the alleged mastermind of a fake gold deal that drained 431,380 Tether (USDT) from an American investor, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said on Sunday.
Kache was cornered at Crystal Villas in Kilimani, Nairobi. Her alleged accomplice, Ibrahim Yusuf Mohamed, fled before officers reached the property, abandoning a black Mercedes-Benz E50 now held as exhibit.
How the Alleged Scam Happened
The suspects told the investor they could supply 400 kilograms of gold bars. He flew to Nairobi to sign the agreement, then wired payment into bank accounts the group controlled, according to the DCI account.
After the funds landed, the alleged dealers stopped answering calls. No gold ever shipped. The victim then reported the loss, and detectives traced forensic leads to the Kilimani apartment where Kache, who also uses the name Sabreena Ayesha, was arrested.
The mismatch should have raised flags. At current market prices, 400 kilograms of gold would be worth far more than USDT 431,380 (almost $54 million), a discrepancy several observers pointed out under the DCI’s post.
Kache is in custody at the DCI’s Nairobi Regional Headquarters pending arraignment. Investigators say they are actively pursuing Mohamed and tracing the stolen funds.
A Familiar Pattern in Nairobi
Kilimani has surfaced repeatedly in similar scams targeting foreign nationals, with the playbook rarely changing.
Operators stage polished meetings, draft fake contracts, then vanish once the money clears, a pattern documented across many fraud cases.
Stablecoin rails are central to the scheme. Investigators have flagged USDT as the preferred settlement asset for international fraud because transfers move in minutes and are difficult to reverse.
Stablecoin Usage in Crime 2024. Source: Bitrace
Kenya is also finalizing its first dedicated crypto law, which would expand reporting duties on suspicious flows.
The next milestone is Kache’s first court appearance. Whether any of the 431,380 USDT can be frozen on-chain will likely shape what the victim recovers.

Lenders parking funds in DeFi borrowing markets on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains and Solana lost roughly $3 for every $10,000 deposited over the past 12 months, putting realized hack losses at 3 basis points of Total Value Locked (TVL).
That loss rate sits close to the annual rate at which Americans die from slip-and-fall accidents. Keyring Network founder Alex McFarlane derived the figure from DefiLlama records on May 17, isolating lending markets and stripping out bridge incidents.
Lending Hack Losses Stay Small Against TVL
The research measures trailing 12-month non-bridge lending exploits at $30.9 million gross against $99.6 billion in average TVL. The reading came in at 3.1 basis points gross and 3 basis points net after recoveries, pulled through May 16.
For an individual lender, the math implies that spreading $10,000 across the largest EVM and Solana lending markets carried an annualized hack-loss expectation of about $3 over the past year.
The figure excludes bridge risk, oracle failures, and bugs specific to any single protocol, and it assumes the deposit did not land inside a market that suffered a tail event.
DefiLlama records gross hack losses of $7.75 billion across the broader DeFi category over its full history. Excluding bridge incidents drops that figure to $4.52 billion, showing how one category distorts the picture for the rest of DeFi.
Total Value Hacked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama
Crypto hackers pulled $606 million in April, the worst month since Bybit’s 2025 breach, with Kelp DAO and Drift hacks driving 95% of that month’s total losses.
“The key question for hack/crime risk is: how large are realized exploit losses relative to the amount of capital using the market? The probability of 3 in 10000 is approximately equal to the rate of Americans that die by slipping and falling over. On that basis, DeFi borrowing and lending look pretty good, despite the fear factor,” wrote McFarlane.
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Diversification and Recoveries Reshape the Risk
Hack sizes skew heavily, with a handful of mega-events driving most of the cumulative damage and the bulk of incidents staying small. On a logarithmic scale, the data approximates a lognormal distribution.
Most exploits hit one component inside a market rather than draining an entire protocol, and larger markets absorb a smaller percentage hit when an incident does occur.
That pattern strengthens the case for spreading capital across DeFi lending protocols rather than concentrating it in one venue.
Recoveries also reduce the headline figure. Across all DefiLlama-tracked DeFi protocol losses, capped recoveries amount to about 8% of gross damage.
For EVM and Solana lending excluding bridges, the rate climbs to roughly 20%. Euler Finance produced the standout case, with the attacker returning all stolen funds after the 2023 flash loan exploit.
Design Philosophy Shapes the Next Cycle
Builders are pushing toward leaner code as a security strategy. Morpho contributor Merlin Egalite argued that minimalism is the dividing line between safe and unsafe lending markets.
The $3 per $10,000 reading is realized history, not a guarantee. The data argues against alarmism without dismissing tail risk.
Aave and Morpho continue to absorb the bulk of new lending capital, and 2026 has already seen heavy single events, including the KelpDAO incident in April.
Losses now sit within a measurable range that lenders, insurers, and allocators can actually price.
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Japan’s largest online brokerages are moving into digital assets. SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities are building in-house Bitcoin and Ethereum investment trusts for retail customers.
The shift could reshape how millions of Japanese investors reach crypto. Here is what the plan involves and why it matters now.
SBI and Rakuten Are Building In-House Bitcoin and Ethereum Bitcoin Investment Trusts in Japan
A crypto investment trust is a regulated fund that holds digital assets like Bitcoin, letting investors buy units instead of the coins themselves.
Today, most Japanese users still need a separate exchange account or wallet to buy crypto directly.
According to Nikkei, these trusts remove that friction. Investors could gain Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure through brokerage accounts they already use for stocks, bonds and funds. The product would feel closer to buying a mutual fund than trading on an exchange.
SBI Securities plans to sell products developed by group company SBI Global Asset Management. That firm is targeting roughly ¥5 trillion yen (nearly $32 billion), in assets within three years of launch.
SBI intends to manage the full chain internally, from product design to distribution.
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Rakuten Securities is following a similar path through Rakuten Investment Management. The company wants customers to trade these products directly inside its smartphone apps, matching how retail crypto activity already works.
Both groups already run licensed exchanges, so the infrastructure and regulatory relationships are largely in place.
The momentum reflects clearer rules ahead. In a Nikkei survey of 18 firms, 11 others, including Nomura, Daiwa and Mizuho Securities, said they would consider entering once the regulatory framework is finished.
That response shows broad interest from TradFi, even before the rules are complete.
Nomura and Daiwa have signaled plans to develop crypto trusts once the framework becomes clear. SMBC Group has formed a task force, while Asset Management One under Mizuho has started early research.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency is driving this change. It is reportedly weighing rules that would let investment trusts and exchange-traded funds hold crypto under the Investment Trust Act.
Spot crypto ETFs could be approved by 2028, with analysts estimating the market could reach around 6.4 billion dollars.
The reform connects to a wider policy shift. Japan recently reclassified crypto as a financial instrument, adding stronger market rules.
Those include annual disclosure requirements and insider trading restrictions, which bring digital assets closer to regulated securities.
What This Means for Investors and the Market
The timing follows a global pattern. Spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the United States in early 2024, and those funds now hold tens of billions of dollars in assets. Hong Kong added its own Bitcoin and Ethereum products soon after.
Japan now wants to bring crypto closer to its mainstream wealth management industry.
For retail investors, that means familiar protections around custody, disclosure and reporting, handled through regulated financial groups they already trust.
The benefits are practical. Millions of people who already hold SBI or Rakuten accounts could add Bitcoin or Ethereum exposure without new signups.
There is no learning curve around exchanges and no anxiety about security breaches on unfamiliar platforms.
Comparison of Bitcoin and Ethereum price performance. Source: CoinGecko
The trade-off is real, too. Holding units in a trust means investors do not own the Bitcoin directly.
That structure adds management fees and counterparty considerations that do not exist with direct ownership.
Fees will be a key factor to watch. In the United States, competition among ETF issuers drove costs down quickly and boosted adoption.
How the FSA responds to filings, and what fees SBI and Rakuten attach, could shape how fast Japanese investors move in.

Bitcoin (BTC) long-term holder supply has climbed to roughly 15.26 million BTC, the highest level since August 2025. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost says these wallets absorbed 316,000 BTC over the past 30 days.
Markets now turn to FOMC minutes due May 20 from Jerome Powell’s final Federal Reserve meeting as Chair. The release will likely shape risk appetite through summer.
Long-Term Holders Reverse November’s Selling
CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost reported that long-term holder supply has rebounded to about 15.26 million BTC. Over the past 30 days, these wallets added roughly 316,000 BTC.
That contrasts sharply with late November, when long-term holder wallets shed roughly 650,000 BTC over 30 days. The reversal points to renewed accumulation among investors who first bought near the cycle peak six months ago.
“The supply held by Long Term Holders (LTHs) continues to increase as investors keep holding their BTC. We are now back to 15.26 million BTC held by these investors, who are generally considered much more stable than STHs,” wrote Darkfost.
The analyst also flagged a separate dynamic for late May. The 800,000 BTC transferred from Coinbase last year will cross the six-month threshold on May 23.
Those coins will formally enter the long-term holder bucket, an aging effect that could amplify on-chain supply readings later this month.
Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Supply. Source: CryptoQuant Exchange Flows Stabilize as Bottom Signals Surface
Bitcoin trades near $78,047 as of this writing, down by 0.17% in the last 24 hours. Coin Bureau highlighted that the gap between exchange inflows and outflows has narrowed for six straight sessions.
The research firm argues stable flows, falling reserves, and whale scarcity often cluster around major Bitcoin bottoms since 2019.
“Stable flows, falling exchange reserves, and whale accumulation are classic ‘dry powder’ signals seen around every major Bitcoin bottom since 2019,” wrote analysts at the Coin Bureau.
Bitcoin Exchange Flux Balance. Source: Alpharactal FOMC Minutes Arrive During a Leadership Handover
These technical formations come as markets awaut the The Federal Reserve to publish minutes from the April 28 to 29 meeting on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET.
“…we expect the FOMC to signal a tightening bias at the June meeting of the monetary policy-setting committee, followed by a 25bps FFR hike at the July meeting. We can’t rule out more rate hikes over the rest of this year,” analysts at Yardeni Research noted.
The committee held its target range at 3.50% to 3.75%, marking the third straight pause. Four officials dissented, the largest split since 1992. Governor Stephen Miran pushed for a quarter-point cut. Presidents Lorie Logan, Neel Kashkari, and Beth Hammack opposed the statement’s easing bias.
Powell’s term as Chair ended May 15, and Kevin Warsh was confirmed as his successor in a 54-45 Senate vote. Powell will remain on the Board of Governors through January 2028.
The minutes mark the final policy record produced under Powell’s chairmanship. Traders will parse the text for shifts in inflation tolerance or forward guidance.
Those signals could shape positioning into June’s first meeting under Warsh and influence near-term Bitcoin price action.

The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Owe Martin Andresen, 49, over an alleged $2 million crypto laundering scheme. Prosecutors say the German citizen converted darknet proceeds into gold bars shipped to his home.
Authorities arrested Andresen in Germany on May 7. Investigators seized roughly $1.7 million in gold bullion and $23,000 in cash. Another $1.2 million in bank and crypto accounts was linked to the marketplace.
How the Alleged Scheme Worked
Prosecutors say Andresen operated under the moniker Speedstepper. He was the long-unidentified main administrator of Dream Market, which shut down voluntarily in 2019 amid law enforcement pressure.
According to the indictment, Andresen accessed dormant marketplace wallets in late 2022. He then routed the funds into new consolidated addresses.
Beginning August 2023, he allegedly used an Atlanta-based crypto service to buy gold bars from international dealers. The dealers shipped the bullion directly to his German home address.
A Familiar Darknet Enforcement Pattern
Dream Market operated from 2013 to 2019 and hosted close to 100,000 listings at its peak. Buyers paid in Bitcoin (BTC) to obscure transaction trails.
Reportedly, the site facilitated sales of more than 450 kilograms of cocaine and 90 kilograms of heroin. DOJ figures also cite 36 kilograms of fentanyl moved through the platform.
Earlier prosecutions convicted Dream Market admins using the handles Oxymonster, KITT3N, and GOWRON. Speedstepper, however, remained unidentified for years.
The indictment fits a broader crackdown on dormant darknet proceeds, including the recent recovery of $1 billion in Bitcoin tied to Silk Road.
Each of the 12 US counts carries up to 20 years in prison, while parallel German charges add up to five years each.
The case suggests that wallets once controlled by Dream Market’s senior administrators are finally back in circulation.

Best On-Chain Finance Infrastructure is a category within the BeInCrypto Institutional 100, an annual research-driven program recognising institutional digital asset excellence across 26 categories and six pillars.
This category sits under Pillar 4: Tokenization & On-Chain Finance. The 15 firms below are listed alphabetically and are not ranked. A shortlist will be named in May 2026, with the winner announced at Proof of Talk in Paris on June 2–3, 2026.
Key Facts
Long list: 15 firms across embedded wallets, bank-grade settlement, oracle middleware, interoperability protocols, developer platforms, programmable key management, payments APIs, staking infrastructure, and financial OS platforms
Initial pool: More than 25 firms screened; 15 advanced to the long list
Order: Listed alphabetically, not ranked
Scoring: 50% quantitative data · 50% Expert Council
Criteria assessed: Institutional client roster, regulatory licensure, on-chain scale, security record, capital backing, regulated partnerships, governance maturity, innovation signal
Boundary scope: Custody, stablecoin issuance, tokenization platforms, and pure DeFi protocols are evaluated in separate categories
Firm / Flagship ProductHQ & ListingReachInfrastructure LayerRepresentative WorkAlchemy — Supernode, Smart Wallets, x402San Francisco, USAPrivate$10.2B last priced valuation$105B+ annualized on-chain transaction valueBlockchain developer platformSupernode, Smart Wallets, RaaS, NFT/Token APIs, stablecoin orchestrationAI Agent x402 standard launched in Mar 2026Sooho.io Asia stablecoin infrastructure partnership announced in Nov 2025Apex Group — Apex Digital 3.0, TokenyBermudaPrivate; $3T+ AUA13,000+ professionals across 50+ jurisdictionsTokeny has $32B+ RWAs tokenized via ERC-3643Institutional financial OSFund administration, custody, tokenization, and ERC-3643 infrastructureApex Digital 3.0 launched in Jul 2025SkyBridge $300M tokenization on Avalanche announced in Aug 2025BitGo — Bank & Trust, Go Network, USD1Sioux Falls / Palo AltoNYSE: BTGOAssets on platform: $63BAssets staked: $11.8BFederally chartered digital asset infrastructureGo Network settlement and Mint and Burn CenterDerivatives offering launched in Q1 2026 with $3B notional volumeHYPE custody and staking added in May 2026Blockdaemon — Builder Vault, Earn StackUnited StatesPrivate$110B+ digital assets secured400+ institutions; 60+ protocols supportedInstitutional Web3 gatewayStaking, validators, RPC nodes, and self-hosted MPC walletTaurus partnership announced in Feb 2026 for banking custodyEarn Stack staking-as-a-service launched in Jun 2025Chainlink — CCIP, Data Feeds, CRECayman Islands / GlobalLINK publicly tradedCCIP processed $18B+ Q1 2026 cross-chain volume$30T+ cumulative transaction value enabledOracle and cross-chain interoperability platformCCIP, Data Streams, Proof of Reserves, CRESWIFT integration went live in Nov 2025Sibos 2025 corporate-actions work involved 24 institutionsFnality — £FnPS, EUR/USD expansionLondon, UKPrivate; UK FMI$136M Series C in Sep 2025£FnPS live since Dec 2023Bank-led wholesale on-chain payment systemCentral-bank-money-backed DLT settlementSeries C led by BofA, Citi, WisdomTree, KBC, Temasek, and TradewebBroadridge intraday repo collaboration announced in Mar 2026Hyperlane — ISMs, Warp RoutesUnited StatesPrivate; HYPER publicly traded150+ chains supported10,000+ cross-chain messages validated dailyPermissionless cross-chain messaging frameworkInterchain Security Modules and Warp RoutesTRON Network integration added in Apr 2026V3 modular mailbox launched with Hyperlane Hooks in Sep 2025J.P. Morgan Kinexys — JPMD, TCN, MONYNew YorkOperated by JPMorgan ChaseDaily volume of $5B–$7B in Apr 2026More than $3T cumulative volume since 2020Bank-grade on-chain settlement unitDeposit tokens, tokenized collateral, and fund-flow infrastructureJPMD live on Base and moving toward Canton integrationCross-chain DvP work with Ondo Chain and Chainlink CCIPMagic Labs — Embedded Wallets, Newton ProtocolSan Francisco, USAPrivate50M+ wallets created since 2018200,000+ developers across 180+ countriesEmail and SSO-based embedded wallet infrastructureTEE-based API wallets with no seed phrasesPrimary wallet provider for PolymarketNewton Protocol integration added programmable compliance in Nov 2025Mesh — SmartFunding, Crypto PaymentsSan Francisco, USAPrivate$1B valuation after Jan 2026 Series CAbout $10B monthly payments volumeUnified crypto payments networkSmartFunding: any asset in, preferred stablecoin outSeries C led by Dragonfly Capital and ParadigmPartners include PayPal, Revolut, Ripple, Paxos, and RainPartior — Unified LedgerSingaporePrivate; MAS-anchoredUSD, EUR, and SGD liveFounding shareholders include DBS, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, and TemasekSingapore bank-consortium blockchain settlementAtomic PvP settlement across tokenized instrumentsDeutsche Bank platform agreement signed in May 2025Nium became first PSP on the Partior networkPrivy — Embedded Wallets, AgentCoreNew York, USAStripe subsidiary120M+ accounts2,000+ developer teamsEmbedded wallet infrastructure for fintech and treasuryCustodial and non-custodial wallets via single APIAWS Bedrock AgentCore Payments integration in May 2026MAJORITY digital asset accounts launched on Solana with PrivyPyth Network — Pyth Pro X, Lazer, Data MarketplaceCayman Islands / GlobalPYTH publicly traded100+ blockchains supported3,000+ low-latency price feedsInstitutional-grade price oracle networkPull-oracle model, Pyth Lazer, and Pyth Pro XPyth Data Marketplace launched in Apr 2026US Department of Commerce GDP data brought on-chain in Mar 2025Turnkey — Programmable Key ManagementNew York, USAPrivatePowers 50M+ embedded walletsMillions of weekly transactionsTEE-only key management in AWS Nitro EnclavesProgrammable signing and QuorumOSSeries B closed in Jun 2025 led by Bain Capital CryptoFlutterwave integration added merchant stablecoin balances in Jan 2026Wormhole — NTT, Guardian NetworkUnited StatesPrivate; $2.5B valuation40+ chains supported$60B+ cumulative value transferred; 1B+ cross-chain messagesCross-chain messaging and Native Token TransfersGuardian validator network and ZK proofsTokenized asset corridors support BUIDL, ACRED, VBILL, and SCOPENTT adopted by Sky/MakerDAO, Agora, Lido, and Ethena
About This List
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 — On-Chain Finance Infrastructure (2026 Long List) identifies the infrastructure layer that lets regulated finance operate on public and permissioned blockchains.
The category covers embedded wallet infrastructure, bank-grade on-chain settlement networks, oracle and data middleware, interoperability protocols, developer tooling, programmable key management, embedded crypto payment APIs, staking infrastructure, and integrated financial operating systems.
Custody is covered separately under Category 2.4: Best Custody Provider. Stablecoin issuance and orchestration, tokenization platforms, and pure DeFi protocols are also evaluated in their own categories. BitGo appears here as a partner-override entry because of its federal trust bank charter, Go Network settlement, USD1 stablecoin issuance, and broader integrated infrastructure role.
Methodology
This category is evaluated under Track A of the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 methodology: 50% quantitative metrics and 50% Expert Council scoring.
Assessment spans seven criteria: institutional client roster, regulatory licensure and certifications, on-chain scale and reach, security record and audit history, capital backing and runway, partnership depth with regulated entities, and innovation signal.
Data was verified using SEC EDGAR, FCA, BaFin, FINMA, MAS, Bermuda Monetary Authority, OCC, NYDFS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 attestations, audited reports, Messari interoperability reports, DefiLlama, on-chain analytics, partnership announcements, and private-market sources including PitchBook, Tracxn, and Crunchbase.
Every firm on the list underwent a May 2026 verification pass to confirm active product status, current funding, and the absence of unresolved material legal or security overhangs.

Best Autonomous Agentic Payments Platform is a category within the BeInCrypto Institutional 100, an annual research-driven program recognising institutional digital asset excellence across 26 categories and six pillars.
This category sits under Pillar 4: Tokenization & On-Chain Finance. The 10 firms below are listed alphabetically and are not ranked. A shortlist will be named in May 2026, with the winner announced at Proof of Talk in Paris on June 2–3, 2026.
Key Facts
Long list: 10 firms across stablecoin agent stacks, x402 protocol ecosystems, full-stack agent payment platforms, agent identity standards, settlement layers, agentic onramps, and network-level payment rails
Initial pool: More than 30 firms screened; 10 advanced to the primary long list
Order: Listed alphabetically, not ranked
Scoring: 30% quantitative data · 50% Expert Council · 20% disclosed company data
Criteria assessed: Agentic transaction volume, agent integration depth, programmability, developer adoption, security and compliance, funding and viability, innovation signal
Eligibility: Each firm must have a verifiable AI-agentic product, program, fund, standard, or pilot live or announced during the award window
FirmHQAgentic Platform / Sub-SegmentReachRepresentative WorkAnt Digital TechnologiesHangzhou, ChinaAgent-to-agent economy infrastructure platformAnvita platform: Anvita TaaS and Anvita FlowSupports x402 payments, Agent Store modules, OpenClaw, and Claude CodeAnvita launched Mar 31, 2026 at Real Up CannesUSDC integration with Circle in progress; stablecoin licences pending in Hong Kong, Singapore, and LuxembourgCircle Internet GroupNew York, USAStablecoin issuer Agent Stack on USDC railsUSDC settles 99.8% of x402 agentic paymentsLive on 11 EVM chains; Agent Marketplace launched with 500+ endpointsCircle Agent Stack launched May 11, 2026Includes CLI, Agent Wallets, Marketplace, Nanopayments, and Circle SkillsCoinbaseSan Francisco, USAx402 protocol layer and AgentKit developer ecosystemAbout 69,000 active AI agents on x402167M+ transactions and $50M volume as of Apr 21, 2026x402 V2 launched Dec 2025 under Linux Foundation umbrellaSelected protocol layer for Amazon Bedrock AgentCore PaymentsCrossmintNew York, USAFull-stack agent payment platformAbout $23.6M raised40,000+ companies and developers; live across 40+ blockchainsSmart contract wallets across EVM, Solana, and StellarVirtual Visa and Mastercard cards for agents with spending capsEthereum Foundation (dAI Team)Zug, SwitzerlandStandards body for AI agent on-chain identityDedicated AI initiative launched Sept 15, 2025Two-track mandate: AI Economy on Ethereum and Decentralized AI StackERC-8004 finalized at Devconnect Buenos AiresCreates on-chain identity and reputation layer for AI agentsMeshSan Francisco, USASettlement layer for agentic commerce$75M round in Jan 2026 at $1B valuation400M users via partners across 100+ countriesIntegrates Google AP2 for natural-language agent purchasesVisa Intelligent Commerce Connect launch pilot partnerMoonPayMiami, USAAgentic onramp and card-rail spending product30M+ customers across 180 countriesNYDFS Trust Charter, BitLicense, and MiCA Netherlands registrationMoonAgents Card launched May 1, 2026MoonPay Agents launched Feb 2026 with non-custodial AI walletsSkyfireSan Francisco, USAAgent identity and payment protocol$9.5M raisedCustomers include Anthropic, Cohere, Replicate, and Hugging FaceKYAPay built for verifiable agent identity and USDC settlementF5 Networks partnership for enterprise agentic commerceSolana FoundationZug, SwitzerlandNetwork-level agentic payments rail$650B stablecoin volume in Feb 202615M+ on-chain agent payments cleared to datePay.sh launched May 5, 2026 with Google CloudSolana Agent Kit provides 60+ pre-built actionsTRON DAOGeneva, SwitzerlandSovereign agentic AI fund and payment rail977M transactions in Q1 2026$86B stablecoin supply and $26B TVLAI Fund expanded from $100M to $1B in Mar 2026B.AI launched on TRON with 8004 identity and x402 standard support
About This List
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 — Autonomous Agentic Payments (2026 Long List) identifies firms that enable AI agents to hold assets, access wallets, sign transactions, and settle payments on crypto rails with minimal human intervention.
Coverage spans network-level rails, stablecoin issuer agent platforms, full-stack payment platforms, settlement layers, agent identity protocols, and agentic onramp or card-rail products. Pure AI agent frameworks without a dedicated payment module are out of scope.
Methodology
This category is evaluated under Track B of the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 methodology: 30% quantitative metrics, 50% Expert Council scoring, and 20% disclosed company data.
Assessment spans seven criteria: transaction volume on agentic rails, integration depth across AI frameworks, wallet programmability and policy controls, developer adoption, security and compliance, funding and viability, and innovation during the award window.
The higher Expert Council weighting reflects the early stage of the agentic payments category, where on-chain data exists for some platforms but many launches remain too recent for traditional financial metrics to capture their market importance.
Data was verified using regulatory registers, audited filings, on-chain analytics, x402 Foundation metrics, public company earnings transcripts, partnership announcements, and direct company disclosures.

Best Stablecoin Infrastructure is a category within the BeInCrypto Institutional 100, an annual research-driven program recognising institutional digital asset excellence across 26 categories and six pillars.
This category sits under Pillar 4: Tokenization & On-Chain Finance. The 15 firms below are listed alphabetically and are not ranked. A shortlist will be named in May 2026, with the winner announced at Proof of Talk in Paris on June 2–3, 2026.
Key Facts
Long list: 15 firms across fiat-backed dollar stablecoins, MiCAR-compliant euro and multi-currency issuers, Asian dollar stablecoins, DeFi-native stablecoins, white-label platforms, yield-bearing stablecoins, bank-issued stablecoins, and payment networks.
Initial pool: More than 30 stablecoin issuance and infrastructure firms screened; 15 advanced to the long list
Order: Listed alphabetically, not ranked.
Scoring: 50% quantitative data · 50% Expert Council.
Criteria assessed: Stablecoin market capitalization, on-chain volume, institutional adoption, reserves posture, regulatory status, multi-chain distribution, enterprise integration, innovation, ecosystem dominance
Data sources: NYDFS, OCC, BaFin, ACPR, CSSF, FCA, FINMA, MAS, SFC, HKMA, FIN-FSA, FSRA, MiCA-CASP registers, reserve attestations, SEC EDGAR, exchange disclosures, CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, and DefiLlama.
FirmStablecoin Sub-SegmentHQReachTop Licensure / PlatformRepresentative WorkAave LabsDeFi-native overcollateralized stablecoinLondon, UKGHO about $584M market capsGHO yield variant at 4.25% APR; Aave V3 TVL $26.8B+ across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and GnosisDeFi protocol governed by Aave DAOUK-incorporated operating entity; no centralized charterHorizon institutional RWA market live with about $550M net depositssGHO launched; GHO V2 rebuild completed in Apr 2026AllUnityMiCAR multi-currency stablecoin JVFrankfurt, GermanyEURAU and CHFAU live on Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Arc testnetMulti-bank reserve modelBaFin E-Money Institution licenceMiCAR-compliant stablecoin issuerEURAU launched in Jul 2025 as Germany’s first MiCAR-compliant EUR stablecoinCHFAU launched in Feb 2026 as first MiCAR-compliant Swiss franc stablecoinBridgeStablecoin orchestration and issuance platformSan Francisco, USAStablecoin Financial Accounts live in 101 countriesTransaction volume quadrupled in 2025 per Stripe annual letterBridge National Trust Bank conditional approval from US OCCState money transmitter licencesAcquired by Stripe for $1.1B in Feb 2025Open Issuance powers Phantom CASH, MetaMask USD, Hyperliquid USDH, and Sui USDsuiCircle Internet GroupMajor fiat-backed dollar stablecoin issuerNew York, USAUSDC about $77B in circulationOn-chain volume $21.5T; Circle Payments Network at about $10B annualized TPVNYDFS BitLicenseOCC conditional trust bank approval; MiCAR-compliant via Circle Mint Europe; NYSE: CRCLArc L1 token presale completed at $3B valuation in May 2026Meta selected USDC for creator payments; USYC and EURC liveFirst Digital LabsAsian regulated dollar stablecoin issuerHong KongFDUSD about $400M market cap as of May 2026Multi-chain on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Sui, TON, and ArbitrumHong Kong-based issuer FD121 LimitedHKMA stablecoin licence application pending under Hong Kong Stablecoin OrdinanceOpenPayd payments integration added USD and EUR settlement railsCanza Finance integration and SPAC merger plans disclosedFrax FinanceHybrid algorithmic and collateralized DeFi stablecoinDelaware, USAfrxUSD and FRAX live with LayerZero cross-chain composabilityModular smart-contract infrastructureDeFi protocolNo centralized charterSonic Labs deployed Frax framework to launch USSD backed by tokenized TreasuriesGENIUS-compatible white-label infrastructure positioned for partner issuanceM0 FoundationDecentralized white-label stablecoin platformZug, SwitzerlandAbout $180M issued through the platformMulti-chain deployments across Ethereum, Solana, and CosmosDecentralized federated issuance modelPermissioned Minter setClosed $40M Series B in Aug 2025M0 underpins MetaMask USD, Noble, Usual Labs, and Playtron Game DollarMastercardTradFi payment network with stablecoin infrastructurePurchase, New York, USANYSE: MACrypto Partner Program ecosystem of 85+ firms; operates in 200+ countries and territoriesRegulated global card networkWorks with regulated banking partners across major jurisdictionsAgreed to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8B in Mar 2026SoFiUSD settlement integration, Multi-Token Network, and Mastercard Move expansionOndo FinanceYield-bearing stablecoin and tokenized treasuryNew York, USAUSDY about $2.1BOUSG tokenized Treasury fund liveOasis Pro Markets acquisition added SEC broker-dealer, ATS, and transfer-agent registrationOasis Pro Markets acquisition closed during the award windowDTCC consortium member; SEC investigation closed without charges in Dec 2025OSL GroupHong Kong regulated digital asset platformHong KongHKEX: 863.HK50+ licences across 10+ countries; FY2025 core operating income up 150% year-on-yearFirst SFC Type 1 and Type 7 licensed VATPHKMA stablecoin licence second-wave applicant; MAS Singapore licensedUSDGO regulated USD stablecoin launched in 2025OSL BizPay B2B stablecoin payments live; Banxa acquisition added onramp and offramp distributionPaxosMulti-stablecoin US trust company issuerNew York, USAPYUSD about $3.4B; USDG above $1B; USDP $40.5MMore than $180B cumulative tokenization activity since 2018Paxos Trust Company N.A. under OCC national trust charterMAS MPI, FIN-FSA Finland, and FSRA Abu Dhabi coverageGlobal Dollar Network includes Anchorage, Bullish, Galaxy, Kraken, Robinhood, Nuvei, and WorldpayWithum and KPMG attest reserves across product linesRippleUS-regulated dollar stablecoin issuerSan Francisco, USARLUSD market cap about $1.5B to $1.8B as of May 2026Multi-chain on XRP Ledger and EthereumStandard Custody and Trust Company under NYDFS trust charterFCA EMI, CSSF Luxembourg EMI, MiCA passport, ADGM accepted token, OCC conditional charterBlackRock and VanEck selected RLUSD as redemption rail for tokenized Treasury fundsDeutsche Bank integration, SBI Japan rollout, and Deloitte attestations
About This List
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 — Best Stablecoin Infrastructure (2026 Long List) identifies firms that underwrite, issue, settle, and distribute stablecoins at an institutional scale.
The list spans fiat-backed dollar issuers, MiCAR-compliant euro and multi-currency issuers, regulated Asian dollar stablecoin issuers, DeFi-native decentralized stablecoins, white-label issuance platforms, yield-bearing stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, and payment networks operating stablecoin settlement rails.
Tether USDT, Tron USDD, World Liberty Financial USD1, Plasma Network, and Ethena Labs are excluded under reputational and enforcement filters applied across the program.
Methodology
This category is evaluated under Track A of the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 methodology: 50% based on quantitative metrics and 50% on Expert Council scoring.
Assessment spans seven criteria: stablecoin market capitalization and on-chain volume, institutional adoption, regulatory and reserves posture, multi-chain distribution, enterprise integration depth, innovation signal, and ecosystem dominance.
The 50/50 split reflects the availability of quantitative stablecoin data, including on-chain market capitalization, transaction volume, and reserve attestations, balanced against Expert Council assessment of regulatory durability, reserve quality, governance, and product innovation.
Data was verified using regulatory registers, issuer reserve attestations, audited filings, SEC EDGAR, exchange disclosures, partnership announcements, and on-chain analytics providers including CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, and DefiLlama. Nominees were also reviewed against negative-signal queries covering enforcement, security breaches, depegs, active litigation, and reputational controversy during the award window.

Best Crypto Corporate Governance is a category within the BeInCrypto Institutional 100, covering firms whose public-market discipline, banking charters, board structure, audit maturity, and crisis-response record set governance standards for digital assets.
This category sits under Pillar 5: Regulation & Governance. The 15 firms below are listed alphabetically and are not ranked. A shortlist will be named in May 2026, with the winner announced at Proof of Talk in Paris on June 2–3, 2026.
Key Facts
Long list: 15 firms across public crypto companies, federal crypto banks, regulated custody firms, TradFi banks, and digital asset infrastructure providers
Order: Listed alphabetically, not ranked
Initial pool: More than 30 firms screened; 15 advanced to the long list
Scoring: 20% quantitative data · 80% Expert Council
Criteria assessed: Public-market discipline, banking charter strength, board independence, audit maturity, incident response, disclosure quality, leadership credibility
Data sources: OCC, SEC EDGAR, NYDFS, FCA, FINMA, BaFin, MAS, MiCA-CASP registers, audited reports, company disclosures, PitchBook, Tracxn, and Crunchbase
FirmGovernance Sub-SegmentHQReachTop Listing / CharterRepresentative WorkAnchorage DigitalFederally chartered crypto bankSF / NY / Sioux Falls / Singapore / Porto$4.2B valuationBacked by a16z, GIC, Goldman Sachs, KKR, Visa, TetherOCC national trust bank charter since Jan 2021Longest-tenured federally chartered crypto bankSubject to ongoing OCC examinationResolved 2022 OCC AML consent order after remediationBitGoPublic and federally chartered custodySioux Falls / Palo Alto$104B+ AUC$2.08B valuation at IPONYSE: BTGO since Jan 22, 2026OCC final national trust bank charterNYSE IPO raised $212.8M in Jan 2026First publicly traded federally chartered digital asset infrastructure companyBlockLong-tenured public fintechSan Francisco, USACash App and Square ecosystem57M Cash App monthly actives in Q4 2025NYSE: XYZ, formerly SQPublic since Nov 2015Decade-plus public-company governance recordSpiral continues Bitcoin core development supportBNYGlobal bank with crypto custody surfaceNew York, USA$55.8T total AUC/AFounded in 1784 as the oldest US bankNYSE: BKOCC-regulated bankCo-custodian on Morgan Stanley Bitcoin TrustLive BTC and ETH custody operational since 2022BullishPublic institutional exchangeGeorge Town, Cayman IslandsInstitutional spot and derivatives trading platformPublic-market exchange governanceNYSE: BLSHListed via SPAC merger in Aug 2025NYSE listing brought public-market governance to the venueLed by Tom Farley, former NYSE PresidentCircle Internet GroupPublic stablecoin issuerBoston / NYC, USAUSDC $73B market capMonthly Deloitte reserve attestationsNYSE: CRCL since Jun 2025OCC conditional national trust bank charterFirst publicly traded stablecoin issuerOCC conditional charter granted Dec 12, 2025CoinbasePublic crypto-native companyWilmington / SF, USAS&P 500 inclusion in 2024Full SOX compliance; Deloitte auditorNASDAQ: COIN since Apr 2021First US-listed crypto-native firmSEC enforcement action dismissed in Feb 2025Board includes Marc Andreessen, Fred Wilson, Tobias Lütke, and Gokul RajaramFidelity Digital Assets, NAAsset-manager operated federal trustBoston, USABacked by Fidelity’s $15T+ AUA platformCustody for FBTC and FETH ETFsOCC conditional national trust bank charterApproved Dec 12, 2025FDAS LLC converting from NY state trust to federal trust bankInherits Fidelity’s institutional governance frameworkGalaxy DigitalPublic multi-product crypto investment firmNew York / DelawareTrading, asset management, investment banking, and miningUS public-market governance frameworkNASDAQ: GLXY since May 16, 2025Re-domiciled from Toronto to DelawareCompleted re-domiciliation and Nasdaq uplisting in May 2025Moved into full US-listed SOX governance regimeKraken (Payward)Multi-charter crypto bank and IPO-track firmSan Francisco, USAKrak app reached 450K+ downloads across 130 countriesProfitable with positive EBITDA per Co-CEO disclosureWyoming SPDI charterOCC trust application filed May 8, 2026Filed OCC national trust charter applicationDeutsche Börse made $200M secondary share purchase in Apr 2026Robinhood MarketsPublic retail broker with crypto stackMenlo Park, USA26M+ funded customers in Q1 2026Expanded crypto licence base via BitstampNASDAQ: HOOD since Jul 2021MiCAR-CASP operationalClosed Bitstamp acquisition in Jun 2025WonderFi acquisition expanded Canadian footprint in Q1 2026SecuritizeSEC-regulated tokenization infrastructureMiami, USA$4B+ AUM in tokenized assetsPartners include BlackRock, Apollo, Hamilton Lane, KKR, VanEck, BNYSPAC merger to NASDAQ at $1.25B valuationSEC-registered broker-dealer, ATS, transfer agent, ERASPAC merger announced via Cantor Equity PartnersNYSE selected Securitize for tokenized securities platformStandard CharteredTradFi global bank with digital asset stackLondon, UK$900B assets170+ year emerging-markets bankLSE: STAN and HKEX: 2888Multi-jurisdiction CIB governanceNaveen Mallela joined as payments head in May 2026Zodia Custody remains majority-owned via SC VenturesStrategy (MicroStrategy)Public Bitcoin treasury corporationTysons Corner, VirginiaWorld’s largest corporate BTC holderPublic company since 1998NASDAQ: MSTRRebranded from MicroStrategy in Feb 2025Maintains long-running public-company disclosure regimeBitcoin treasury model governed through Nasdaq filingsSygnumSwiss-licensed crypto bankZurich, Switzerland2,000+ institutional clients across 70+ countries$5B+ AUM; $1B+ post-money valuationFINMA banking licence since 2019MAS CMS, Liechtenstein bank licence, ADGMReached unicorn status in Jan 2025Sygnum Connect and Sygnum Protect are live products
About This List
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 — Best Crypto Corporate Governance (2026 Long List) identifies firms whose governance structures support institutional confidence in digital assets. Firms are listed alphabetically by name and are not ranked at this stage.
The category covers US-listed crypto-native companies, federally chartered crypto banks, traditional financial institutions with material digital asset operations, and privately held but heavily regulated crypto infrastructure providers. Firms with material unresolved governance concerns were not advanced to the long list, regardless of operational scale.
Methodology
This category is evaluated under Track C of the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 methodology: 20% based on quantitative metrics and 80% based on Expert Council scoring.
Assessment spans seven weighted criteria: public-market discipline and SOX-equivalent disclosure, banking charter or regulatory framework strength, board composition and independence, audit and compliance maturity, response to regulatory or security incidents, transparency and disclosure quality, and leadership credibility.
A negative signal scan operates as a precondition. Firms with material unresolved governance failures are excluded from primary consideration before scoring.
Data was verified using OCC national trust bank charter records, SEC EDGAR filings, NYDFS BitLicense and Limited Purpose Trust Charter registers, FCA, FINMA, BaFin, MAS, and MiCA-CASP records, audited annual reports, firm disclosures, partnership announcements, and private-market sources, including PitchBook, Tracxn, and Crunchbase.

MicroStrategy chair Michael Saylor teased another large Bitcoin (BTC) purchase on Sunday with a “Big Dot Energy” post, while traders await Monday’s 8-K filing expected to confirm one of the firm’s biggest weekly accumulation runs of 2026.
Independent tracker Strc.live estimates roughly 15,466 BTC were funneled into Strategy purchases across four active trading days, after STRC preferred share volume hit an all-time record of 15.1 million shares on Thursday.
MicroStrategy’s STRC Engine Powers the Latest Hint
Michael Saylor extended his Sunday hints with a Bitcoin buy tease in a May 17 post, not catching markets by surprise as he often gives an almost similar messaging at the beginning of every week.
Strategy’s recent $1.5 billion repurchase of 2029 convertible notes, settling around May 19, has not slowed the capital-raising flywheel.
The firm holds 818,869 BTC at an average cost of roughly $75,543 per coin.
MicroStrategy Bitcoin Holdings. Source: Strategy
Thursday’s STRC trading session set an all-time volume record of 15.1 million shares, topping the prior peak from April 14. The community read the spike as fresh proceeds being deployed into Bitcoin.
Retail Vote Could Sharpen the Dividend Stream
Roughly 80% of STRC is held by retail investors across major brokerages including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Robinhood.
Strategy is asking those holders to approve moving the 11.5% annual dividend from monthly to semi-monthly payouts.
The amendment would keep the headline rate steady while shortening cash-flow intervals. Approval could reinforce demand for the variable-rate preferred. It could also sustain the at-the-market issuance pipeline that has funded most of Strategy’s Bitcoin buying this year.
Monday’s 8-K should give the market a concrete number to weigh against the community’s 15,466 BTC estimate.
A strong print would back the bullish reading of Saylor’s meme and keep retail attention on the STRC vote ahead of the next dividend record date.

Whale wallet 0x50b3 opened a 25x leveraged short worth $50.55 million on ether (ETH), per Lookonchain data. The same wallet placed a 20x long worth $25.27 million on Bitcoin (BTC), splitting whale conviction across the top two cryptos.
The position arrived as Ethereum traded near $2,193. Liquidation pressure sits at $2,288 for the short leg and $70,325 for the BTC long.
$50 Million Short Anchors a Two-Sided Bet
The trader staked 23,151 ETH on the short side and 323.72 BTC on the long. The asymmetric setup profits if Bitcoin holds while Ether drops.
BTC currently trades near $78,400, leaving about $8,000 of headroom before the long-side liquidation level.
ETH sits less than 5% above the short-side liquidation, suggesting the trader expects further weakness or a quick squeeze.
Ethereum (ETH) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
The unusual pairing implies a relative-value bet on continued ETH underperformance against BTC.
Ether Whales Split on Direction
Elsewhere, a Matrixport-linked whale who previously cleared $59 million in profit extended ether longs to 114,160 ETH worth $248.65 million.
The position spans four wallets and carries $10.3 million in unrealized losses. The trader has added conviction on the long side even as price action weakens.
In the same way, an Ethereum OG with an 803x historical return on the asset also returned to accumulate. The wallet received 11,005 ETH from ShapeShift 10 years ago at $3.46 each.
It sold the entire lot over a year ago at $2,777, banking $30.56 million in proceeds. So far, the wallet has spent $4.26 million USDC to acquire 1,951 ETH at $2,182.
Panic Selling Pressure Mounts
However, selling pressure tells a different story. A wallet linked to Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial sold 4,870 ETH for $10.61 million in USD Coin (USDC) at $2,178. The sale closed roughly eight hours before the broader market reset.
Two addresses possibly linked to Gammafund deposited 10,976 ETH worth $23.9 million into Binance over a single hour. The flow pattern echoes earlier de-risking by institutional holders.
“Whales/institutions are panic-selling $ETH! Two wallets, possibly both linked to @Gammafund, deposited 10,976 $ETH ($23.9M) into Binance over the past hour,” Lookonchain reported, flagging the deposits as a likely exit.
The leveraged short proving prescient or premature now depends on dip buyers. The Matrixport trader and the returning OG must absorb that supply for ether to defend the $2,200 floor.

Global investors are rerouting capital away from India and into Asian markets tied to AI infrastructure, leaving the country at risk of falling out of the world’s five largest stock markets for the first time in three years.
The shift goes beyond one quarter of weak earnings. It reflects a structural change in how AI exposure now drives capital allocation across emerging markets, with India holding a few of the names global funds want to own right now.
Capital Flight Pulls India Down the MSCI Rankings
India’s weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets index has dropped to about 12% from roughly 19% a year ago, according to index provider data.
AI-Led Markets Gain Share As India Shrinks
Reports indicate that foreign investors have withdrawn a net $21 billion from Indian equities so far in 2026.
Goldman Sachs estimates foreign ownership of the market sits at a 14-year low and now trails domestic institutions for the first time in more than two decades.
Roughly two-thirds of the reallocation reflects AI positioning, M&G Investments said.
Since the country’s market value peaked near $5.73 trillion in September 2024, about $924 billion has been erased from Indian equities.
Taiwan and South Korea Absorb the Capital India is Losing
Taiwan’s TAIEX has climbed roughly 42% year-to-date, while South Korea’s KOSPI has set fresh highs on AI chip strength, according to exchange data. Together, the two markets have added several trillion dollars in equity value over the past year.
Taiwan’s TAIEX and South Korea’s KOSPI Performances. Source: TradingView
Their listed champions, led by TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix, sit directly on the AI buildout that Indian companies do not supply.
The same rotation is bleeding into newer products such as a hybrid crypto-equity benchmark from S&P Global that pairs large-cap stocks with leading AI-linked tokens.
GenAI Squeezes India’s IT Services Giants
The Nifty IT index has fallen about 26% in 2026, while the broader Nifty 50 is down close to 9%.
NIFTY 50 and NIFTY IT Index. Source: TradingView
Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, which anchor India’s $315 billion IT services sector, hit fresh 52-week lows after OpenAI announced a new enterprise deployment unit.
Generative AI tools are automating the coding, testing, and back-office work that those firms have built their margins on.
Some 15 million Indians work in IT services and global capability centers, putting an entire layer of the economy in the path of AI-driven agents.
Indian policymakers are pushing semiconductor incentives, data center expansion, and a national AI mission. However, the next several quarters will show whether those bets can stop the structural drift away from the country’s equity market.

Reports claiming Costco issued a fresh recession warning have racked up a lot of chatter this weekend, but the quoted comments from former CFO Richard Galanti actually date back to a 2023 earnings call.
Galanti made the comments during Costco’s May 2023 third-quarter earnings call. He flagged a shift away from beef toward cheaper proteins, such as canned chicken and tuna. He tied the pattern to past slowdowns in 1999, 2000, and 2008 through 2010.
Where the Costco Quotes Actually Came From
Galanti stepped down as CFO in March 2024 after roughly four decades at the company. Gary Millerchip has held the role since then, and his recent earnings calls have not flagged a similar warning.
Costco management has described member spending as relatively consistent through the Q1 and Q2 fiscal 2026 calls.
Higher-priced meat cuts have outpaced cheaper proteins in growth, which contradicts the trade-down framing spreading on social media.
Why the Recession Narrative Still Resonates
Beef prices in the United States sit at record highs. Ground beef averaged about $6.70 per pound in March 2026. Live cattle traded near $2.58 per pound during the same month.
Beef Prices in the US. Source: FRED
The US cattle herd has fallen to a 75-year low after sustained drought and rising feed costs. President Donald Trump delayed an executive order this month. It would have eased beef-import limits to reduce prices.
That backdrop makes a recycled 2023 clip feel current, even when the underlying data has shifted.
The pattern echoes another viral macro signal that resurfaced recently. US cardboard box production fell more than 8% in the first quarter of 2026. Drops at that scale have historically preceded a US recession.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs lifted its 12-month US recession probability to 30% in March. The bank cited oil shocks and tighter financial conditions.
Polymarket odds for a US recession by year-end sit near 23%. That level sits well below the panic readings logged earlier this year.
US Recession Odds By The End of 2026. Source: Polymarket
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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said there is a greater than 50% chance that quantum computing becomes a real threat to crypto before 2033. He warned that the industry should strengthen its defenses now rather than wait until the risk becomes urgent.
Speaking at Consensus Miami, Hoskinson treated the timeline as an engineering deadline, not a distant theoretical problem. He said Cardano is already moving toward lattice-based cryptography to prepare its core protocols for a post-quantum future.
Why the Quantum Threat Matters for Crypto
Most major blockchains rely on elliptic-curve signatures that Shor’s algorithm can break with enough quantum processing power. A sufficiently advanced machine could derive private keys, forge signatures, and disrupt consensus on decentralized ledgers.
Hoskinson said advances in neutral-atom hardware and government-backed benchmarks, such as DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, have pulled the timeline forward.
He also flagged the rising risk from “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks targeting today’s encrypted data.
ADA traded near $0.25 at market cap rank 14, down about 5% on the week, per BeInCrypto data.
Caradano (ADA) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
Other networks face the same math. Bitcoin alone holds billions in exposed coins sitting in addresses with revealed public keys. Earlier research on Q-Day projections flagged the same risk.
“That gives us median estimate ~10 years before modern public key crypto is definitively broken. (That said, can happen sooner! It’s not a point estimate, but a distribution, fuzzy on both the downside and upside.),” Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly said.
Cardano Leans on Lattice-Based Standards
Cardano’s defense centers on lattice problems such as Learning With Errors, believed to resist both classical and quantum attacks.
The team plans to fold US NIST FIPS 203 through 206 standards into its roadmap. Those specs formalize ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, and Falcon-style signatures.
Hoskinson contrasted Cardano’s governance and hard-fork cadence with chains that face harder coordination on migration.
He pointed to a forthcoming Cardano research proposal on quantum resistance.
Community votes on the broader strategy are already underway. A parallel testnet rollout from Solana shows similar moves elsewhere.
“Quantum computers aren’t here yet, but the Solana Foundation is preparing for the possibility. To that end, we’ve consulted with Project Eleven to assess our quantum readiness. We’re pleased to announce a first step, the deployment of post-quantum signatures on a Solana testnet,” wrote the Solana Foundation in a post.
The 2033 window being able to hold depends on hardware progress, error correction, and fault tolerance. Those hurdles remain unsolved today.

Harvard University’s endowment cut its position in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF by roughly 43% during the first quarter of 2026 and fully exited the firm’s spot Ethereum (ETH) fund, a fresh regulatory filing shows.
The retreat surfaced in the latest 13F filings. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala moved the opposite way, lifting its IBIT stake 16% to roughly $566 million.
Harvard’s Crypto Bet Didn’t Age Well
Harvard Management Company held 3,044,612 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of March 31, worth about $117 million. That figure appears in the Q1 2026 13F filings on the SEC EDGAR website.
Harvard’s IBIT Holdings. Source: Q1 2026 13F filings on SEC EDGAR
The total marks a 43% reduction from the prior quarter and a sharp pullback from the position’s peak. The endowment first disclosed IBIT exposure in mid-2025, when it bought roughly 1.9 million shares for about $117 million.
It then scaled the position to about $443 million by Q3 2025. The endowment trimmed 21% in Q4 before the deeper 43% cut in Q1 2026.
Harvard also fully sold its $86.8 million position in BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF (ETHA). The endowment had only added that stake one quarter earlier.
The full ETH exit came after ETHA fell sharply through early 2026, contributing to its short-lived run inside the endowment.
IBIT is no longer Harvard’s largest disclosed public-equity holding. Filings show TSMC, Alphabet, Microsoft, and SPDR Gold Trust now rank ahead of it.
The shift suggests rebalancing toward traditional assets rather than a full crypto withdrawal.
Mubadala Doubles Down on Bitcoin as Endowments Hesitate
While Harvard trimmed, Mubadala lifted its IBIT holdings to 14,721,917 shares worth about $566 million. That total is up from 12,702,323 shares at the end of 2025. The Abu Dhabi fund has added to its Bitcoin ETF position every quarter since Q4 2024.
The contrast captures a broader pattern in the same wave of filings. Sovereign wealth funds and several major banks are accumulating exposure. Certain university endowments and trading firms are taking profits or rotating exposure instead.
Jane Street cut its IBIT shares by 71% and slashed Fidelity’s FBTC by 60% in Q1. The trading firm still added meaningfully to ETHA and Fidelity’s FETH, hinting at tactical rotation rather than a clean exit.
Emory University fully exited its small IBIT position and consolidated Bitcoin exposure into the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust instead.
JPMorgan increased its IBIT stake by 174% over the quarter. Wells Fargo expanded its Ethereum ETF holdings during the same period.
The split has lined up institutional capital on both sides of the trade, complicating a single-narrative read of Q1 filings.
What Q2 Filings May Reveal
Harvard has not commented on the trades, and 13F disclosures do not explain the reasoning. The latest move could be:
Portfolio rebalancing
Liquidity demands tied to private-market capital calls, or
Tactical de-risking.
Those drivers often sit behind cuts at large university endowments.
The endowment retains roughly $117 million of Bitcoin ETF exposure, so the move falls short of a full crypto exit. The next Q2 2026 filings, due in August, will indicate whether Harvard continues trimming, stabilizes, or rebuilds the position.
They will also show whether Mubadala’s accumulation streak extends into a seventh consecutive quarter.
Investors watching the Harvard move as a sentiment gauge may need to weigh it against the sovereign wealth bid. The two sides of Q1 13F filings tell very different stories about institutional conviction in spot crypto products.

OpenServ (SERV) climbed nearly 70% in 24 hours. The token broke out of a falling wedge that had pressured price since late October 2025. The move arrived as autonomous AI agents returned as one of crypto’s leading narratives.
SERV trades near $0.051 with a market cap of about $39 million. The project ranks 579 by market value. Daily volume sits close to $3.8 million.
Falling Wedge Breakout Hints the Rally May Be Maturing
The daily chart shows SERV escaping a falling wedge that compressed price action for roughly seven months. The pattern’s lower trendline ran from October 2025 lows, while the upper boundary tracked a series of lower highs.
OpenServ (SERV) Price Performance. Source: TradingView
In technical analysis, falling wedges typically resolve higher, and SERV’s breakout above the $0.0287 horizontal level confirmed the structure.
Measured-move analysis points to upside of about $0.038, the longest vertical distance inside the pattern. That measurement, projected from the breakout, implies a target near $0.067.
Price has already covered roughly three-quarters of that range. The 14-day RSI has pushed above 80, a zone where momentum tokens often stall or pull back.
Recent Dogecoin wedge breakouts show that target zones frequently mark short-term tops.
Risk now skews toward profit-taking unless volume sustains a daily close above $0.060. A failed retest of the $0.0287 trendline would invalidate the bullish read. Longer-term price projections will hinge on whether the breakout holds above support.
AI Agent Narrative Returns to Center Stage
Behind the technical move sits a fundamental story. OpenServ runs an end-to-end infrastructure layer for autonomous AI agents, covering agent construction, token launches, and operational deployment.
The company’s BRAID reasoning framework is used across 10 enterprise and government deployments. That includes UAE government work with partner Neol.
SERV is the platform’s utility asset for fees, staking, and launch participation.
“Our reasoning framework is currently beating every OpenAI model on industry standard benchmarks. There are six models in development. SERV-nano just matched GPT-5.4 at 20x lower cost and 3x the speed. The research paper backing it is in peer review at a top-1% AI journal. The UAE government is running it in production, so are 10+ enterprises,” stated Tim Hafner, founder of OpenServ.
The broader autonomous agent sector now holds a combined market value above $15 billion. Agent launchpad Virtuals Protocol alone trades at roughly $477 million in market cap.
Capital rotation into the theme has lifted smaller agent infrastructure plays after months of consolidation.
Whether momentum holds will depend on adoption metrics, not chart patterns. Coming sessions should show whether SERV’s breakout marks durable demand.
A sentiment-driven move could already have played out most of its course.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley wants AI-displaced tech workers to consider crypto. He argues that the industry’s messy problems create the kind of opportunity ambitious engineers should chase.
The pitch arrived inside a broader Silicon Valley conversation about AI-driven job anxiety. Investors and founders are describing a workforce reshaped by automation, widening wealth divides, and questions about future careers.
Horsley Frames Crypto as the Pre-Mainstream OpenAI Bet
Horsley told tech employees their pragmatism is what crypto needs. He pointed to problems around financial freedom, access, and cutting out middle men. He compared the move to joining OpenAI before mainstream adoption was clear.
The Bitwise executive also acknowledged the industry has scams, messy projects, and shallow headlines. He argued those flaws are the opportunity for engineers willing to build.
Crypto roles offer competitive pay across engineering, protocol design, and product talent.
Big tech is moving on from needing you, and will be celebrating laying off talent. Fine. But crypto needs you. We need talented, professional, pragmatic people,” Horsley explained.
It aligns with a recent BeInCrypto report, which highlighted how TradFi giants were offering crypto talent stability and prestige as crypto firms cut staff. This is after JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Citi posted crypto roles recently, with base salaries reaching $300,000.
Banks are also demanding hybrid talent fluent in blockchain and TradFi compliance.
Wall Street’s Crypto Hiring Boom Comes as Layoffs Rock the Industry
“It’s really about domain overlap,” Bloomberg reported, citing Paul Przybylski, JPMorgan Asset Management’s global head of product for digital and tokenized assets.
Justin Sun Echoes the Career Reset
Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das described San Francisco as frenetic. Roughly 10,000 employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia have reached wealth above $20 million in five years. Meanwhile, AI-driven layoffs reshape the rest of the workforce.
Axios reported in April that AI agent costs are now outpacing human salaries at several companies.
Uber’s CTO reportedly used his full 2026 AI budget early on token costs. A Nvidia executive said compute spending now exceeds employee budgets.
TRON founder Justin Sun added that the AI era rewards urgency. He told young builders to act while opportunities remain open.
“AI is here; while we’re young and still have the chance to do something, let’s just go for it,” Sun wrote.
Crypto being able to absorb the next wave of displaced engineers could hinge on what gets built over the coming year.

Penn Entertainment and Gambling.com Group announced fresh job cuts this week. Gambling.com is eliminating 25% of its workforce while Penn trims more than 75 roles from its Interactive division.
The cuts arrive as the sports betting sector contends with two converging pressures. Operators are accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) adoption while regulated prediction venues siphon bets from traditional sportsbooks.
Cost Cuts Driven by AI-First Restructuring
Gambling.com Group cut roughly 150 staff alongside Q1 earnings. The report swung to a $1.2 million loss on flat revenue of $40.4 million.
Incoming chief executive Kevin McCrystle told analysts that AI now generates about 80% of new engineering code. The shift supports a planned $13 million in annualized savings.
The company lowered its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $165 million to $170 million. Shares tumbled more than 45% after the announcement.
Gambling.com Group Limited (GAMB) Stock Performance. Source: TradingView
The drop capped a difficult stretch tied to Google search volatility and tighter regulation in Finland and the United Kingdom.
Penn Entertainment’s cuts hit teams inside theScore Bet, online casino, and social gaming units.
The reductions build on a January corporate restructuring that consolidated technology under Aaron LaBerge and eliminated two senior executive roles. Penn reported first-quarter revenue of around $1.4 billion.
Prediction Markets Siphon Betting Demand
Layoff Tracker, an Official Layoff Tracker, framed the announcements as evidence that prediction venues are draining users from regulated sportsbooks.
CFTC-supervised platforms, including Polymarket and Kalshi, have processed roughly $150 billion in combined lifetime volume. Sports contracts drive most of that recent activity.
DraftKings recently acquired a CFTC-licensed exchange and partnered with Polymarket on clearing. Penn has stayed out of event contracts, citing regulatory uncertainty.
The American Gaming Association continues to push for stricter classification of these contracts as gambling.
Kalshi reported a $14.8 billion monthly trading volume in April, surpassing Polymarket for the first time in eight months. The pattern fits a broader shift.
Event contract platforms now compete directly with sportsbooks on player props, spreads, and live markets.
Operators across the sector are trimming payrolls and leaning harder on automation.
Sportsbook consolidation acceleration may hinge on regulators, with the next dividing lines around event contracts coming from both state and federal agencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) extended losses into Saturday. Iran’s threat to charge tolls on Strait of Hormuz shipping kept pressure on global risk assets. The two-day selloff has now erased over $80 billion in crypto market value.
The pioneer crypto traded near $77,947 after dropping below $78,000. Leveraged longs absorbed the bulk of a reported $620 million in 24-hour liquidations.
Profit-Taking After CLARITY Vote Set Up the Slide
Saturday’s move builds on a sharper drop earlier in the week. The Senate Banking Committee passed the CLARITY Act on Wednesday by a 15-9 vote, briefly pushing BTC above $82,000 before profits got booked.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: TradingView
Analyst Crypto with Harris described the reversal as a textbook profit-taking move. Traders had spent weeks pricing in regulatory progress, and the formal committee vote removed the catalyst.
Hopes for a softer tariff posture at the US-China summit also faded. President Donald Trump said no such discussions had taken place, dragging US equities and crypto lower in tandem.
Exchange dashboards now show longs accounting for the bulk of liquidations, with over $469 million positions wiped out over the last 24 hours.
Total Crypto Liquidations. Source: Coinglass
“Bitcoin down -3800$ in 48 hours and broke below $78000. BTC wiped out $80 BILLION marketcap in just 2 days. Over $620M in longs liquidated in last 24 hours,” analyst Bull Theory said recently.
Iran’s Hormuz Toll Plan Sustains Geopolitical Pressure
The macro picture stayed dark on Saturday. Iran moved to formalize a fee system for vessels using the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint where roughly a fifth of seaborne oil flows.
“Iran, within the framework of its national sovereignty… has prepared a professional mechanism to manage traffic in the Strait of Hormuz along a designated route… only commercial vessels and parties cooperating with Iran will benefit from it. The necessary fees will be collected for the specialized services provided under this mechanism,” Iranian official Ebrahim Azizi outlined the policy framework in a public statement.
Iranian state-linked outlets reported that vessels from China, Japan, and Pakistan have already transited the strait with Tehran’s clearance. Several European operators are reportedly seeking similar permission.
Domestic conditions inside Iran continue to deteriorate. Analyst Miad Maleki said Iranian crude exports have fallen more than 80% since mid-March, citing Vortexa data.
He added that fuel rationing has triggered hours-long queues at filling stations and a growing gasoline black market.
Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi reportedly arrived in Tehran for an unannounced meeting, according to analyst Babak Vahdad.
The visit coincides with backchannel diplomacy on the Iran-US standoff.
Bears Cite Macro Drag While Some Traders Eye Dip
Not every trader treats the news as the primary catalyst. Ivan on Tech argues that BTC has been in a weekly bear trend since October. He believes news flow no longer moves the underlying structure.
“We are in bear market since October. Bullish news don’t pump the market in the bear just like bad news don’t dump the market in a bull… Until a high volume capitulation candle takes place AND trend reverses forget any news pumping us,” the analyst stated.
Prediction market Kalshi shows traders pricing in further downside. Bettors there put 60% odds on BTC dropping below $75,000 before month-end. Lower price brackets are also drawing significant interest.
Analyst Mario Nawfal pushed back on the broader Iranian framing. He said Tehran charging fees on international waters would constitute a sovereignty claim that other governments are unlikely to recognize.
BTC currently trades roughly 38% below its $126,080 October high. Bitcoin’s recent retest of geopolitical tensions shows how quickly macro shocks now feed into crypto pricing.