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Digital asset firm Keyrock plans to acquire BlockFills out of bankruptcy

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Keyrock, a Brussels-based digital asset services firm, is in the process of acquiring bankrupt crypto trading and lending firm Blockfills, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

A Keyrock spokesperson told CoinDesk that the acquisition is subject to court approval. According to a bankruptcy filing, Keyrock agreed to a purchase price of $3.25 million, and will assume “substantially all” of BlockFills’ assets, certain liabilities, some of its equity interests, customer lists and its proprietary technology and intellectual property.

“We can confirm that, as set out in the official Bankruptcy Court document filed on 26 May 2026, Keyrock SA has been declared the ‘Successful Bidder’ for certain assets of Reliz Technology Group Holdings Inc. and its affiliated debtors,” a Keyrock spokesperson said in a statement.

“A hearing to consider approval of the sale is currently scheduled for June [16,] 2026. In the meantime, parties continue to collaborate on the administrative process to complete the transaction. Furthermore, final completion of the transaction remains subject to final court approval and the appropriate regulatory approvals referenced in Keyrock’s bid,” they added.

BlockFills provides institutional clients with liquidity, financing and risk-management services, including crypto lending and borrowing, derivatives trading, and over-the-counter (OTC) execution. Its customer base includes hedge funds, asset managers, market makers and mining companies. Keyrock is a Brussels-based digital asset services firm that provides market making, liquidity, OTC trading and infrastructure solutions to crypto exchanges, institutions and token issuers.

Representatives for BlockFills did not return a request for comment by press time.

On March 15, Reliz Ltd., the operator of BlockFills, and three affiliated entities filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The court filing showed Reliz reporting assets between $50 million and $100 million against liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.

The firm decided to file for bankruptcy after consulting all stakeholders, it said in an official statement at the time.

“After extensive discussions with investors, clients, creditors, and other stakeholders, BlockFills has determined that a voluntary chapter 11 filing is the most responsible path forward in order to preserve the value of the business and maximize recoveries for stakeholders. This filing will allow the firm to implement an orderly restructuring while maintaining transparency and oversight through the court-supervised process,” it said.

CoinDesk reported in February that the Chicago-based firm had suffered losses of roughly $75 million and was seeking either a buyer or emergency financing.

Earlier that the month the company announced that it was suspending customer withdrawals and deposits, citing challenging market and financial conditions. At the time, BlockFills said it was working with investors and clients to restore liquidity and reach a resolution.

According to Blockfills, trading volume exceeded $60 billion in 2025, a 28% increase from the previous year. The firm said it served approximately 2,000 institutional clients and ranked among the more active desks in the institutional crypto lending and borrowing market.

The acquisition comes months after Keyrock raised a Series C round led by SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s venture capital arm, at a $1.1 billion valuation.

It acquired Turing Capital, a fund manager based in Luxembourg, last fall, in a push to expand into asset and wealth management, it announced in September.

Read more: Crypto trading firm BlockFills files for bankruptcy

Hyperliquid’s HYPE Breakout Puts $100 Price Target in Play

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Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, has rallied more than 30% in five days to a record high near $74, with a bullish chart breakout now pointing to a potential move above $100.

HYPE/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Key takeaways:

  • HYPE has broken out of a bull pennant pattern, putting its measured upside target near $105.
  • Hyperliquid has become the second-largest blockchain by app revenue on a 30-day rolling basis.

HYPE bull pennant hints at rally toward $105

Hyperliquid’s rally may have further room to run after HYPE broke out of a textbook bull pennant pattern.

The setup developed after HYPE’s sharp late-May rally formed the pattern’s “flagpole,” followed by a brief consolidation inside a symmetrical triangle. During this pause, the token printed lower highs and higher lows, showing tightening volatility before the next directional move.

HYPE/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

In technical analysis, bull pennants typically resolve when the price breaks above the upper trend line. Traders then estimate the upside target by adding the flagpole’s height to the breakout point.

Over the weekend, HYPE moved above the triangle’s upper boundary on rising volume, suggesting stronger conviction behind the breakout. If the pattern plays out as intended, the price could climb toward its measured target near $105.30 by June or July, about 45% above current levels.

However, momentum is becoming stretched. HYPE’s relative strength index was above 77 on Monday, placing it in overbought territory and raising the odds of a brief consolidation or correction.

If profit-taking accelerates, HYPE could retest its 20-day exponential moving average near $58.32 in June. A decisive break below that level would weaken the bullish setup and risk invalidating the pennant breakout.

Hyperliquid futures show a strong bullish bias

Derivatives market data adds another bullish layer to HYPE’s technical breakout.

Hyperliquid’s open interest has climbed to a record $3.5 billion, up from about $1.41 billion at the beginning of the year, according to Coinglass data. The sharp rise shows that more leveraged capital is entering HYPE markets as it pushes into price discovery.

Hyperliquid open interest. Source: CoinGlass

HYPE’s open interest-weighted funding rate stood near 0.0050% every eight hours as of Monday and has remained positive through most of the latest rally.

Hyperliquid OI-weighted funding rates. Source: CoinGlass

That means long traders have been paying short traders to keep their perpetual futures positions open, a sign that leveraged demand has leaned bullish. While not extreme, the consistently positive funding rate points to a clear upside bias in HYPE’s derivatives market.

Meanwhile, short sellers have taken the bigger hit during the latest rally.

Since May 20, HYPE has seen about $126.28 million in short liquidations, compared with $68.85 million in long liquidations.

Hyperliquid total liquidation chart. Source: CoinGlass

That imbalance suggests bearish traders have been forced to close positions as the price moved higher, creating a “short squeeze.”

Further gains in HYPE could put more shorts at risk of liquidation, forcing more buybacks and potentially accelerating the move toward the $100–$105 target zone.

Hyperliquid surpasses Ethereum in monthly app revenue

HYPE fundamentals are also leaning bullish.

Hyperliquid has overtaken Ethereum to become the second-largest blockchain by app revenue on a 30-day rolling basis, generating $57.9 million, according to DefiLlama.

Top revenue-generating protocols. Source: DefiLlama

The chain routes 99% of its protocol fees to its Assistance Fund, which buys HYPE on the open market. That buyback mechanism has become a core part of the bullish investment case for the token, as higher trading activity can lead to stronger recurring demand for HYPE.

The broader backdrop for perpetual futures has also improved.

On Friday, the CFTC recognized perps as useful tools for price discovery and risk management, helping legitimize the market that sits at the center of Hyperliquid’s business model, even if the protocol is not a direct beneficiary.

HYPE has rallied roughly 25% since the CFTC update.

Related: Hyperliquid launches prediction markets for real-world events

The launch of US-listed HYPE exchange-traded funds (ETF) may also help fuel the rally.

US Spot HYPE ETF net flows. Source: SoSoValue

Since their May 12 debut, HYPE funds from Bitwise and 21Shares have attracted a combined $122.2 million in net assets, according to SoSoValue, pointing to early institutional demand for exposure to the digital token.

Telegram’s Durov Renames TON’s Native Token to Gram, Price Climbs as Much as 19%

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Pavel Durov said in a Telegram channel post that The Open Network’s native cryptocurrency will be renamed from Toncoin to Gram over the next three weeks, restoring the 2018 whitepaper name the SEC blocked. The token climbed as high as $2.21.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Monday that The Open Network’s native cryptocurrency will be renamed from Toncoin to Gram over the next three weeks, in a post to his personal Telegram channel that revives the 2018 whitepaper name the SEC blocked six years ago.

“TON’s native currency is becoming Gram,” Durov wrote. “Gram was the original name of TON’s currency in the first white paper. We’re returning to our roots — and starting a new chapter.” Durov framed the rename as “step 4 of 7 to Make TON Great Again,” the roadmap he has published through the same channel since taking over TON development from the Switzerland-based TON Foundation in May.

Toncoin climbed as high as $2.21 on Monday before paring some of the gain, a 24-hour rise of about 19% according to CoinMarketCap data on the TON/USDT pair, with 24-hour spot volume of roughly $575 million, more than double the prior session. The token had been near $1.83 before the post hit shortly after 15:48 UTC, CoinGecko data showed.

What the Rebrand Changes

The change is a rebrand, not a token swap. Durov said in the same post that “TON remains the name of the blockchain” and that the three-week transition will not require any action from holders, validators or DeFi integrations. Existing TON balances will simply trade under the GRAM ticker once exchanges and wallets cut over.

That distinction matters because the Gram name carries the heaviest legal baggage in TON’s history. Telegram raised about $1.7 billion in two 2018 presale rounds for Gram tokens that were never issued, and in October 2019 the SEC obtained an emergency action halting the offering as an unregistered securities sale.

The June 2020 settlement required Telegram to return $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million penalty, and Durov shut the project down the following month. Independent developers later revived the codebase and rebranded the asset Toncoin in 2021 — a name chosen in part to put distance from the litigated Gram brand.

Telegram Roadmap

Step 4 follows three upgrades Durov pushed through the channel since taking the validator helm in May. The network rolled out Catchain 2.0 for sub-second block finality, cut base transaction fees by roughly six times, and made Telegram itself TON’s largest validator with millions of tokens staked through the messenger’s own infrastructure. Three more steps are still to come; Durov has not detailed them publicly.

The market response has been front-loaded into each step. Toncoin roughly doubled from $1.30 to a $2.80 peak through May’s validator-takeover and fee-cut announcements before retracing, and the Gram rename adds another 19% candle on top.

Where It Could Get Awkward

A pure rename does not change supply, fees or the on-chain mechanics that drive long-run token value, and Durov did not pair Monday’s post with the customary detail an SEC-cleared issuer would publish; a transition schedule for exchanges, a coordinated wallet update plan, or a statement from the TON Foundation, which has not yet posted on the rebrand.

Reviving the Gram name also reopens questions about U.S. regulatory perception six years after the original offering was shut down, even though the new Gram is the existing TON token under a new label, not a fresh issuance.

The three-week transition will play out across exchange listings and wallet interfaces through mid-June. Durov has signaled steps 5 through 7 will follow.

Crypto funds suffer second-largest outflows of 2026 while XRP and HYPE attract inflows

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Crypto investment products recorded their second-largest weekly outflow of 2026 by the end of May, with investors pulling $1.67 billion from digital asset funds as geopolitical tensions and a broader risk-off mood weighed on markets, according to a report from CoinShares.

The withdrawals marked the third consecutive week of net outflows and brought total redemptions over the past three weeks to $4.21 billion. CoinShares said concerns surrounding Iran had overwhelmed any positive sentiment generated by recent progress on the CLARITY Act, a U.S. crypto market structure bill.

Assets under management across digital asset investment products fell to $141 billion from $148 billion the previous week, their lowest level since early April.

The latest outflows coincide with a sharp decline in crypto prices. Bitcoin fell close to the $70,000 mark on Monday after reports that Iran had halted talks with the United States in protest over Israel’s continued incursions into Lebanon. The move coincided with Strategy (MSTR), the largest holder of bitcoin, selling some of its stack after years of its executive chairman Michal Saylor vowing he wouldn’t do so. The largest cryptocurrency dropped about 3% over the past 24 hour period, adding pressure to digital asset investment products.

The United States accounted for nearly all of last week’s withdrawals, with investors pulling $1.63 billion from crypto funds. Germany, which had largely avoided earlier bouts of selling, recorded $25.7 million in outflows. Sweden and Hong Kong posted withdrawals of $6.6 million and $4.5 million, respectively.

Bitcoin investment products saw the largest share of the selling, losing $1.44 billion during the week. According to CoinShares, that was the largest weekly bitcoin outflow of 2026, surpassing both the previous week’s record and the peak reached during January’s selloff. Year-to-date bitcoin inflows have fallen sharply to $1.19 billion, down from $2.6 billion a week earlier and $3.9 billion two weeks ago.

Ethereum (ETH) funds also came under pressure, recording $257.3 million in outflows. Meanwhile, investor appetite for alternative cryptocurrencies weakened considerably. CoinShares noted that only five digital assets attracted more than $1 million in inflows, down from 11 assets three weeks ago. XRP (XRP) led with $20.3 million in inflows, followed by Hyperliquid (HYPE) at $10.8 million and Near at $7.6 million.

Despite the recent pullback, crypto investment products still hold roughly $142 billion in assets globally, underscoring how much institutional capital remains invested in the sector even as market sentiment deteriorates.

The Business Owner’s Guide To Vertical Integration With Bitcoin

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While Bitcoin is often viewed strictly as a financial asset, a growing number of 2026 operators are treating it as something entirely different: a stack of operational capabilities to vertically integrate.

In traditional manufacturing, vertical integration is one of the oldest competitive moves in the playbook. A car company that owns its tire factory is vertically integrated; Apple, by owning its silicon, operating system, storefront, and device, is the modern textbook case. The structural advantages, lower costs, fewer dependencies, and tighter control over quality, are now being claimed by companies integrating Bitcoin into multiple stages of how they produce, hold, move, and earn money. The businesses furthest along this path aren’t necessarily those with the largest treasuries, but those that treat Bitcoin as a core infrastructure.

This article is the operator’s guide to that decision. We define the vertical integration of Bitcoin in concrete terms, lay out the four stages every integrated company moves through, provide a diagnostic to figure out how far you should climb, and deliver a sequenced roadmap for getting there.

What “vertical integration” means when applied to Bitcoin

In the classical sense, vertical integration means owning multiple stages of your supply chain rather than renting them. A vertically integrated business produces its own inputs, makes its own product, and controls its own distribution. Each stage feeds the next. Each stage adds margin that would otherwise leak to a vendor.

Applied to Bitcoin, vertical integration means owning multiple stages of how your business interacts with Bitcoin, rather than renting any single piece of it. The four stages are:

  1. Accept: taking Bitcoin from your customers as payment, instead of (or alongside) cards and ACH
  2. Hold: putting Bitcoin on your balance sheet as a treasury reserve asset, instead of (or alongside) cash
  3. Produce: generating Bitcoin yourself by mining, converting electricity and hardware into BTC at cost
  4. Build: offering Bitcoin products, infrastructure, or financial instruments to other businesses or to investors as a revenue line

A company that does all four owns the full operational stack. A company that does two has integrated partially. A company that does one is using Bitcoin but not yet integrated. None of these are wrong. But the deeper the integration, the more durable the strategic position, because each stage feeds the next. Payments fund reserves. Reserves enable productive deployment and underwrite financial products. Financial products attract capital that funds more reserves. Productive deployment generates more Bitcoin. The flywheel runs in this direction for a reason.

Stage 01: Accept

The first stage is taking Bitcoin from your customers. For most businesses with a payment terminal or a checkout flow, accepting Bitcoin via the Lightning Network is the lowest-friction entry into the integrated stack. The economics are not subtle. Credit card processing typically costs 2.5% to 3.5% per transaction, settles in two to three business days, and exposes the merchant to chargeback risk. Lightning settles in seconds, costs less than 0.1%, and is final on receipt.

The clearest case study is Steak ‘n Shake. The chain enabled Lightning payments across all U.S. locations in May 2025. At the Bitcoin 2026 Conference, executive Michael Boes reported that the company saves approximately 50% on processing fees when customers pay with Bitcoin compared to traditional credit card transactions, and that universal Bitcoin adoption among its customer base would translate to roughly $6 million in annual savings. Same-store sales rose 11% in Q2 2025 and accelerated to 15% in Q3.

What makes Steak ‘n Shake an integration case rather than just a payments case is what happens after the customer pays. Bitcoin payments do not get auto-converted to dollars. They flow into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on the company’s balance sheet, which underwrites a $0.21-per-hour Bitcoin bonus paid to hourly employees and helps fund a menu overhaul that includes 100% grass-fed beef. Stage 01 (Accept) is wired directly into Stage 02 (Hold). The savings on the payment rail do not sit in a P&L line. They become inventory in the strategic reserve.