BeInCrypto Global

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.

Bitcoin (BTC) delivers its strongest single-day returns on US federal holidays, according to a CoinGecko study covering May 2013 to May 2026, with New Year’s Day producing an average next-day return of +2.01% and an 84.6% win rate.
The research analyzed 4,753 daily price observations and found that US holidays produced an average next-day return of +0.77 %, roughly four times the +0.19% baseline for non-holidays.
Holiday Effect Skews Heavily Positive
On the win-rate side, Columbus Day also hit 84.6%, with a +1.70% next-day average. Christmas Day produced a smaller +1.46% gain on a 53.8% win rate, while Labor Day registered +1.22% across a 69.2% win rate, according to CoinGecko.
Two holidays buck the trend. Martin Luther King Jr. Day averages -0.84%, dragged down by a -18.65% Bitcoin drop on January 15, 2018. Independence Day averages -0.26%, with both holidays posting win rates below 50%.
Bitcoin Next-Day Return By Holiday. Source: Coingecko
CoinGecko researchers attribute the New Year’s Day signal to fresh January capital allocations and December tax-loss selling reversals.
The effect held even as BTC prices ranged from $313 in 2015 to $93,507 in 2025, despite the split 2026 price outlook between bulls and bears.
Day-of-Week Effect Fades Over Longer Horizons
Within the trading week, Monday and Wednesday tied at +0.38% average next-day returns. Thursday is the only day to post a negative average at -0.09%.
The weekday-weekend gap was just 0.01%, far narrower than the documented Uptober seasonality effect.
Bitcoin Day of the Week Return
On a 365-day horizon, every weekday produced returns between 142.15% and 144.56%. CoinGecko called the spread negligible relative to Bitcoin’s volatility.
The data suggests holiday timing may add marginal value at short horizons. Whether the Santa rally pattern extends into next year’s January setup remains an open question.

Starbucks (SBUX) has compounded roughly 40,000% since its 1992 IPO, turning a $10,000 ticket into close to $4 million.
On Friday, the company that built that record told 300 more corporate workers they were out, took a $400 million restructuring charge, and watched the stock rise anyway. Wall Street called it the right move.
A 408x Run Built on a $5 Habit
Starbucks went public on June 26, 1992, at $17 per share. After six 2-for-1 stock splits, that adjusts to roughly $0.26. The stock closed Friday near $106.79, pushing its market cap to about $121.7 billion.
Pure price-to-earnings now runs around 408 times the IPO level, before the 2.32% dividend yield is even factored in.
Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) Stock Performance. Source: TradingView
To put that in numbers a crypto trader can feel, Bitcoin would need to roughly 400x from today’s price to match what Starbucks has already done.
The compounding survived the 2008 crash, the pandemic shutdowns and the 2022 inflation shocks. It also survived two CEO transitions and a multi-year same-store sales slump.
SBUX is up 26% year to date in 2026, the latest reminder that boring assets sometimes outrun the flashy ones and that the crypto-versus-stocks debate rarely ends the way Twitter expects.
The Turnaround Behind the New Record
Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan finally showed up in the numbers last month. Q2 FY26 revenue rose 9% to $9.53 billion, beating consensus.
Global same-store sales jumped 6.2%, with North America up 7.1% on a 4.4% lift in transactions. It was the first quarter in more than 2 years when both the top and bottom lines grew.
Management raised full-year guidance to at least 5% same-store sales growth, up from a prior 3% target, and reaffirmed plans for 600 to 650 net new coffeehouses in fiscal 2026.
The global footprint now exceeds 41,000 stores. A China joint-venture sale separately freed up roughly $3.1 billion in cash, the kind of quiet infrastructure play that crypto keeps trying to imitate.
The Layoffs Wall Street Cheered
On May 15, Starbucks said it would cut 300 US corporate roles in marketing, human resources, and supply chain functions and shut some regional support offices. Coffeehouse staff are not affected.
The move will trigger $400 million in restructuring charges, including a $280 million write-down on long-term assets and $120 million in cash severance.
It is Niccol’s third corporate cut since taking the job, and Jim Cramer framed it on CNBC as a setup play.
“He has said over and over again that he’s got to right-size. This is it. He’s getting it done,” CNBC reported, citing Cramer.
The market is still pricing SBUX at roughly 81 times earnings, a multiple that assumes the compounding machine keeps running.
The next leg of public-market consumer stories, which has now matched the last 34 years, hinges on whether Niccol’s margin reset turns into real offense or just another expensive defense of an already bid-up name.
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Having worked across blockchain and digital asset ecosystems since 2015, Yaroslav Ivanov, Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of ALTA Blockchain Labs, has witnessed crypto evolve from a niche movement into a sector increasingly intertwined with global finance, a shift that became especially evident at Consensus Miami 2026.
Ivanov is a strategic executive working closely with Web3 founders through ALTA Blockchain Labs, advising on tokenization and liquidity strategy, go-to-market execution, and ecosystem development.
Through his work with both founders and institutional investors, he observes how capital flows and builder sentiment evolve across market cycles. The event brought together senior voices from digital assets, banking, asset management, technology, and policy, with ALTA Blockchain Labs participating as a media and community partner of Consensus 2026.
ALTA sits at the layer where Web3 projects transition into broader liquidity markets.
For Ivanov, the atmosphere showed how much the industry has changed. The early crypto conference image of retail excitement, experimental culture, and chaotic builder energy was still visible, but it no longer defined the room.
The strongest presence came from banks, asset managers, public companies, policy voices, and technology providers speaking about tokenization, regulated settlement, stablecoins, and institutional adoption.
“The scale and institutional presence this year is impressive,” Ivanov said. “It reflects how seriously global finance is beginning to treat digital assets.”
The Rise of Institutional Crypto
Crypto’s new audience is more formal, more corporate, and more connected to existing financial power.
The Wall Street Journal captured this mood in its coverage of Consensus Miami, describing a more corporate atmosphere at the event, with representatives from major banks including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Its phrase “Lamborghinis Out, Suits In” pointed to a visible cultural change around one of crypto’s biggest annual gatherings.
For Ivanov, this creates a more complicated question than simple “maturity.” Institutional adoption brings capital, legitimacy, liquidity, and a larger market. It also forces the industry to decide which parts of its original culture deserve protection.
Crypto was built around distrust of concentrated financial control. Today, many institutions once skeptical of digital assets are entering the sector with large balance sheets, regulated products, and established client networks.
“Institutional influence over crypto is inevitable,” Ivanov said. “The key is to preserve the authenticity of decentralization and the mission laid out by Satoshi.”
Adoption Brings Pressure
Crypto’s institutional phase can support growth, but adoption alone does not preserve openness, self-custody, or permissionless innovation.
A market can grow while its original purpose becomes less visible.
This tension ran through Consensus 2026, where tokenized securities, stablecoin settlement, bank-grade custody, regulatory alignment, and institutional distribution dominated many discussions.
Meanwhile, at side events, founder meetings, informal gatherings, and community conversations around Miami still focused on networks, applications, user ownership, and mass participation outside traditional finance.
The result was a collision between two versions of the same industry.
Bullish Brings Public Equity Onchain
One of the strongest examples came from Bullish. During Consensus Miami 2026, the company announced plans to let shareholders hold BLSH ordinary shares as tokens on Solana. Bullish described the launch as the first full tokenization of an NYSE-listed company’s equity cap table, administered by Equiniti, its SEC-registered transfer agent.
This gave the institutional conversation a concrete example. Tokenization now reaches public-company ownership records, transfer agents, shareholder visibility, settlement timing, and regulated market operations.
For founders, it validates blockchain as a technology for financial markets. It also shows how quickly crypto language can be absorbed into institutional design.
Solana and the Speed of Open Networks
Solana’s presence at Consensus added another angle to the same discussion. Ivanov met with Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder of Solana Labs, during the event.
Yakovenko’s public comments at Consensus focused on the advantages global blockchain networks may have over companies built around regulated domestic markets. He made the point that crypto-native teams operate globally and can adapt faster than firms tied to legacy market structures.
This idea sits close to the heart of the current debate. Traditional finance is entering crypto because the technology has become too useful to ignore. Crypto-native networks still move faster because they were built with different assumptions from legacy finance.
The next stage of competition may be more about open networks challenging the operating models of traditional markets.
The Builder Spirit Around the Edges
Consensus 2026 showed an industry large enough for major institutions to take seriously, but still young enough for its future to remain unsettled.
Institutional finance wants efficiency, settlement speed, new products, and access to tokenized markets. Crypto-native founders still speak about sovereignty, user ownership, transparency, and global participation.
The risk for crypto is that institutional language becomes the dominant language of success. If the industry measures progress only through ETFs, tokenized cap tables, bank partnerships, and regulated liquidity, the users and builders who carried crypto through earlier years are more easily overlooked.
At the same time, institutional participation brings distribution, compliance experience, and liquidity. These forces can make digital assets easier to use globally. The challenge is accepting institutional growth while preserving crypto’s independent foundation.
Crypto Enters Wall Street’s Room
Consensus Miami 2026 did not resolve the tension between institutional adoption and crypto’s original builder culture, but it did make it harder to ignore.
For Ivanov, the most important lesson came from the contrast between the official program and the surrounding community. Inside the main venue, crypto looked increasingly like a financial market industry.
Around the edges, the original builder spirit remained alive through side events, founder conversations, and communities still focused on open participation.
This contrast may define the next era of digital assets. Crypto has, indeed, entered the room with Wall Street.

Several of Wall Street’s most-watched billionaires converged on a single conviction trade in their Q1 2026 13F filings. Bill Ackman, David Tepper, and other managers each boosted their stakes in Amazon (AMZN).
The disclosures show the e-commerce and cloud platform topping multiple hedge fund books. Amazon emerged as the most repeated overweight name across major filings.
Ackman and Tepper Lead the Amazon Add
Pershing Square added 1.84 million Amazon shares in the first quarter. The buy lifted Ackman’s position by roughly 19%, according to the fund’s filing.
Amazon now sits among its largest disclosed holdings alongside Brookfield, Uber, and a newly initiated Microsoft stake.
David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management nearly doubled its Amazon position during the quarter. The 98% increase made the stock the firm’s largest disclosed equity holding, valued at roughly $900 million.
The fund also boosted Uber by 242% and added to Taiwan Semiconductor while trimming Nvidia, Alphabet, and Alibaba.
Hedge funds run by Daniel Loeb, Seth Klarman, and Chase Coleman also list Amazon among their top US holdings.
Holdings Among Some of the Top Investors
The overlap reinforces a shared positioning theme. Amazon’s appeal rests on resilient e-commerce cash flow, AWS cloud demand tied to AI buildouts, and accelerating digital ad revenue.
AI and Quality Names Anchor the Rest
Beyond Amazon, the filings show a broader tilt toward AI-adjacent platforms and durable compounders. Tepper, Coleman, and Loeb hold Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and Taiwan Semiconductor.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made an outsized purchase of Alphabet and trimmed its Bank of America stake. Bill Gates and Chris Hohn cluster in industrials, railways, and quality payments names like Visa.
The 13F snapshots lag by 45 days. They also exclude options, short positions, and non-US holdings, so consensus reads should be paired with live price action.
Notwithstanding, the Amazon trade persisting into Q2 hinges on cloud capex guidance and advertising trends. The broader rotation between AI growth and value names also matters.

FIFA settled with China Media Group on a $60 million 2026 World Cup broadcast deal in mainland China. The figure sits far below its initial $250-$300 million ask.
FIFA and China Media Group signed the pact on May 15, just 27 days before the June 11 opener in North America. The deal also runs through the 2027, 2030, and 2031 tournaments.
How China Extracted the Discount
State broadcaster CCTV’s parent, China Media Group, holds a monopoly on major international sports rights inside mainland China.
That leverage lets it ignore FIFA’s opening number and hold an internal budget of $60 to $80 million.
The Global Times reported that FIFA reduced its ask to $120-$150 million before settling near the lower bound.
The Associated Press confirmed the deal covers free-to-air TV, streaming, and mobile platforms in 4K and 8K.
Two factors gutted FIFA’s pricing power. China’s men’s team failed to qualify, deflating domestic interest. Tournament evening slots in the United States, Canada, and Mexico land at 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. Beijing time.
“FIFA went to China demanding $300 million, CCTV told FIFA you scheduled nearly all the games from 12 AM to 6 AM East Asian time, why on earth would we pay that much? FIFA then came back around begging for $150 million. CCTV told them $60 million or bounce, GTFO. Excellent negotiation skills in practice. And also a sign on how excessive eurocentrism will lead you to having constant Ls in the modern era,” one user remarked.
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What It Signals
The $60 million figure tracks what China paid for the smaller 2022 Qatar tournament. The expanded edition carries 50% more matches.
Notably, there were over 230 world-cup related markets open on Polymarket as of this writing, displaying different FIFA predictions and odds.
Polymarket, Kalshi, and similar venues now pace legacy sports media on live story breaks. Binance and other exchanges have built World Cup products around fan tokens.
FIFA itself runs an Avalanche-based blockchain for Web3 collectibles.
None of that solved the audience math in China. FIFA still has no broadcaster signed in India weeks from kickoff.

Microsoft (MSFT) stock slipped 0.42% to $422.07 on May 15. The slide followed news that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust had sold its entire $3.2 billion MSFT stake.
The headline number masks a planned event. The Trust has held the position for nearly three years. The cash funds grantmaking and prepares the endowment for a 2045 close.
Why the Gates Foundation Sold Microsoft Stock
As of this writing, MSFT stock was trading at 422.07 amid bearish sentiment following the Gates Foundation’s disposal of the last of its Microsoft shares.
Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Performance. Source: TradingView
However, the sale is liquidity-driven, not a bearish call on Microsoft. The foundation has publicly committed to lifting annual grantmaking to $9 billion by 2026.
Bill Gates announced a plan to wind down the entire endowment by 2045. Selling concentrated MSFT stock is the most direct route to that cash schedule.
Microsoft has anchored the Trust’s portfolio for decades because Gates donated billions in personal shares. The position grew so large that any drawdown plan starts with trimming MSFT first.
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did not purchase its Microsoft shares on the open market. The entire position was built through direct donations of Microsoft stock from Bill Gates’ personal wealth over many years. As a foundation, they do pay a small tax, but it’s not the standard capital gains tax. The sale of their Microsoft shares is subject to a federal excise tax of 1.39% on the net capital gains,” one user noted.
Ackman Steps In, Sellers Still Win the Tape
Investor Bill Ackman used the same day’s filings to disclose a new 5.65 million share Microsoft stake. Pershing Square Capital Management values the position at nearly $2.3 billion.
“In our 13F which we will file later today, we will disclose a new position in Microsoft, a company we have followed for many years now offered at a highly compelling valuation.” Ackman shared in a post.
Ackman framed his buy as a valuation bet on Microsoft’s AI franchise after February’s OpenAI cloud shift hit shares. He pegged the cost basis at 21 times forward earnings, well below the stock’s recent average.
Pershing Square’s quarter-long accumulation of 5.65 million shares accounted for only part of the foundation’s 7.7 million-share exit. The net supply weighed on intraday trade despite the bullish counter-narrative.
Bigger Picture for Microsoft
MSFT remains a core driver of the broader S&P 500 rally. The separate $9.7 billion IREN deal anchors sentiment around AI data-center demand.
The London Stock Exchange’s partnership with Microsoft adds another revenue lane. Whether the recent dip marks a buying window or a warning shot is the open question for the next earnings cycle.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) is breaking out toward 101 after forming a double bottom on the daily chart. Historically, that move would have weighed on Bitcoin (BTC) price. But 2026 correlation data tells a different story.
Bitcoin trades near $80,605, up 0.97% over 24 hours and 8.71% over the past 30 days. The question now is whether dollar strength still drives BTC price, or if Bitcoin moves on its own fundamentals.
The Long-Term Inverse Correlation Still Carries Weight
For more than a decade, the DXY and Bitcoin have generally moved in opposite directions. Data from Bitcoin Counterflow dates back to 2011 and clearly visualizes the pattern.
Bitcoin expansion phases in 2013, 2017, and 2020 lined up with DXY weakness below 90. DXY rallies in 2014, 2018, and 2022 coincided with deep BTC drawdowns of 60% or more.
The mechanism behind the link is straightforward. A weaker dollar typically signals looser financial conditions and a higher risk appetite, both of which have historically lifted Bitcoin alongside other risk assets.
DXY vs BTC price / Source: Bitcoincounterflow.com
Youtuber Carl Moon recently posted a monthly comparison chart that strengthens this view. His chart marks each Bitcoin halving cycle against DXY phases.
Red blocks during BTC bull runs match DXY declines, while green blocks during corrections show dollar strength. However, Moon’s forward projection draws both assets pushing higher together, hinting that the relationship may be shifting.
2026 Tells a More Complicated Story
While the macro view supports the inverse case, recent price action complicates it. A correlation overlay between DXY and Bitcoin on the daily chart shows a mixed picture across 2026.
Late January and early February saw a correlation near positive 1.00 (blue ellipse). Both assets fell together as risk markets repriced. The same positive correlation returned in mid-March and early April, with both recovering in tandem.
Negative correlation then snapped back from mid-April through May (red ellipse). DXY rallied while BTC consolidated near $80,000. Readings approached negative 1.00, reasserting the inverse pattern after months of decoupling.
DXY and BTC daily correlation / Source: Tradingview
This whipsaw aligns with structural changes in the Bitcoin market. Spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) flows reached $1.97 billion in April, the strongest month of 2026.
Institutional demand now influences BTC pricing independently of dollar moves. In contrast, retail-driven cycles of the past reacted more sharply to dollar strength. That sensitivity appears to be fading as flows from BlackRock and other issuers anchor a steady bid.
DXY Price Prediction Points Toward 101.075
The current DXY chart sets up a clean technical thesis. Price trades at 99.124 after breaking above the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement at 98.548. A W-formation across April and May provides the structural base for the move.
The bullish target sits at 101.075, roughly 2% above current levels. That level prints just above the 100.393 supply zone, which marks the 1.0 Fibonacci extension and the previous March and April high.
DXY daily chart / Source: Tradingview
Momentum supports the breakout. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has climbed toward 60, while the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram has flipped green and continues to expand.
Invalidation comes on a daily close below the 0.382 Fibonacci level at 97.408. That zone aligns with the green support band visible on the chart.
This setup creates a clean test for the broader correlation question. If DXY clears 100.393 and Bitcoin holds or rallies, the decoupling thesis gains weight.
However, if BTC sells off as DXY pushes 101, the historical inverse correlation reasserts, and macro forces still drive Bitcoin. The next few weeks should answer whether Bitcoin has grown into a stand-alone asset or remains a passenger on the dollar’s path.

Digital asset adoption is moving into a more practical phase. The question is no longer which exchange has the loudest retail brand. It is which platform can give brokers, fintechs, institutions, and traders the infrastructure to connect with digital asset markets at scale.
KuCoin is nominated for Leader in Digital Asset Adoption and Best Trading Infrastructure at the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026.
Adoption MetricLast Verified DataRegistered users40M+Active footprint200+ countries and regionsBroker and fintech partners1,000+Regulatory footprintAUSTRAC registration, MiCAR-CASP via KuCoin EUPayment productsKuCoin Pay, KuCard
KuCoin Institutional Infrastructure Snapshot
The nomination reflects KuCoin’s shift from a retail trading venue to a broader liquidity and infrastructure provider. The exchange says it has surpassed 40 million users worldwide, while its institutional business now serves more than 1,000 broker and fintech partners.
In a BeInCrypto adjudication interview, Alison Qin, Head of KuCoin Institutional & VIP, described the change clearly.
“The industry has recognized that retail attention is transient, but infrastructure is foundational. KuCoin has fundamentally outpaced traditional retail marketing by transforming into a high-fidelity liquidity engine for over 1,000 brokers and fintech partners,” Qin said.
Infrastructure MetricLast Verified DataUnified Trading AccountSpot, futures, and margin assets in one capital poolOES integrationsBitGo Singapore Go Network, Cactus Custody, Ceffu MirrorXRWA collateral frameworkRCMS with UBS uMINT and Asseto CASH+Crypto-as-a-ServiceNearly 80 partners globally with liquidity solutions across partner ecosystemsCollateral supportBTC, ETH, and tokenized RWA assets
Same Firm. Two Scoring Sheets
KuCoin’s dual nomination rests on two linked stories.
For Leader in Digital Asset Adoption, the case centers on distribution. KuCoin operates across more than 200 countries and regions, supports payment products such as KuCoin Pay and KuCard, and has expanded its regulated footprint through AUSTRAC registration in Australia and a MiCAR authorization for KuCoin EU in Austria.
The MiCAR approval allows KuCoin EU to offer regulated crypto-asset services across the European Economic Area.
For Best Trading Infrastructure, the case centers on how KuCoin is changing the way institutions access liquidity.
The clearest example is its Off-Exchange Settlement framework. Institutional clients can trade on KuCoin while keeping assets with a qualified custodian.
KuCoin has live integrations with BitGo’s Go Network and Ceffu’s MirrorX, both designed to reduce prefunding and counterparty risk by separating custody from exchange execution.
That matters because institutional traders don’t just need an order book. They need custody separation, settlement controls, collateral efficiency, and execution access that fit regulated workflows.
The UTA Advantage
KuCoin’s infrastructure nomination also centers on its Unified Trading Account, launched in 2026.
UTA allows traders to consolidate spot, futures, and margin assets into a single account. KuCoin says the system supports shared margin, integrated risk management, and lower-latency order placement, cancellation, and message updates for professional and high-frequency traders.
“When our Unified Trading Account architecture is paired with global data transparency, it levels the playing field,” Qin said. “We don’t ask for trust; we provide the data that makes trust inevitable.”
That data layer expanded in April 2026, when KuCoin made its futures market data available on TradingView. The integration gives TradingView’s 100 million-plus users access to KuCoin perpetual futures symbols, real-time market data, and liquidity insights directly inside TradingView charts.
Turning RWA Collateral Into Trading Infrastructure
KuCoin’s strongest institutional story is its RWA Collateral Mirroring Solution, or RCMS.
Through the framework, institutions can use tokenized real-world assets as trading collateral without moving the underlying assets out of their regulated structure.
In 2025, KuCoin partnered with DigiFT to support UBS uMINT, a tokenized money market fund product, as off-exchange collateral. DigiFT described the integration as a way for tokenholders to use their funds as collateral through KuCoin’s mirroring program while improving capital efficiency.
KuCoin later expanded the framework with Asseto’s CASH+, a tokenized product linked to a USD money market fund. KuCoin Institutional said the integration helps institutions deploy capital across traditional and digital markets while preserving yield and maintaining asset control.
This is where KuCoin’s two nominations overlap. Adoption is no longer only about user growth. It is about whether real financial instruments can move into the crypto market structure without breaking custody, compliance, or collateral rules.
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards recognize firms building the systems that could define the next phase of digital finance.
KuCoin’s nomination reflects its role in turning exchange infrastructure into a bridge for brokers, institutions, tokenized assets, and global digital asset users.

Stablecoins are starting to look less like a crypto trading tool and more like financial infrastructure for people who earn, spend, and move money across borders. KAST is building directly around that shift.
The firm is nominated for Best Digital Assets Neobank and Best Digital Assets Fintech at the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026.
Neobank MetricLast Verified DataUsers1M+Annualized transaction volumeAbout $5BActive footprint170+ countriesCard acceptance150M+ merchantsYield productKAST Earn with Gauntlet and USD Prime Vault
The nomination reflects KAST’s efforts to build a consumer and business finance platform around stablecoin rails from the start.
The company serves users across 170+ countries, integrates a real-time cross-border settlement layer with Fedwire and SWIFT, offers cards accepted at 150 million merchants, and supports USD accounts, global payouts, card spending, and yield products from a single app.
In March 2026, KAST raised $80 million in Series A funding, co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, with Peak XV Partners, HSG, and DST Global Partners also participating. The company said it had crossed 1 million users and reached about $5 billion in annualized transaction volume.
Fintech MetricLast Verified DataSeries A funding$80M announced in March 2026Core architectureStablecoin-native financial appBusiness productKAST Business waitlist/live access wavesCustody and securityFireblocks, BitGo, and enterprise security partnersProduct surfaceUSD accounts, cards, payouts, yield, business accounts
Built Around Stablecoins From Day One
KAST’s nomination for Best Digital Assets Neobank centers on its stablecoin-native account model.
Most neobanks began with traditional banking rails and later added crypto features. KAST started with stablecoins as the operating layer. The account balance, cross-border movement, card spend, and yield products are all built around digital dollars.
In a nomination interview with BeInCrypto, Founder and CEO Raagulan Pathy described the difference.
“The first generation of neobanks did a great job giving a slick interface, but they still operated within the traditional financial system. Being stablecoin native, we can be in 150-plus countries very early. That’s what we’ve done from day one,” Pathy said.
That architecture gives KAST its global reach. Users can hold USD, spend through Visa card products, move funds across borders, and access stablecoin-based yield without relying on a traditional bank account in their country of residence.
KAST also emphasizes institutional-grade security. Its website says the platform partners with Fireblocks, BitGo, and enterprise security providers for asset protection, while financial services are provided through licensed and regulated partners.
Turning Stablecoin Rails Into Fintech Infrastructure
The second nomination, Best Digital Assets Fintech, reflects KAST’s wider product buildout.
KAST Earn allows users to put idle USD to work through vault products. Its Gauntlet Alpha Vault deploys funds across DeFi strategies managed by Gauntlet, while the USD Prime Vault uses USDKY, a stablecoin backed by short-term US Treasury bills through M0.
KAST says users can withdraw without lockups, with returns reflected in the value of their vault balance.
Pathy framed trust as central to the business model.
“Financial services is ultimately a trust game. Users will use you more if they trust you. It’s not always about being the absolute cheapest; it’s about being the safest and the best,” he said.
KAST is also moving into business finance. KAST Business is designed for global teams, founders, agencies, and operators who need payouts, payroll, virtual cards, and cross-border spending in a single platform. The company says it is opening access in phases and reviewing applications manually.
That expands KAST beyond a consumer card product. It gives the company a path into stablecoin payroll, contractor payments, business spending, and embedded financial services.
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards recognize firms building the systems that could define the next phase of digital finance. KAST’s nomination reflects its role in turning stablecoins into a usable banking-like experience for consumers and a financial infrastructure layer for global businesses.

Wall Street’s biggest banks have set their boldest gold targets yet for 2026, and Russian retail investors are not waiting.
JPMorgan now sees gold reaching $6,300 per ounce by year-end. Deutsche Bank projects $6,000, while Goldman Sachs targets $5,400 and UBS forecasts $5,900.
These calls land at a striking moment. Gold trades near $4,548, down roughly 16% from its January record all-time high. Most analysts call the pullback a buying opportunity inside a structural bull market.
Gold Price Prediction from 5 Wall Street Banks Russians are Buying Gold Fast
Meanwhile, Russian investors are moving fast. The Moscow Exchange reported gold trading volume of 42.6 tonnes in March 2026, more than 3.5 times higher than a year earlier.
Monetary volume jumped fivefold to 534.4 billion rubles ($7.1 billion).
Russians now have five main ways to gain exposure. The simplest is an unallocated metal account (OMS) at a bank. Brokerage instruments like GLDRUB_TOM offer next-day spot settlement.
Investors can also choose exchange-traded gold funds, gold-mining stocks, or new digital financial assets (DFAs) tied to the metal.
Russians are Racing to Buy Gold
Oleg Reshetnikov of BCS World of Investments says spot instruments lead the pack.
“The most convenient way for Russians to invest in gold and silver is the instruments ‘Gold for Rubles’ and ‘Silver for Rubles’ with next-day settlement,” Reshetnikov said.
His firm targets $5,385 in the next 12 months.
For smaller budgets, brokerage apps have opened the door.
“The easiest thing today is to buy gold from a broker,” portfolio manager Alexander Ryabinin of SF Education said. “Tinkoff Gold can be bought for 13 rubles, right in the broker’s app.”
Still, experts urge diversification across formats.
“One should not glorify a single channel but combine them — part in digital form for turnover, part on the exchange, and if necessary a small physical layer as insurance,” said Rais Ismagilov of AVI Capital.
5 Ways Russians are Buying Gold
However, risks remain. April US inflation hit 3.8%, the highest in a year, pushing back expected Fed rate cuts. India also raised gold import tariffs to 15%, cooling physical demand.
And Russia’s own central bank has been a net seller, offloading 22 tonnes in 2026 to plug budget gaps.
For now, though, retail demand keeps rising, and Wall Street keeps lifting its gold price prediction.

The T3 Financial Crime Unit, a joint operation by Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs, has frozen more than $450 million in illicit cryptocurrency since launching in September 2024, with 43.9% more illicit proceeds intercepted in 2025 than the prior year.
The May update reflects expanded cooperation with police forces in the United States, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has also cited the unit as a leading public-private model for digital asset enforcement.
T3 Expands Reach Across 23 Jurisdictions
The unit operates in 23 jurisdictions, including the United States, Spain, Germany, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. Since its September 2024 debut, it has analyzed millions of transactions across five continents to identify exchange hacks, exploits, DPRK-linked activity, terrorist financing, money laundering, and violent crime cases.
Past T3 actions include a Spanish bust that recovered about $26.4 million tied to a Madrid-based laundering ring.
Response time has been a focus. T3 says it has frozen funds within 24 hours during multiple account takeovers and violent crime emergencies.
The unit also supported Operation Lusocoin, a Brazilian Federal Police investigation that froze more than R$3 billion in crypto, including 4.3 million USDT, Tether’s flagship stablecoin, tied to the criminal network.
Wrench Attacks and North Korean Funds Move Into Focus
Cases this year have spanned controlled substances, terrorist financing, and what T3 calls wrench attacks, a category covering home invasions, kidnappings, and violent extortion against crypto holders.
The unit says it can lock targeted wallets within hours of a verified law enforcement request. BeInCrypto has reported separately that physical attacks targeting digital asset users could climb sharply in 2026.
Recognition came earlier this year, when the FATF named T3, alongside TRM’s Beacon Network, as a leading framework for tackling digital asset crime.
TRM Labs has estimated that illicit crypto flows reached a record $158 billion, an environment in which real-time identification and freezing have become central to enforcement.
“This $450 million milestone is just the beginning of what T3 is capable of, as its impact will only continue to grow in scale and importance.” Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, in a statement.

Grok’s autonomous stock portfolio has built a sizable lead over Claude’s newer fund on the Autopilot mirror-trading platform. The result exposes a widening performance gap between two AI agents picking real-money trades.
The two X accounts, @grkportfolio and @theaiportfolios, run separate experiments by AI Finance Labs. The wider lineup of AI-managed strategies on Autopilot holds roughly $150 million in mirrored capital.
Grok Builds a Multi-Quarter Lead in AI Stock Picking
Grok’s portfolio has returned 59% over its first nine months, according to publicly available Autopilot data, with $17 million currently invested. The S&P 500 climbed 36% in the same window.
S&P 500 (SPX) Stock Performance. Source: TradingView
Over the past three months, the agent added another 12.6%, against the SPY’s 9.75%. The performance has stayed concentrated in AI infrastructure and energy names.
Heavy positions in semiconductor and memory stocks captured the hyperscaler capital expenditure cycle. Defense and power exposure provided ballast during macro shocks earlier in 2026.
The hardware bet aligns with the broader pattern documented across coverage of AI agents now moving billions in real markets. The xAI-branded portfolio operates without human override, according to its public posts.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Claude’s Defensive Tilt Misses the AI Rally
Claude’s portfolio launched in April 2026 with $50,000 in seed capital. Every decision runs through the agent with no human override.
Recent posts show the fund rotated into ServiceNow (NOW) and Zeta Global (ZETA) while trimming Microsoft (MSFT).
The agent justified each trade through probability-weighted scenarios, kill conditions, and forward catalysts.
The discipline has not produced the same headline returns. Operators have acknowledged in public posts that the fund trails the S&P 500. The gap covers several points across its first two months on the platform.
“It’s now been about two months since Claude’s AI agents started picking stocks So far, they’ve underperformed the market SPY: +8.3% Claude: 2.6%,” they said.
Claude leaned into second-order AI plays such as enterprise software, fintech, and power. That tilt missed parts of the mega-cap rally that lifted direct semiconductor names.
Outside the experiment, independent traders have used Anthropic’s models to power Polymarket bots that reportedly cleared millions in profit.
What the Gap Means for AI-Driven Investing
The headline numbers tell only part of the story. Grok has roughly a year of public history. Claude’s track record covers weeks.
Live AI-led trading carries real risks. Anthropic recently received legal warnings about how its name appears on retail products.
Market professionals have also questioned the value of retail AI trading bots.
“They lack real intelligence, so expecting them to trade and consistently beat humans in a reasonable timescale doesn’t make sense,” highlighted Raullen.eth, an AI builder and popular user on X.
Anyone mirroring either agent faces fees and concentration risk. Strong recent returns may not repeat once the cycle turns.
The two portfolios offer a rare public test of how different AI models translate market data into trades. Still, events such as earnings and sector rotations could reveal whether aggressive infrastructure bets or hedged software exposure hold up better.

3 altcoins stand out heading into the weekend. Zcash (ZEC), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Flare (FLR) all show bullish technical setups on their daily charts.
Each chart presents a different structure, from Fibonacci retests to falling wedge breakouts. Traders and analysts on X have flagged these three as the most compelling altcoin setups for the next 48 hours.
Zcash (ZEC) Defends 0.618 Fib Support Near $534
Zcash (ZEC) trades at $531.26, up 1.83% in the past 24 hours. The daily chart on Binance shows a clear Fibonacci structure framing the rally from $185.
Resistance sits at the 0.786 retracement near $629, with support at the 0.382 level at $400. Price now retests the 0.618 Fib at $534, the same area that capped the December 29 swing high.
A successful confirmation of this zone as support could fuel another leg toward $629. However, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is descending on the daily timeframe.
In contrast, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) has crossed bearish, indicating momentum is fading. Therefore, the next few sessions could decide whether the uptrend extends or a deeper correction sets in.
ZEC daily chart. Source: Tradingview
X analyst @0xifreqs identified the $380 demand zone as the rally launch pad. Meanwhile, the trader flagged $610 as the key consolidation ceiling above the current price.
“$ZEC had one of the cleanest reclaim moves lately. Price exploded from the $380 demand zone and is now consolidating right below the $610 resistance. As long as the higher low structure holds, momentum still looks strong. A clean breakout above $610 could open the door for another expansion leg fast.”
ZEC daily chart / Source: X Hyperliquid (HYPE) Breaks 0.618 Fib at $44.50 With Eyes on $48
Hyperliquid (HYPE) trades at $45.23, up 12.17% in the past 24 hours. The daily chart on KuCoin shows the token breaking out from the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement at $44.50.
Price has bounced off an ascending trend line stretching from the January low, confirming it as dynamic support. Meanwhile, the Bollinger Band Width (BBW) indicator suggests expanding volatility, while the RSI is trending higher near 60.
However, volume remains contracted, suggesting the move still needs confirmation. A volume spike on the next session would validate continuation of the bullish structure.
HYPE daily chart / Source: Tradingview
X trader @hami8040 views the next resistance level as decisive for the next leg up.
“$HYPE testing key resistance . Break above $48 and this could rip toward $60+ fast Bullish structure + momentum building”
The analyst’s chart highlights horizontal support zones at $30, $20, and $10. A bullish projection points toward the all-time high near $59 and beyond if $48 gives way.
HYPE daily chart / Source: X Flare (FLR) Confirms Falling Wedge Breakout Toward $0.012
Flare (FLR) trades at $0.00958, up 9.93% in the past 24 hours and 22.11% over the past week. The daily chart on MEXC shows a clean breakout above the $0.0086 resistance level.
Price now trends toward the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement at $0.010. A close above that level would open the path to the 0.786 Fib at $0.012.
The RSI sits at 80 with no bearish divergence on the daily chart. Furthermore, volatility is expanding, supporting the case for continued upside in the coming sessions.
FLR daily chart / Source: Tradingview
X analyst @Karman_1s framed the move within a multi-month falling wedge pattern.
“Flare $FLR is finally breaking the chains! After months of consolidation inside a massive falling wedge, we’ve officially seen a clean daily breakout. We just reclaimed the $0.0096 level with strong momentum, and the volume is starting to validate the move.”
The analyst’s chart shows the descending parallel trend lines that contained FLR price action. The pattern held from February through early May. Recent candles have broken decisively above the upper boundary.
FLR daily chart. Source: X 3 Altcoins to Watch This Weekend: ZEC, HYPE, and FLR
Across the 3 altcoins, each chart presents a different binary outcome heading into the weekend. ZEC must defend the $534 Fib level to keep the path to $629 open.
HYPE needs a volume spike to confirm the $44.50 breakout, with $48 as the next decisive resistance. Meanwhile, FLR has already cleared its falling wedge and now eyes $0.010 as the immediate target.
Therefore, traders should monitor volume, RSI behavior, and weekend liquidity for confirmation signals across the altcoin majors.

BlackRock Investment Institute warned investors that company-level AI capex now drives the entire macro market backdrop. The asset manager said its first 2026 theme, micro is macro, captures the shift.
The note from strategists Jean Boivin and Wei Li lands as Big Tech capital spending tracks roughly $725 billion this year. That figure is up about 10% from estimates made before first-quarter earnings. Capex on this scale rivals traditional macro drivers.
AI Capex Now Rivals Traditional Macro Forces
The micro-is-macro thesis argues that capex from a few firms shapes growth, earnings, and yields. That spending now rivals central bank policy as a market driver.
BlackRock estimates AI infrastructure investment could reach $5 trillion to $8 trillion this decade. The Magnificent Seven recently tracked roughly 57% quarterly earnings growth. AI is now the dominant force behind US equity gains.
The firm believes AI could be the first innovation in 150 years strong enough to lift US growth above 2%. It stresses that the outcome remains uncertain.
Inflation and the Strait of Hormuz raise the stakes
Sticky price pressures were already elevated before the Strait of Hormuz closure added fresh energy risks. BlackRock now sees about three rate hikes priced into Europe, with the U.S. on hold.
The firm stays overweight US and emerging-market equities. It cautions that long-term Treasuries no longer offer the portfolio ballast they once did. Higher yields, paired with sticky inflation, could begin to pressure valuations if disruptions persist.
Bitcoin gets caught in the macro crosswind
The crypto market reflects the same forces. Bitcoin (BTC) trades near $80,646, roughly 36% below its October 2025 record of $126,080. Ethereum (ETH) sits around $2,260, more than 50% off its August 2025 peak.
Capital that once flowed to risk assets is being diverted to AI capex and energy security, raising competition for funding. BlackRock argues that genuine diversification now requires private markets and hedge funds rather than traditional cross-asset spreads.
Rising leverage, weaker traditional hedges, and a few mega forces driving everything leave little room for passive positioning. Whether AI capex sustains its growth premium or starts to crowd out other assets is now the key question. The answer may set the tone for risk markets through the second half of 2026.

Drake namedrops Bitcoin on his new album “Iceman,” released May 15, 2026. On the track “Dust,” he identifies himself as a “A BTC crypto big-timer.” The line lends fresh celebrity visibility to the leading digital asset.
The same album also references former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried and the exchange’s penthouse era. The verses tie Drake’s lyrics directly to one of the most prominent collapses in crypto history.
Bitcoin Hovers Near $80,700 as the Bar Drops
The new lyric arrives as BTC consolidates well below its October 2025 all-time high above $126,000. Cultural references like Drake’s tend to coincide with periods of renewed retail attention.
For Drake, the bar continues a long pattern of using Bitcoin as a personal flex. He has previously placed multi-million dollar bets on sporting events denominated in BTC. He also lost a six-figure sum on a Mavericks wager during a recent NBA Finals run.
Iceman Also Nods to Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX
On the same “Dust” track, Drake raps:
An FTX penthouse high-riser, yeah Samuel Bankman, free all my guys up
The line directly names the disgraced former FTX chief.
Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 over the collapse of FTX. Roughly $8 billion in customer funds went missing during the implosion. He is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence and was denied a retrial earlier in 2026.
The “free all my guys up” reference also lands amid speculation about a possible presidential pardon for Bankman-Fried. The topic has gained traction in crypto circles this year.
A Cultural Stamp on Bitcoin
Parts of the crypto community read Drake’s verse as a bullish signal for Bitcoin’s cultural acceptance. The reference joins earlier nods from artists, athletes, and brands that have made the asset shorthand for status.
Drake is not the first major artist to invoke Bitcoin. References to BTC have appeared across hip-hop, pop, and electronic music for nearly a decade. Each cycle pulls celebrity attention back to the asset.
Whether the “Iceman” name-check moves price action is doubtful. It does confirm that crypto’s biggest characters, from BTC bulls to disgraced founders, now sit comfortably inside mainstream pop lyrics.

From its early, rapid-growth stages, Binance has become the largest global player in the cryptocurrency brokerage space.
That position has given Binance a clear, pro-crypto voice worldwide as countries look to regulate and adapt to the growth and implementation of cryptocurrency assets.
At Consensus 2026 in Miami Beach, BeInCrypto met up with Jimmy Su, Chief Security Officer at Binance. We discussed the crypto market, Binance’s latest tools, and how it is adapting to institutionalization by traditional financial companies.
The 30,000 Foot View
In recent weeks, news broke that the US Senate would move on the Clarity Act. This legislation would create the regulatory rails to enable adoption by large financial institutions.
That helped to push cryptocurrencies higher in May, although prices are still well off of last year’s peak.
According to Su, even though crypto prices are trending higher over time, the real story is in increasing adoption itself:
“I don’t pay too much attention to the day-to-day market movements, but I do see more adoption in crypto, more rural use of crypto, like RWA, tokenizing different rural assets. Those are all moving in the right direction.
We have a five to ten year window and longer horizon within the assets, and I think it’s going well. We’re seeing a lot of the tradfi solution products and the crypto products moving into the same arena in the middle, where you are seeing crypto companies providing access to stock tokens, commodity tokens. And then you are seeing on the other side, tradfi providing more crypto services.”
Crypto Meets Oil
Binance has recently added significant new features to its platform.
One of the more interesting features is the addition of contracts to trade oil prices. That’s a sign that crypto companies are moving towards the middle, with features that trend towards tradfi. More tradfi features are likely to be added to the platform in the months ahead.
While that may mean less overall focus, it can also mean that cryptocurrency brokerages like Binance can grab a bigger market share:
“We are expanding into areas where we are attracting new interest in trading. That moves us into a place where we’re moving from crypto, there are more tradfi trading products so our competitor pool is getting bigger.”
Crypto Security In the Age of AI
As the Chief Security Officer of Binance, Su has been at the forefront of protecting user data and developing new tools to guard against the ever-increasing sophistication of criminals seeking to gain access.
Both the white hats and the black hats are increasingly turning to AI tools to identify threats – or create them.
Looking at the attacker side of things, AI tools are speeding up the size and scale of attacks. Per Su:
“Over the last six months, the adoption of AI has been expanding, not just in security, but all over our business. But especially in security, we see that it has both the advantages for the attacker and the defender.
On the attacker point of view, using the AI tools, they’re able to scale much faster.
What used to be needing a team of five or six red teamers to find vulnerability, now can be done with one person from my AI tool over a span of a weekend. So the time between the exploit and actually the coin attack is decreasing.”
AI Can Be Used Defensively Too
Typically, attackers in the security space can have a first-mover advantage. AI tools can speed that up. But defenders have access to similar tools as well. And the speed and sophistication of defensive AI tools can continue to thwart attacks.
AI may even be able to identify attack vectors and plug holes before they’re exploited, or recognize the start of an attack well before a human can see the pattern at play.
“On the defensive side, we see AI as a partner, as a SOC team member that we can partner with. It’s able to synthesize signals from different areas, different logs, email network on the endpoint device. So that helps us on the defensive side as well, so that we can look at the logs more broadly and more in depth and make it up just using our SOC team.”
Security Threat #1: Check Your Links
Regarding recent specific security threats, Su noted that malicious links in search engine results have soared, and the malware from those links could create a security breach:
“Recently, we’ve seen a lot of distribution of AI tools. Many of the searches that you see on the search engine actually return ad results that has been poisoned. And sometimes when the user is not careful, they’re looking just in the top of the screen. The ads are not so obvious, and they might be installing a malicious AI tool.
So that’s what we have caught in recent weeks. we have seen that users are actually installing AI tools that have malware in it, which would expose their credentials, including private keys, account credentials. So that’s a trend that we’ve seen.”
Security Threat #2: Wrench Attacks
Even if a crypto wallet is digitally secure, other threats exist. One is a so-called wrench attack, which involves physical violence to give up a digital wallet.
While such an attack may not be completely avoidable, it can be possible to lock a wallet and ensure that even if some information is compromised, your crypto holdings aren’t:
“We released a feature called Withdrawal Protection. This helps our users to have a control to specify the freeze for a certain amount of time in their withdrawal.
This is at the moment, the crypto withdrawal is at the highest risk. Because many times when you withdraw crypto, it’s irreversible. Let’s say you were doing ACH on Jack and Young, that’s much more reversible.
So we introduced this as a control, as a layer approach where the user gets to control when their withdrawal is frozen, so they get more time to recover in case they get into that potential.”
From Security to a Streamlined User Experience
AI tools can help balance security and protection with a seamless user experience. Binance’s growth and continued success has come from astutely managing this balance.
Su sees ways to further streamline the experience with AI tools:
“We are always looking for ways to balance the user experience with user protection. So sometimes the improvement you see is actually what you don’t see in the workflow.
For example, we are adding more AI in terms of learning about the context of our users, so that when either they are logging in or doing withdrawal, if we know they are on a trusted device, and the behavior of the user matches what they had before, then we will introduce fewer challenges so that the experience is smoother.
But the AI can also help us to spotlight users that have high-risk behavior, and that’s when we step up our challenges, such as using 2FA or biometrics or face recognition.”
Looking Ahead
Although Binance has added some significant features recently, there’s much more work that it can do.
And they’re not resting on their laurels, instead looking for more ways to streamline the user experience, keep systems secure, and do so with fewer resources thanks to AI. One area with some improvement ahead? Faster and better coding thanks to AI tools:
“We are using cloud code. So I think what we see is that from just being a tool to write code faster, test code faster, it seems to have a step up in this AI capability, where it’s able to synthesize the entire queue chain of an attack.
So that’s very promising. Because that would mean that from discovering vulnerability to all the way deploying in the real world, AI can do that independently. So in that case, it’s not just a tool, but it’s a very capable Red Team member that we can have as a partner.”

Payward, the parent of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, is cutting 150 jobs ahead of its planned U.S. stock-market listing. The reduction affects about 5% of its 3,000-person global workforce.
The move forms part of a broader optimization push aimed at improving margins. Management wants a leaner financial profile before going public.
Layoffs Continue a Multi-Year Lean-Out
The latest cuts extend a sustained workforce reduction that began in October 2024. Payward eliminated about 400 roles then, or roughly 15% of staff.
The reduction followed shortly after Arjun Sethi joined David Ripley as co-CEO. Further cuts then followed in early 2025 as the company merged overlapping teams.
A Payward spokesperson declined to address specific personnel decisions. The company continually evaluates its structure to align talent with strategic priorities.
Meanwhile, hiring continues in select growth areas, including derivatives, payments, and tokenized assets.
Workforce optimization has become a common pre-IPO playbook for crypto firms. Therefore, trimming costs strengthens key profitability metrics that public investors scrutinize.
IPO Plans Remain on Hold
Payward filed a confidential S-1 registration statement with the SEC in November 2025. The filing targets a public valuation near $20 billion.
However, the firm paused its listing timeline in March 2026. Weaker performance among recent crypto listings had cooled investor appetite.
Co-CEO Arjun Sethi has publicly stated the company is roughly 80% ready to go public. His comments signal the S-1 remains active despite the delay.
Meanwhile, Payward continues to expand through acquisitions, including NinjaTrader for derivatives and Reap Technologies for stablecoin payments.
Payward closed an $800 million funding round at the time of the SEC filing. The round established the $20 billion valuation now informing IPO discussions.
The financing followed a wave of secondary investments from traditional finance partners.
Whether Payward returns to the IPO queue this year may hinge on how the next wave of crypto listings performs.