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Kraken Launches Bitcoin Yield Product

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Kraken Launches Bitcoin Yield Product

Crypto exchange Kraken has launched a non-custodial Bitcoin product, giving a 2.5% yearly yield, adding to the company’s yield product offerings amid a rising investor demand for crypto reward products.

Kraken unveiled the product on Wednesday with the support of crypto yield infrastructure provider Veda, which said the offering seeks to remove “the headaches that come with wrapping Bitcoin, moving assets, or managing a crypto wallet.”

Kraken’s offering comes as Bitcoin (BTC) holders’ demand for yield products has risen, but have seen limited development as the Bitcoin blockchain does not have mechanisms for users to generate yield compared to blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.

“Many Bitcoin holders on Kraken have made it clear they want simple ways to earn on the Bitcoin they already plan to hold,” Kraken Earn product director John Zettler said in a statement.  

Source: Kraken

About 10 hours after the launch, Veda said the Bitcoin yield product had passed $30 million worth of Bitcoin deposits from 4,000 unique wallets. 

Kraken’s three stablecoin yield products that it launched in January have exceeded around $245 million in customer deposits and generated over $2.2 million in yield since launching on Jan. 26.

Related: Coinbase, Apex Group tokenize Bitcoin Yield Fund on Base 

Kraken’s product generates yield from Bitcoin by swapping it to Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC), a token replicating Bitcoin’s price, which crypto platform Sentora then allocates across crypto lending platforms such as Aave, Morpho and Tydro. 

The product is non-custodial, meaning only depositors can withdraw or transfer their funds. Withdrawals are estimated to take five days to process, and the service providers take a 25% performance fee on rewards.

Magazine: Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies? 

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Bitcoin drops below $73,000 as US strikes on Iran spark $1 billion liquidations

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Bitcoin drops below $73,000 as US strikes on Iran spark $1 billion liquidations

Bitcoin broke below $73,000 for the first time in months as fresh U.S. strikes on Iran sent risk assets lower and triggered one of the largest liquidation events of the year.

Bitcoin BTC$73,069.66 traded at $72,978 in Asian hours Thursday, down 3.4% over 24 hours and 6.3% over the past seven days, per CoinDesk data, after touching a low of $72,912. TEther (ETH) fell 4.2% to $1,976, losing the $2,000 level, and is down 7.7% over the past seven days. Solana (SOL) dropped 3.5% to $80.57, XRP slid 3.6% to $1.28, and Dogecoin lost 3.2% to $0.0979.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) was the only major to hold a weekly gain, down 4.5% on the day but still up 2.4% over the past seven days. Tron (TRX) held a 1.9% weekly gain despite the broad decline.

The drop flushed leveraged traders. CoinGlass data shows $958.8 million in total liquidations over 24 hours across 167,706 traders, with $897 million coming from long positions and $61 million from shorts.

Bitcoin liquidations led at $386 million, followed by ether at $246 million, with the largest single liquidation order was a $15.34 million BTC position on Hyperliquid.

A 93% long-skew on a near-billion-dollar flush is what happens when traders are positioned for a recovery and the market moves the other way. The leverage built up through the mid-May range got cleared in a single session.

The trigger came from the Middle East. U.S. Central Command carried out airstrikes on an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz and shot down four one-way Iranian attack drones fired at a commercial ship, with a U.S. official describing the action as defensive and aimed at maintaining the ceasefire that began last month.

The U.S. Treasury imposed new sanctions on Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, accusing it of extorting vessels transiting the strait. Iran targeted the American airbase the strikes originated from, according to a report citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Kuwait said it was responding to hostile missile and drone threats, with its army warning that explosions heard in the country were air defense systems intercepting targets.

President Donald Trump said no single nation would control the waterway. “It’s international waters,” Trump told a cabinet meeting at the White House. “The strait’s going to be open to everybody,” adding that the U.S. would “watch over it.”

Risk assets fell across the board. The MSCI All Country World Index retreated 0.4% from a record high, a gauge of Asian shares dropped 1.7%, and futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 pointed lower. Oil climbed as the strikes clouded the outlook for a deal to reopen the strait.

The reaction shows how quickly the ceasefire optimism that had been building unwound. Crypto had held its range through several weeks of Iran headlines, with bitcoin staying above $74,000 even as ETF demand cooled. Thursday’s strikes broke that floor, and the speed of the liquidation cascade suggests traders were caught leaning the wrong way.

BlackRock bitcoin ETF sheds $528 million, the second-largest daily outflow on record

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BlackRock bitcoin ETF sheds $528 million, the second-largest daily outflow on record

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust shed $527.84 million on Wednesday, the second-largest single-day net outflow since the fund launched in January 2024, per SoSoValue data.

The figure missed the record by a razor-thin margin. IBIT’s biggest outflow on record remains the $528.3 million pulled on Jan. 30, which Wednesday’s draw came within about $500,000 of matching. The fund holds roughly $59 billion in assets and accounts for close to 4% of bitcoin’s total supply, making it the largest single vehicle for institutional bitcoin exposure.

The outflow was part of a broader exodus. The 11 U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs lost a combined $733.43 million on Wednesday, with Fidelity’s FBTC shedding $60.30 million and Grayscale’s GBTC losing $104.76 million alongside the IBIT draw. The complex has now posted outflows for several consecutive sessions, with more than $2 billion withdrawn over the past two weeks.

(CoinDesk)

The selling landed on the same day bitcoin broke below $73,000. The cryptocurrency traded at $72,978 in Asian hours Thursday, down 3.4% over 24 hours, after U.S. airstrikes on an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz reignited a conflict markets had started to price out. The ETF outflows and the price drop fed each other, with redemptions forcing BlackRock and other issuers to sell the underlying bitcoin to settle investor exits.

The IBIT draw came a day after a separate eye-catching move in the fund. On Tuesday, a single investor sold $1.29 billion of IBIT shares in one dark-pool block trade, as CoinDesk reported.

A dark-pool trade is a privately negotiated transaction that lets large players move size without tipping off the broader market.

That block sale was not the same as a net outflow, since buyers can step in to absorb the volume, and IBIT’s actual net redemptions on Tuesday came to $192.44 million. But the two events together point to institutional players trimming bitcoin exposure as the macro backdrop turned.

The flow data has been pointing this way for weeks. ETF accumulation across the year had already thinned to a net of around 4,500 BTC, and May flipped from the steady buying of March and April into distribution, as reported on Wednesday. Bitcoin has dropped from above $82,000 on May 6 to under $73,000 now, and the ETF channel that drove the 2025 rally has spent the month pulling money the other way.

Whether the outflows reflect tactical de-risking amid Hormuz headlines or a deeper institutional pullback depends on what happens once the situation in the Middle East stabilizes. IBIT has gone through extended outflow streaks before during this cycle without a permanent reversal, with money returning each time the macro picture cleared.

Aztec Labs Acquires ZKPassport to Integrate Privacy-Preserving Identity Verification

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Aztec Labs Acquires ZKPassport to Integrate Privacy-Preserving Identity Verification

Aztec Labs has acquired Obsidion, the team behind ZKPassport, a zero-knowledge identity verification protocol that proves age and nationality without storing personal data on centralized servers.

Aztec Labs has acquired Obsidion, the team behind ZKPassport, a privacy-preserving identity verification protocol built on zero-knowledge cryptography, according to a press release published Wednesday.

Obsidion co-founders Michael Elliot and Theo Madzou join Aztec Labs along with their team. The acquisition brings ZKPassport’s production-ready identity verification system into Aztec’s ecosystem as the protocol expands across consumer and enterprise use cases.

ZKPassport enables users to prove age, nationality, and proof of humanity without uploading personal data to any central server.

The protocol reads NFC chips embedded in passports and government IDs from over 130 countries—using the same technology as airport eGates—to verify document authenticity.

Only cryptographic proofs leave a user’s device; the underlying personal data remains stored locally. Users disclose only the information required for a given service, eliminating the data honeypots that centralized verification systems create.

ZKPassport Scale

The protocol is already deployed at scale. During the Aztec Network token sale, more than 17,000 participants used ZKPassport to verify nationalities and compliance with sanctions restrictions. Hundreds of attendees across 11 Latin American countries used ZKPassport at Devconnect to claim discounted tickets.

Aztec Labs plans to keep both the ZKPassport protocol and iOS app open source. ZKPassport proofs can be generated in-browser and on mobile devices, and verified server-side for non-blockchain use cases or on-chain on the Aztec Network, Ethereum, and any EVM-compatible chain.

The acquisition grants Aztec Labs the infrastructure and product resources to scale ZKPassport from an open-source project into default infrastructure for online identity verification.

Data breaches exposed the personal information of nearly 140 million people in Q1 2026 alone, according to the announcement. ZKPassport provides platforms a verification mechanism that complies with government mandates without building surveillance infrastructure or creating centralized targets for exploitation

Bitcoin Risks 10% Drop in a Month as ‘Sell in May and Go Way’ Mood Returns

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Bitcoin Risks 10% Drop in a Month as ‘Sell in May and Go Way’ Mood Returns

Bitcoin (BTC) may be flashing a “sell in May and go away” warning, with the price down roughly 10% after rejecting resistance near $83,000 and now on track for a negative monthly close.

BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Key takeaways:

  • BTC’s average returns a month after a red May are -10%
  • Patient Bitcoin holders still generated positive returns over the longer term.

Bitcoin’s red May typically leads to weak summer returns

“Sell in May and go away” is a popular Wall Street saying based on the idea that stocks tend to perform better during the colder months than during the summer stretch.

For instance, the US benchmark index, S&P 500, averaged -0.24% one month and -2.25% three months after red Mays since 1990, before recovering to +1.22% after six months and +7.44% after 12 months.

Bitcoin’s own May history shows a similar short-term warning. BTC posted losses in May in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Its average returns one month later were -10.1%.

Bitcoin monthly returns. Source: CoinGlass

The three-month average return was also negative at around -3.3%. Therefore, BTC typically does not go through a significant recovery in the summer after dropping in May. That supports the idea that a red May can act as a short-term capitulation signal.

But, like US stocks, the longer-term picture is less bearish.

Six months after a negative May, BTC’s average return jumps to about +139%, largely because of 2013’s massive late-year rally. Excluding that outlier, the six-month average falls sharply to roughly +12.9%.

Based on Bitcoin’s current price near $75,850, its historical post-red-May averages imply a possible drop toward $68,200 by June and $73,350 by August.

The six-month average points to nearly $181,300 by November, though that figure is heavily distorted by 2013. Excluding that outlier, the six-month target falls to a more realistic $85,600.

Based on these historical signals alone, long-term Bitcoin investors have little reason to “sell in May and go away.”

The data points more to short-term weakness than a lasting breakdown in BTC’s broader upside trend.

Bear-market red Mays were more dangerous for Bitcoin

If Bitcoin closes the month below $76,000, the red May candle will be inside a bear-market structure.

In 2018 and 2022, May losses did not mark a quick bottom. Both years were already showing bear cycle signals, with BTC trading below major support and forming lower highs and lower lows.

After those red May closes, Bitcoin fell an average 26% one month later, 21.6% three months later, and roughly 46% six months later.

BTC/USD monthly chart. Source: TradingView

In normal or inter-cycle years, a negative May has usually pointed to short-term weakness, not a full trend breakdown. But in bear markets, the same signal has historically preceded deeper capitulation.

Related: Analyst says Bitcoin’s $60K bottom signals weaken bear-market forecast

So far, 2026 is not a fully confirmed Bitcoin bear-market year.

In prior bear markets, BTC first broke below major cycle support, around $6,000 in 2018 and $30,000–$32,000 in 2022, before capitulation deepened.

BTC/USD monthly chart. Source: TradingView

BTC still trades near $75,000, above its current cycle support near $60,000. A close below that zone would strengthen the bear-market case.

A monthly close below $70,000–$72,000 would also embolden the bears, while a deeper break below $60,000–$65,000 would make it harder to dismiss the current slump as a mere correction.

Ripple-linked token drops 4%, what next

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Ripple-linked token drops 4%, what next

XRP finally slipped below the $1.30 area traders had been defending for months, and the move came with enough volume to matter. The market had already been weakening beneath resistance near $1.35, but once support gave way, sellers pushed price lower quickly before dip buyers stepped in near session lows.

News Background

• XRP derivatives positioning continued cooling during the session, with falling open interest signaling weaker trader conviction across futures markets.

• Analysts also kept pointing to a symmetrical triangle structure that has compressed XRP price action since early 2025, with the market now nearing the apex of that range.

• On-chain data still showed XRP leaving exchanges, a pattern some traders continue interpreting as longer-term accumulation despite the short-term weakness.

Price Action Summary

• XRP fell from $1.3267 to $1.2993 during the 24-hour session, briefly dropping as low as $1.2931.
• The sharpest selling came during the May 27 23:00 UTC session, when 64M XRP traded as price broke below support near $1.3150.
• XRP later staged a short-term rebound from session lows, recovering back toward the $1.30 area into the close.

Technical Analysis

• The breakdown below $1.30 matters because that level had repeatedly acted as a floor throughout the broader consolidation structure.
• XRP is now trading beneath several key resistance levels, with sellers continuing to defend the $1.33-$1.36 zone aggressively.
• The bounce from $1.2931 showed some evidence of exhausted selling pressure, though the recovery remained weak relative to the earlier breakdown.
• The broader symmetrical triangle pattern is still intact for now, but price is drifting dangerously close to the lower edge of the structure.

What traders should watch

• $1.30 becomes the immediate recovery level XRP needs to reclaim to stabilize short-term momentum.
• Failure to hold above recent lows increases the risk of a deeper move toward the mid-$1.20s and potentially the $1.10 area highlighted by several analysts.
• The longer XRP trades near the bottom of its compression range, the higher the odds the eventual breakout resolves lower rather than higher.

BTC could fall much lower as $150 billion Treasury operation nears

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BTC could fall much lower as $150 billion Treasury operation nears

One fund manager has issued a stark warning: Bitcoin’s BTC$73,032.42 ongoing selloff may deepen as upcoming U.S. Treasury operations are expected to drain roughly $150 billion in liquidity from the financial system.

“In my experience, Bitcoin tends to be a better liquidity indicator than most other instruments. If the Treasury settlements are a drain on liquidity, then Bitcoin could be heading much lower,” said Michael Kramer, founder and CEO of Mott Capital Management, a registered investment advisory firm, in his latest market analysis note.

The U.S. Treasury regularly issues bonds and bills to finance government spending. When the Treasury sells new securities, it receives cash from investors, which is then moved into the Treasury’s account at the Federal Reserve. All else equal, this process pulls liquidity out of the banking system and reduces the amount of cash available for other investments. These periodic settlements can create temporary but meaningful liquidity drains, especially during heavy issuance periods.

According to Kramer, Treasury operations from May 28 to June 5 could result in a roughly $150 billion liquidity drain. This includes:

  • $15 billion in T-bills settling on Thursday
  • $47 billion in coupon settlements on Friday
  • $68 billion on Monday
  • $16 billion in T-bill settlements on Tuesday
  • Another T-bill settlement on June 4 estimated between $5 billion and $15 billion

Markets, including crypto, tend to perform best when liquidity is abundant. When cash is pulled from the system, even temporarily, investors often turn more cautious, reducing appetite for risk assets like bitcoin.

Early signs of this pressure are already visible. Bitcoin has dropped about 11% since hitting highs above $82,500 earlier this month and was trading near $73,000 at press time. Kramer notes that the recent breakdown of key support near $75,000 is a clear signal that liquidity conditions are tightening.

While this doesn’t guarantee a deeper decline, it underscores an important point often overlooked in crypto circles: Bitcoin does not trade in a vacuum and macro forces like government borrowing and the resulting cash flows can quietly exert significant influence on prices.

For everyday investors, the key takeaway is simple. Sometimes the biggest driver of Bitcoin’s price isn’t a crypto-specific headline, it’s macro forces moving in the background.

Bitcoin Follows Oil Lower as Iran Boosts Stocks But Sends BTC Price Below $75K

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Bitcoin Follows Oil Lower as Iran Boosts Stocks But Sends BTC Price Below $75K

Bitcoin (BTC) fell back below $75,000 at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as relief over a US-Iran peace deal bypassed crypto.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin continues to diverge from US stocks despite good news over the US-Iran war.
  • BTC price action instead trends lower with oil amid improving odds of the Strait of Hormuz reopening.
  • Bitcoin traders see little reason to avoid new local lows nearer $70,000 next.

BTC price falls with oil as Iran peace deal details emerge

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD down by up to 1.2% on the day, targeting week-to-date lows.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

News that the US and Iran had produced a memorandum of understanding aimed at securing an end to the conflict sent stocks soaring to new all-time highs while commodities and oil, in particular, fell immediately.

US WTI crude dropped to as low as $87.77 per barrel on the day, its lowest since April 22.

CFDs on WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Part of the deal, which reportedly sets out a 60-day negotiation period for securing a lasting agreement, includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — a key oil shipping route.

“If a final deal is reached within 60 days, this agreement will be approved in the form of a binding UN Security Council resolution,” an X post on the developments from trading resource The Kobeissi Letter stated.

Despite the implied tailwinds for risk assets, Bitcoin failed to join the upward momentum, instead continuing a trend from recent weeks where it moved in the opposite direction to US equities.

“$BTC Indecisive whether to join stocks or commodities today,” trader Daan Crypto Trades responded.

Macro asset comparison chart. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

Exchange order-book conditions set up potential liquidity grabs both above and below the price as positions increased on both sides.

“Although most of the liquidity is currently sitting above us, it’s spread out pretty evenly, which doesn’t give a clear target for an upside sweep. Meanwhile, below us there’s a large liquidation cluster around 74k that could pull price toward it,” trading and analytics account CGT Trader commented earlier.

“An upside sweep can’t be ruled out, but imo continuation to the downside is still more likely.”

Binance BTC/USDT liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass

Bitcoin stays “weak and bearish” despite macro tailwind

Other market participants continued the lack of optimism as Bitcoin headed lower.

Related: Bitcoin analysis eyes sharp rebound after BTC collapses below M2 supply ‘fair value’

Commentator Exitpump described BTC price action as “weak and bearish,” seeing a potential drop to near $72,000 next.

BTC/USDT 12-hour chart. Source: Exitpump/X

Trading resource Material Indicators added further hurdles, including a potential death cross involving the 21-day and 50-day simple moving averages (SMAs).

An accompanying chart showed up and down signals from one of Material Indicators’ proprietary trading tools, along with significant price points.

BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Material Indicators/X

Among the decreasing bullish voices was analyst Eric Coleman, who saw current price action as retesting the top of an ascending triangle construction on daily time frames.

“As long as the price is above the horizontal and the trendline support, the trend remains bullish,” he concluded.

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Eric Coleman/X

OpenZeppelin Pushes Back After Ex-CTO Declares All of DeFi Unsafe

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OpenZeppelin Pushes Back After Ex-CTO Declares All of DeFi Unsafe

The smart contract security firm distanced itself from Manuel Aráoz’s warning that AI coding agents have made DeFi impossible to defend, calling the threat real but manageable.

OpenZeppelin, a smart contract security firm whose libraries underpin most DeFi protocols, pushed back Tuesday against a viral post by its co-founder and former CTO declaring all of DeFi fundamentally unsafe, clarifying that the claims do not represent the company’s position.

Manuel Aráoz, who co-founded OpenZeppelin and served as its chief technology officer until leaving in 2019, wrote on X on Monday that he now considers “all of DeFi unsafe.” Aráoz argued that AI coding agents have become “superhuman at finding vulnerabilities,” and that smart contract security is too asymmetric: defenders must patch every bug, while attackers need only one exploit to drain funds.

Aráoz said he has been privately advising friends and family to exit all DeFi positions, including so-called blue chips such as Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound.

The post drew wide attention, racking up more than 600,000 views on X, and prompted customers to contact OpenZeppelin directly to ask whether it reflected the company’s stance.

OpenZeppelin Pushes Back

In a thread posted Tuesday, OpenZeppelin said the views expressed by Aráoz “do not” represent the company’s position, and noted that he departed more than six years ago.

“Since 2015, OpenZeppelin has secured over $35 trillion in value transferred onchain,” the company wrote. “We maintain the libraries underpinning most DeFi protocols, and a growing number of innovative financial use cases. Our position is grounded in that work.”

On AI specifically, OpenZeppelin acknowledged the threat but framed it as a double-edged tool.

“AI is a real threat vector, but it is also one of the most powerful defensive tools we have, if used with rigor and expert human judgment,” the company wrote. “Our researchers use AI daily to catch more issues and edge cases. The answer to AI risk is not retreat from DeFi. It is better security.”

Operational Security

OpenZeppelin also offered a pointed reframing of where the real vulnerabilities lie.

“The last month has been a hard one for the industry,” the company wrote. “But most recent incidents trace back to operational security failures, not smart contract bugs. That distinction matters.”

April logged 28 DeFi exploits totaling $635 million stolen, a record by both measures. Many of the largest incidents in recent months have involved compromised private keys and misconfigured access controls rather than flaws in audited contract code.

A StakeDAO exploit on Wednesday that minted 5.4 trillion tokens on Arbitrum, for example, traced to a compromised deployer private key rather than a bug in the protocol’s smart contracts.

OpenZeppelin did not address Aráoz’s specific claims about AI-enabled vulnerability discovery directly, nor did it dispute the asymmetric nature of the attacker-defender dynamic he described.

OpenZeppelin, which has been auditing DeFi protocols since the earliest days of the ecosystem, closed its statement on a forward-looking note. “We have secured DeFi for a decade, and that work now matters more than ever,” the company wrote. “We are in it alongside the protocols, institutions, and developers building the next era of finance.”

Bitcoin Struggles To Hold $75K As Investors Pivot To Stocks, AI

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Bitcoin Struggles To Hold $75K As Investors Pivot To Stocks, AI

Key takeaways:

  • Bitcoin’s drop below $75,000 marks a sharp decoupling from a record-breaking stock market fueled by the AI boom.
  • Crypto trader sentiment remains weak as key US regulatory acts face ongoing delays.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rejection at $78,000 on Thursday marked a decoupling from traditional markets after two months of strong correlation. Wednesday’s decline below $75,000 happened while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index jumped to an all-time high.

The factors behind Bitcoin’s underperformance are unlikely to fade in the near term, reducing the odds of a bullish breakout above $82,000.

Russell 2000 Index (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView

The US small-cap Russell 2000 Index reached a record high on Wednesday, signaling that traders are not particularly worried about the macroeconomic environment. Despite the war in Iran nearing the 3-month mark, strong earnings momentum in the artificial intelligence sector has contributed to generalized optimism in the stock market.

The exact rationale behind the weaker demand for Bitcoin might never emerge, but it likely includes recent BTC reserve sales by publicly listed miners and their subsequent pivot toward AI infrastructure. The latest example includes TeraWulf (WULF US) announcing the addition of a 1-gigawatt high-performance computing capacity in Kentucky.

Pro-crypto regulation stalls

Further bearish sentiment emerged after Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT US) transferred 2,650 BTC, worth $205 million at the time, to a cryptocurrency exchange address on Friday, according to Lookonchain data. The media conglomerate controlled by President Donald Trump’s family had previously accumulated 11,542 BTC at a cost basis above $118,500.

The lack of regulatory progress in the legislature has also negatively affected traders’ sentiment. The Digital Asset PARITY Act overhauls cryptocurrency taxation by exempting mining and staking rewards from being taxed until sold. The proposal was formally introduced in May, but is not yet scheduled for hearings or votes.

Similarly, the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act awaits a full Senate floor vote, but no official date has been set. The bill creates a comprehensive market structure framework for digital assets, dividing oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while complementing the already-passed GENIUS Act for stablecoins.

Fed policy trajectory puzzles investors 

Investors likely anticipated a stronger balance sheet expansion from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), expecting continued US Treasury buying and additional liquidity for the markets. However, the prevailing trend from previous months faded in April as the Fed’s total assets stabilized.

US Federal Reserve total assets, USD billion. Source: St Louis FED

The Fed’s decision to act more cautiously was likely driven by a surge in oil prices, which raises inflation. Expansionary measures could further exacerbate the issue and negatively impact economic growth. The Fed’s total assets have remained stuck near $6.7 trillion since April 15. 

Bitcoin’s weak performance also contrasts with a massive surge in demand for AI infrastructure companies.

Related: Bitcoin price lags bullish US tech stocks–Is there a silver lining?

Top 7-day gains among world’s 100 largest assets. Source: 8marketcap

Memory chipmakers SK Hynix (000660 KS) and Micron (MU US) surged past a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time ever, joining multiple stocks that gained 20% or more over the past week alone. 

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