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Blackstone, which bills itself as the “the world’s largest alternative asset manager,” disclosed its first-ever crypto-related purchase, buying shares in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

However, Blackstone’s investment, reported in a May 20 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, only totaled around $1.08 million — a fraction of the asset manager’s $1.2 trillion portfolio.

Blackstone reported holding 23,094 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) as of March 31.

The IBIT shares were added to Blackstone’s Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund (BTMIX), which holds $2.63 billion worth of assets, Google Finance data shows.

The filing shows Blackstone also bought 4,300 shares in crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot Inc. (BTM) for a total cost of $6,300 and spent $181,166 scooping up 9,889 shares of the ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO).

Despite its claim as an “alternative asset manager,” Blackstone has largely stayed away from crypto. In September 2019, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman said he liked the concept of blockchain but thought its use for money was “pretty odd.”

Haliey Welch, better known as the “Hawk tuah girl,” says the Federal Bureau of Investigation briefly probed her after her “memecoin disaster” — the failed launch of a token in her image that she promoted. 

Welch said in a May 21 episode of her “Talk Tuah” podcast that the FBI showed up at her grandmother’s house looking to speak to her over the Hawk Tuah (HAWK) crypto token, which many crypto commentators have called an exit scam.

“After the coin launch, the feds came to granny’s house and knocked on her door, and she called me, having a heart attack, saying: ‘The FBI is here after you, what have you done?’”

Welch said she handed over her phone to the FBI and met with agents who “interrogated me, asking me questions and everything else related to crypto.”

“They cleared me, I was good to go,” Welch said. 

Welch went viral for her response about an oral sex technique in a vox pop interview posted to YouTube in June. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he will create a digital advisory council to attract jobs and investment to the Big Apple and position it as the “crypto capital of the globe.”

“This is not about chasing memes or trends,” Adams told the inaugural New York City Crypto Summit on May 20. “We want to use the technology of tomorrow to better serve New Yorkers today.”

“We have experts right here, and they are going to help us navigate solutions that serve our city,” he added. “The age of tokenization, which includes crypto and blockchain and other fintech innovations, that age is here, and we’re going to continue to move forward with it.”

Adams didn’t share further details on the advisory group, but said a council chair and key policy recommendations would follow in the next few weeks.

We're taking the next step in becoming the Crypto Capitol of the WORLD, hosting our city's first-ever Crypto and Digital Assets Summit! Join us LIVE as we get started: https://t.co/iwO6ThkaSB

Update May 21, 4:32 am UTC: This article has been updated to add more information from the SEC’s complaint.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued crypto investment platform Unicoin and three of its executives, alleging they made false and misleading statements about their crypto assets that raised over $100 million from investors.

The SEC said on May 20 that it charged Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin, board member Silvina Moschini and former investment chief Alex Dominguez with misleading over 5,000 investors about certificates that conveyed rights to receive Unicoin tokens and stock.

SEC Division of Enforcement associate director Mark Cave claimed that starting in 2022, the trio “exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens, when issued, would be backed by real-world assets including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings.”

“The real estate assets were worth a mere fraction of what the company claimed, and the majority of the company’s sales of rights certificates were illusory,” Cave added.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive is looking to build its Bitcoin holdings by purchasing distressed Bitcoin claims at a discount, starting with claims tied to 75,000 Bitcoin at the bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox.

Strive said in a May 20 regulatory filing that it partnered with 117 Castell Advisory Group LLC to target claims to Bitcoin (BTC) that have received definitive legal rulings but are still awaiting distribution.

The company said buying the claims would allow it to purchase Bitcoin at a discount and grow its Bitcoin per share ratio ahead of its planned reverse merger with Asset Entities — which is expected to be completed sometime mid this year.

Strive hasn’t disclosed any Bitcoin holdings but claims it will face fewer restrictions on purchasing Bitcoin than companies going public through Special Purpose Acquisition Company mergers.

Advantages of going public via a reverse merger compared with a SPAC merger. Source: Strive

Strive said it would need shareholder approval to pursue Mt. Gox claims. The company said it intends to lodge a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to outline the full terms of the proposed transaction. A proxy statement would then be sent to shareholders to seek their approval.

After weeks of speculation among crypto enthusiasts and news outlets, Tron founder Justin Sun has claimed he owns the wallet that purchased the largest amount of Donald Trump’s memecoin, allowing him to qualify for a dinner and reception with the US president.

In a May 19 X post, Sun said he had received an invitation to attend Trump’s dinner at his golf club outside Washington, DC, as part of a reward for the top 220 memecoin holders. The Tron founder claimed he controlled the top wallet on the TRUMP token leaderboard under the username “Sun,” which held roughly $19 million worth of the memecoin at a price of $13.20.

According to Sun, he plans to network at the May 22 memecoin dinner, “talk crypto,” and “discuss the future” of the industry. It’s unclear why the Tron founder chose to announce his planned presence at the event now, when the leaderboard was finalized on May 12.

Cointelegraph reached out to a spokesperson for Sun for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Source: Justin Sun

Though not a surprise to many who speculated that Sun was the individual behind the memecoin purchases, his attendance at the dinner only deepens his ties to the Trump administration and the president’s family. In addition to the dinner for the 220 tokenholders, Trump said he would hold a reception and “VIP tour” for the top 25 wallets on the leaderboard.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin futures open interest hit a record $72 billion, signaling rising use of leverage among institutional investors.

$1.2 billion in shorts at $107,000 to $108,000 are at risk of liquidation, boosting BTC’s breakout odds.

The aggregate open interest in Bitcoin (BTC) futures surged to a record high on May 20, raising questions about whether bearish positions are now at risk. Despite repeated failures to break above the $107,000 level since May 18, the sheer volume of leveraged positions could propel Bitcoin to a new all-time high.

Bitcoin futures aggregate open interest, USD. Source: CoinGlass

The total open interest in BTC futures climbed to $72 billion on May 20, marking an 8% increase from $66.6 billion just a week earlier. Institutional demand continues to be a major driver of this leverage, with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) leading at $16.9 billion in BTC futures, followed by Binance, which holds $12 billion in open interest.

Key Takeaways:

Ethereum is forming a bull flag on the daily chart, with a potential breakout above $3,600.

If ETH reclaims the 2-week Gaussian Channel mid-line, a 90% rally could occur.

Ethereum (ETH) price is consolidating between $2,400 and $2,750 on its daily chart, forming a bull flag pattern with sights on the $3,000 to $3,100 resistance zone. A bull flag is a continuation pattern that follows a sharp rally (black flagpole) to $2,730 from $1,900, with the current range forming the flag. 

Ethereum 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

A bullish breakout above $2,600 could target $3,600, which is calculated by adding the flagpole height to the breakout point, but the immediate key area of interest remains between the resistance range at $3,100-$3,000. 

Bancor, the creator of a smart contract-based automated market maker, is suing Uniswap for patent infringement, alleging the decentralized finance exchange has used its technology without permission and profited significantly from it.

According to the May 20 announcement of the lawsuit, Bancor designed the technology in 2016 and patented it in January 2017. The technology underpins the “constant product automated market maker,” which involves using mathematics to add or withdraw resources from a liquidity pool. The application subsequently led to two issued patents.

Bancor alleges that Uniswap used the invention to create its protocol, launched in November 2018. The two organizations are considered competitors in the sector of decentralized finance (DeFi).

“When an organization continuously uses our invention without our authorization and does so as a means of competing with us, we must take action,” said Mark Richardson, project lead at Bancor.

At the time of publication, Uniswap had not publicly responded to the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Key takeaways:

An end-of-month Bitcoin price close above $102,400 would set the highest monthly close ever, proving the bull market continues at a rapid pace.

Over $3 billion in Bitcoin short positions are vulnerable above $107,000, creating a “liquidation magnet” that could send BTC price to new highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) is 11 days from potentially setting its highest monthly candle close in history. After achieving a record weekly close of $106,407 on May 18, BTC could secure a new monthly high by closing above $102,400 this month.

Bitcoin 1-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

With respect to its current market trend, Bitcoin is inches away from a ‘price discovery’ period, as noted by crypto trader Jelle.

Five years ago, Brian Armstrong wanted employees of his cryptocurrency exchange to refrain from expressing political views at work. Now, the Coinbase CEO seems to be open to involvement with Republican figures, including members of US President Donald Trump’s inner circle.

In a May 13 X post, Armstrong said members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, spearheaded by Elon Musk, though not set up as an actual department, would be welcome to implement cost-cutting changes at Coinbase after leaving the US government.

Armstrong offered to set up an accelerated onboarding process with the exchange, responding to an interview in which at least one DOGE staffer felt ostracized from Harvard University, where he had been enrolled.

“If you are looking for your next mission after serving your country, consider helping create a more efficient financial system for the world at Coinbase,” Armstrong said.

Since assuming a government position at the White House in January, Musk and the DOGE team have faced criticism from both sides of the aisle over their cuts, which often forced out or fired experienced employees without proper notice.

Artificial intelligence platform Validation Cloud has launched a new large language model on the Hedera network, potentially giving decentralized finance users the ability to reach blockchain data in a more accessible way.

The Mavrik-1 AI engine has been deployed on Hedera, with several other planned integrations expected during a public rollout later this year, Validation Cloud’s team told Cointelegraph. 

The AI engine is designed to allow users to interact with DeFi protocols and access blockchain data through natural language queries without needing technical expertise or knowledge. 

Mavrik-1 uses live onchain data trained for DeFi, stablecoins and other blockchain applications. 

Hedera DeFi metrics, including total value locked (TVL), decentralized exchange volume and stablecoin activity. Source: DefiLlama

“Despite DeFi accounting for over 50% of all onchain activity, accessing and interpreting that data remains a major hurdle for most users and institutions,” Validation Cloud told Cointelegraph, asserting that existing blockchain data tools like Dune, Flipside and Nansen are harder to grasp for users who aren’t well versed in the industry. 

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins appeared before lawmakers in one of his first hearings since taking the reins at the financial regulator, addressing questions about his plans for the cryptocurrency industry.

In a May 20 hearing discussing oversight of the SEC, Atkins reiterated his pledge to make regulating digital assets a “key priority” while chair. In response to questions from North Carolina Representative Chuck Edwards, the SEC chair did not directly answer how much of the regulator’s funds were used to support the crypto task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, and said its findings were “still under development.”

“We should be having something here in the next few months with proposed steps forward,” said Atkins, referring to the task force’s first report. 

Paul Atkins at a May 20 SEC oversight hearing. Source: House Appropriations Committee

Atkins’ appearance at the oversight hearing was one of his first since being sworn into office in April. Nominated by US President Donald Trump, Atkins, also a former commissioner, was seen by many lawmakers and those in the digital asset industry as someone who could radically change the SEC’s approach to crypto. 

Looking to Congress for help with regulatory clarity

Atkins’ remarks came less than 24 hours after US senators voted to move forward on consideration of a bill to regulate stablecoins, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act. The bill is one of many related to aspects of digital assets that could affect how the SEC regulates the industry alongside agencies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Argentine President Javier Milei has dissolved a task force established to investigate the fallout from LIBRA, the scandalous cryptocurrency project the head of state promoted on his social media channel before it crashed to zero. 

The Investigative Task Force (ITU) was dissolved via a May 19 decree signed by Milei and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona, government documents revealed. 

“The Research Task Unit is dissolved” after completing its mandate, the translated version of the decree read.

The task force is being dissolved despite pressure from opposition groups, which are seeking to activate an investigative commission as soon as May 20, local media outlet Clarin reported. 

A screenshot of Milei’s tweet endorsing LIBRA. Source: TRM Labs

Government officials established the UTI on Feb. 19, days after Milei promoted LIBRA on his official X account.

Opinion by: Hatu Sheikh, founder of Coin Terminal

Although blockchains and DApps are critical, crypto industry stakeholders often prioritize applications based on adoption principles and revenue distribution. DApps won't function without their underlying chains. The markets must uphold blockchains for long-term value generation.

The value perspective is wrong 

Blockchains and DApps should work collaboratively to coordinate their functions for better usability. Instead, analysts create a binary between chains and DApps based on Web2's structural frameworks.

In “Fat Protocols,” Joel Monegro argued that value within the internet stack comprises "thin" protocols and "fat" applications. In other words, investing in the underlying protocol technologies like TCP/IP, HTTP, and SMTP gives lower returns than applications like Google and Facebook.

Monegro further stated that the value is reversed in the "blockchain application stack." The underlying protocol layer accumulates more value than the application layer, leading to "fat" protocols and "thin" applications. He later published an updated rejoinder to clarify "application-layer success as a requirement for protocol growth" and how value capture depends on the total addressable market.

US Senate Democrats are getting flak after they helped move stablecoin legislation ahead for discussion on the Senate floor.

On May 19, 16 Democratic senators broke from the party line to pass a motion to invoke cloture, which will now set the bill up for debate on the Senate floor. Some of the same Democrats had held up the bill in early May when they withdrew support, citing corruption concerns over President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency dealings.

The bill’s opponents hailed lawmakers’ refusal to support it but were soon taken aback when the senators reversed their position. The lightly amended legislation contained no provisions regarding World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture.

Some activists have said that the Democrats supporting the bill should be ousted in the upcoming Democratic primaries in 2026, reflecting a growing rift in the Democratic Party over cryptocurrencies.

The Senate voted 66-32 to move the bill ahead. Source: Stand With Crypto

Democratic lawmakers’ approach to crypto shows split in party

On May 19, moderate Democratic Senator Mark Warner announced he would support the bill, stating that it was “not perfect, but it’s far better than the status quo.”

Robinhood submitted a 42-page proposal to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), calling for a national framework to regulate tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

The brokerage is seeking to modernize financial infrastructure by making tokenized assets legally equivalent to their traditional counterparts and enabling compliant onchain settlement, Forbes reported on May 20.

In the proposal, Robinhood also revealed plans for creating the Real World Asset Exchange (RRE), a trading platform offering offchain trade matching and onchain settlement for efficiency and transparency.

Robinhood is advocating for uniform federal standards to replace the patchwork of state-level securities regulations that currently apply. The platform would also integrate Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) tools through partners like Jumio and Chainalysis to meet global compliance expectations.

Related: Central banks testing smart contract toolkit under BIS Project Pine

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the launch of regulated derivatives trading on its platform under the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II).

According to a May 20 announcement, Kraken’s perpetual and fixed maturity crypto futures contracts will be available for trading by retail and institutional customers in the European Economic Area (EEA). The announcement follows the exchange acquiring an MiFID license in early February through the acquisition of a Cypriot investment firm, approved by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kraken’s head of exchange, Shannon Kurtas, said, “Europe is one of the fastest-growing regions for digital asset trading and investment, with some of the most sophisticated and demanding clients and institutions.”

He added, “Clients and partners increasingly seek comprehensive offerings within a regulated framework.”

Source: Kraken Pro

Kraken had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication.

Circle co-founder and Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville has launched a project that aims to develop a financial institution that natively leverages artificial intelligence. 

On May 20, Catena Labs, the company building an “AI-native financial institution,” announced that it secured $18 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Crypto, a16z’s crypto and Web3 venture capital arm. 

Led by Neville, the company aims to realize its vision of a fully regulated financial institution for the AI economy. The company said it will be built for AI agents and human collaborators and will be operated by AI workers with human oversight and AI-specific risk management and compliance approaches. 

Cointelegraph contacted Catena Labs to get more information about the project but received no response before publication. 

Source: Catena Labs

Traditional financial systems are “resistant” to AI

In the announcement, Catena Labs argued that conventional financial systems resist AI technology. The company said these systems are unprepared for AI and are hindering the growth of the agent economy. 

The German government missed out on more than $2 billion worth of Bitcoin profit after selling its holdings in 2024, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.

A “German Government (BKA)” labeled cryptocurrency wallet sold 49,858 Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $2.89 billion at an average price of $57,900 across multiple transactions during June and July in 2024.

The decision to sell the Bitcoin early cost the German government over $2.35 billion, according to crypto intelligence platform Arkham.

Source: Arkham 

“If they had held it, their BTC would now be worth $5.24B,” Arkham said in a May 19 X post, noting that Bitcoin has risen more than 80% since the sale.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at more than $104,700, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Avalanche, Helix and Faculty Group have launched Fusion, a new blockchain ecosystem aimed at driving real-world adoption through modular infrastructure tailored to specific industries.

Built on Avalanche, Fusion features a two-layer architecture that includes composers, customizable layer-1 networks and modules, which offer plug-and-play services like compute, identity and data oracles. 

The team said this approach would be the answer for mainstream adoption, as they attempt to deliver “outcome-driven, domain-specific” blockchain-based economies. 

“In order to achieve widespread adoption, our industry needs to shift from selling blockspace to delivering business value,” a Fusion spokesperson told Cointelegraph. They added that Fusion integrates economic alignment, network design and composability to achieve real-world outcomes.  

Fusion expects traction in composer and module development

The Fusion team expects composers and modules — the two building blocks for the protocol — to gain traction in the next two to three years. 

India’s Supreme Court questioned the government’s lack of regulatory clarity on cryptocurrencies despite imposing taxes on digital assets like Bitcoin.

According to the Indian legal news outlet LawChakra, the country’s Supreme Court expressed concern over the increasing use of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, which remain largely unregulated.

“This is a whole parallel economy running with such coins, and it is a danger to the economy of the country,” Justice Surya Kant reportedly said during a recent hearing related to an ongoing investigation into a Bitcoin transaction.

Kant said that while the government has implemented crypto taxation, it has failed to regulate the space.

“If you can tax it at 30%, also please regulate it as you have recognised it by taxing it,” the judge said.

Binance has filed a motion to dismiss a $1.76 billion lawsuit brought by the FTX estate, accusing the defunct crypto exchange of trying to deflect blame for its own failure.

Filed on May 16 in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, Binance’s legal team called the suit “legally deficient,” stating that FTX’s collapse was not triggered by market manipulation or hostile action but by internal misconduct.

“Plaintiffs are pretending that FTX did not collapse as the result of one of the most massive corporate frauds in history,” the filing said, pointing to Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried’s conviction on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.

FTX’s estate alleges that Binance received billions in crypto during a 2021 buyback deal, funded improperly with customer assets.

Binance rejects this claim, stating that “FTX remained a going concern for 16 months” after the share repurchase and that there was “no plausible claim” the exchange was insolvent at the time.

Bitcoin developer Ben Allen has received a $100,000 grant from investment firm Maelstrom to support the development of Payjoin, a privacy-focused tool aimed at improving Bitcoin’s scalability and privacy.

According to a May 20 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Maelstrom will finance Allen’s work on his Payjoin devkit alongside Dan Gould. The system allows Bitcoin (BTC) senders and receivers to use batched transactions, with positive implications for scalability and privacy.

Payjoin Developer Kit’s website. Source: Payjoin Dev Kit

Payjoin was first proposed by Nicolas Dorier in 2019 in Bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) 78. The core principle behind the system is that both senders and receivers may contribute inputs to a transaction.

“Namely that privacy is enhanced and improved consolidation of transaction outputs is achieved, benefiting scalability,“ the Maelstrom announcement states.

A Maelstrom representative told Cointelegraph that grantees are paid monthly for a total of $100,000 per year in Bitcoin and Allen’s grant will last one year. There are no concrete milestones and the grant is managed on a hands-off approach:

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin is nearing a golden cross that led to 45–60% price rallies in the recent past.

Fundamentals like rising M2 supply and easing trade tensions support a bullish outlook.

Bearish divergence and overbought conditions show there’s still a risk of BTC falling below $100,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) will likely confirm a “golden cross” on its daily chart by the end of May, a technical pattern whose occurrences in recent years often preceded rallies.

A recent data breach at crypto exchange Coinbase has raised concerns about user safety after hackers gained access to sensitive information, including home addresses.

Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed that less than 1% of its transacting monthly users were affected in an attack that may cost the exchange up to $400 million in reimbursement expenses, Cointelegraph reported on May 15.

However, the “human cost” of this data breach may be much higher for users, according to Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch and Arrington Capital.

“Very disappointed in Coinbase right now. Using the cheapest option for customer service has its price,” Arrington said in a May 20 X post, adding:

“Something that has to be said though - this hack - which includes home addresses and account balances - will lead to people dying. It probably has already.”Source: Michael Arrington

While no passwords, private keys or account funds were exposed, cybercriminals reportedly bribed overseas customer service contractors to access internal systems. This allowed them to steal personal data that could be used in social engineering scams or even physical extortion attempts.

South Korea’s Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung proposed creating a stablecoin tied to the Korean won to prevent capital outflows and strengthen national financial sovereignty.

Speaking during a recent policy discussion, Lee argued that a won-based stablecoin would allow South Korea to retain wealth domestically while reducing reliance on foreign-issued digital assets like USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), according to The Korea Herald.

Currently, South Korean law prohibits the issuance of domestic stablecoins, forcing local exchanges to rely on US dollar-based alternatives.

Between January and March, crypto exchanges in the country recorded 56.8 trillion won ($40.8 billion) in asset outflows, nearly half of which were linked to foreign stablecoins, the report said.

“We need to establish a won-backed stablecoin market to prevent national wealth from leaking overseas,” Lee reportedly said.

Update May 20, 11:20 am UTC: This article has been updated with comments from DCG.

Genesis has launched a pair of lawsuits against its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), and its CEO, Barry Silbert, accusing them of fraud, reckless mismanagement and siphoning more than a billion dollars in value from the now-bankrupt crypto lender.

On May 19, the Delaware Court of Chancery unsealed a complaint detailing how DCG allegedly used Genesis as a corporate ATM, draining funds through self-serving loans and concealed transfers while presenting a false image of financial health.

Through their court-appointed Litigation Oversight Committee (LOC), Genesis creditors claim that over a million digital coins — worth about $2.1 billion — were funneled away, even as Genesis edged toward collapse.

As per the complaint, Genesis creditors are still owed around $2.2 billion worth of crypto assets, including 19,086 Bitcoin (BTC), 69,197 Ether (ETH) and over 17.1 million other tokens, along with significant unpaid fees and interest as of Feb. 9, 2025.

Key points:

Bitcoin is not in line to cancel its attack on all-time highs, says the Bitcoin Fundamental Index (BFI).

BTC price strength remains “intact,” says Swissblock Technologies, removing the risk of a double top.

Historically, a return to within 10% of all-time highs delivers price discovery almost every time.

Bitcoin (BTC) does not risk a “double top” bull market reversal with its trip past $107,000, new analysis says.