Market Updates
Macro, Regulation and Markets
Commissioner Hester Peirce renewed her call for a three-year “safe harbor” that would let crypto projects launch under bespoke disclosure rules, urged clearer tests to separate crypto assets from investment contracts, and said most airdrops, NFTs and payment stablecoins should be exempt from securities laws (19 May 2025). [source]
The US Senate voted 66-32 on 19 May 2025 to invoke cloture on the GENIUS Act, clearing the way for floor debate on the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. [source]
Robinhood filed a 42-page petition on 20 May 2025 asking the SEC to recognise tokenised RWAs as legal equivalents of their underlying assets and to permit a hybrid “Real World Asset Exchange” with off-chain matching and on-chain settlement. [source]
In the last 24 hours, $231.47M of crypto positions were liquidated across 77,905 traders, with $92.81M from longs and $138.65M from shorts. ETH accounted for $84.81M of the total, followed by BTC $59.05M, SOL $8.00M, DOGE $5.84M, MOODENG $5.82M, AAVE $5.40M, and other tokens $18.95M. The largest single liquidation was a $2.00M BTCUSD position on Bybit. [source]
Exchanges and Listings
Bybit has added 78 US, European and Asian equities to its MT5 Gold & FX suite, enabling USDT-denominated CFD trading in stocks, gold, oil, indices and forex from 20 May 2025. [source]
Bithumb has lifted its South-Korean market share to roughly 25%—up from single digits in 2023—and has appointed Samsung Securities to lead an IPO targeted for late 2025. [source]
Binance Alpha will list TOKYO GAMES TOKEN (TGT) on 21 May 2025; the gaming token’s airdrop can be claimed with Alpha points and underpins the forthcoming title “Tokyo Beast” from a leading Japanese mobile studio. [source]
Raises
Catena Labs, founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville, secured an $18 M seed round led by a16z Crypto with Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Tom Brady backing plans to build an AI-native bank. [source]
Fintech startup Slash closed a $41 M Series B at a $370 M valuation, led by Goodwater Capital, to expand its fiat-to-crypto treasury management services for businesses. [source]
Bitcoin
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said on 19 May 2025 that, despite his personal scepticism, the bank will let clients buy Bitcoin but will not provide custody; he added that JPMorgan’s blockchain uses remain “limited” versus its AI initiatives. [source]
Solana
Anza announced Alpenglow, a new consensus protocol for Solana. It scraps TowerBFT and Proof of History in favour of two components: Votor, which handles single- or double-round voting, and Rotor, a streamlined data-dissemination layer. Simulations indicate block finality drops from about 12.8 s today to a median 150 ms (as low as 100 ms). [source]
Rotor cuts network hops, and the design remains safe with 20 percent adversarial plus 20 percent offline stake.
A prototype is already live; public testnet is planned “in the coming months” with a target for mainnet activation late 2025, pending community approval. Internal testing is due to finish by year-end.
Validator tips on Solana’s Jito network jumped 57% to $3.63 M a day on 19 May 2025 as new meme-coin activity in the Believe ecosystem diverted flows from Pump.fun. [source]
True Markets raised $11 M and launched TrueX, a Solana-focused, stablecoin-native trading platform led by former Coinbase and Goldman executives. [source]
Developments
Celestia announced Lotus, its planned v4 mainnet upgrade that combines native TIA interoperability through Hyperlane with economic and staking policy changes. [source]
Hyperlane arrives as a Cosmos SDK module, adding x/core and x/warp to support direct TIA transfers across Celestia rollups and 100+ Hyperlane chains; it launches with a multisig interchain security module and may migrate to a ZK-based version.
CIP-29 lowers both inflation and disinflation rates by 33%, cutting year-1.5 inflation from 7.2% to ~5.0%; CIP-30 ends auto-claiming of staking rewards; CIP-31 folds rewards into vesting schedules; a new 25% validator commission cap closes a potential lockup loophole.
Lotus is already live on Arabica testnet, will reach Mocha testnet shortly, and is targeted for Mainnet Beta in June 2025, with upgrade documentation available for node operators.
Circle is exploring a sale at about $5B while still pursuing an IPO; sources say Ripple’s $4-5B cash-plus-XRP offer was rejected and Coinbase remains in discussions. [source]
Fluid’s ETH-USDC concentrated-liquidity pool has amassed more than $8.5M in losses since December 2024 due to a rebalance design that favours arbitrageurs; the team plans dynamic fees, new pool ranges and token compensation ahead of a v2 upgrade slated for June–July 2025. [source]
Genesis Global Capital sued parent Digital Currency Group and CEO Barry Silbert on 20 May 2025, seeking to claw back over $3.1 B in loans and asset transfers made before its bankruptcy filing. [source]
Binance asked a Delaware court on 20 May 2025 to dismiss FTX’s $1.76 B clawback claim, arguing the complaint is “legally deficient” and lacks evidence of improper transfers. [source]
The US DOJ has opened a criminal investigation into the 11 May 2025 breach at Coinbase that exposed some customer data; the exchange estimates a financial impact of $180-400 M and says passwords were not compromised. [source]
Market Data
BTC ETF
BTC ETFs total net daily flow for 19 May 2025 is +$667.4M.
Breakdown:
IBIT: +$305.9M
FBTC: +$188.1M
BITB: +$16.0M
ARKB: +$155.3M
BTCO: –$5.3M
EZBC: $0.0M
BRRR: $0.0M
HODL: +$7.4M
BTCW: $0.0M
GBTC: $0.0M
BTC: $0.0M
Total net daily flow: +$667.4M
Total cumulative flows to date: $43,071.7M
ETH ETF
ETH ETFs total net daily flow for 19 May 2025 is +$13.7M.
Breakdown:
ETHA: +$13.7M
FETH: $0.0M
ETHW: $0.0M
CETH: $0.0M
ETHV: $0.0M
QETH: $0.0M
EZET: $0.0M
ETHE: $0.0M
ETH: $0.0M
Total net daily flow: +$13.7M
Total cumulative flows to date: $12,905.6M
Sector Returns
Top Performing Sectors
Privacy sector is up 1.57% over the past 24 hours (XMR up 1.91%, ZEC down 1.68%).
Ethereum DeFi sector has risen 0.99% over the past day (AAVE up 9.55%, EIGEN down 5.79%, RPL down 4.21%).
Cosmos Ecosystem sector is up 0.94% over the past 24 hours (OSMO up 1.06%, STRD up 0.11%).
Worst Performing Sectors
Bitcoin Ecosystem sector is down 5.52% over the past 24 hours (PUPS down 11.64%, ORDI down 4.69%, STX down 3.69%).
Hyperliquid Ecosystem sector is down 4.26% over the past day (HFUN down 7.11%, PURR down 2.65%).
Solana DeFi sector has fallen 3.14% in the past 24 hours (RAY down 6.28%, JUP down 3.46%, KMNO up 2.92%).
Token Returns
Top Performing Tokens
AAVE (Ethereum DeFi) is up 9.55% in the past 24 hours.
RONIN (Gaming) is up 7.56% in the past 24 hours.
GFI (RWA) is up 3.42% in the past 24 hours.
BONK (Memecoin) is up 3.10% in the past 24 hours.
KMNO (Solana DeFi) has risen 2.92% in the past 24 hours.
Worst Performing Tokens
PUPS (Bitcoin Ecosystem) is down 11.64% in the past 24 hours.
WLD (AI) is down 10.56% in the past 24 hours.
PYTH (Oracle) is down 10.46% in the past 24 hours.
FART (Memecoin) is down 9.12% in the past 24 hours.
ARB (L2) has fallen 9.03% in the past 24 hours.
Protocol Updates
Bi-weekly update, 20 May 2025
Protocol: Rocket Pool
Date: 2025-05-20 11:14:38
Link: https://medium.com/rocket-pool/bi-weekly-update-20-may-2025-1b64b2bcfc80
Description: Maverick posted Rocket Pool’s mid-May bi-weekly update outlining recent development milestones, protocol statistics, and community efforts.
Sei Labs Publishes Whitepaper for Sei Giga: The First Multi-Proposer EVM Layer 1 Blockchain
Protocol: Sei
Date: 2025-05-19 12:59:43
Description: Jay Jog posted the whitepaper for Sei Giga, describing a multi-proposer EVM Layer 1 architecture designed to increase throughput and fairness.
Introducing the Lotus upgrade: native TIA interop and reduced issuance
Protocol: Celestia
Date: 2025-05-19 16:59:07
Link: https://blog.celestia.org/lotus/
Description: Alex Beckett posted about Celestia’s Lotus upgrade, which enables native TIA interoperability and reduces token issuance to curb inflation.
Governance
Add spWXDAI to Aave V3 Gnosis Instance as Collateral
Protocol: Aave
Date: 2025-05-20 09:48:04
Link: https://governance.aave.com/t/add-spwxdai-to-aave-v3-gnosis-instance-as-collateral/22120
Description: gs.Grey proposed adding spWXDAI as a collateral asset to the Aave V3 deployment on Gnosis Chain, providing risk parameters and motivation.
Chaos Labs Risk Stewards - Adjustment of Supply Caps, Borrow Caps and Debt Ceiling on Aave V3 - 05.19.25
Protocol: Aave
Date: 2025-05-19 19:35:11
Description: ChaosLabs proposed adjusting supply caps, borrow caps and the debt ceiling for various Aave V3 assets based on updated risk data.
[Chaos Labs] ETHGas - Risk Analysis
Protocol: Ether.fi
Date: 2025-05-19 21:09:01
Link: https://governance.ether.fi/t/chaos-labs-ethgas-risk-analysis/2959
Description: chaoslabs posted a risk analysis of the ETHGas product, highlighting market and protocol risks and recommending parameter limits.
Introducing Steakhouse Financial as Official Risk Contributors
Protocol: Kamino Finance
Date: 2025-05-20 10:46:24
Link: https://gov.kamino.finance/t/introducing-steakhouse-financial-as-official-risk-contributors/653
Description: toothfairy proposed appointing Steakhouse Financial as official risk contributors to Kamino Finance, outlining responsibilities and compensation.
May 20, 2025 - Open Discussion of Proposals Governance Call
Protocol: Arbitrum Foundation
Date: 2025-05-19 19:32:01
Link: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/may-20-2025-open-discussion-of-proposals-governance-call/29247
Description: Juanrah announced an open governance call on 20 May 2025 to discuss active Arbitrum proposals and gather community feedback.
Arbitrum Audit Program - Audit Firms Application Process
Protocol: Arbitrum Foundation
Date: 2025-05-19 15:16:12
Link: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrum-audit-program-audit-firms-application-process/29245
Description: Arbitrum posted guidelines for audit firms to apply to the new Arbitrum Audit Program, detailing requirements and timelines.
MYSO x Across Proposal #2
Protocol: Across
Date: 2025-05-20 00:24:55
Link: https://forum.across.to/t/myso-x-across-proposal-2/2060
Description: smoleclipse proposed the second collaboration between MYSO and Across, covering liquidity incentives and cross-chain deployment parameters.
[Executable] Set resolver for .ceo TLD
Protocol: ENS
Date: 2025-05-20 11:21:44
Link: https://discuss.ens.domains/t/executable-set-resolver-for-ceo-tld/20820
Description: nick.eth submitted an executable proposal to set the resolver contract for the .ceo top-level domain.
Programmatic Tooling Rewards: A Proposal for Sustainable Governance Infrastructure
Protocol: ENS
Date: 2025-05-19 13:35:38
Description: nick.eth proposed a programmatic rewards framework to fund tooling that supports sustainable ENS governance.
May 2025 Governance Roundtable: BTC Staking & Starknet Features post v0.14.0
Protocol: StarkNet
Date: 2025-05-20 06:01:30
Description: 0xBeja announced a governance roundtable to discuss BTC staking and new features introduced in Starknet v0.14.0.
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