Cryptopolitan

BTC supply at a loss has returned to levels typical of a bear market. As of May 2025, 7.75M coins are held at a loss, testing the patience of investors.
BTC traded just above $77,000, leaving a larger part of the supply at a loss. The coins at a loss varied between 7.64M and 7.75M, depending on the exact metrics.
BTC supply in loss remains elevated, while the average cost basis is very close to the current market price, building an overhang of spot BTC for a capitulation event. | Source: CoinGlass.
The overhang of coins held with unrealized losses is a direct danger for an eventual capitulation. If other factors do not boost the price of BTC, the overhang may be a factor for capitulation.
Only around 53% of the BTC supply is held with unrealized gains, based on BGeometrics data.
Will the new BTC holders remain steady?
In 2026, BTC switched holders, with accumulation coming from strategic whales. As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, old whales with a low cost basis were among the top sellers.
Currently, the supply in loss is still lower than February’s peak of 9.7M coins. However, in 2026, there was a rollover of ownership, with new whales buying at a new price range.
ETF holders are among the first to shed BTC, while former reliable buyers from treasury companies are almost inactive.
BTC is now trading in another tight range, with whale accumulation at lower prices and distribution above $78,000. This setup benefits strategic whales that have adapted to the new sideways trading and volatility.
BTC volatility has been down to 1% in the past month, but this tight range can still lead to liquidations and speculative trading.
Will BTC holders support or crash the market?
Almost all types of wallets moved BTC in some form. However, the panic-selling or strategic distribution affected different periods.
In total, the largest ‘humpback whale’ wallets shed 8.5% of their holdings in the past 12 months. Smaller whale wallets decreased by 3.72%.
In the past 30 days, wallets with 10-100 BTC decreased by a total of 41, while shark wallets mostly held their BTC.
BTC sharks are the most numerous and influential holders, with minimal distribution in the past year. | Source: Dune Analytics.
The biggest panic capitulation was in shrimp wallets with under 1 BTC, where over 42,000 wallets were emptied out in a mass retail capitulation.
BTC is highly dependent on the readiness of whales to hold for the long term. Despite the recent market slide, the recent market cycle has not seen a really deep capitulation of over 70%.
Since February, BTC has been accumulated even with a rising cost basis. Accumulation started at around $72,000 per BTC, recently rising to a cost basis of $78,000. As of May 25, the average cost basis is at $77,253, exposing holders to a relatively small unrealized loss on average.
The past month showed retail shrimp wallets were more likely to capitulate, while other wallet cohorts mostly retained their holdings. The spot supply overhang is thus still safe from a panic-selling capitulation, though some whales may decide on strategic distribution and prevent the BTC price from rallying in the short term.
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Security warnings issued on May 25, 2026, indicate that about $3.2 million has been siphoned from 86 Gnosis Safes in just two hours. This is via the Base and Ethereum blockchain networks. The vulnerability exploited a smart contract called “SquidRouterModule.” It caused instant confusion in the crypto community due to its similar name to the official Squid Router network.
According to reports, the stolen funds were instantly converted into approximately $3 million in DAI tokens via the attacker-controlled Uniswap V3 pools. The hacker used the wallet address 0xA447…54859, which was previously sent 2.1 ETH via TornadoCash.
86 Gnosis safes targeted in a new hack
Security firms such as PeckShield and Blockaid were the first to detect this exploit. In the report by PeckShield, the details of the SquidRouterModule exploit were provided, along with the actual flow of funds. This included not only the use of TornadoCash but also exchanging all tokens for DAI.
#PeckShieldAlert The SquidRouterModule has been exploited for ~$3M in assets.
The exploiter, who was originally funded with 2.1 $ETH from #TornadoCash, has swapped the stolen funds for ~3M $DAI. The stolen assets are currently sitting in the exploiter's wallet 0xA447…54859 pic.twitter.com/RAmpIZQhQh
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 25, 2026
In its report, Blockaid mentioned that 86 Gnosis Safes had been exploited in less than two hours, and all tokens exchanged using liquidity pools controlled by the attacker. Previously, users had authorized these contracts within their Gnosis Safes with elevated privileges, without requiring user signatures.
The root cause lies in the design of the third-party Gnosis Safe module itself. The contract, audited by Basescan and named SquidRouterModule, would accept an immutable string provided by the caller as proof of the message’s security.
As this string was clearly visible in the publicly available source code, it became possible to bypass all security measures. Following the provision of the string, the module allowed the execution of calldata provided within an array.
The fact that the module had already been whitelisted as a legitimate Safe Module by the victims enabled the attacker to withdraw funds from the Gnosis Safes regardless of the token type. The legitimate Squid Router contract (0xce16F69375520ab01377ce7B88f5BA8C48F8D666) uses a completely different architecture and has not been affected by this attack.
Squid Router distances itself from the hack incident
Squid Router’s official X account did not take long before setting the record straight. In its statement, the company made clear that the exploited contract was not built, deployed, or managed by Squid. It was identified as a smart wallet by another third party that decided to integrate with Squid and other projects, but never contacted the Squid team.
The team explained that there was nothing related to the core Squid protocol or its contracts regarding this incident. In addition, not all Squid users and integrators are affected. Moreover, Squid highlighted that initial public information could erroneously refer to SquidRouter based solely on the name of the exploited contract available on Basescan.
Binance’s CZ calls on devs to fix hack problems
As a clear indication of how increasingly vulnerable the crypto space has become in its supply chain, the founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ), has called for developers to swap their API keys after a GitHub data breach.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, CZ urged that if users have API keys in their code, even private repos, now is the time to double-check and change them. This is due to the risk of exposed API keys in the event of a breach, as they could be used by trading bots, DeFi protocols, analytics platforms, and other related services.
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Indonesia has blocked the prediction market platform Polymarket as it views it as an illegal online gambling service.
This was made known on Friday, May 22, by the country’s communications and digital ministry, and it also comes a few days after the site opened a wager on whether Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would leave office before his term expires in 2029.
Did Indonesia ban Polymarket?
Ministry official Alexander Sabar said in a statement that Polymarket’s activities violate Indonesian law as they “contain betting and speculation over events that are inconclusive.”
Gambling is illegal in the country, and authorities have been cracking down on online betting operations.
While the country’s stance on gambling is known, the timing for the ban is not coincidental, as a Polymarket contract asking when Prabowo would be “out as president” appeared on May 21. This was one day after Prabowo unveiled a plan to centralize government control over Indonesia’s most valuable commodity exports, including coal and palm oil.
Investors have been scrutinizing Prabowo’s economic policies throughout 2025 and 2026, and the bet drew attention on Indonesian social media.
Sabar said the government was also reviewing all social media accounts affiliated with Polymarket, according to Reuters.
Which other countries have blocked Polymarket?
The ban puts Indonesia alongside more than 30 countries that have restricted or blocked Polymarket. The Netherlands imposed a penalty order in February 2026 through its gambling authority, the Ksa, threatening fines of up to 420,000 euros per week if Polymarket continued serving Dutch users.
Ksa director Ella Seijsener stated that prediction markets “offer bets that are not permitted in our market under any circumstances, not even by license holders.”
Brazil also banned 27 prediction platforms outright, including the Polymarket and rival Kalshi.
The Brazilian National Monetary Council classified event-based contracts on politics, sports, and cultural outcomes as derivatives that fall outside authorized financial activity.
In January 2026, Ukraine restricted access to Polymarket after the platform hosted bets on the Russian-Ukrainian war, including contracts on the timing of city occupations in Donbas.
Polymarket processed over $270 million in Ukraine-related wagers in December 2025 alone. Portugal, France, Belgium, Romania, Singapore, Thailand, and several U.S. states have also taken enforcement action on Polymarket and Kalshi.
On Polymarket, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, and others are on the list of blocked countries in its own documentation. Some jurisdictions are limited to closing existing positions and cannot open new ones.
Are prediction markets gambling operations?
Prediction market operators, including Polymarket and its main competitor Kalshi, say their products are financial instruments, not wagers.
However, regulators in countries where they have been banned have applied their existing gambling laws to prediction markets and are treating staked money on uncertain real-world outcomes as betting without consideration for the technology behind them.
In the US, prediction markets have received support from the regulatory body, in this case, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which withdrew a 2024 proposal that would have banned contracts on elections and sports. Now the CFTC permits trading on authorized platforms under a regulated framework.
Polymarket’s scale makes it a target
Polymarket remains the second-largest prediction market by total value locked at $456 million, despite the regulatory pressures across various jurisdictions, trailing only Kalshi at $1.38 billion, according to DeFiLlama data. The platform processed $3.78 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days and generated $19.95 million in revenue over the same period.
The platform has raised $2.88 billion in total funding, including a $2 billion strategic investment from Intercontinental Exchange in October 2025 and a $600 million round in March 2026.
Polymarket is still bullish on global expansion despite the recent setbacks, as it recently appointed a representative in Japan, and it looks to get government approval in the country by 2030.
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Iran is now saying the ceasefire negotiations with the United States may be headed for a full breakdown, and for good.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected claims that any draft deal includes Iranian nuclear promises or a handover of enriched uranium, calling those reports a “pure lie” and said Washington’s pressure on that point has made further talks almost useless.
The ministry’s message was Iran is “not signing any agreement with the US” under those terms and added that “no one can claim we are close to reaching an agreement.”
Iran denies uranium handover claims as officials say talks with Washington are close to failure
Meanwhile, Tasnim also reported that Tehran is close to “cancelling” the talks completely. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei had used his Monday press conference to address the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil routes. He said Iran is not trying to charge ships a toll for passing through the strait. He also said Tehran does not collect tolls there now.
Esmaeil said people should be careful with the words they use, because fees, service costs, and tolls do not mean the same thing.
According to him, Iran and Oman are working on a system for safer shipping, and that some services may naturally cost money. He also tied part of that cost to environmental protection.
As you likely know, the Strait of Hormuz sits between Iran and Oman, and Esmaeil said those two countries are the ones physically present there, not Britain or France.
He added that scattered steps by other governments are making the situation harder, but regardless, they’re still working; a navigation system can be put in place quickly. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also visited Oman for talks linked to the strait.
Esmaeil said Iran knows the Strait is a global one, but Iran didn’t start this war. US and Israel did.
Trump tells regional leaders to join the Abraham Accords as he links Iran talks to a wider deal
Trump gave a very different message on Truth Social. He wrote that negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are “proceeding nicely,” but said there will either be a “Great Deal” or no deal at all. He also warned that failure could mean a return to “the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before.”
Trump said he spoke Saturday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Qatar Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Qatari official Ali al-Thawadi. He also named Pakistan’s Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, Türkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Jordan King Abdullah II, and Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
After naming them, Trump said the countries should, at minimum, sign the Abraham Accords at the same time. The countries he listed were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain. The UAE and Bahrain are already part of the accords.
Trump said one or two countries may have reasons not to join right away, but he argued that most should be ready to sign. He said that would make any settlement with Iran a much bigger regional event.
He also listed current Abraham Accords members as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and Kazakhstan. Trump said those countries have not paused or left the agreement, even during conflict and war.
The most direct line came near the end of his post. Trump said he is “mandatorily requesting” that all countries sign the Abraham Accords immediately. He then said that if Iran signs its own agreement with him as US president, it would be an honor to have Tehran join the same coalition.
Trump also said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should sign first, with others following after. He argued that countries refusing to join should not be part of the deal because that would show “bad intention.” He said he has asked his representatives to begin the process of bringing those countries into the accords.
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The rush for Satoshi’s Bitcoins and long-dormant tokens from that era has taken on a new dimension as a pseudonymous plaintiff called “Noah Doe” filed a lawsuit in a New York court asking to assume ownership of the tokens in wallets that include Satoshi Nakamoto and the Mt. Gox hacker addresses.
Early estimates of the tokens in those 39,069 wallets come up to about 3.7 million BTC valued close to $290 billion at current prices.
The wallets listed by the anonymous Noah Doe in the New York lawsuit to claim Satoshi-era Bitcoins. Source: @SaniExp via X/Twitter.
Who is suing to claim Satoshi’s Bitcoins?
In what has drawn comparisons to the logic behind the childhood saying “finders keepers, losers weepers,” two Wyoming-based shell companies, listed as ABC Company and XYZ Company, filed a 901-page suit on May 1, arguing that the coins in Satoshi’s and other dormant wallets qualify as legally abandoned property under New York lost-property law.
The plaintiffs say they reported the addresses to the NYPD, posted on-chain notices, and published press alerts before filing their claim.
This is not the first time Satoshi-era coins have drawn unnecessary attention. Cryptopolitan has previously reported on the growing hacker pressure on those tokens as quantum computing researchers make progress. Those tokens were also top of mind for Bitcoin developers as they drafted protective proposals like BIP-361.
And now, add a civil lawsuit to the growing list of rationale that people have presented for why the same pool of long-idle tokens should move or be frozen.
The lawsuit is technically flawed
Sani, the founder of onchain analytics platform Timechain Index, flagged a core problem with the filing. Most Satoshi-era coins sit in Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK) output formats. The plaintiffs, however, sent their legal notices to the corresponding Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) addresses, which in many cases hold no balance at all.
That mismatch means the notification effort may have reached the wrong addresses entirely.
But that’s just one hole in the obviously flawed ship’s hull. Even if Noah Doe and his proxies, ABC Company and XYZ Company, get favorable court rulings, it would be little more than academic because there’s no way to reassign funds on the Bitcoin network without holding the private keys for the wallets.
Ripple CTO David Schwartz agreed that the ruling would carry no practical weight on Bitcoin’s network.
While Schwartz’s agreement with the court’s ruling on the Bitcoins was more subtle, his jab at Bitcoin SV was not. His “BSV might honor it” comment drew a few giggles based on his running joke that the Craig Wright-linked fork has historically adopted governance positions that critics say make it more open to external legal pressure than the main Bitcoin network.
What will happen to Satoshi’s tokens when quantum arrives?
Noah Doe is the latest to stir the debate over what should happen to long-idle Bitcoin, particularly coins in older wallet formats where public keys are already exposed onchain.
BIP-361, a draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal introduced in April 2026 by Jameson Lopp and five other contributors, would freeze quantum-vulnerable P2PK addresses and phase out legacy signature types over a multi-year timeline. The proposal targets roughly 6.7 million BTC (about 34% of total supply) held in legacy formats, including an estimated 1.1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, according to Cryptopolitan’s previous reporting.
Separately, Paradigm researcher Dan Robinson published a competing concept on May 1 called Provable Address-Control Timestamps, or PACTs, which would let holders prove control of a private key without moving their coins or revealing their identity, Cryptopolitan reported.
The Noah Doe lawsuit faces steep odds. Bitcoin’s decentralized architecture makes court-ordered fund transfers functionally impossible without private keys, and the notification method used by the plaintiffs may not survive judicial scrutiny.
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Cybersecurity analysts have discovered a new fileless remote access trojan (RAT), named RemotePE. It is being used by the Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group believed to be associated with North Korea, to target banks and crypto companies.
According to a recent analysis, this malware functions entirely in memory, making it nearly impossible to leave any footprints on the affected computer systems.
Lazarus Group leans on social engineering to defraud investors
The Lazarus Group begins the hack through social engineering techniques. They pose as employees of trading firms via Telegram. To do this, the actors use fake copies of Calendly and Picktime, which are widely used to schedule meetings.
After getting approval for a meeting, the chain of events proceeds until the first piece of malware is installed. This “human in the loop” method enables Lazarus operators to develop effective lures.
The malware operates through a well-coordinated three-stage chain that aims to reduce disk operations. First is DPAPILoader. This is a dynamic-link library (DLL), also known by its filename Iassvc.dll since November 2023.
The program uses the Windows Data Protection Application Programming Interface (DPAPI) to decrypt a payload stored on disk.
The decrypted payload is then passed to RemotePELoader, which creates an HTTP connection to the C2 at aes-secure[.]net. After this, it downloads and runs the last RemotePE stage in-memory.
To bypass EDR solutions, RemotePELoader uses Hell’s Gate techniques and ETW Patching to evade detection.
Lazarus Group turns into silent crypto assassins. Source. X.
Finally, the main RemotePE RAT payload never comes into contact with the filesystem, maintaining low forensic visibility throughout the entire attack chain. This malware was first discovered in September 2025.
In the reported incident, a decentralized finance (DeFi) firm had its infrastructure compromised by three different RATs—RemotePE, PondRAT, and ThemeForestRAT—that eventually replaced one another.
Advanced tech and AI turn into traders’ worst nightmare
Earlier, crypto investors turned to AI and tech to streamline trading. Now, the same tools have fallen into hackers’ hands, causing them huge financial pains.
Environmental keying by DPAPI, memory-only execution, ETW patching, and Hell’s Gate make RemotePE nearly impossible to detect with traditional methods. Analysts at Fox-IT, an affiliate of NCC Group, have noted that these characteristics suggest the malware is designed to sustain itself in the long term to conduct reconnaissance before launching a strike, unlike typical disruptive malware attacks.
The Lazarus Group has already stolen about $577 million in crypto in the first four months of 2026. This accounts for 76% of all crypto thefts worldwide, despite just two major hacking incidents, according to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.
The percentage of crypto hacks attributable to North Korea has risen sharply. From single-digit figures in previous years to 64% in 2025 and 76% in 2026. Their record amount stolen is now at $6 billion since 2017. These funds allegedly finance the country’s weapons and nuclear development programs amid sanctions.
Hackers turn to AI to destabilize devs behind major tech entities
Cybersecurity experts have discovered a large-scale attack in which hackers targeted over 700 sites running the Ghost Content Management System, exploiting a critical SQL injection flaw. The cyberattacks gave attackers access to admin accounts’ usernames and passwords, enabling them to inject malware via JavaScript redirects into their ClickFix distribution channels.
The targeted platforms include academic institutions, AI endeavors, blockchain services, software-as-a-service vendors, cybersecurity research sources, news agencies, and fintech firms.
Victims who run into the fake CAPTCHA are asked to enter a Base64-encoded string into the Run dialog box. In this step, they can download a ZIP file containing a batch script. This batch script then runs a PowerShell command that will fetch either a signed DLL or JavaScript files from a remote server.
Earlier versions of the malware would run a DLL using the rundll32.exe. However, recent versions install an Inno Setup installer for an open-source version of the Electron application called Grape. Upon installation, the malware becomes persistent and polls the C2 domain web-telegram[.]ug, every 30 seconds.
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Strategy skipped another week of buying BTC, instead rebalancing its reserves with bonds. The playbook change arrived just a week after a peak five-digit BTC purchase.
Strategy skipped another week of purchasing BTC, while Executive Chairman Michael Saylor warning the company will instead dedicate resources to a bond purchase. Saylor stated the ‘BitVac’, short for BTC vacuum, will be changing away from the usual weekly purchases.
@grok what bonds his taking about?
— Saman Golesorkhi (@Radiog39) May 24, 2026
The company has held up to $2.5B in cash reserves. The bonds in question refer to a repurchase of older Strategy debt, namely $1.5B in debt due in 2029. This time, Strategy did not outline the financing source of its repurchase operations.
The BTC purchase delay may also be due to the US market holiday. The biggest investor fear is that Strategy may have sold some of its BTC to finance debt repurchases, making its playbook unstable.
The company will still be liable to pay STRC dividends of 11.5%, soon to become bi-weekly. Additional dividends are owed for older issuance of preferred shares STRD and STRK, which have not been used for months as a source of BTC purchases.
Strategy sold no STRC for the past week
The market anticipated this week’s pause in BTC purchases, as there were no data on STRC trading in the suitable price range for additional sales.
After a week of $2.2M in total new sales, STRC buyers also hit a pause, on a mix of skepticism and the longer waiting period until the ex-dividend date in June. In the past two months, Strategy fell into a pattern of large purchases ahead of the dividend cut-off date, followed by smaller weekly additions financed by MSTR ATM selling.
Strategy’s STRC traded below its ATM price last week, leaving no extra funds for BTC purchases. | Source: BitcoinQuant.
This time, Strategy did not use its common stock issuance facility, instead focusing on its cash-like reserves. MSTR fell to $159.89, down from its recent hike above $170. The BTC purchasing pause coincided with a generally lowered demand for MSTR, as the common stock does not act as a multiplier for BTC gains.
Strategy changed its playbook after buying over 4% of the total BTC supply. For now, the company remains a strong holder, though it does not try to add BTC at any rate.
Is Strategy losing its credibility?
The biggest fear around Strategy is that its demand structure reflects the dwindling crypto sentiment. The market is no longer in ‘up only’ mode, even for BTC. As a result, only STRC is attractive for its high monthly payouts.
However, Strategy carries a growing dividend burden, sparking fears the company may not be sustainable, especially during a prolonged crypto bear market.
STRC will have to show stronger demand, predicted during the week ahead of June 15. Until then, skeptics have noted Strategy may gain only up to 5% in yield on more conservative bonds, while owing 11.5% for STRC.
After the week of no purchases, BTC traded at $77,216, sitting just above Strategy’s average price. Selling or stagnant demand may further undermine the trust in Strategy’s playbook, without other factors sparking a BTC bull market.
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In a fresh move, Bhutan reportedly transferred another 90 Bitcoins (approx worth $7 million) to a Segwit address. The steady series of transfers has now crossed more than $237 million since the start of the year.
On-chain data shows that Bhutan moved BTC to an address that is different from the three P2SH wallet clusters. The country has used those wallets to hold most of its Bitcoin reserves. This has added to the speculation that the Himalayan kingdom may be quietly reducing its Bitcoin exposure.
Bhutan’s Bitcoin selloff fears keep growing
Bhutan has been caught shifting smaller amounts of BTC to a wallet that is not part of its primary sovereign holdings. Arkham data shows that Druk Holdings’ stash has fallen by around 10,000 Bitcoins from their October 2024 peak of around 13,390 BTC. It now holds approximately $233 million worth of Bitcoin.
The latest transaction doesn’t come as a shocker, as the authority has been doing this throughout the year. Back on April 29, Bhutan transferred 100 BTC (worth nearly $8 million) out of its holding wallets. At that point, data suggested that the country had already moved around $206.98 million in Bitcoin since January.
IS BHUTAN SELLING BITCOIN?
Bhutan just moved 90 BTC ($7M) to a Segwit address which may indicate a transfer of BTC to a separate entity or sale.
They’ve moved $237.39M of BTC from their wallets to Segwit addresses since the start of this year, and currently hold $233.18M BTC. pic.twitter.com/cch0Dc2mqu
— Arkham (@arkham) May 25, 2026
Some analysts now believe Bhutan could fully unwind its sovereign Bitcoin position before the end of the year if the pace continues. However, it has remained one of the most unusual sovereign crypto experiments globally.
April 11 saw 319.7 BTC (worth $22 million) leave the wallet. Around 250 BTC from that transaction reportedly moved into wallets previously associated with routing funds toward Galaxy Digital and OKX.
So, the sell-off fear seems very real. Cryptopolitan reported that Bhutan had sold around 285 BTC in different batches during February.
Why Bhutan may be moving away from Bitcoin mining
Countries usually accumulate Bitcoin through seizures or treasury purchases. Meanwhile, Bhutan built its reserves through hydropower-backed mining operations. This is reportedly managed by Druk Holding and Investments. However, questions are now emerging around whether the mining operation itself is still active.
It is being argued that the model pushed by Bhutan was working well when Bitcoin was trading above $90,000, and mining difficulty remained lower. After the 2024 halving, block rewards dropped to 3.125 BTC, and mining competition got wild.
Bitcoin has been dealing with high selling pressure since the beginning of the year. BTC price is running down by almost 12% on a YTD basis. It is trading at $77,271 at press time. The recent price dip has already made it difficult for most of the Bitcoin holders to survive in the market.
It is expected that Bhutan may earn more revenue exporting hydropower electricity to neighboring countries. Mining Bitcoin under the current scenario will only lead them to a loss. However, Druk Holding and Investments has not publicly commented on either the transfers or the status of its mining infrastructure.
The global crypto market has shown small signs of stabilization amid the ongoing US-Iran dispute. Most of the biggest cryptos remained marginally up over the last day. Bitcoin managed to regain the crucial $77K mark after last week’s dip to the $75K levels.
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Georgia has partnered with Tether to launch the digital asset GEL₮. The Georgian government seeks to develop a digital Lari that runs seamlessly within the blockchain environment.
GEL₮ is set to offer users reduced transaction costs, instant payments, and programmability in payment systems.
Georgia develops a stablecoin banked on digital rails
Based on today’s official announcement, Georgia’s approach aligns with U.S. regulations on stablecoins. This included the GENIUS Act, which could ensure interoperability between its systems and those of the international financial market.
To that end, GEL₮ has been positioned for cross-border trade, fintech development, and digital transactions.
The project is in line with the current position Georgia holds on digital assets. For example, the country already implemented tax payments through instant conversion of crypto coins into the Georgian national currency.
The launch of the GEL₮ would go a step further in promoting programmable financial instruments.
Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, asserts that Georgia is laying the groundwork for a more interconnected, transparent, and digitally enabled financial future.
To that end, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, emphasized the evolving role of stablecoins. He added that the era of stablecoins is no longer a specialized tool in finance; it’s a critical piece of the finance infrastructure puzzle.
Natia Turnava, President of the National Bank of Georgia, welcomed the collaboration as part of a broader strategy. He added that the bank would like to collaborate with innovative companies globally to foster a state-of-the-art, digital financial architecture.
Georgia’s crypto ecosystem records mass adoption and regulation
Further information on the technology used for GEL₮, its reserves, launch process, and how regulation would be implemented will be announced later.
Georgia’s crypto ecosystem serves its population of around 3.7 million. In fact, according to the Chainanalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index for 2025, the country ranks 3rd globally in terms of crypto adoption adjusted for population, behind only Ukraine and Moldova.
The adoption is due to a business-friendly environment, cheap electricity for mining, progressive regulatory frameworks and practical applications such as remittances. The annual flow of remittances to Georgia is over $2 billion. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are faster and cheaper than traditional wire transfers, which have charges of 7-10%.
The crypto ownership figures vary, but all signals point to a high adoption rate. Triple-A statistics indicate that around 115,000 people in Georgia (2.89%) hold cryptos. According to Statista’s 2025 reports, the penetration rate was estimated at around 14.13%, with 153,000 users, $1.9 million in revenue for the digital assets market, and a revenue per user of $12.1.
The National Bank of Georgia has required VASPs to be registered and to be compliant with AML/KYC standards since the start of 2023. This has led to legitimacy while facilitating innovation. This has been a popular destination for mining operations due to its cheap hydropower, which made the nation well-known worldwide.
Tether USDT dominates the stablecoin ecosystem with record scale in 2026
USDT remains the world’s most widely used stablecoin. It holds a market cap of about $189-190 billion as of late May 2026 and a circulating supply approaching the 190 billion token mark. It continues to trade at near its $1.00 peg, with minor variations, ranging between $0.999-$1.00. USDT remains the #3 coin in market cap.
On average, daily trading volume exceeds $50–70 billion and outstrips multiple established payment networks. Recent figures confirm that there have been gains of about $5 billion within the last month for USDT supply despite losses for competitors such as USDC in the same period.
In the latest Q1 2026 attestation, the total assets of Tether stand at $191.8 billion against liabilities of $183.5 billion, resulting in an excess reserve buffer of $8.23 billion, which is the highest ever recorded.
For the quarter under review, net profits were $1.04 billion. Most of the earnings from interest on government bonds and other investments. Most of the reserves have been kept in cash and government bonds, with some investment in gold and Bitcoin.
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Token unlocks worth $653.68 million are scheduled to hit the market between May 25 and June 1, 2026, with Humanity (H) sitting at the top of the major releases at $9.91 million.
The figure equals 5.77% of the project’s circulating supply, according to data compiled by Cryptopolitan from Tokenomist and CoinGecko.
The weekly total comes in lower than the prior week’s schedule, with cliff releases making up $79.35 million of the figure. The remainder comes through linear unlocks that release tokens gradually over time across a wider set of projects.
Humanity leads weekly token unlocks at $9.91 million
Humanity (H), with an unlocked amount of $9.91 million, is the biggest event expected for the coming week. The unlock represents 5.77% of the total circulating supply of the project.
Second on this list comes Jupiter (JUP), which will see an unlock of $8.37 million, equivalent to 1.53% of its circulating supply – the lowest among the top five according to supply percentage.
Third on the list is Particle Network (PARTI), with an unlock of $8.28 million, equivalent to 38.33% of the circulating supply.
$653.68 Million in Token Unlocks This Week
Total cliff unlock, unlocked immediately after a set period, is $79.35M this week:
• $H $9.91M
• $JUP $8.37M
• $PARTI $8.28M
• $XPL $8.21M
• $SOSO $5.49M
Linear unlocks, slow release over time: $NIL, $KMNO, $BIGTIME,… pic.twitter.com/ipbqlVuW7e
— Cryptopolitan (@CPOfficialtx) May 25, 2026
Plasma (XPL) is set to release $8.21 million in tokens during the week, equal to 3.98% of its circulating supply. SoSoValue (SOSO) closes out the top five with $5.49 million in scheduled token unlocks, the equivalent of 4.27% pof its circulating supply.
Smaller major releases round out the top ten
The second part of the list includes six releases whose value ranges from $3.53 million to $4.92 million. The project Nillion (NIL) is in first place on this list with the biggest release amounting to $4.92 million, which corresponds to 36.4% of the circulating supply.
The Kamino (KMNO) project is next on the log, with a total release of $4.71 million, or 5.45% of the circulating supply. Big Time (BIGTIME) will have the third-biggest amount of tokens released, namely $4.24 million or 17.47% of the circulating supply.
Next is Monad (MON) with the planned release of $3.56 million worth of tokens, representing 1.57% of the circulating supply. Sahara AI (SAHARA) rounds out the top ten at $3.53 million, equal to 4.57% of its circulating supply.
Cliff releases account for $79.35 million of weekly token unlocks
The cliff portion of the week’s token unlocks comes to $79.35 million across the schedule. The figure means around 12.1% of the total weekly unlock value enters circulation in a single unlock.
Cliff token unlocks tend to draw more market attention than linear releases since the full amount enters supply at one point in time. The remainder of the $653.68 million weekly total comes through linear schedules.
Smaller projects on CoinMarketCap
Outside the major cliff and linear events, CoinMarketCap lists several smaller projects with scheduled releases over the coming week. These projects sit at lower market capitalizations and lower absolute dollar values for their upcoming unlocks.
REVOX (REX) has 34.38 million REX tokens scheduled for release worth $620.90, equal to 1.15% of its total locked supply. Drift (DRIFT) has 13.16 million DRIFT scheduled at $456,145.88 in value, or 1.32% of its total locked supply, with the token up 25.76% on the day.
UCBI Holding (UCBI) has 1.29 million tokens scheduled for release at $5.14 million in value, equal to 10.72% of its total locked supply, the largest percentage on the smaller-project list. Epiko (EPIKO) has 52.5 million tokens scheduled at $35,703.70, or 17.50% of total locked. LILLIUS (LLT) closes out the list with 17.2 million tokens at $969.43 in value, equal to 1.72% of its total locked supply.
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A little over a year ago, Sam Altman highlighted that Gen Z do not tend to make major life calls without consulting them over ChatGPT. He went onto say that while the older generation treat the tool as a “google replacement”, the younger populace in their 20’s and 30’s use it like a “life advisor”. That comment has aged almost like a cultural diagnosis rather than a prediction. Our newsletter poll, conducted last week as the conversation picked up again, suggests our audience is far less convinced with what was said.
The Comment That Set This Off
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a comment at Sequoia Capital’s AI Ascent event last year that made the rounds across newsrooms and social media. His assertion was that different age groups and generations used ChatGPT for various purposes. This did not come as a warning but rather as what he saw in the data.
Older people, he said, use ChatGPT like a smarter version of Google. Meanwhile, people in their 20s and 30s used it more as a tool akin to a life advisor. College students, in his words, use it like an operating system, embedded into how they study, plan, write and make calls about their day.
The initial reaction to these comments were not even to say the least. Some people saw it as evidence that this tool is finding its native users. Others on the other hand read it as a subtle warning or danger that an entire cohort or generation was using a machine for judgement even though it runs the risk of sounding confident even when it’s wrong. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, and our poll suggests that even among readers who follow this space closely, the jury is still out.
How Big Has This Behaviour Actually Become?
A report published by OpenAI in September 2025 showed that nearly half of ChatGPT messages now come from users below the age of 26, making younger adults the dominant demographic.
Younger users are pulling in even quicker. A Pew Research Center survey of 1,391 U.S. teens, conducted between September and October 2024, found that 26% of teens aged 13 to 17 had used ChatGPT for schoolwork, double the 13% recorded the year before. The pattern is even more pronounced among older students: 31% of 11th and 12th graders reported using it. Pew’s more recent 2026 follow-up survey shows the shift has moved beyond homework. According to that survey, 57% of teens now use chatbots for information searches, 54% for schoolwork, and 16% for casual conversation. Around 12% say they use these tools for emotional support or advice.
That last number is the one worth sitting with. It is small, but it suggests that the line between “tool” and “confidant” is already being crossed in measurable ways.
What The Poll Actually Tells Us
As mentioned in our previous poll, these are readers who track AI developments closely and many of them follow OpenAI and Anthropic releases the day they drop. The average age of our newsletter audience sits at around 30, which places this cohort squarely within the “life advisor” group Altman described in his Sequoia talk. If anyone in a general audience would be expected to lean on AI for personal decisions, it would be this group. The fact that the leading response is “Nope” is therefore the most interesting part of the result.
Note: The 30-year-old average is based on internal Cryptopolitan estimates and is provided as directional context. It has not been formally surveyed and individual respondents will fall on either side of that figure.
Nope (36.76%): Around a third of responses in the poll do not ask AI for any sort of life decisions. It provides a clear view on how this cohort views the utility of AI, perhaps for more technical and productive tasks for work, code research or even thinking out loud. That said, certainly not for the kind of decision that has personal weight behind it. The line being drawn is not anti-AI. It is anti-outsourcing.
Yes (~36%): Almost identical in size to the “Nope” cohort. Just over one in three respondents say they do consult AI before life decisions. This is the group most aligned with the behaviour Altman described back in 2025, and it is sizeable. The split between this group and the “Nope” cohort is essentially even, which is itself the story. Even in a tech-forward audience that demographically maps onto the cohort he was talking about, there is no consensus on whether AI belongs in the room when something important is being decided.
Occasionally (~27.2%): Roughly one in four respondents sit in the middle. They will use it when it helps, but they are not running every choice through the chatbot. This is probably the most honest answer for most people, and it is a group worth watching. As AI tools improve, this cohort is the one most likely to drift toward the “Yes” column.
Combine the “Yes” and “Occasionally” responses and you get just under 63% of readers using AI for personal decisions at least some of the time. That number lines up reasonably well with the broader behavioural trend Altman pointed to. What the poll adds is the texture underneath it, a clear segment of people who have looked at this technology, understood what it can do and then decided that some calls don’t require AI intervention and it’s theirs to make.
The Quieter Trend Under The Headline
The discussion about AI and decision-making usually splits into two camps. One worries about cognitive atrophy and the slow erosion of judgement. The other points to all the small, useful ways AI already helps people think more clearly. Both are right, depending on the type of decision.
What our poll suggests is that the question may already be sorting itself out at the user level. Roughly equal portions of the audience are landing in three different places, and the largest of the three is the one drawing a line. That is not what you would expect to see if AI advice was simply replacing human judgement across the board. It looks more like people are learning where it helps and where it does not, and that calibration is happening in real time.
The cohort to watch is still the one Altman described, the students who arrived on campus in 2022 with ChatGPT already in their pocket and never knew an academic environment without it. They are graduating now. The data on what happens when an entire working generation makes decisions with an AI assistant in the loop does not exist yet, because they are the first ones generating it. The next few years will tell us whether this is the smartphone moment for cognition, or something more complicated. Our poll suggests that even among people who follow this space for a living, the answer is still being worked out.
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At the start of this year, Polymarket was the dominant prediction market platform when it came to crypto-themed event contracts. Across the two largest prediction markets right now, Polymarket dominated the market share here with 91.11% in the first week of January. Roughly five months later, this command has flipped almost entirely in Kalshi’s favour. In week ending May 17, data from Artemis shows that Kalshi drew in $454.2 million in weekly crypto-category spot volume (a new all-time high) versus Polymarket’s $297.1 million, a 60.45% to 39.55% split on a combined $751.3 million week. The tilt in volume dominance within this category has been noticeable since February, and with each passing week, Kalshi is seemingly tightening its grip.
This is not a story about a platform building a better product per se. Kalshi’s crypto markets winning at the moment is the same reason why its sports category is outpacing its rival. The regulated in the U.S. angle is a major reason for this swing. To compound this, over the last quarter, Polymarket has faced various regulatory battles that haven’t helped their volumes as well.
How the Share Inverted in Five Months
Kalshi’s first foray into crypto-based event contracts with noticeable volume came in and around the third quarter of 2024. After reaching a market share of 37.85% in November 2024, their share remained relatively flat throughout 2025 and did not cross 25% dominance in this category. Looking at the Artemis chart, the trend broke around February this year and since then, weekly crypto spot volume has gone vertical for Kalshi.
Polymarket, meanwhile, hasn’t lost volume in absolute terms, it’s just stopped growing. Holding $297M while Kalshi added an extra $400M of weekly turnover is the kind of stagnation that only looks bad in relative terms, and relative terms are what matters when you’re competing for the same liquidity.
TRON, Coatue and the CNN/CNBC Push
A few specific catalysts pulled the curve up. The TRON integration in December last year opened native USDT deposits directly into Kalshi accounts, which removed a big chunk of the friction that had previously pushed crypto-native traders toward Polymarket by default. The Coatue-led $1 billion raise at a $22 billion valuation then bankrolled an aggressive distribution push, with Kalshi event contracts now sitting inside Robinhood and WeBull where they’re being served to retail flow that has never touched a prediction market before.
The CNN and CNBC partnerships added the final piece by giving Kalshi’s pricing a mainstream finance broadcast channel that Polymarket, as an offshore platform, structurally can’t match. Crypto markets on Kalshi are now quoted alongside equity products in places where retail discovers them passively, rather than having to seek them out.
Polymarket’s Regulatory Quarter Did the Rest
Polymarket has carried a much heavier regulatory load than Kalshi. The India block cut off a major user base, the Rhode Island AG suit added another state-level challenge, and even the shared blows, the House Oversight probe and the Ninth Circuit ruling on Nevada, land harder on a platform with offshore structure and a weaker US compliance posture. Each individually would be manageable. Stacked together, they create exactly the kind of jurisdictional uncertainty that pushes institutional and risk-averse retail volume toward the CFTC-regulated alternative sitting right next door.
The 91% to 39% inversion lines up almost perfectly with this regulatory pressure window. Coincidence is possible, but the timing makes the cleaner explanation hard to ignore.
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Kenya’s Finance Bill 2026 proposes to introduce a 10% excise duty on fees charged by Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) for crypto trading and other activities.
The proposed excise duty on crypto platforms will be double the 5% tax on the betting industry. Such a move increases the cost of operations for VASPs, who either have to pass these costs on to their consumers through fees or absorb them as a reduction in profit margins.
Kenya expands tax powers and compliance, tightening across sectors
According to reports, in addition to the increased excise duties, VASPs must also follow other stringent measures. The VASPs bill requires crypto firms to pay a one-off licensing fee of KSh 150 million ($1.1 million) before they can undertake any activities in Kenya.
They also have to pay a KSh 2 million ($1.5 million) annual renewal fee to keep operating in Kenya. In addition, the Finance Bill 2026 requires crypto exchange and trading platforms to provide annual reports to the KRA containing user and transaction details.
Kenya is still considered one of the major players in East Africa’s digital economy, and even in crypto adoption. The levying of a 10% excise duty on VASPs, along with mandatory reporting, will force crypto traders and platforms to move their operations to countries with a more favorable attitude toward cryptocurrencies.
Such action might make Kenya lose its importance in terms of crypto volumes, leading to changes in regional liquidity and negatively affecting the general investor attitude toward cryptocurrencies issued in Africa.
Foreign payment services and banks that work through credit cards in Kenya might increase tariffs due to new taxes and VAT applied to fintechs. Payments are important to the country, as they contribute to imports, exports, and diaspora remittances. Some provisions of the bill’s digital payments tax are being called for scrapping by market analysts.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, Binance is facing mounting pressure from Kenyan users due to frustrations over frozen accounts. This follows the exchange’s collaboration with Kenya’s DCI.
GenZ protests resume as economic pressures intensify
Following new details of the Finance Bill 2026, GenZ-led demonstrations are back in Nairobi and several large towns today. This is in response to the impact of increased taxation on digital services, crypto, mobile phones, and general financial transactions amid an ongoing recovery from previous cost-of-living shocks for household consumers and small businesses.
I wouldn't mind if people protest on the streets when there's something wrong with the Finance Bill. But if there's nothing wrong, accept it – CS Mbadi pic.twitter.com/Ge1n0nFxKX
— Kenyans.co.ke (@Kenyans) May 25, 2026
The disruptions occasioned by the demonstrations will result in short-term economic losses for small-scale traders and businesses that rely heavily on cash flow.
The proposed bill affects individuals by increasing the cost of sending money digitally, conducting crypto transactions, buying new mobile phones, and transacting in digital currencies. Companies relying on M-Pesa, debit cards, and crypto will incur losses and increased overhead costs.
The bill consists of various clauses aimed at widening the tax base and enhancing collections. The KRA will now have the power to serve agency notice on banks, SACCOs, or mobile money service providers such as M-Pesa, even after a taxpayer has lodged an objection to the assessment of his/her taxes.
Funds will be frozen or diverted to the tax authority during the objection period. Deadlines for filing tax returns will be shortened, with ordinary returns to be filed before April 30 rather than June 30, and nil returns before January 311, thus aligning with the filing deadlines.
A private company’s undistributed profits will now be assumed to constitute 60% dividends to be taxed. VAT invoicing requirements will apply to businesses making taxable supplies, regardless of registration status, not just to registered businesses. VAT will apply only to taxable supplies.
New taxes will be imposed on digital payments: a 5% withholding tax on local card transactions, a 20% withholding tax on non-resident card transactions, and a 16% VAT on some digital payment services offered by the financial technology industry.
CLARIFICATIONS ON CERTAIN TAX PROPOSALS UNDER THE FINANCE BILL, 2026.CLARIFICATIONS ON CERTAIN TAX PROPOSALS UNDER THE FINANCE BILL, 2026. pic.twitter.com/xtIeYaXf5N
— Public Investments and Assets Management-Kenya (@SDPI_AM) May 25, 2026
Payment gateways may be considered royalties, thereby making them eligible for a 20% withholding tax, particularly when payments are made to foreign entities.
The preferential 5% withholding tax on dividends paid to individuals of the East African Community will now be replaced by a 15% withholding tax. Lenders and leasers will be exempt from the EBITDA threshold of 30% interest deduction.
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When Erik relocated to Berlin, sourcing medications locally for his mother in Kazakhstan was difficult. This challenge, coupled with his 15 years of experience in operations, was a major motivation for a platform like MovitOn.
MovitOn connects people who are already moving with people who need things moved. The platform has already completed a $2 million pre-sale, onboarded 1.3 million inherited users, launched its testnet, and is on track to roll out the mainnet before year’s end.
What is MovitOn?
Q: Hello Erik, please introduce yourself and tell us about the defining moment that led you to build MovitOn?
A: My background is operations. Fifteen years across construction, geology, oil trading, and industrial projects, working through Eurasia, Germany, and Dubai. I’ve built businesses, scaled projects, and dealt with real infrastructure problems on the ground. So when I look at a broken system, I don’t just see the problem, I see exactly where it breaks and why.
MovitOn came from a personal experience that I think many people will recognize.
I relocated to Berlin, and my mother in Kazakhstan needed specific medications. Things that were hard to source locally. And what should have been a straightforward task turned into a real ordeal every single time. Traditional couriers refused or made it so complicated that it wasn’t worth the effort. So I was doing what everyone does in that situation, searching through chats, finding travelers heading in the right direction, sometimes driving across the city just to hand something off before a flight.
At some point, I stopped and asked myself a very simple question. Why is this still the solution in 2024? Because at the same time, thousands of people were flying those same routes every day. The movement was already there. The capacity was already there. We just didn’t have the infrastructure connecting it.
That gap is what MovitOn is built on. We are not another logistics company adding more warehouses and freight corridors to an already overcomplicated system. We turn existing human movement into a delivery network. The traveler who is already going to that city becomes part of the infrastructure. AI handles matching, and smart contracts handle trust and transactions, so the whole thing works without anyone having to rely on a stranger’s word.
The personal frustration gave me the question. My operational background gave me the answer. And the scale of the problem made it worth building properly.
Q: Global shipping rails have existed for decades. Why does the world need a Web3 P2P delivery model — what does blockchain actually add here that Web2 can’t?
A: Look, I get the skepticism. People hear “blockchain,” and they assume it’s a solution looking for a problem. So let me be direct about what we’re actually solving.
Traditional logistics infrastructure works. I’m not going to sit here and say it doesn’t. But it was built for a different world, around warehouses, hubs, freight corridors, and banking systems that made sense decades ago. The problem is that the world has changed. Millions of people now cross borders every single day, and that movement carries enormous untapped capacity that the old model simply wasn’t designed to leverage.
MovitOn is a coordination layer, not another delivery company. We don’t own fleets. We don’t build warehouses. What we’re doing is connecting people who are already moving with people who need things moved. And that works beautifully in concept until you ask the obvious question: how do two strangers in different countries exchange value and trust each other to follow through?
That’s where Web2 hits a wall. A platform can facilitate a connection. It can handle messaging, ratings, and even payments to a degree. But the moment you’re talking about cross-border value transfer between people who don’t know each other, you’re dealing with banking friction, intermediaries, chargebacks, disputes, and manual processes that eat into everything you just saved by cutting out the traditional courier.
Smart contracts solve that cleanly. The payment locks at the start. It releases when the delivery conditions are met. The rules are defined upfront, on-chain, visible to both sides. Nobody has to trust a person. They trust the system.
Web3 for us isn’t a positioning decision. It’s the only infrastructure that actually makes decentralized, cross-border, peer-to-peer logistics work at scale.
Q: How did your previous experience influence the creation of MovitOn?
A: Almost everything I built before MovitOn was preparing me for it; I didn’t know it at the time.
In geology, construction, and oil trading, you’re constantly dealing with supply chains under pressure. Equipment breaks down at a remote site, and you urgently need a specific part from another country. And what should be a straightforward procurement turns into weeks of delays, three intermediaries, customs complications, and nobody taking clear responsibility. I lived that repeatedly across different industries and different geographies. So I understand logistics frustration not as an observer but as someone who’s had operations grind to a halt because of it.
That operational background taught me how to build teams around complex problems and actually execute. Moving from an idea to a working project in heavy industry is not clean or theoretical. It’s messy, and it forces you to be practical.
Then I moved to Germany and started ABCdoc, which was my first real step into tech. The problem there was document bureaucracy, translations, cross-border communication, all the friction that comes with navigating systems in a foreign country. It wasn’t glamorous, but it taught me something important: that digital products, done properly, can remove enormous amounts of friction from processes people just accept as normal.
That combination is really what shaped MovitOn. The operational experience showed me where logistics actually breaks down in the real world. ABCdoc showed me how to think about removing friction through technology. And living between countries showed me, personally, what it costs when those two things aren’t connected.
MovitOn is what happens when you spend fifteen years watching systems fail and finally decide to build the fix.
Practical use cases
Q: What other functionalities exist beyond P2P delivery?
A: Delivery is where we start, but it’s not the ceiling.
The way I think about MovitOn is as infrastructure built around human movement, not around a specific use case. And once you have that infrastructure in place, with the trust layer, the matching system, and the on-chain transactions, a lot of things become possible that aren’t possible today without significant friction.
Take a traveler flying from Berlin to Almaty. Right now, they might carry a package through MovitOn. But that same person could also help someone purchase local goods unavailable internationally, assist with cross-border shopping, or offer local knowledge and assistance to someone arriving in a city they don’t know. The traveler is already there. The infrastructure already connects them. We’re just expanding what that connection can do.
Further out, we see the platform supporting peer-to-peer commerce, temporary storage through our MovitBox terminals, direct rentals between users, whether accommodation or vehicles, and integration with e-commerce platforms that need last-mile solutions in markets traditional logistics doesn’t serve well.
The honest answer is that the full scope of what this platform can become depends on adoption. Peer-to-peer networks get more valuable and more capable as they grow. The more people moving through MovitOn, the more services become viable to build on top of it.
But the thread connecting it all is the same. Movement already exists everywhere at a massive scale. Commerce and services that depend on that movement are still being coordinated poorly through intermediaries, resulting in unnecessary costs and delays. We’re building the coordination layer that ties it together. Delivery is the most immediate and obvious place to begin.
Q: What are some practical use cases for MovitOn?
A: The gaps in traditional logistics are predictable once you start looking for them. Small businesses that want to sell internationally but can’t justify the cost of warehousing and freight for low volumes. Someone who left something important behind while traveling and needs it sent urgently. Families that are split across countries trying to send personal items without paying courier prices that make no sense for a small package. Regions where logistics infrastructure is just thin, where a DHL or FedEx presence is limited, and delivery times are weeks, not days.
These aren’t edge cases. They’re everyday situations that millions of people navigate badly because the formal system wasn’t designed with them in mind.
What MovitOn does is simple in principle. There is almost always someone already traveling in the right direction. The flight exists. The route exists. The person is already going there. We connect that movement to the shipment that needs to make the same journey.
And what I find genuinely compelling about our model is what it means for the traveler as well. They’re not doing extra work. They’re already on that flight, already going to that city. MovitOn just gives that movement economic value. Unused luggage space becomes income. A trip that costs money becomes a trip that partially pays for itself.
The use cases are two-sided. Someone gets a faster, cheaper, more flexible delivery option. Someone else gets paid for movement they were already making. That’s when you know a model actually works, when both sides of the transaction are better off than they were before.
How MovitOn works – AI matching, escrow, and trust
Q: How does a transaction work inside the platform?
A: It’s actually straightforward, which is intentional. Complexity at the user level usually means the product isn’t finished yet.
A sender comes to the platform, enters their route, what they need delivered, when, and what they’re offering in exchange. That’s it on their end. The AI takes over from there, matching the shipment with a traveler based on destination, timing, verification level, and platform history. Not just anyone. The right person for that specific delivery.
When both sides agree, a smart contract is created. That’s where the trust mechanism kicks in. The payment locks into on-chain escrow immediately. The traveler knows the money is there and secured. The sender knows it doesn’t release until the delivery conditions are actually met. Nobody is taking anyone’s word for anything.
Throughout the process, both sides receive status updates and confirmations through the platform. Once delivery is confirmed, the smart contract automatically releases the payment. No waiting, no manual processing, no “we’ll review it in 3 to 5 business days.”
The dispute mechanism exists, too, because real life is complicated sometimes. But the goal of the whole system design is to make disputes rare by defining and agreeing on terms upfront, on-chain, before anything moves.
What I want people to take from this is that the blockchain layer is completely invisible to the average user. They don’t need to understand smart contracts or escrow mechanics. They just see a delivery that works, a payment that’s protected, and a process that’s transparent from start to finish. That’s the experience we’re building toward.
Q: What does AI-driven compliance matching mean in practice?
A: Most people hear “AI matching” and assume it just means connecting point A to point B. That’s a small part of what it actually does.
The more important function is compliance. And this is where peer-to-peer logistics gets complicated at scale, because every country has different import and export restrictions, different customs rules, and different categories of restricted items. What’s perfectly legal to send from Germany might create a serious problem when it arrives in another country. A human-operated platform can’t realistically manage that across hundreds of routes in real time. The AI can.
So before a match is even made, the system is already analyzing the item, the route, the destination country’s regulations, and flagging potential issues. A sender doesn’t need to be an expert in international customs law. The platform handles that layer before anything moves.
Beyond compliance, the AI is also optimizing for quality on both sides. It looks at a traveler’s verification level, their reliability history, how they’ve performed on previous deliveries, and whether their route and timing actually fit the shipment’s requirements. The goal is not just any match. It’s the right match.
And this becomes more critical as the network grows, not less. More users means more routes, more countries, more regulatory complexity. A platform that relies on manual oversight at that scale breaks down quickly. The AI layer is what makes decentralized logistics actually work globally rather than just in a handful of familiar markets.
Practically speaking, it means users get a match they can trust, and the platform stays clean from a compliance standpoint, without either side needing to think too hard about the complexity running underneath.
Q: How does MovitOn handle damaged, lost, or delayed deliveries?
A: This is the most important question anyone can ask about a peer-to-peer logistics platform, because if you can’t answer it properly, nothing else matters.
The foundation is smart contracts and escrow. Payment is locked the moment both sides agree to the delivery. It doesn’t move until the conditions are met. That single mechanism removes the biggest source of friction in any transaction between strangers, which is the question of whether the other person will actually follow through.
For higher-value shipments, senders can require a security deposit from the traveler. So there’s real financial accountability sitting on both sides of the transaction, not just goodwill.
Then you have the operational layer. GPS tracking, delivery confirmations, user verification, and reputation history. Every interaction on the platform builds a record. A traveler who consistently delivers on time and in good condition builds a profile that earns them better matches and higher compensation over time. That’s a real incentive structure, not just a rating system that nobody pays attention to.
When something goes wrong, and sometimes it will, the dispute process pulls from all of that data: communication history, delivery records, verification information. The smart contract logic can delay payments, apply penalties, or trigger compensation based on the evidence.
But the part I’m most excited about on this front is MovitBox. It’s our physical handoff infrastructure, smart terminals that handle package exchanges through QR confirmations and smart access, with future integration into security scanning systems. Because digital trust only goes so far. At some point, a physical package has to change hands in the real world, and that moment needs to be as secure and accountable as everything happening on-chain.
That combination of digital and physical infrastructure is what makes decentralized logistics actually trustworthy at scale, not just in theory.
Q: How do you build trust between strangers?
A: Trust in a decentralized system can’t rest on a single mechanism. That’s the honest answer. If one layer fails, the whole thing falls apart. So we build it in layers.
It starts with identity. KYC verification, passport confirmation, biometrics, phone verification. Before anyone participates in a transaction, we know who they are. That baseline matters enormously because anonymity and accountability don’t coexist well in logistics.
Then you have the behavioral layer. Reputation history, delivery track record, and how a user has performed in previous transactions. Over time, this becomes one of the most valuable signals on the platform. A traveler with 50 successful deliveries and consistent ratings is fundamentally different from a new account with no history.
And underneath all of it is the structural layer. Smart contracts, on-chain escrow, GPS tracking, and delivery confirmations. These aren’t just features. They’re the mechanics that make trust possible without requiring two strangers to believe in each other simply.
In traditional logistics, you delegate trust entirely to a company. You trust FedEx, not the driver. In a decentralized model, that intermediary is gone. So the trust has to be embedded in the system itself, in the verification, in the financial accountability, in the on-chain record of every interaction.
That’s what we’re building.
Early traction and the MVON token
Q: How does onboarding and MVON work?
A: We were very deliberate about this. Web3 has a reputation for being difficult to access, and honestly, a lot of the time that reputation is deserved. We didn’t want MovitOn to be another platform where you need to understand crypto infrastructure just to send a package or pick up a delivery job.
So onboarding is designed to feel like any other consumer app. Register, verify your identity, and start using the platform. The blockchain layer runs beneath the surface without requiring any technical knowledge from the user. That was a non-negotiable design principle for us from the beginning.
MVON is the token that powers the ecosystem. Still, I want to be specific about what that actually means in practice, rather than just saying “utility token” and leaving it at that.
Users earn MVON through platform activity. Completing deliveries, staying active, bringing in new users, and contributing to the community. And those tokens have a real function inside the ecosystem. Payments, discounts, staking, and access to premium features. It grows with the platform.
But the deeper idea behind it is something I think about more than the mechanics. A peer-to-peer network only works because its users show up. They complete deliveries, they build a reputation, they bring other people in. That activity has real value, and the people creating it should benefit from the growth they’re generating.
MVON is how we make that relationship explicit rather than just implicit. You’re not just a user of something someone else built. You’re a participant in something you’re helping build. That distinction matters for engagement, for retention, and frankly for the kind of community you end up with long term.
Q: What early signals and traction are you already seeing?
A: The most honest signal I can point to is the reaction we get when people first hear the concept. Within a minute or two, they say, “Why doesn’t this already exist?” and that tells you something important. It means the problem is real and recognizable, not something you have to convince people they have.
But beyond the concept resonating, we now have real milestones to point to.
We closed a $2 million community pre-sale in February. That’s not just a funding number, it’s validation from a community that actually believes in the model. And more recently, we completed the acquisition of Glocalzone, which is the most significant step we’ve taken so far.
Glocalzone is an Estonia-based peer-to-peer logistics platform quietly building the user base we need. Over 1.3 million registered users, more than 600,000 orders processed, travelers already actively adding routes across Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. These are not hypothetical users. They’re people who already understand peer-to-peer delivery and use it.
Building that kind of network organically would have taken years. The acquisition gives us an existing community of human carriers ready to deploy, and now we’re layering our Web3 infrastructure on top of it: smart contract escrow, AI matching, the MVON token economy. Everything Glocalzone built in Web2 is being upgraded to Web3.
So when people ask about traction, I point to that. A $2 million pre-sale, 1.3 million inherited users, a testnet launching, and a mainnet scheduled before the end of the year. We’re early, but we’re moving.

Japan stocks rallied to new all-time highs on Monday because traders finally got something they have been begging for: cheaper oil and less panic around the Strait of Hormuz.
The Nikkei 225 (.N225) index jumped through 65,000 for the first time ever, hit a new record during the session, and closed at 65,158, up by 1,819 points, or 2.87%.
The Topix index also surged by 1.29% to 3,942.57, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures for July dropped 4.71% to $92.06 a barrel in early Asian trading.
Brent crude futures for July fell by 4.42% to $98.96, but oil prices slipped by more than 5% at one point after President Donald Trump said talks with Iran were “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner.” He also said he told his representatives “not to rush into a deal in that time is on [their] side.”
Lower crude prices pull buyers back into Japan’s record-breaking equity trade
The Japan rally came during a strange trading day because parts of Asia were quiet for holidays. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) and South Korea’s Kospi Index (.KS11) were shut for public holidays. U.S. markets is also closed today for Memorial Day.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Taiex index closed up 3.26% at 43,644.40 after touching a record high, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (.AXJO) gained 0.40% to 8,692.00, China’s CSI 300 rose 1.58% to 4,921.6, while the Shanghai Composite (.SSEC) added 0.96% to 4,152.569, and India’s Nifty 50 (.NSEI) climbed 1.09% to 23,985.90.
On Friday, America’s Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 294.04 points, or 0.58%, to close at 50,579.70, making an intraday high and finishing at another record. The S&P 500 rose 0.37% to 7,473.47, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.19% to end at 26,343.97. All these gave Asian traders a clean setup before Monday’s holiday-thinned session.
The bigger story is still Hormuz. Iran has controlled shipping through the waterway since early March by forcing vessels to get clearance before passing or face possible attacks.
Trump keeps the U.S. blockade on Iran while metals traders price the inflation risk
That came after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders.
Before the war, about 20% of the world’s oil supply passed through that route. When Iran choked traffic there, Middle East oil exports crashed, and the market got hit with a historic supply shock.
The U.S. answered Iran’s action with its own blockade on Iranian ports and vessels. On Sunday, Donald said the U.S. blockade would stay in “full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”
Gold also rose Monday as the dollar weakened and oil cooled. Spot gold gained 1.1% to $4,559.07 per ounce by 0736 GMT. U.S. gold futures for June delivery rose 0.8% to $4,559.80.
Other metals also rallied. Spot silver jumped 3.1% to $77.79 per ounce. Platinum rose 2.3% to $1,966.59, and palladium gained 2.7% to $1,384.70.
The reason behind this is lower crude can cool inflation fears. The war risk has not just magically disappeared.
Cryptopolitan had reported on Friday that Kevin Warsh was sworn in as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve by Trump at the White House. Who knows how he’ll rule?
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In the past 30 days, Ethereum transactions posted a new all-time peak and daily activity remained elevated. The trend is not due to high-value transactions and reflects a new wave of address poisoning attacks.
In 2026, Ethereum took a new approach of returning to L1 scaling, after years of support for L2 networks. As a result, Ethereum abandoned its previous eras of high-priced transactions. The latest Glamsterdam update led to another price drop for gas fees.
Ethereum transactions peaked at over 3.62M per day at the end of April, based on Etherscan data. The Glamsterdam upgrade lowered gas fees by 78%, encouraging on-chain activity. Regular transactions cost as low as $0.004, up to 90% lower compared to previous periods.
Ethereum transactions hold near their highest level after the latest Glamsterdam decrease in fees. Investigators noted most of the additional traffic is due to address poisoning attacks. | Source: Etherscan.
Even swaps and complex DEX operations are down to $0.07, from around $1 in the past few months. The lowered fees still react to increased transaction loads, but overall Ethereum is much more accessible for retail usage.
At the same time, risk to end user wallets is undermining the trust in Ethereum as a suitable platform for carrying mainstream financial operations.
Why is Ethereum attacked by address poisoning?
Ethereum still has large holders and legacy wallets, with significant ETH or token holdings. Usually, dusting attacks have a low success rate, with one in 10,000 wallets copying a fake address.
During previous upgrades that lowered transaction fees, Ethereum also noted dusting campaigns and address poisoning rose by as much as 600%.
On-chain analysis for 2026 accounted for $62M in lost funds due to address poisoning attacks. Address poisoning is also sold as a package on Telegram, allowing a much higher number of threat actors to mount relatively cheap attacks.
Etherscan experts have also noted that while previous attacks were manual and sporadic, in 2026, address poisoning expanded on an industrial scale, with automation and a wider reach.
Users report a mix of zero-value tokens, dusting with valid tokens, and fake events recorded into wallet history. Wallet transactions also alert the dusting bots, with each transaction triggering several fake records or small transfers.
An even more advanced attack has also been noted as part of AI agent workflows. New plugins intercept and change copied crypto addresses, making even manual verification more difficult.
Ethereum dusting attacks become competitive
As of May 25, only one address was running a high-visibility poisoning attack, based on the leaderboard of gas burner contracts.
However, address poisoning attacks are competitive, and often several addresses target wallets with positive balances and an active transaction history.
As seen by tracking a single user wallet, fake transactions overwhelm legitimate activity, with several flagged addresses sending zero-value tokens or dust amounts of USDT.
For end users, the best approach is to use wallets with anti-phishing protection, and never use address history for new transactions. Address poisoning attacks rely on a numbers game and human error, and may steal either minimal amounts of crypto, or drain a whale wallet.
The dusting attacks arrive at a time when Ethereum’s transparency is seen as a flaw and an attack vector, while users try to veil their on-chain activity for higher personal security.
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Vitalik Buterin has made clear his view of the current transition process the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is undergoing, which aims to adopt strategies to increase longevity, specialization, and expertise in technical matters.
In a lengthy post on X, the Ethereum co-founder elaborated that the EF is not focusing on its broad coordinating role. Instead, it is becoming a specialized node in the wider Ethereum ecosystem.
This aligns with ensuring the organization focuses on functions critical to the sustainability of Ethereum as a censorship-resistant, privately secure, open, and private technology—a concept abbreviated as CROPS—which can benefit from AI formal verification technology.
Vitalik Buterin stands ground on EF’s evolving role in the crypto market
To start off, Buterin has clarified that the perspectives stated were his own contributions on technical matters and did not reflect a board-level directive. Currently, the foundation board is growing significantly, especially under the leadership of @aerugoettinea, and Buterin was deliberately reducing his involvement in running the foundation as it was now in his best interests.
He further stated that 2025 had been quite a successful year, with increased competence, efficiency, and a focus on realistic objectives that solved several operational challenges faced by the foundation earlier.
Comparing Google’s early motto of “don’t be evil” to Buterin’s emphasis on the need for some organizations within the sector to resist the general trend of greed and fast-paced superintelligence.
Vitalik’s thoughts on the efforts to save and strengthen EF. Source: X.
Buterin reiterated that the foundation was just another node and not a central authority like Ethereum. It was consistent with its original objective during the token sale era, which was completed with the help of the Serenity upgrade.
Fiscal responsibility is at the heart of the pivot. At present, the EF owns only about 0.16% of the total ETH in circulation—significantly less than even some individuals or corporations—and is certainly not set up to be an everlasting guardian of the entire ecosystem.
To maximize effectiveness, it will focus on longevity rather than breadth, meaning it will sell less ETH.
Vitalik boosts EF’s technical vision, taking on CROPS
Buterin’s vision starts and ends with the need for Ethereum to be “deeply impressive” within CROPS, not speed alone, which would simply make it mediocre. He flat-out rejects 250ms latency and 1 million TPS as a recipe for failure, as it would render Ethereum no more decentralized than its competitors.
Instead, the team will aim to achieve three key objectives with respect to technology, all of which can be done with the aid of high-throughput and scalable L2 systems:
Provably bug-free software via AI-assisted formal verification: What was once deemed to be an impossibility for cybersecurity researchers is now possible within the last few months, all because of AI innovations. The EF’s goal is to make Ethereum one of the frontrunners in having bug-free code.
Available chain consensus: Ethereum, on the other hand, provides BFT security in an asynchronous setting, coupled with Bitcoin-like security in a synchronous setting (up to 49% Byzantines). Buterin pointed out that he had always been averse to using social consensus or hard fork as a solution to even 34% Byzantine failure.
Intermediary minimization: Current efforts related to FOCIL, EIP-8141, EIP-7701, and other projects aim to address the need for intermediaries to include transactions on Ethereum. This will be especially helpful for smart contract wallets, privacy-oriented systems such as Railgun, and higher-level applications like Kohaku.
The broader implications for ETH and its ecosystem
Buterin highlighted that about $250 billion in ETH was secured on Ethereum, which remained the single most significant financial asset. About 90% of his net worth was invested in ETH, while the rest was invested in open-source biology, software, and hardware development projects.
Nevertheless, some of the market-related responsibilities pertaining to the ETH coin lay outside the ambit of EF’s new focus area. Buterin encouraged “other heroes” – including organizations that held more ETH than the Foundation – to take responsibility, with the latter willing to provide any necessary support initially.
Through this model, it would be ensured that Ethereum remained decentralized, with the EF preserving the integrity of the blockchain and others promoting ETH as the market leader.
This will be hard to achieve. As reported by Cryptopolitan, EF appears to be experiencing a major talent exodus, with at least six individuals already leaving or going on leave since April and May 2026 alone.
Among recent departures are Carl Beek and Julian Ma, two of EF’s leading researchers, who stepped down on May 18.
Seven-year veteran Carl Beek, who was among those who helped create the Beacon Chain and perform the KZG ceremony, confirmed that May 29 will be his last working day. Four-year-old cryptoeconomics researcher Julian Ma said he was leaving, expressing gratitude for cooperation in some important projects.
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RAIL, the native token of the Railgun project, rallied to new highs for 2026. The token moves closer to its all-time high range.
A return to the privacy narrative drove the recent RAIL rally, while trading volumes reached $7.5M, about 10 times their usual levels. In the year to date, RAIL is up more than 128%, after having its steepest rally for the past few months.
RAIL reaches new peaks for 2026 in its steepest rally for the year to date. The token peaked at $4.51 before retreating. | Source: CoinGecko.
What makes RAIL an exception is that it is mostly traded on decentralized exchanges, and has remained a relatively niche project. Now, Railgun, the Ethereum-based mixer and privacy platform, has taken the spotlight once again.
RAIL peaked at $4.51, before retreating to $4.05, with increased volatility in the past day. The token is close to its all-time peak above $5, and expects to enter price discovery and a new price range. Despite this, Railgun remains a relatively small project, with limited liquidity compared to other privacy assets.
More than 60% of RAIL trading depends on Uniswap pairs and direct on-chain trading. RAIL has not been listed by any centralized exchanges, and has turned into the privacy layer of Ethereum.
Why is RAIL rallying?
RAIL has received more mentions from crypto influencers, driving attention to the privacy narrative. The token has also benefited from the rising activity around ZEC and XMR, as well as a general attempt to return crypto usage to privacy. Recently, Bary Silbert, Chairman of Grayscale, revived the privacy narrative in crypto, just after the fund accelerated its ZEC exposure.
The “privacy” era in crypto has officially begun
— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) May 24, 2026
As a result, RAIL has increased its mindshare by 208% based on social media activity as measured by Messari.
The recent rise of RAIL popularity follows a general trend of increased usage. As Cryptopolitan reported, Railgun was already setting new records of value locked. As of May 2026, railgun holds over $97M in notional value locked, due to the drop of value in ETH.
RAIL also has a relatively limited free float, with 57M of tokens in circulation out of a total supply of 100M tokens.
Unlike other mixers, Railgun is not entirely free to use. The way Railgun achieves privacy is to pre-vet its transaction sources and ban some addresses. Despite this, Railgun has also been used to mix funds in hacks, as the reaction time to blacklist addresses is still relatively long.
Railgun may benefit from the recently rising wallet integration narrative. Currently, Railgun shields up to $5B in trading volumes, building a small sub-section of private DeFi on Ethereum. The protocol also produces $4.13M in fees.
Will Railgun bring mainstream veiled transactions?
Railgun offers scalable privacy for Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The protocol allows for pre-vetting and compliance, unlike the permissionless approach of ZCash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR).
Recently, Railgun was added to Ethereum’s Kohaku SDK, which is a step away from mass wallet integration. MetaMask has already signaled support for the privacy feature, and any wallet could add Railgun transactions as one of its options. So far, real in-wallet usage of Railgun’s veiled transactions is still a future narrative.
Railgun mostly mixes WETH, USDC, and USDT in its ecosystem based on Dune Analytics data, but the in-wallet upgrade may add other tokens and expand for all DeFi purposes.
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Binance has recorded net positive Bitcoin deposits for nearly 10 consecutive days. This had added fresh pressure to a market already struggling under geopolitical uncertainty and weakening ETF demand.
The global crypto market saw a marginal recovery after witnessing a sell-off last weekend. Its cumulative cap hovers around $2.57 trillion with a 24-hour trading volume of $60 billion. Bitcoin managed to reclaim the $77,000 mark after dipping to $74,000 levels.
More than 16,000 BTC flow into Binance
According to data shared by Darkfost, Binance’s weekly average of inflows jumped from 378 BTC on May 16 to hit 1,190 BTC by May 25. This marks more than a threefold increase in less than 10 days. However, one of the largest spikes came on May 18 when more than 3,600 BTC reportedly flowed into Binance in a single day.
This has led Bitcoin reserves on the exchange to climb sharply over the past month. It added that Binance’s BTC reserves rebounded from around 616,000 BTC on April 24 to around 632,000 BTC on May 25. It turns out to be nearly 16,000 BTC flowing into the exchange in just one month.
The inflow trend on Binane looks concerning as exchange inflows are traditionally seen as a potential sell signal. This suggests that holders might want exposure or reposition defensively during uncertain market conditions.
Bitcoin price is marginally up over the last 24 hours. The 7-day index finally turned green while it is still down by 12% on YTD. Bitcoin is trading at $77,101 at the press time. Analysts now warn that Bitcoin’s recent recovery may be losing one of its strongest sources of support.
Only weeks ago, Bitcoin ETF holdings had nearly recovered from the massive sell-off that began back in November. The recent outflow seems to be reversing that trend. Sosovalue data shows that more than $1.2 billion fled out of Bitcoin ETFs over the last week. As of now, May has posted an outflow of $1 billion.
The traders are now watching whether ETF inflows will stabilize again. It can be an alarming situation if the outflows continue into next week.
Is smart money buying the dip?
Alphractal reported that their “Whale vs Retail Delta” metric has caught a huge signal. It printed its strongest positive divergence since November 2024. This comes in as when some large accumulation signals made it to the market.
Cryptopolitan reported that Strategy is still going long on Bitcoin. In a fresh buy, it added another 24,869 BTC (approx worth $2 billion) to its bag last week. Strategy’s average purchase price hovers around $80,985.
A dormant whale wallet dating back to 2013 got back into action. It reportedly moved 500 BTC after around 12 years. Alphractal in a post reported that wallets holding more than 1,000 BTC were on a buying spree. They have added around 47,000 BTC over the past two weeks.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index reads 28. Retail is panicking. Meanwhile, our Whale vs Retail Delta just printed its highest positive divergence since November 2024.
Here’s what we’re actually seeing:
Strategy added 24,869 BTC ($2.01B) last week at $80,985 average. A dormant 2013… pic.twitter.com/F5LenpLWh8
— Alphractal (@Alphractal) May 24, 2026
The analyst sees that there is a gap between fearful retail positioning and whale accumulation. However, it could become important if macro conditions stabilize. For now, the market remains caught between two competing signals.
On one side, Exchange inflows are rising while ETF outflows grow. However, the weak sentiment continues to point toward defensive positioning. On the other hand, whales and long-term holders are making big moves. The larger players may still be treating the current weakness as a buying opportunity.
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