Market highlights
- Bitcoin rallied to a three-month high over US$82,000 on U.S.-Iran peace talk hopes.
- Michael Saylor said Strategy may sell small amounts of BTC to fund stock dividends.
- Telegram replaced TON Foundation's governance role.
- Ondo Finance, Ripple and TradFi firms completed pilot transaction for U.S. Treasuries.
- The White House said it's pushing for the CLARITY Act to pass by July 4, 2026.
- Amazon, Coinbase, and Stripe explore stablecoin payments for AI agents.
{{<ticker "In this article" "BTC,ETH,TON,ICP,SUI,JUP,ONDO,SOL,XRP,ARB,LINK">}}
Macro market overview
It was another week of record highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq as strong earnings results, positive economic data and a continued rally in AI stocks buoyed asset prices. The U.S. ISM Services PMI came in on forecast at 53.6, while the U.S. non-farm employment change for April came in above forecast at 115,000. CME's Fed Watch tool puts the likelihood of rates staying on hold at the U.S. Federal Reserve's June meeting at 97.7%. On the other side of the world, the Reserve Bank of Australia bucked the trend of keeping interest rates on hold, raising rates to 4.35% due to persistent inflation driven by the country's inflated property prices.
Oil prices declined throughout much of last week before rising on Sunday due to slow progress in U.S.-Iran peace negotiations. President Trump said Iran's response to the country's peace proposal is "totally unacceptable". Oil is currently trading around US$98 per barrel. In precious metals, gold gained almost 2.2% on the week, while silver climbed over 6.6%.
This week, market participants will presumably be monitoring the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) data release, the vote on Kevin Warsh's nomination for Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, developments in the Middle East, and earnings from Constellation Energy, Fox Corporation, Barrick Mining, and Applied Materials, to name a few.
Weekly performance: S&P 500 +2.3%, Dow Jones +0.4%, Nasdaq +4.5%.
Looking ahead:
- U.S. core CPI - Tuesday, May 12
- U.S. Fed Chair nomination vote - Wednesday, May 13
- U.S. core retail sales - Thursday, May 14
Crypto Market Performance
Market Cap: $2.7T (+0.1%)
All crypto sectors saw gains this week, with hopes of progress in U.S.-Iran peace talks, DeFi developments, and progress in the CLARITY Act (more on that below) contributing to price moves. The crypto fear and greed index is currently neutral at 50.
Bitcoin (BTC)
- Opened the week at US$78,558, and saw continued upward momentum, reaching a three-month high of US$82,814 on Wednesday, May 6 due to hopes of a U.S.-Iran peace deal. Bitcoin declined over the weekend as peace talks slowed, and it's now trading around US$81,780 (+2% 7D).
- BTC dominance ranged between 60.6% and 61.2% this week.
- Bitcoin investment products saw inflows of US$706.1 million.
Strategy Chair Michael Saylor said the company may sell small amounts of bitcoin to fund preferred stock dividends, marking a notable shift from his longstanding "never sell" stance. Saylor said the move would "inoculate the market" by proving the company's BTC sales would not destabilise the company or broader crypto market. The news comes as Strategy reported a US$12.5 billion first-quarter loss. Similarly, American Bitcoin, the BTC mining firm backed by Eric Trump, delivered a US$82 million Q1 loss.
CME Group plans to launch bitcoin volatility futures on June 1, pending regulatory approval. Unlike traditional bitcoin futures, the contracts will track expected price swings rather than bitcoin's price itself, using CME's Bitcoin Volatility Index (BVX). The product aims to help traders hedge volatility risk.
In bitcoin buying news:
- Strategy bought 535 bitcoin (US$43 million), bringing its holdings to 818,869 BTC, at an average purchase price of US$75,540 per bitcoin. The company's total BTC holdings are worth US$66.5 billion.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Ethereum (ETH)
- Opened the week at US$2,322 and rallied to US$2,424 on Wednesday, May 6 before declining then rebounding to end the week. Ethereum is now trading around US$2,340 (-0.7% 7D).
- Ethereum dominance ranged between 10.5% and 10.9% this week.
- Ethereum-focused funds saw inflows of US$77.1 million.
Ethereum faces renewed sell-off concerns after crypto whale Garrett Jin reportedly transferred US$1.35 billion worth of ETH to Binance. Analysts warned swelling exchange balances and weakening sentiment could pressure Ethereum's price further, though some investors still expect long-term institutional demand and staking activity to support the asset.
In Ethereum buying news:
- BitMine bought 26,659 ETH (US$63 million), bringing its total holdings to over 5.2 million ETH, worth US$12 billion and equating to 4.3% of supply. Fundstrat's Tom Lee said the company may slow its Ethereum purchases as it nears its goal of holding 5% of Ethereum's supply.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Altcoins
The altcoin season index is currently 49, which is bitcoin season.
TON of wins
- Toncoin gained 54.8%. The network gained after Telegram announced a new governance structure replacing the TON Foundation's previous role overseeing ecosystem development. Commentators viewed the move as potentially strengthening Telegram's integration with TON and fuelling renewed optimism around the blockchain's growth.
Computer says yes
- Internet Computer (ICP) gained 40.9%. The decentralised "world computer" saw gains presumably due to the announcement that large companies, including WooCommerce and WordPress are now running on ICP's infrastructure.
SUI-eet thing
- Sui gained 39.4%. The layer-1 network gained on reports that Sui Group Holdings has strategically staked 108.7 million SUI tokens.
DeFi delights
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Jupiter gained 38.2%. The decentralised exchange (DEX) aggregator and liquidity layer on the Solana network saw gains due to Securitize launching tokenised equities on the DEX, an increase in spot buying activity, and updates to the final "Jupuary" airdrop, which delivers lower near-term dilution.
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Ondo gained 34.7%. The DeFi platform that tokenises real-world assets presumably saw gains due to Ondo Finance, JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ripple completing a pilot transaction settling tokenised U.S. Treasuries on the XRP Ledger in under five seconds.
Crypto ETF News
Digital asset investment products saw inflows of US$857.9 million on hopes of U.S.-Iran peace talks progressing and risk-on sentiment driven by the White House's July 4 deadline set for passage of the CLARITY Act.
In altcoins, Solana and XRP saw inflows of US$47.6 million and US$39.6 million, respectively.
21Shares launched the Strategy Yield exchange-traded note (STRC) on the London Stock Exchange. The STRC note gives U.K. investors exposure to Strategy's bitcoin-backed preferred shares. The product offers an 11.5% annual yield paid monthly, with no management fee. And in the U.S., 21Shares launched the Canton Network ETF (TCAN) on the Nasdaq on Thursday.
BlackRock filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch two tokenised money-market funds aimed at stablecoin investors. The BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle offers yield-bearing onchain shares backed by cash and short-term Treasuries. And the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund is a US$6.1 billion Treasury liquidity fund that will trade on Ethereum.
Other crypto news
- The White House is pushing for the CLARITY Act to pass by July 4, 2026, according to Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets. This timeline includes a May 14 markup vote in the Senate Banking Committee and a Senate vote in June. Lawmakers recently reached a compromise on stablecoin yield rules, though TradFi stakeholders say the proposal could allow stablecoin issuers to evade the proposed rules.
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) raised US$2.2 billion to fund crypto and Web3 startups, signalling renewed venture capital confidence in the sector. The firm said the fund will back early-stage blockchain, infrastructure, AI, and DeFi projects as institutional interest and regulatory clarity around digital assets continue improving.
- Amazon, Coinbase, and Stripe are exploring stablecoin payments for AI agents, aiming to let autonomous software systems transact online without traditional banking rails using Coinbase's x402 protocol and USDC on Base and Solana.
- Solana-based exchange Drift said it will fully repay users affected by a US$295 million exploit targeting token launchpad protocol Degen Coin Flip. The reimbursement plan includes treasury funds, future revenue, and token allocations to affected wallets. Drift stressed no user funds on its core exchange were compromised during the incident.
- Arbitrum DAO approved a proposal to release 70 million ARB tokens to support users affected by the recent Kelp DAO exploit. Also, Solv Protocol announced it will migrate US$700 million in tokenised bitcoin assets from LayerZero to Chainlink's CCIP.
Inside the Markets
April brought a recovery in risk sentiment as equities rallied and bitcoin broke back above US$80k. We explore Middle East developments, Fed uncertainty, Ethereum momentum, and key crypto catalysts to watch in May.
In this month’s Inside the Markets, we cover what drove April’s momentum — and highlight the major events that could shape markets through May.
from Caleb & Brown Cryptocurrency Brokerage.
