Crypto Chat, News Cryptocurrency Market News and Events

[Rockfx]

In this section, I will cover cryptocurrency market news and events that directly impact the price of cryptocurrencies and other global assets and set the tone for investor and trader sentiment.

 

[Rockfx]

Strategy founder Michael Saylor stated that the company will continue to increase its holdings of the leading cryptocurrency. The volume of purchases will significantly exceed any potential sales. If the company sells one Bitcoin for business purposes, Saylor explained, it will immediately buy back 10 or 20 BTC. He emphasized the importance of remaining a "net buyer" and ending each year with more coins than at the beginning. Saylor also reported purchasing 535 BTC for $43 million. The average price was $80,340 per coin.

 

[Rockfx]

Circle announced the launch of the ARC token. During the presale, the company raised $222 million from a group of investors, including a16z crypto, BlackRock, and Apollo Funds. The network was valued at $3 billion. According to the company's first-quarter financial report, the following indicators were achieved:
- USDC in circulation reached $77 billion;
- Total revenue was $694 million (up 20%);
- Adjusted EBITDA increased to $151 million.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire noted that the company is focused on merging AI platforms and financial systems. According to him, the launch of ARC and the stack for autonomous agents lays the foundation for the economy of the new internet.

 

[Rockfx]

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a 3.8% year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The monthly figure increased 0.6% in April. Energy prices were the main driver of inflation, rising 3.8% month-over-month and accounting for almost half of the overall increase. Gasoline prices increased 5.4%, and electricity prices rose 2.1%. The digital asset sector, however, showed virtually no reaction to the data release. Bitcoin, in particular, fell just 0.4% in 24 hours. The leading cryptocurrency is trading at $80,919.

 

[erman]

nice one bro...keep it up!

 

[Rockfx]

Financial giant Charles Schwab has opened its Schwab Crypto platform to its first group of retail clients. Users can now directly trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other relevant assets. Previously, the company only offered indirect investments through ETFs and derivatives. The gradual rollout of the service was announced last month. Clients will need a separate account to trade. Charles Schwab Premier Bank serves as the custodian, and Paxos, an infrastructure company, handles trade execution.
The commission per transaction is 0.75%. The service is available in all US states except New York and Louisiana.

 

[Rockfx]

On May 13, Binance Online took place—a virtual conference featuring Binance exchange founder Changpeng Zhao, the platform's co-CEOs Yi He and Richard Teng, BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Solana Foundation President Lily Liu. Binance co-founder outlined the exchange's strategy for transforming into a "financial super app" and explained the company's ambitions to scale from 300 million to 3 billion users.
"300 million users is just the beginning. When we first talked about the billion-user goal, everyone thought it was crazy. But look, we already have 300 million. A billion is a clear goal, and we will achieve it. The next milestone is 3 billion users. Then Binance will become not just an exchange, but a financial infrastructure for the entire world," Yi He stated. Binance's founder also identified AI infrastructure—data centers and energy—as a priority for investment. He said he prefers to invest in the "picks and shovels" of AI rather than the models themselves, and expects the emergence of custom AI chips that will challenge Nvidia's monopoly. Anthony Pompliano supported the idea of a convergence between cryptocurrencies and traditional finance.

 

[Rockfx]

Following the latest recalculation, the mining difficulty of the leading cryptocurrency increased by 3.12%. The indicator reached 136.61 T. This year, difficulty has increased as a result of only four out of 10 recalculations. At the time of the latest update, the hashrate exceeded 1 ZH/s for the first time since February. According to Glassnode, the network computing power, smoothed by a 7-day moving average, is at approximately 994.6 EH/s.

 

[Rockfx]

From May 11 to 15, cryptocurrency investment products recorded an outflow of $1.07 billion—the first in seven weeks and the third largest in all of 2026. According to a CoinShares report, total assets under management fell from $159 billion to $157 billion. Bitcoin and Ethereum bore the brunt of the losses, but some altcoins continued to attract capital. Analysts attributed the market pressure to investor concerns about risky investments due to the escalating situation around Iran. Funds based on the first cryptocurrency lost $982 million. Since the beginning of the year, net inflows into products have fallen to $3.9 billion.

 

[Rockfx]

In the first quarter, the volume of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on the Solana network increased by 43%, reaching $2.01 billion, according to a Messari report.
Three assets had the primary impact on the segment:
BlackRock BUIDL: its market capitalization doubled to $525.4 million after integrating custodian Anchorage Digital;
PRIME: grew by 124% to $361.2 million, driven by support from the Kamino protocol;
ONyc: increased by 101%, reaching $145.4 million.
Analysts noted the diversification of the lending market. PRIME deposits on Kamino and Jupiter Lend accounted for 13% of the total volume.