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Bitcoin is on the Verge of Locking in 3% May Losses

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Bitcoin is on the Verge of Locking in 3% May Losses

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $73,500 on Sunday as bulls stared down 3% BTC price losses for May.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin looks set to end May “in the red” as the monthly candle close nears.
  • US labor-market data will form the key volatility catalyst for risk assets next week.
  • Bitcoin analysis says that $73,000 is the key line to watch for the monthly close.

Bitcoin eyes “red” May ahead of key US PMI data

Data from TradingView followed a quiet weekend for BTC/USD, which remained wedged under 2025 yearly lows.

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

US stocks finished the week with new all-time highs, but Bitcoin failed to catch a tailwind from easing geopolitical tensions, notably progress on a US-Iran ceasefire.

Commenting on X, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter quoted US President Donald Trump as saying that he was “in no hurry” to get an Iran deal finalized.

Looking ahead, it added, the coming week would be “all about the labor market,” with US employment data forming a potential source of crypto and risk-asset volatility.

That would include the May print of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) — a yardstick for economic output that offered BTC price action some relief in recent months.

“If bitcoin still continues to follow growth & risk appetite, it needs to reprice higher from here IMO,” Andre Dragosch, European head of research at crypto asset manager Bitwise, argued on X following recent PMI data.

US manufacturing PMI data (screenshot). Source: ISM

Analyst hopes for BTC price monthly close above $73,000

With BTC/USD down by just over 3% month-to-date, per data from CoinGlass, traders were mostly unimpressed.

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

BTC/USD monthly returns (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

“At the moment, the $BTC retest of $73k has been successful despite recent downside volatility,” trader and analyst Rekt Capital wrote in his latest X analysis.

“If Bitcoin manages to Weekly Close above $73k then price will be one step closer to confirming the Double Bottom breakout & be positioned to try to trend continue.”

Rekt Capital referred to a “W”-shaped bottom formation on the weekly chart that formed from late February onward.

BTC/USD one-week chart with double bottom. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

With various key trend lines nearby, trader Daan Crypto Trades saw the macro range staying in play for the foreseeable future.

“$BTC Trading at its bull market support band after a failed retest the past few weeks. The Weekly 200MA & EMA are still moving up and closing in on price as well,” he told X followers. 

“With all these big high timeframe weekly levels around this area, I would not be surprised to see us trade between $60K-$80K for quite a while.”

BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

As Cointelegraph reported, the price was no longer due short-term targets formed by “gaps” in CME Group’s Bitcoin futures, with these now trading 24 hours per day.

moomoo targets Wall Street-grade crypto tools for retail investors

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moomoo targets Wall Street-grade crypto tools for retail investors

Retail investing platforms have spent a number of years racing to become “everything apps” for finance, piling on stocks, crypto, banking and payments in a bid to keep users inside a single ecosystem.

But for moomoo, the next battle isn’t about who offers the most assets.

It’s about who gives retail investors the same level of intelligence and execution long reserved for Wall Street institutions.

“We want to democratize access to the best tools that have historically only been available to institutional investors,” Albi Mema, director of crypto operations at moomoo U.S., told CoinDesk in an interview. “A decade ago the issue was access. Now it’s the quality of access.”

“Moomoo is built for the retail investor who has outgrown basic trading apps. Today’s retail investors are more informed, more engaged, and more demanding than ever,” according to Mema. “They do not just want access to markets, they want better data, better tools, better education, and more context around the decisions they make,” he added.

Global platform

Moomoo is a global trading platform that offers retail investors access to stocks, options, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrencies through a single app. The company focuses on combining low-cost trading with institutional-grade market data, analytics and investing tools for self-directed traders.

The New York-based firm, which says it has more than 30 million global users, $156 billion in client assets and nearly $1.9 trillion in annual trading volume, is betting that retail traders increasingly want sophisticated analytics, AI-assisted trading and institutional-style execution tools rather than simply another crypto venue.

That positioning comes as brokerages across both crypto and traditional finance push toward the “one-stop shop” model. Robinhood (HOOD), Kraken and Coinbase (COIN) have all expanded beyond their original products in recent years, blending equities, derivatives, payments and digital assets into broader financial platforms.

Mema argues moomoo’s differentiator is not aggregation alone, but the depth of tooling layered on top of it.

“The next generation of retail investors won’t be defined by who offers the most assets,” he said. “It will be about who helps investors make the best decisions across those assets.”

Retail traders

Retail investors are increasingly seeking institutional-grade analytics, execution capabilities, and AI-powered trading tools which drive trading assistance into the platform.

“Retail investors are building positions, measuring volatility and thinking long term,” he said. “They’re trading alongside some of the best and brightest.”

The company’s no-code algorithm builder allows users to scan markets for technical patterns, backtest strategies and automate trading signals.

Traders can also share strategies with the broader community, creating what Mema described as a collaborative “trading floor” dynamic for over 30 million retail participants.

Mema says retail crypto traders often experience significantly worse execution speeds and slippage than institutions, with some retail orders taking hundreds of milliseconds to settle compared with institutional systems that operate in tens of milliseconds or faster.

“If you’re getting rinsed on slippage, that puts you at a disadvantage as a crypto user,” he said. “We are bringing institutional-level execution to retail.”

The firm is also pushing deeper into tokenization. Moomoo recently joined Figure Markets’ onchain public securities initiative and partnered with Figure (FIGR) and BitGo (BTGO) on tokenized secondary market offerings.

“We think the future is hybrid. Traditional markets are not disappearing. Blockchain-native markets are not replacing everything tomorrow,” Mema says. “But the two are starting to converge, and platforms that can bridge those worlds responsibly will be well positioned,” he added.

Read more: Gemini taps SpaceXAI to build a personalized prediction markets feed

How Stellar (XLM) became part of DTCC’s plan to bring securities onchain

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How Stellar (XLM) became part of DTCC’s plan to bring securities onchain

DTCC’s decision to connect its upcoming tokenized securities platform to the Stellar (XLM) network is the latest step in a relationship that stretches back nearly a decade, according to Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon.

Earlier this week, DTCC said tokenized assets held through its Depository Trust Company could become available on Stellar beginning in the first half of 2027.

The move carries weight because DTCC is one of Wall Street’s core market utilities, overseeing more than $114 trillion in assets. The Stellar integration is designed to support the issuance, settlement and lifecycle management of tokenized securities, while opening the door to future projects involving highly liquid assets such as major indexes and U.S. Treasuries

The roots of the partnership go back to Securrency, the institutional tokenization platform DTCC acquired in 2023 and became what is now DTCC Digital Assets.

Securrency, Dixon told CoinDesk in an interview, worked closely with Stellar developers on features regulated financial institutions needed to issue assets onchain, including clawback functionality, compliance controls and transfer restrictions. Those tools were later built directly into the network.

“Some of the team has been working with Stellar for a long time,” Dixon said.

The news landed as tokenization has become one of the dominant themes across both crypto and traditional finance, drawing interest from global banks and asset managers looking to move traditional financial instruments onto blockchain rails.

Tokenization refers to representing assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, stocks or private credit as digital tokens that can be issued, traded and settled on blockchains. Proponents argue the technology could shorten settlement times, free up collateral trapped in legacy processes and eventually allow markets to operate around the clock.

It’s potentially a huge market. Standard Chartered projected $2 trillion in tokenized assets by 2028, while BCG and Ripple forecasted a $18.9 trillion market size by 2033.

Franklin Templeton’s early bet on Stellar

Dixon argued that tokenized assets are only the visible layer of a broader infrastructure shift.

“Blockchain is excellent at books and records,” she said. “Tokenization is the product outcome, but it’s all these underlying components that are really important.”

That focus on record-keeping was one reason Franklin Templeton selected Stellar for its onchain money market fund, BENJI. Dixon said the asset manager began exploring Stellar in 2019 and later launched the fund in 2021, aiming to place fund records on a single shared ledger rather than relying on multiple databases.

BENJI became one of the earliest examples of a regulated tokenized fund and helped pave the way for today’s tokenized Treasury market, which has grown to roughly $15 billion with BlackRock, JPMorgan, Fidelity entering the ring.

Making public blockchains work for regulated finance

For institutions, however, moving assets onchain requires more than faster settlement.

Regulated firms must comply with securities laws, sanctions requirements and investor protections, creating demand for blockchain infrastructure that can support identity checks, transfer restrictions and other compliance controls.

That need for compliance-ready infrastructure is one reason Stellar’s long-standing relationship with Securrency proved valuable, Dixon said.

Stellar’s architecture allows issuers to add compliance, identity controls and privacy protections on top of an open network, she said. Asset issuers can decide whether transfers require know-your-customer (KYC) checks, whether assets can be frozen or clawed back and what transaction information remains visible.

“The base layer is always going to be open,” Dixon said. “Then the institution gets to decide how compliance and privacy come into play.”

Bitcoin Spot, Futures Buyers Show Up But Is It Enough?

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Bitcoin Spot, Futures Buyers Show Up But Is It Enough?

Bitcoin ETF selling overwhelmed markets again after last week’s $1.42 billion outflow followed the previous week’s $1.26 billion outflow. 

BTC’s subsequent fall to $72,500 raised concerns that the price would slip back into the $60,000 to $70,000 range that BTC was locked in during February through April, but Cointelegraph’s reporting showed spot volumes kicking in to defend the $70,000 support. 

BTC/USDT aggregated spot volumes. Source: Velo 

Given the sizeable ETF selling, BTC inflows to Coinbase and futures market liquidations, the spot CVD data above suggests these dip buyers are not dominant.

Bitcoin exchange inflows, Coinbase. Source: CryptoQuant

Open interest heatmap data, on the other hand, does show nearly $300 million of open interest concentrated in the yellow band representing $73,000 to $74,000, where traders appear to have opened new leveraged long positions.   

Open interest heatmap, seven-day lookback. Source: Hyblock

While ETF outflows and redemptions sync with next-day BTC inflows to Coinbase exchange, and the knock-on effect of this selling is occasional long liquidations in the futures market, Hyblock’s bid-ask ratio metric (set to 10% aggregate order-book depth) shows a modest bid-side dominant orderbook, reinforcing the view that traders view prices below $75,000 as discounted and are buying as a result. 

BTC/USDT bid-ask ratio (10% depth) turns positive. Source: Hyblock

The indicator ranges from -1 to +1, with values above zero indicating an increasing imbalance in the orderbook structure.

The current longs perps and spot buying activity have not been sustainably sufficient enough to reverse the downtrend, but it is helping to absorb the selling and put a floor (or support) beneath Bitcoin price. 

Related: US has seized nearly $1 billion in Iranian crypto, Treasury secretary says

Beyond the technicals, in the short-term, a fresh set of narrative catalysts and newsflow focused on a peace deal between the US and Iran, positive spot BTC ETF inflows, falling crude oil prices and perhaps a White House statement on possible new additions to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve are needed to trigger larger spot and futures positioning in BTC. 

XRP Ledger’s design blocks the flash loan attacks costing DeFi hundreds of millions

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XRP Ledger’s design blocks the flash loan attacks costing DeFi hundreds of millions

The two biggest DeFi exploits of the past two months have one thing in common. They used a tool that does not exist on the XRP Ledger.

Thorchain lost roughly $10.8 million on May 15 to a cross-chain attack that drained funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BSC, and Base. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralized perpetual exchange, and KelpDAO, a liquid restaking protocol on Ethereum, together accounted for more than $600 million in losses through April alone.

Cross-chain bridges have lost over $2.8 billion to attacks since 2021, per Chainalysis. And a significant share of these exploits used some variant of the same mechanic: flash loans.

A flash loan is a smart contract feature that lets a trader borrow millions of dollars with no collateral, on the condition that the loan is repaid inside the same transaction. The legitimate use cases include arbitrage between exchanges, collateral swaps without unwinding positions, and liquidation bots that maintain solvency in lending markets.

The attack pattern is the same mechanic pointed in the wrong direction.

A borrower takes out the loan, uses the funds to manipulate an oracle or drain a poorly designed pool, profits from the manipulation, and repays the loan, all before the transaction settles. If any step fails, the whole sequence rolls back, so the attacker risks nothing but gas fees.

The XRP Ledger does not let this work. A draft amendment filed on the XRPL standards repository earlier this week, proposing concentrated liquidity and StableSwap-style pools for the chain’s native automated market maker, included a single line in its Security Considerations section: “Flash loan attacks are structurally impossible. XRPL transactions are atomic without composable intra-transaction calls.”

What that means is that XRPL transactions either fully succeed or fully fail, like an Ethereum transaction. But unlike Ethereum, an XRPL transaction cannot call into another contract during its execution. The borrow-manipulate-repay sequence that defines a flash loan attack needs at least three nested operations inside a single transaction envelope.

That is a meaningful architectural choice, and it has a cost. Flash loans are not only an attack tool. They have become a structural component of Ethereum DeFi, with Aave, dYdX, and other major protocols offering them as a product. Arbitrage traders use flash loans to clear price differences between exchanges in a single atomic action.

Liquidation bots use them to keep over-collateralized lending positions solvent. Sophisticated DeFi users use them for collateral swaps that would otherwise require capital that gets tied up for hours. XRPL gives up all of that in exchange for closing the attack class entirely.

For most of XRPL’s history, the tradeoff did not matter because the chain’s DeFi footprint was small. That is changing. Tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger have crossed $3 billion in total value, including the Ripple-JPMorgan-Mastercard-Ondo Finance pilot last month that processed a tokenized U.S. Treasury redemption in under five seconds.

The draft AMM amendment, if it passes, would close the capital-efficiency gap that has held XRPL DeFi behind Ethereum, opening the chain to a wider set of trading and yield strategies.

If the AMM amendment passes and XRPL’s DeFi liquidity grows toward something institutional capital can deploy at scale, the question becomes whether structural exploit resistance is a real competitive advantage or just a feature that institutions ignore in favor of where the liquidity already is.

Senator Lummis Warns China Will Overtake the US in Crypto if CLARITY Bill Stalls

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Senator Lummis Warns China Will Overtake the US in Crypto if CLARITY Bill Stalls

The United States will lose its leadership position in crypto to other countries, including China, if US lawmakers fail to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), a crypto market structure bill, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.

Passing a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework would “ensure” that other countries “do not write the rules of the next financial era,” Lummis said. She added in a separate X post:

“America built the dollar-dominated financial system that has anchored global stability for a century. The Clarity Act ensures we build the next one. The time to act is now, before Beijing decides it will.”

In May, the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act after the legislation had stalled for months, reviving crypto industry hopes that the bill might be codified into law in 2026.

Source: Senator Cynthia Lummis

The crypto market structure bill is one of the most significant pieces of crypto regulations in the US, but it is unclear if it will be signed into law in 2026 due to opposition from the banking lobby and the looming US midterm elections.

Related: ‘We are so close this time’ — Senator Lummis on market structure bill

JPMorgan CEO says banks will oppose CLARITY, as the window to pass it narrows

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said on Friday that banks will oppose the latest version of the bill because it still allows crypto companies to pay interest on user deposits.

He added that the current iteration of the CLARITY Act does not impose the same anti-money laundering (AML) and capital reserve requirements on crypto companies that banks must follow.

The full text of the CLARITY Act. Source: US Congress

“The banks will not accept it that way,” Dimon said, adding that the banks would continue to “fight” the bill. Dimon was critical of crypto exchange Coinbase and its CEO Brian Armstrong’s efforts to pass the bill.

“No one is going to bow down to this guy or that company,” Dimon said. Meanwhile, the window to pass the CLARITY Act is narrowing as the US heads into the midterm election season.

If the bill is not signed into law in 2026, the window to pass the legislation may not come again until 2030, Senator Lummis warned.

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

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.

Texas Names Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee As State Eyes Direct Bitcoin Custody

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Texas Names Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee As State Eyes Direct Bitcoin Custody

Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock on Thursday announced the members of the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee, a newly created body tasked with guiding the state’s management, custody, and valuation of bitcoin holdings. 

The committee was established under Senate Bill 21, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and signed into law on June 22, 2025 — making Texas one of the most prominent states in the nation to move forward with an operational bitcoin reserve.

“The Legislature gave the Comptroller’s office a clear responsibility to administer the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and that work must be done with transparency, security and strong financial controls,” Hancock said in a statement Thursday. “This advisory committee brings together the kind of expertise needed to help the state carry out that direction carefully, responsibly and in the best interest of Texas taxpayers.”