Home Blog Page 287

Bitcoin Open Interest Sees Largest Increase In 2026 — What’s Happening?

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Bitcoin Open Interest Sees Largest Increase In 2026 — What’s Happening?

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

This week, Bitcoin saw a significant surge in bullish momentum, driving its price from $78,000 to as high as $82,855. While the flagship cryptocurrency has pulled back from this local high, it is yet to shift towards a bearish structure. Interestingly, a recent on-chain analysis revealed significant growth in derivatives activity in the Bitcoin market. 

Bitcoin Open Interest Climbs Across Major Exchanges

In a recent Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform, pseudonymous analyst Darkfost revealed an interesting change in Bitcoin’s derivatives market participation. This on-chain observation is based on the Open Interest metric.

Open Interest refers to the total number of active futures contracts held by traders in the market. Rising open interest is often interpreted as a sign that fresh capital is entering derivatives markets, especially during periods of strengthening price momentum.

Notably, Bitcoin’s Open Interest has just increased by the largest margin since the beginning of 2026, despite funding rates remaining in negative territory, as they have over the past couple of weeks.

According to Darkfost, Bitcoin’s latest growth in Open Interest has already exceeded levels seen during Bitcoin’s previous all-time high in 2025. Thus, it becomes more evident that market participation across exchanges has indeed been positive.

Bitcoin

Source: CryptoQuant

Binance Sees $2.5B In Open Interest, Leads Other Major Exchanges

The crypto analyst went on to highlight Binance’s role in the dynamic currently in play. As Darkfost explained, roughly 34% of the market share is accounted for by Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. 

As of May 5, the exchange reported an average monthly open interest of approximately $2.5 billion. Other exchanges were also cited in the Quicktake post, with Gate.io reporting an Open Interest growth of about $1.75 billion.

Bybit then followed in the Open Interest ranking, with an average Open Interest of roughly $1.15 billion. According to Darkfost, these figures recorded by the cited exchanges reflect a growing optimism in the Bitcoin market, as opposed to conditions seen early in the year.

When optimism grows, it typically prompts traders to increase their risk exposure once more. However, Darkfost noted that this could make the BTC market more fragile, as large clusters of long or short positions become vulnerable to liquidation events.

When prices move sharply against overleveraged traders, forced liquidations can accelerate volatility and amplify price swings in both directions. Hence, while the rise in Open Interest may be beneficial to Bitcoin’s price, market participants should remain cautious of sudden volatility spikes.

As of this writing, Bitcoin is valued at around $80,265, up 0.5% from yesterday.

Bitcoin

The price of BTC on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

The Power of Payment Orchestration in Retail Expansion

info@uweb3.io
-
0
The Power of Payment Orchestration in Retail Expansion

At the Retail Technology Show, the conversation around scaling retail operations highlighted a significant move toward unified payment environments. Anika Tazmin, Channel Sales and Partnerships Lead at Ecommpay, joined the discussion to explain how the industry is shifting toward payment orchestration to manage large transaction volumes and rapid international expansion. Tazmin described the orchestrator as a central “receptionist” that directs merchants to the most appropriate specialist acquirers, ensuring that every transaction is routed through the most effective path.

This orchestration model is currently a massive trend because it grants merchants unprecedented control over their entire payment ecosystem. By utilizing a single integration, retailers can access a multitude of different Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) and regions without the traditional friction of multiple individual setups. Tazmin noted that this approach leads to better service, improved pricing, and higher acceptance rates, effectively transforming payments from a back-end necessity into a tool that boosts revenue and brand reputation.

To prepare clients for this shift, Ecommpay focuses on building deep relationships with a multitude of partners to understand where each one excels. The goal is to move away from a segmented ecosystem and toward a unified environment where partners communicate and collaborate. By streamlining these connections, Ecommpay ensures that merchants can access a wide array of features and solutions through just one or two core relationships, allowing them to focus on the booming retail market rather than managing complex technical divisions.

Key Highlights from Anika Tazmin:

  • The Orchestration Shift: Tazmin explains why payment orchestration is the dominant trend for retailers seeking speed and control during global expansion.

  • A Unified Ecosystem: How a single integration can now provide a multitude of payment solutions, preventing the fragmentation often seen in traditional retail setups.

  • Strategic Routing: A look at how orchestrators route queries to different acquirers to achieve the best possible service, pricing, and acceptance rates for the merchant.

  • Beyond Transactions: Why viewing payments as a brand-booster and revenue-generator is essential for modern retailers in a competitive market.

Crypto wallets are being rebuilt for AI agents, Trust Wallet and Mesh executives say at Consensus Miami

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Crypto wallets are being rebuilt for AI agents, Trust Wallet and Mesh executives say at Consensus Miami

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Crypto wallets are being rebuilt for AI agents, said executives from Trust Wallet and Mesh on Thursday, with companies racing to give autonomous software a way to hold value, prove identity and transact on-chain.

Appearing at CoinDesk Miami, Arjun Mukherjee, chief technology officer at Mesh, said the shift is driven by what he called the cold-start problem for AI agents.

“An agent can’t do anything until it has a wallet funded,” he said. “It’s very difficult for the agent to act until it has a wallet to do something, and it has value to transact with. And suddenly, enter crypto. Crypto has found its kind of niche, its killer app.”

Mesh, which builds a connectivity layer across exchanges, wallets, smart contracts and decentralized exchanges, has launched a product called Smart Funding that routes payments across chains, networks, accounts and tokens for both human and agent users.

Felix Fan, CEO of Trust Wallet, said the company is taking a deliberately bifurcated approach to agent integration. On its consumer crypto app, where users hold the keys, agents act as a copilot to simplify navigation and reduce friction without taking custodial control.

“Users always hold the keys and all these permissions. Every single step, they need to give consent,” Fan said. The agent’s role on the consumer side is to “speed up the process and also help them to better understand how to navigate on-chain.”

On the developer side, Trust Wallet has taken a more aggressive posture. The company recently launched an agent kit that lets agents autonomously make trades, transfers and other on-chain actions, and it is implementing EIP-8004, an Ethereum proposal that provides agents with on-chain identity and credit-style scores.

“On the crypto app side, we’re enabling humans to have superpowers with AI, whereas on the developer side, we are enabling agents to do something like humans,” Fan said.

On where liability sits, Mukherjee said Mesh is wary of importing traditional finance’s friction into agent payments.

“AI should augment human judgment, not replace human responsibility or accountability,” he said, adding that responsibility for an agent’s actions sits with the institution that deploys it.

Both panelists said they expect AI labs to launch their own wallets. X has already been vocal about X Money, Fan noted, and “Grok will very likely have a wallet within.”

“Claude and all these players, they can run on-chain maybe just tomorrow,” Fan said. “So we are open for that challenge.”

Mukherjee said Mesh’s strategy is to remain agnostic across wallets, networks and tokens.

“If there’s Web3-based e-commerce on any network, on any token, and any connected funds, we all win,” he said.

Fuutura Responds to IMF Stablecoin Concerns with Compliance-First Infrastructure for Emerging Markets

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Fuutura Responds to IMF Stablecoin Concerns with Compliance-First Infrastructure for Emerging Markets

Following the release of the International Monetary Fund’s April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report, blockchain infrastructure company Fuutura has set out its position on the rising volume of cross-border stablecoin flows directed toward emerging economies.

The IMF’s findings highlight a massive structural shift in global money movement, noting that cross-border flows of the two largest dollar-pegged stablecoins, Tether and USD Coin, skyrocketed from approximately $12billion in early 2020 to $316billion by early 2025, significantly outpacing the flows of both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

While the IMF report acknowledges that stablecoins can offer improved settlement efficiency, faster cross-border payments, and broader access to digital finance, it also raises serious concerns. The institution warns that rapid stablecoin adoption in emerging markets—without appropriate regulation and backstops—could lead to currency substitution, weaken the transmission of monetary policy, and increase capital flow volatility. In response, Fuutura is positioning its unified identity, payment, and trading platform as a solution built to satisfy the exact regulatory oversight the IMF is advocating, while simultaneously serving users in markets unreached by legacy financial infrastructure.

Addressing structural demand and regulatory gaps
Ellis McGrath, co-founder and chief technology officer at Fuutura

According to Fuutura, the same flows that currently warrant enhanced regulatory oversight also reflect a genuine, structural demand for financial services that traditional banking infrastructure has consistently failed to deliver in the Global South. By adopting a “compliance by design” approach, the Panama-based company aims to facilitate secure participation in the global financial system for underserved populations without compromising on transparency.

Ellis McGrath, co-founder and chief technology officer at Fuutura, explained that the IMF’s findings simply validate what professionals in cross-border financial services have witnessed for years. McGrath noted that existing infrastructure was not built to give regulators the visibility they need to effectively manage these massive capital flows. He stated that Fuutura addresses this specific gap across cross-border payments, identity verification, and trading by ensuring compliance is not merely layered on top of an existing platform, but is a fundamental, fully integrated part of how the system functions at every level.

On-chain compliance by design

The defining architectural choice for Fuutura is the integration of compliance at the foundational smart contract level. Unlike many digital asset platforms that operate using perimeter compliance—where KYC and AML checks are conducted at onboarding while transaction monitoring sits on top of the technology stack—Fuutura records verified KYC and AML attestations directly on-chain. These attestations are securely tied to the user’s wallet, ensuring that every interaction, from executing a trade to moving funds across borders, is strictly gated by the presence of that attestation. This results in an infrastructure where compliance is enforceable on every transaction and easily auditable by regulators.

Oliver Cook KC, co-founder and chief legal officer at Fuutura, emphasized that the platforms destined to earn regulators’ trust will be the ones that actively make their work easier. Cook highlighted that architecture must be open to inspection by default, reflecting a company posture that welcomes the questions required for responsible oversight. As Fuutura begins the phased rollout of its unified ecosystem, the firm believes the future of digital finance depends heavily on builders and regulators working together to extend secure, compliant financial access to the millions of businesses and individuals across emerging economies.

Swiss central bank bitcoin reserve push fails over signature shortfall

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Swiss central bank bitcoin reserve push fails over signature shortfall

Swiss campaigners will drop a bid to get the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to hold bitcoin BTC$80,898.48 in its reserves after collecting only about half of the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger a national referendum.

The initiative sought to change Switzerland’s constitution so the SNB would hold bitcoin alongside gold and foreign-currency reserves. The group had 18 months to gather signatures and push for the country’s direct democracy to vote on the subject.

The Federal Chancellery listed the proposal as an amendment to the country’s Federal Constitution, requiring part of the SNB’s monetary reserves to be held in gold and bitcoin. The text did not specify an allocation.

The campaign had framed bitcoin as a neutral reserve asset and a hedge against exposure to dollar- and euro-denominated holdings. Supporters said those currencies make up roughly three-quarters of the SNB’s foreign-currency reserves, according to Reuters.

The SNB had already rejected the idea last year, when it opposed adding bitcoin to its reserves over concerns surrounding the cryptocurrency’s liquidity and volatility.

Crypto industry cheers Senate Clarity Act markup date as market structure push resumes

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Crypto industry cheers Senate Clarity Act markup date as market structure push resumes

The Senate Banking Committee will meet on Thursday, May 14, to consider the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, putting the crypto market structure bill back on the calendar after a January postponement.

The notice follows months of talks over regulatory jurisdiction, consumer protections, developer protections and stablecoin rewards. CoinDesk reported last week that crypto firms had backed a stablecoin yield compromise meant to unlock the bill.

Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, said the notice marks “a major step” toward clarity for more than 70 million Americans who use cryptocurrencies..

Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger called the markup notice “an important step toward establishing clear rules for digital asset markets.”

“This work reflects months of serious engagement on difficult questions, from SEC-CFTC jurisdiction to consumer protection and developer protections,” Mersinger said. “Clear statutes are what American consumers, businesses, and innovators deserve.”

Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute, called the markup “a make or break moment for American leadership in financial markets.” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, the group’s CEO, said the date is “the first step” toward giving builders and financial institutions certainty to build onchain in the U.S.

Ji Hun Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, said “the momentum is real, and the time is now.” The markup, he said, brings the U.S. closer to a framework that safeguards consumers, gives investors clear disclosures, protects developers and supports responsible innovation.

The markup gives Senate Banking another shot at moving the bill before the White House’s July 4 target for Clarity Act passage.

Though the crypto industry is cheering the hearing date, the banking industry said it still has concerns.

A joint letter addressed to Senate Banking Committee leaders Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren from a coalition of banking trade associations said that they still had some concerns with the bill, proposing edits to the text of the legislation.

TeraWulf’s AI Revenue Surges 117% but Posts $427M Loss

info@uweb3.io
-
0
TeraWulf’s AI Revenue Surges 117% but Posts $427M Loss

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf posted a net loss of $427 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from the $61.4 million loss recorded in the same period a year earlier.

Total revenue for the quarter came in at $34 million, with high-performance computing (HPC) lease revenue accounting for $21 million, roughly 60% of the total and a 117% jump from the prior quarter, according to a Friday announcement. Bitcoin mining revenue fell 50% to around $13 million.

The HPC revenue was driven by 60 megawatts of operational critical IT capacity at Lake Mariner, one of North America’s largest HPC campuses, leased to Core42. TeraWulf is also coordinating infrastructure delivery with Fluidstack and Google, with additional capacity buildings on track for delivery in 2026.  The company ended the quarter with approximately $3.1 billion in cash.

“Our capital structure is designed to align long-term financing with contracted cash flows, supporting disciplined growth while maintaining financial flexibility,” chief financial officer Patrick Fleury said.

Related: CoreWeave shows how crypto-era infrastructure quietly became AI’s backbone

TeraWulf accelerates AI transition

In October last year, TeraWulf announced a 25-year lease deal with Fluidstack, backed by Google, worth around $9.5 billion in contracted revenues, an expansion of an earlier 10-year commitment. The miner is also building out a national pipeline of power-advantaged sites, including a newly acquired 480 MW site in Hawesville, Kentucky, a 300 MW project in Lansing, New York, and a 210 MW site in Morgantown, Maryland, with potential to scale to 1 gigawatt.

“We are building a power-advantaged platform that we believe is increasingly differentiated in a market constrained by access to power,” CEO Paul Prager said, noting that the company’s Abernathy joint venture, a 168 MW HPC project under a 25-year lease, remains on track for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Shares of WULF closed the day down 2.6%, though the stock has gained more than 105% since the start of the year and is up over 30% in the past month.

TeraWulf shares decline. Source: Yahoo! Finance

Related: Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer Liquidates Entire BTC Treasury, Holdings Fall to Zero

Riot’s data center business generates $33 million in revenue

As Cointelegraph reported, Riot Platforms posted $167.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026, with its newly launched data center business contributing $33.2 million, helping offset a decline in Bitcoin mining revenue, which fell to $111.9 million from $142.9 million a year earlier.

Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI infrastructure as shrinking margins push the industry toward more predictable revenue, with Core Scientific, MARA Holdings, Hive, Hut 8 and Iren converting mining facilities into data centers or acquiring AI compute assets.

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

Sports betting should be regulated as a financial product, not gambling, aspiring prediction market provider says

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Sports betting should be regulated as a financial product, not gambling, aspiring prediction market provider says

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Sports betting should be regulated as a federal financial product rather than a state-licensed casino product, two panelists said Thursday.

Appearing at Consensus Miami 2026, Jacob Fortinsky, co-founder and CEO of sports betting platform Novig, said the legacy sportsbook model is structurally broken because it treats winning bettors as cheaters.

“Sports betting is really the only industry in the country that regularly limits and bans their power users,” Fortinsky said. He framed sports event contracts as binary financial instruments that “for so long have been treated as a gambling product and instead should really be treated as a financial product.” Globally, he said, sports betting is “a $2 trillion asset class still dominated by these legacy casinos.”

Adam Mastrelli, founder of 57 Maiden, a firm that builds AI-driven trading strategies for prediction markets, validated the critique with personal experience.

“My partner and I got kicked off of two big sportsbooks within two months of trading because we were sharp,” he said, It’s like “LeBron James getting kicked out of the NBA for being too good,” he added.

Mastrelli said the team turned to Novig, which he said charges no fees and allows traders to create synthetic positions.

Mastrelli said his firm’s edge decayed quickly, and of 154 proposed trading strategies, only three currently run profitably.

“This edge will go away,” he said, “so if you can build systems that can keep up with that edge and that alpha… then it becomes really, really intriguing.” His most profitable season, he said, was the WNBA.

Fortinsky said Novig is on track to transition this summer from a sweepstakes model live in 35 states to a federal DCM framework that will let it operate in all 50 states. An earlier attempt to be regulated at the state level in Colorado, he said, was a wake-up call. “Regulators told us essentially you’re naive if you think we care about consumer protection or innovation or market efficiency. We really just care about our tax revenue,” he said.

The federal-state fight, Fortinsky added, is “going to get to the Supreme Court in the next two or three years,” with 15 pending lawsuits between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Kalshi, Robinhood and various states. Within prediction markets, he argued sports is “counterintuitively actually the safest vertical,” given the bigger insider-trading and manipulation concerns around political and event-driven contracts.

Mastrelli, who said he avoids offshore platforms entirely, compared prediction markets to equities exchanges: “When I see a robust equities market now, this is AQR against SIG. It doesn’t go away.”

Kraken Parent Company Applies for OCC Charter in Move Toward Banking

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Kraken Parent Company Applies for OCC Charter in Move Toward Banking
Latest NewsPublishedMay 8, 2026

The US banking regulator has already approved similar charter applications for Coinbase, Ripple Labs, BitGo, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.

Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, announced that it had filed an application with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust company charter, following other digital asset companies.

In a Friday notice, Payward said that the OCC application, if approved, would result in the establishment of Payward National Trust Company, allowing it to “provide fiduciary custody and other services primarily for digital assets.” The application would make the Kraken parent one of a handful of crypto companies moving closer toward banking, following OCC approvals for Coinbase and others.

“A national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody,” said Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi. “This is not about being first; it is about getting the framework right so markets can scale with clarity, interoperability, and long-term vision for what clients will demand as these systems mature.”

The OCC, headed by US President Donald Trump’s nominee Jonathan Gould, approved similar charter applications for Ripple Labs, BitGo, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos in December. The agency has come under scrutiny for such approvals as it considers an application from World Liberty Financial, the crypto company co-founded by Trump and his sons. 

Related: Kraken parent Payward closes Bitnomial deal to expand US crypto derivatives

According to Payward, the OCC application would build on its Special Purpose Depository Institution established in Wyoming through Kraken Financial. The company also holds a Federal Reserve master account, giving it access to the US payment services system.

Kraken still eyeing public offering after confidential filing

While the crypto exchange’s parent company has closed acquisition deals with Bitnominal and announced an agreement to buy Reap, Kraken could still be planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the US. Sethi said in May that the company was “about 80% ready” to go public by 2027 as the exchange announced a partnership with MoneyGram.

Magazine: XRP ‘probably going to $12,’ Bitcoin ETFs add $1B: Market Moves

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.

Trump Media’s Q1 loss widens to $406 million on bitcoin, CRO markdowns

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Trump Media’s Q1 loss widens to $406 million on bitcoin, CRO markdowns

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) reported a $405.9 million first-quarter net loss on $871,200 in revenue, widening from $31.7 million a year earlier as unrealized losses on its crypto holdings weighed on results.

The parent company of Truth Social booked $244 million in unrealized losses on its cryptocurrency holdings. It also recorded a $108.2 million investment loss tied mostly to equity securities.

Trump Media held 9,542.16 bitcoin BTC$80,778.84 at the end of March, with a cost basis of $1.13 billion and a fair value of $647.1 million, the firm wrote in a filing with the SEC. That position is now worth around $770 million.

The company also held 756.1 million CRO$0.07107 with a cost basis of $113.9 million and a fair value of $53 million. Trump Media closed the purchase of $105 million in CRO last year as part of a Crypto.com deal that tied the token to Truth Social and Truth+ rewards.

Trump Media reported $17.9 million in operating cash flow for the quarter, helped by the sale of previously purchased put options on pledged bitcoin and bitcoin-related securities.

A portion of the firm’s bitcoin is locked up. Trump Media said 4,260.73 BTC, worth $289 million at quarter-end, served as collateral for convertible notes.

DJT also held covered call options on 4,000 BTC with a counterparty to hedge its exposure to the cryptocurrency’s volatility. Those options require 2,000 BTC to be held as collateral with the counterparty.

The company raised $2.5 billion for a bitcoin treasury strategy last year, then disclosed a $2 billion bitcoin stack in July.

Revenue rose 6% from $821,200 a year earlier. Media revenue was $810,100, while Truth.Fi generated $61,100 in management fees tied to ETF offerings.

1...286287288...1,268Page 287 of 1,268