NUVA launched this week with nearly $19 billion in tokenized real-world assets from Figure Technologies, aiming to bring regulated U.S. yield products into DeFi.
‘What's happening at the EF?’ Ethereum community looking for answers after high-profile departures
A wave of recent high-profile departures at the Ethereum Foundation has reignited longstanding questions from community members about what is going on inside the organization.
Canaan (CAN) Wins Contract To Supply Crypto Mining Heat To Nordic District Heating Network
Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN), the Bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer, has secured a contract to provide heat-recovery computing infrastructure to a district heating network in the Nordic region, the company announced today.
The deal centers on Canaan’s Avalon A1566HA hydro-cooled mining units, which capture thermal output from Bitcoin mining operations and redirect it as hot water into residential heating systems. The units generate water at approximately 80 degrees Celsius — a temperature range compatible with existing district heating infrastructure.
The project is structured in two phases. A first phase of 228 A1566HA units, totaling 2 MW of heating capacity, is operational and has been delivering hot water to local residents.
In March 2026, the unnamed Nordic heating provider placed a follow-on order for an additional 692 units, expanding total capacity to 8 MW. At full deployment, the system is expected to serve approximately 2,800 homes.
Canaan’s architecture gives the system a technical edge over traditional boilers, according to the company. Because the heating nodes run many parallel A1566HA units that support dynamic overclocking and underclocking, operators can adjust output in real time to match shifting heating demand. The parallel design also reduces single-point failure risk and simplifies maintenance compared to centralized boiler systems.
The selection came through a competitive evaluation process in which the Customer assessed multiple solutions before choosing Canaan’s equipment for the second and larger phase of the project. The Nordic region is a global benchmark for district heating technology, and governments there have built policy frameworks that incentivize efficient heat distribution across urban networks.
Bitcoin and energy-integrated compute
CEO Nangeng Zhang said he took a direct role in the platform’s development, including the physical design of the unit’s form factor.
“Heat reuse is no longer an ancillary byproduct of compute. It is central to building a more efficient, sustainable energy future, and a core part of how we think about system design at Canaan,” Zhang said.
For Canaan, the contract represents a strategic push beyond its core Bitcoin mining equipment business into what the company calls “energy-integrated compute infrastructure.” The hash-to-heat concept has circulated in the mining industry for years, but the challenge of generating high-grade heat at commercial scale has limited widespread adoption. Canaan positions the Nordic deployment as evidence that the barrier has been crossed.
Canaan’s stock was down nearly 15% today, trading near $0.40.
Is Zcash ‘Running Its Own Bull Market?’ This 88% ZEC Price Rally Setup Shows
Privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) is flashing a classic bullish reversal pattern that could push its price above $1,000 in the coming weeks.
Key takeaways:
- ZEC’s cup-and-handle setup points to a potential rally toward $1,091 by June or July.
- Privacy coins are leading the market, with ZEC up 73% over the past month versus crypto’s 0.2% gain.
Privacy narrative may trigger 55% ZEC price upside
The ZEC/USD pair appears to have formed a cup-and-handle (C&H) pattern, marked by a rounded recovery phase followed by a downward-sloping consolidation.
Traders typically read the structure as bullish once the price breaks above the neckline, as it suggests buyers have absorbed the previous supply wall and regained control.
The pattern’s upside target is calculated by measuring the distance between the cup’s lowest point and the neckline, then adding that height to the breakout level.
ZEC/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingView
As of Tuesday, ZEC had entered the pattern’s “handle” stage while eyeing a breakout above the neckline resistance at around the $625–$650 area.
Zcash’s decisive close above the neckline may send its price toward $1,091 by June or July, up about 88% from current prices, if the C&H structure plays out as intended.
This upside target aligns with ZEC’s 1.618 Fibonacci extension, drawn from the $745 swing high to the $185 swing low.
ZEC is outperforming the crypto market in May
ZEC has gained 18% over the past three days, even as the wider market has fallen 3.45% over the same period, prompting some traders to argue that Zcash is effectively “running its own bull market.”
Source: X
Broadly, privacy coins have outperformed the wider crypto market over the past month. ZEC led the move, gaining more than 73%, while other privacy-focused tokens such as Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) also rallied in tandem.
By comparison, the total crypto market capitalization rose just 0.2% over the same period, suggesting the move is more sector-specific than market-wide.
ZEC/USD versus XMR/USD, DASH/USD, and the TOTAL crypto market cap one-month performance. Source: TradingView
Heightened demand for anonymity and financial privacy is driving much of Zcash’s renewed appeal, turning the once-forgotten privacy coin into one of crypto’s strongest narratives.
Related: Zcash gains 70% in a week amid growing interest in crypto privacy
The bullish case gained further traction last week after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said ZEC’s market capitalization could one day reach 10% of Bitcoin’s (BTC).
That would imply a price of $9,225 per coin based on ZEC’s current circulating supply of about 16.68 million tokens.
ZEC’s value in BTC terms has grown roughly 20.50% since Hayes’s comment.
ZEC/BTC daily chart. Source: TradingView
Earlier in May, sentiment also improved after Multicoin Capital disclosed Zcash exposure and Robinhood listed the token, adding fresh institutional and retail-access catalysts to ZEC’s rally.
Estonia Suspends Zondacrypto Operator License
A European regulator has partially suspended the operating license of the company behind troubled crypto exchange Zondacrypto.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Estonia partially suspended the license of BB Trade Estonia OÜ, operating under the Zondacrypto brand, according to a statement on Monday.
According to the FIU, the company is now barred from accepting deposits and onboarding new clients, while existing users are still allowed to withdraw their funds.
The suspension puts BB Trade Estonia OÜ at risk of losing its operating license if it does not meet compliance requirements set by Estonian authorities.
Source: FIU
Zondacrypto faces broader regulatory scrutiny in Europe following withdrawal issues and its CEO saying that an exchange cold wallet holding about 4,500 Bitcoin ($345.9 million) was inaccessible.
A 30-day compliance window and potential license revocation
The FIU said that BB Trade Estonia OÜ has 30 days to bring its operations into compliance with legal requirements following the partial suspension of its license.
“If it fails to do so, the law obliges the FIU to revoke the operating license,” the regulator said.
The FIU did not specify what compliance breaches led to the suspension. Cointelegraph contacted the authority for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Estonia’s Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (FSA) previously issued a warning against BB Trade on May 8, saying its “TeamPL” crypto token violated the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) because it was listed without a white paper.
Zondacrypto at center of regulatory debate in Poland
The suspension comes amid broader concerns around Zondacrypto, including reported withdrawal issues and past comments by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk referencing around 30,000 potential victims linked to crypto-related losses.
Market data from CoinGecko shows little to no recent trading activity on the exchange at publishing time.
Cointelegraph was unable to reach Zondacrypto for comment, as email attempts bounced at the time of publication. Key BB Trade staff also left the company following earlier developments involving the exchange.
Founded in Poland in 2014 as BitBay, Zondacrypto has grown into a major European crypto exchange, particularly among Polish-speaking users.
Despite its Polish origins, the company has been registered in Estonia since September 2019, according to InfoRegister data, well before the EU’s MiCA regulation fully took effect in late 2024.
Source: InfoRegister
Zondacrypto has since become part of a broader regulatory debate in Poland, where officials have raised concerns about its potential links to Russian capital and political influence.
Related: Polish lawmakers back revised crypto bill after repeated vetoes
Some Polish policymakers have also criticized delays and inconsistencies in the country’s implementation of MiCA rules, even as the exchange operated under its Estonian registration.
On Tuesday, the FSA issued a MiCA license to LHV Pank, one of the country’s largest banks, making it the second financial institution in Estonia to receive approval under the EU’s crypto regulatory framework.
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Swan Bitcoin Faces Nearly $1B Lawsuit Over Prime Trust Transfers
The post-bankruptcy trust for Prime Trust has filed suit against Swan Bitcoin, alleging the Bitcoin services company exploited insider knowledge to pull nearly $1 billion in assets from the custodian days before its collapse.
The complaint, filed in Delaware bankruptcy court, accuses Electric Solidus, the corporate entity behind Swan, of receiving over $24.6 million in cash, 11,994 Bitcoin (BTC) currently worth around $923 million, roughly 5 million USDt (USDT) and smaller amounts of other digital assets before Prime Trust’s August 2023 bankruptcy.
At the center of the allegations is an unidentified Prime Trust senior executive who, while working at the company, was also a paid adviser to Swan through a side arrangement dating back to July 2019.
Four days before Prime Trust met with Nevada regulators on May 26, 2023, the executive allegedly opened an encrypted chat with Swan CEO Cory Klippsten and set messages to auto-delete every 24 hours. The feature was allegedly turned off the day after the meeting, when Swan withdrew more than 10,000 Bitcoin from Prime Trust.
Source: CourtListener
The lawsuit is part of a broader effort by Prime Trust’s post-bankruptcy litigation trust to recover assets transferred out of the custodian in the weeks leading up to its collapse. The trust alleges Swan used insider access to move funds ahead of other customers as Prime Trust’s financial condition deteriorated.
“Swan knew to transfer fiat and crypto from Prime immediately prior to Prime filing for bankruptcy to avoid catastrophic losses,” the complaint wrote.
Cointelegraph reached out to Swan for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
Related: House Committee pushes Trump to fill CFTC seats as crypto regulation ramps up
Swan allegedly emptied Prime Trust accounts
The complaint further alleges that Swan abruptly expanded a partial asset transfer into a full evacuation of all funds, one day before the Nevada meeting.
Prime Trust staff scrambled to comply before the close of business that day, according to Slack communications cited in the filing.
The complaint alleges Prime created an internal ledger labeled “PT FBO Swan Customers” on May 25, an account that did not previously exist, to make it appear Swan’s funds had always been held in a separate trust, which would have made them harder to claw back in bankruptcy.
“In substance, however, those assets had not been and were not held in trust for the benefit of Swan’s customers,” the suit claims.
The plaintiff is seeking recovery under preferential transfer and actual fraudulent transfer provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, and is asking the court to disallow any future claims Swan might assert against the estate until restitution is made.
Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026
CoinDesk 20 performance update: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) rises 2.1%
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Your day-ahead look for May 19, 2026
Strategy Acquires 24,869 Bitcoin In Massive $2 Billion Buy
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Bitcoin treasury company Strategy has announced its second-largest acquisition of 2026, costing the firm more than $2 billion.
Strategy Has Added 24,869 Bitcoin To Its Holdings
In a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has shared the details related to the latest purchase completed by the treasury company. In total, the firm has expanded its reserves by 24,869 BTC with this acquisition, which is a pretty significant amount.
In fact, this is the second-largest buy made by Strategy this year, behind only the 34,164 BTC mega-purchase from April. The firm has funded the huge acquisition using sales of its STRC and MSTR at-the-money stock offerings, according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Out of the two, STRC sales provided the biggest part of the proceeds.
Strategy spent about $2.01 billion to acquire these coins, which comes down to an average cost basis of $80,985 per BTC. Currently, Bitcoin is trading below this level, so it would appear that company’s new acquisition is already underwater.
Strategy’s full holdings remain in profit, however, as the firm spent $75,700 per coin or $63.87 billion in total to assemble its 843,738 BTC stack. Though, the green status is only just due to the pullback that the cryptocurrency has seen over the last few days.
The company has interestingly made this humongous purchase announcement just a couple of weeks after Saylor said that Strategy would probably sell some Bitcoin to fund dividends, just to prove the point that they could do it. So far, the treasury firm has made no such sale, and if this buy is anything to go by, it remains committed to accumulating the asset.
With over 4.2% of the BTC circulating supply in its wallets, Strategy is by far the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency in the world, according to data from BitcoinTreasures.net.
The top ten public holders of BTC | Source: BitcoinTreasuries.net
The firm is also the largest digital asset treasury company in general. The closest competitor is Bitmine, which is a Bitcoin-mining company that adopted an Ethereum treasury strategy last year. Led by chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee, the firm has aggressively been accumulating ETH, announcing regular Monday buys just like Strategy.
Last week, Bitmine skipped on any new acquisition, but this Monday, the firm is right back at it. According to a press release, the company loaded up on 71,672 ETH over the past week. “We view the recent pullback of ETH to below $2,200 as an attractive opportunity,” noted Lee.
Following this acquisition, the firm holds 5,278,462 ETH, equivalent to 4.37% of the cryptocurrency’s entire supply in circulation. “Bitmine is expected to reach the ‘alchemy of 5%’ sometime in 2026,” said the chairman.
BTC Price
Bitcoin recovered to $82,000 last week, but the asset has since retraced as its price is now trading around $76,300.
Looks like the price of the coin has declined recently | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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