Author: James Wilson
The Ethereum Foundation has withdrawn more than 21,000 ETH from Lido staking weeks after carrying out earlier unstaking activity and multiple OTC treasury sales tied to operational funding. Summary Ethereum Foundation withdrew 21,270 ETH from Lido weeks after earlier unstaking activity and OTC treasury sales. Recent Ethereum Foundation grants continued funding work tied to zero-knowledge research, validator security, and Ethereum core clients. Arkham said the latest unstaking move may relate to operational funding needs or rising concerns around third-party protocol risks after the Kelp DAO exploit. According to blockchain analytics platform Arkham, an Ethereum Foundation-tagged wallet initiated the withdrawal of…
TRON traded near $0.349 after a steady three-month rally, with live market data showing a small intraday decline. Summary TRON traded near $0.349 as RSI moved above 75, showing strong but stretched momentum. Santiment said crowd FUD may support TRX as skeptical traders keep doubting the rally. TRON’s USDT role remains a major growth driver, but scrutiny over illicit flows persists. Crypto.news price data also placed TRON (TRX) near $0.351, with a 24-hour range of $0.349241 to $0.352492. The same data showed a market cap above $33 billion and 24-hour volume near $447 million. Meanwhile, Santiment said TRON has gained…
Michael Saylor has defended Strategy’s ability to sell limited amounts of Bitcoin while continuing to expand its BTC treasury, arguing the company should avoid becoming a net seller rather than follow an absolute “never sell” stance. Summary Strategy said limited Bitcoin sales could still support a larger BTC accumulation plan rather than reduce its treasury exposure. Michael Saylor described STRC and MSTR as part of a Bitcoin-backed capital structure built around digital credit and equity products. According to comments shared by Saylor on May 10 and statements made during his recent appearance at Consensus in Miami, Strategy’s Bitcoin strategy now…
The Senate Banking Committee has unveiled a new draft of the Clarity Act days before a scheduled markup vote, reopening negotiations over stablecoin oversight, DeFi protections, and ethics rules tied to federal officials’ crypto activities. Summary Senate Banking Committee released a revised 309-page Clarity Act before Thursday’s markup vote. Updated legislation permits activity-based stablecoin rewards while banning passive yield for holders. Ethics provisions tied to federal officials’ crypto interests remain absent from the latest draft. According to a statement released by Tim Scott, the updated 309-page proposal came after extended talks between lawmakers, crypto companies, banking lobby groups, and policy…
Peter Thiel-backed Augustus has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Augustus Bank, N.A. as a full-service US national bank. Summary Augustus received conditional OCC approval to form a US bank for AI and stablecoin payments. The company says its bank will serve machine agents, global institutions, and programmable dollar flows. The approval comes as banks and crypto firms race to modernize stablecoin settlement rails. In a Monday announcement, the company said the proposed bank will focus on AI-driven payments, stablecoin settlement, and programmable clearing. The approval does not mean the bank has…
Morgan Stanley launched a crypto price war on E*Trade at 50 basis points, undercutting Coinbase and Schwab. Summary Morgan Stanley launched a pilot on May 6 allowing E*Trade users to trade Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana at 50 basis points per trade via Zerohash. The fee undercuts Schwab’s 75bps, Fidelity’s 1%, and Coinbase’s retail rates, prompting Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas to warn crypto exchanges to be scared. Morgan Stanley plans to expand crypto access to all 8.6 million E*Trade clients later in 2026 alongside a proprietary digital wallet. Morgan Stanley has launched a crypto trading pilot on its ETrade platform at…
Ronin Ethereum is migrating to a Layer 2 on May 12 with roughly 10 hours of scheduled downtime. Summary Ronin will hard fork at block 55,577,490 on May 12, transitioning from an independent sidechain to an Ethereum Layer 2 on the OP Stack. All transfers, swaps, and smart contract interactions will pause for roughly 10 hours during the migration window. RON token inflation will drop from over 20% to below 1%, with 90 million RON redirected to the treasury as marketplace fees rise to 1.25%. Ronin, the gaming-focused blockchain behind Axie Infinity, is executing a hard fork on May 12…
Tom Lee has slowed Bitmine ETH purchases after the firm amassed over 5.2 million tokens and 4.3% of Ethereum’s supply. Summary Bitmine bought 26,659 ETH last week, worth roughly $63 million, down from over 100,000 ETH in each of the prior three weekly periods. Tom Lee said the previous pace would have taken Bitmine to its 5% Ethereum supply target by mid-July, prompting the slowdown. Bitmine holds over 4.7 million ETH staked, generating an estimated $319 million in annualised staking rewards at current yields. Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) bought 26,659 ETH last week worth roughly $63 million, sharply down from…
Crypto compliance demand is surging as AI fraud evolves faster than firms can respond, Sumsub CEO Andrew Sever says. Summary Sumsub CEO Andrew Sever told Consensus Miami that sophisticated AI fraud attacks on crypto firms increased 180% year over year. Only 23% of crypto companies are ready to comply with new identity and fraud rules, according to Sumsub’s State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report. Chainalysis has separately launched blockchain intelligence agents to help compliance teams manage growing alert volumes at machine speed. Crypto compliance firms are reporting a sharp rise in demand as AI fraud attacks become faster, more…
IREN has signed a $3.4 billion IREN Nvidia deal to deploy up to 5 gigawatts of AI infrastructure over five years. Summary IREN will provide Nvidia with managed GPU cloud services worth $3.4 billion over five years for the chipmaker’s internal AI and research workloads. Nvidia received a five-year warrant to purchase up to 30 million IREN shares at $70 each, representing a potential $2.1 billion equity stake. The partnership builds on IREN’s prior $9.7 billion agreement with Microsoft, pushing the company’s total committed revenue past $15 billion. Bitcoin miner turned AI infrastructure provider IREN has announced a five-year, $3.4…