Circle introduced Agent Marketplace as part of its Agent Stack, enabling autonomous agents to discover and pay for trusted services through programmable, usage-based economic models.
Circle announced the launch of Agent Marketplace, a new platform designed to connect autonomous agents with trusted services in a structured, discoverable environment. The marketplace enables agents with cryptocurrency funds to identify, evaluate, and integrate agentic services while moving service access toward usage-based, programmable economic activity. The launch is part of Circle’s Agent Stack.
Agent Marketplace addresses a core infrastructure gap in the crypto economy: autonomous agents operating on blockchain networks need trustworthy ways to pay for and access services required to complete their tasks. By creating a dedicated marketplace, Circle is positioning service integration as a native blockchain economic function rather than a traditional API integration model.
The marketplace supports programmable payment flows, allowing agents to automatically compensate service providers based on usage rather than fixed fees. This approach aligns with DeFi’s core principle of transparent, on-chain settlement and opens pathways for third-party developers to monetize services within agentic ecosystems.
Sources: Circle (X/Twitter)
This article was produced with the help of AI flows.
Bitcoin treasury company Strategy announced on Friday that it will repurchase $1.5 billion in 0% convertible notes, due in 2029, retiring about half of the 2029 convertible note tranche’s total outstanding debt.
Strategy entered into “privately negotiated transactions” with a portion of its 0% senior convertible note holders on Thursday, agreeing to repurchase the debt for an estimated $1.38 billion, according to the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
The transaction is set to settle on Tuesday of the week following the publication of this article, the company said, adding that the final repurchase amount could “vary” from the estimated amount based on market conditions. The company added:
“Strategy expects to fund the repurchases with available cash reserves, proceeds from sales of securities under its at-the-market offering program, and/or proceeds from the sale of bitcoin.”
The move follows comments made by Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor in May 2026, signaling that the company could sell a portion of its Bitcoin holdings to fund dividend payments, and earlier comments in February that the company plans to equitize its debt in the coming years.
Related: Strategy’s Bitcoin engine faces $28B STRC ceiling: Delphi Digital
Strategy plans to swap its convertible debt for equity over the next 3-6 years
Strategy plans on equitizing its convertible debt over the next 3-6 years, gradually turning holders of its credit instruments into equity holders.
This would reduce the debt burden on the company, but would also dilute existing stockholder value by adding new equity shares.
Source: Michael Saylor
Strategy has about $8.2 billion in total outstanding debt at the time of publication, according to data from the company, and has funded its BTC buys in 2026 primarily through its Stretch Perpetual Preferred Stock (STRC).
On Thursday, STRC hit $1.5 billion in daily trading volume, setting a new record for the equity instrument, and signaling strong investor interest.
The company’s most recent Bitcoin purchase occurred on Monday, when it bought 535 Bitcoin for $43 million, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 818,869 coins, valued at about $64 billion, using BTC’s spot market price at the time of publication.
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Crypto pundit CharuSan has explained why Ripple’s XRP is a better choice for cross-border transactions than SWIFT. He also predicted that SWIFT is likely to integrate XRP at some point to avoid becoming redundant.
Why Ripple’s XRP Has A Competitive Edge Over SWIFT
In an X post, CharuSan said that SWIFT is cumbersome and slow, and will completely lose its competitive edge against XRP’s ODL technology, which frees up trillions of dollars for banks in seconds. He further noted that XRP addresses these banks’ pain points by enabling faster, cheaper payments, prompting them to reconsider their use of SWIFT.
In line with this, he opined that XRP will take over the market rapidly rather than gradually. The pundit also mentioned that the main software used by banks is already integrated with Ripple, which means that the technical path is ready. CharuSan added that there is no need to meet with 13,000 banks one by one, as a single update will integrate all banks into the system.
CharuSan noted that the real issue for SWIFT is whether it will add XRP to its system as a liquidity layer to keep up with the modern world or remain as a simple messaging service, which could cause it to lose its financial authority and eventually pack up. As such, he believes that SWIFT’s adoption of XRP’s technology at some point is a strategic necessity for the firm’s survival.
However, it is worth noting that SWIFT is developing its distributed ledger on Ethereum layer-2 Linea in partnership with ConsenSys and up to 30 banks. This is part of the firm’s move to expand from solely the messaging layer to an execution layer, enabling 24/7 cross-border payments.
Why The Linea Move Cannot Compare to Using XRP
CharuSan also opined that SWIFT cannot compete with XRP even with its move to develop a distributed ledger on Linea. He explained that Linea is a layer-2 infrastructure, and SWIFT’s experimentation with these networks is limited to messaging and asset-transfer trials. The pundit added that Linea is not a liquidity tool.
As such, CharuSan noted that although Linea aggregates transactions on its own, it still sends this data to the Ethereum network for verification, incurring a cost in the process. He indicated that such a process is not viable for cross-border payments, and so, SWIFT cannot compete with or be compared to XRP. The pundit reiterated that if SWIFT does not reach an agreement with Ripple and integrate XRP as a liquidity layer on its platform, it is “doomed” to fade away.
At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.41, down over 4% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
XRP trading at $1.41 on the 1D chart | Source: XRPUSDT on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
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Downside pressure stemming from concerns over US government bonds continued, with the US-Iran war also at the forefront of traders’ minds.
Iran appeared to be pressing ahead with a toll system for transit through the Strait of Hormuz — the epicenter of a global oil-supply squeeze — while keeping US traffic out.
As reported by trading resource The Kobeissi Letter among others, Hormuz would reportedly “remain closed to the operators of Project Freedom.”
On Friday, analysis from Mosaic Asset Company spelled out the problems of the current geopolitical and macroeconomic climate for risk assets.
“The prospect for another inflation wave is lining up with similarities to the surge in price levels into mid-2022,” it wrote in its latest Mosaic Chart Alerts blog post.
“Disrupted supply chains from last year’s trade war, impact of war on energy markets, and stimulus via large federal budget deficits are coming together at the same time.”
CFDs on US WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
WTI crude oil finished the week trading above $100 per barrel.
Bitcoin price action teases “bear trap”
Among Bitcoin traders, there were ongoing mixed feelings about the bears’ strength below $80,000.
Related: Bitcoin price history suggests 77% odds of new all-time high within a year
“Over the last couple of days, the price has been going down slightly, while the open interest has climbed up. But things become interesting if we correlate this with Funding Rates, which have flipped negative,” X trading account Cryptic Trades wrote on X.
“This shows us that bears are DOUBLING DOWN right now and betting on a breakdown. It also shows that even though the market structure remains intact, bears are shorting as if a breakdown already happened. That’s generally how bear-traps are formed.”
BTC/USDT chart with open interest, funding rate data. Source: Cryptic Trades/X
For analyst Eric Coleman, a target for new local lows lay at around $75,000.
“BTC went down after the breakdown retest of the ascending triangle,” he summarized alongside a chart showing relevant support/resistance flip levels.
BTC/USDT four-hour chart. Source: Eric Coleman/X
Examining exchange order-book liquidity, Daan Crypto Trades highlighted $71,000 as the nearest zone of interest below price.
“The longer price compresses around this $80K region, the more liquidity will be building up on both sides which should result in a larger more aggressive move at some point,” he told X followers.
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A Jerusalem family that lost relatives in a 1997 Hamas suicide bombing is among the plaintiffs pushing a US federal court to order Tether to hand over hundreds of millions in frozen digital currency.
The case, filed in Manhattan, could set a significant legal precedent for how courts treat centralized stablecoin issuers.
A Decades-Old Debt
The plaintiffs are survivors and family members of victims from Iran-linked terrorist attacks. They hold court judgments against Iran that were awarded years ago — judgments that have never been paid.
Now they are targeting a pile of frozen cryptocurrency as a way to collect what they are owed.
Attorney Charles Gerstein filed the lawsuit Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Filing against Tether submitted by Attorney Charles Gerstein.
His clients say they have a legal claim to two Tron blockchain wallet addresses holding roughly 344 million USDT. Those wallets were frozen earlier this year by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which identified them as linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The plaintiffs are not asking Tether to simply release those specific wallets. According to reports, they want a court order directing Tether to transfer an equivalent amount of USDT to their legal team’s wallet address.
Why Tether Can Be Compelled
Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, USDT is controlled by a central company. Tether can freeze wallets, block transactions, and move funds when ordered to do so. That centralized structure is at the heart of Gerstein’s legal argument.
Because a prior order already froze the wallets — something only possible because Tether has direct operational control — he contends the company can also be ordered to move the funds.
BTCUSD trading at $78,115 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView
The ownership question, he argues, is already largely settled: OFAC has already declared the wallets to be IRGC-controlled assets, which clears a path for seizure under US terrorism statutes.
Broader Legal Campaign
This is not Gerstein’s only case of this kind. Based on reports, he has filed similar actions involving North Korea-linked cyber operations against the Arbitrum platform. He is also handling a separate case involving Railgun DAO, a privacy-focused crypto protocol.
The Manhattan filing is part of what appears to be a coordinated legal push to test whether courts can compel crypto platforms with centralized control to act on frozen assets held in sanctioned wallets.
Featured image from CEPA, chart from TradingView
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US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted their largest daily outflow since January as Bitcoin struggled to hold the $80,000 level after a sharp rebound from April lows.
Bitcoin (BTC) funds recorded $635.2 million in outflows on Wednesday, extending $233.3 million in outflows from the previous trading session, according to SoSoValue data.
So far, weekly outflows stand at $841.2 million, putting ETFs on track for their first week of net losses after six consecutive weeks of gains totaling around $3.4 billion.
Weekly spot Bitcoin ETF flows since March 27 (May 13 week incomplete). Source: SoSoValue
The volatility comes as Bitcoin continues to swing around $80,000, repeatedly slipping below and reclaiming the level, with analysts pointing to profit-taking pressure following a 37% rally from April lows.
The biggest daily outflow since late January
The fresh outflows mark the largest daily Bitcoin ETF withdrawal since Jan. 29, when the funds posted about $818 million in losses in a single day.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led losses with roughly $285 million in outflows, according to Farside data. The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) followed with $177 million and $133.2 million, respectively.
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust ETF (MSBT) posted no outflows on Wednesday and recorded about $6 million in inflows on Tuesday. The fund has not seen any outflows since its April 8 launch and has accumulated roughly $256 million to date.
Altcoin funds: Ether joins the selling, Solana and HYPE lead inflows
The negative trend has continued in Ether (ETH) ETFs, which saw $36.3 million of outflows on Wednesday, bringing weekly outflows to roughly $184 million so far.
Solana (SOL)-linked funds led the positive trend with around $6 million in inflows, putting week-to-date gains at $51.6 million. Hyperliquid (HYPE)-linked funds saw inflows of $1.36 million on their debut on Tuesday, bringing cumulative net inflows to $2.52 million.
Related: JPMorgan lifts Bitcoin ETF exposure in Q1, led by BlackRock’s IBIT
Bitcoin’s volatility came as it tested the 200-day moving average near $82,400 after a 37% rally from April lows, a level that has historically acted as resistance in prior bear-market rebounds, CryptoQuant said in a note shared with Cointelegraph.
Source: CryptoQuant
The analysts pointed to rising profit-taking, elevated unrealized gains and weakening US spot demand as signs that momentum may be fading. On-chain data suggests potential support near $70,000 if a deeper correction develops, CryptoQuant said.
“This level has historically acted as a key resistance-turned-support band during bear markets, as it represents the average cost basis of short-term traders and the level at which unrealized profit margins compress back toward zero, reducing the incentive for further selling,” the report said.
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In an interview with CoinDesk, the lead engineer at Firedancer gives an update on how the new client, also known as a software, is fairing in the Solana ecosystem.
DeFi insurance protocols debuted with huge ambitions during the 2020 crypto boom. But as hacks evolved and users chased yields over protection, most of the sector collapsed under the same risks it was built to cover.
Shares in Bitcoin-focused Strive closed 5.8% higher on Thursday after the company said it will become a “daily dividend company” and revealed it eliminated all debt in the first quarter of 2026.
The Vivek Ramaswamy-founded company said the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, ticker SATA, will start paying dividends every business day beginning June 16 at a current annual dividend rate of 13%. The payouts are funded by income generated from the company’s Bitcoin treasury strategy.
Strive CEO Matt Cole said the move will make it the first public company to offer daily dividends, expanding on a similar playbook adopted by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which has relied on perpetual preferred stock offerings such as Stretch (STRC) to fund its Bitcoin purchases while paying investors every two weeks.
“The rate at which innovation is happening in the digital credit space is fascinating to behold,” said Bitcoin For Corporations contributor Adam Livingston. Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor called the daily dividends “impressive.”
Strive’s daily dividends mark another example of a Bitcoin treasury firm moving beyond a simple buy-and-hold strategy to remain competitive in the bear market.
This comes as Strive reported an unrealized net loss of $265.9 million for Q1. The company attributed the loss to a decrease in the fair market value of its Bitcoin holdings as Bitcoin fell 23% during the quarter.
Source: Matt Cole
Strive is now operating debt-free
Strive said it ended the quarter with no outstanding debt after buying back the remainder of its long-term notes.
“Today, Strive stands debt-free, with zero margin requirements, and zero encumbered Bitcoin; a balance sheet purpose-built to thrive through Bitcoin volatility.”
Strive shares flip to positive year-to-date
Strive (ASST) shares rose 5.8% to $17.70 Thursday following the company’s earnings statement and gained another 0.73% in after-hours trading.
The company is now up 2.43% year to date but still down more than 81% over the past year.
Related: Bitcoin trades at a ‘discount’ on Coinbase: Is a $76K retest next?
Strive ended Q1 with 13,628 Bitcoin, including 5,048 Bitcoin acquired through its purchase of Semler Scientific during the quarter. It has since added another 1,381 Bitcoin, bringing its total to 15,009 Bitcoin worth $1.22 billion at current prices.
On Wednesday, another Bitcoin company, Nakamoto, rose 2.7% after reporting that its revenue increased 500% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 to $2.7 million, with $1.1 million of that coming from a new strategy of using its Bitcoin holdings as collateral to earn yield.
Meanwhile, Q1 results from some of the larger players in the crypto industry were a mixed bag.
Stablecoin issuer Circle rallied 15% after reporting its revenue rose 20% quarter-on-quarter to $694 million, beating estimates, while crypto exchange Coinbase’s shares slid after it reported a steep first-quarter loss with a 21% fall in revenue to $1.4 billion. Robinhood also dipped 9.4% after its Q1 revenue also missed analyst expectations.
Magazine: eToro founder timed Bitcoin top perfectly due to belief in 4 year cycles
THORChain has confirmed a $10 million exploit and launched a recovery portal, giving affected users a self-custodial path to revoke malicious token approvals and submit refund claims backed by a treasury-provisioned refund pool of equal size.
In a Saturday post on X, THORChain Foundation introduced the recovery portal, saying that “affected users are now able to check what they will be paid as compensation following the exploit.”
The portal, citing a PeckShield post-mortem, claims that the attack was detected at 02:14 UTC on May 11, when node operators flagged anomalous outbound transactions. Trading and outbound signing were paused within eight minutes. In total, attackers drained 36.75 BTC, worth around $3 million, and approximately $7 million in tokens across BNB Chain, Ethereum and Base, hitting 12,847 wallets across four chains.
THORChain’s recovery portal. Source: THORChain
Affected users have 21 days to submit claims. The refund window closes on June 4, after which any unclaimed allocation rolls over to the protocol’s insurance fund.
Related: Russia-linked crypto exchange Grinex halts trading after $14M hack
How THORChain was drained
In an incident update, THORChain said the leading theory is that the attacker exploited a vulnerability in the GG20 threshold signature scheme (TSS) implementation, which allowed sensitive vault key material to leak gradually. By accumulating enough of this leaked data over time, the attacker was able to reconstruct the vault’s private key and authorize unauthorized outbound transactions.
The protocol also noted that a newly churned node entered the network several days before the attack and is currently believed to be associated with it, with onchain links identified between the node’s bonding addresses and the wallets that received the stolen funds.
“The Treasury is actively collecting forensic data and coordinating with Outrider Analytics and relevant law enforcement agencies in an effort to identify the attacker and pursue recovery of stolen funds where possible,” the protocol wrote.
Related: Law enforcement freezes $41M connected to $150M crypto Ponzi collapse
Crypto hack losses hit $630 million in April
Crypto hacks surged in April, with total losses reaching $629.7 million, the worst month for the industry since February 2025, when $1.47 billion was stolen. KelpDAO’s $293 million exploit and Drift Protocol’s $280 million hack drove the bulk of the damage, together representing 82% of April’s losses and cementing DeFi as the most targeted sector.
The pattern of attacks points to a shift in how protocols are being compromised, with bridges, privileged access and operational failures increasingly at the root of major incidents rather than straightforward smart contract bugs.
Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now
