Key points:
Bitcoin refuses to budge from a narrow range as traders consider the likely breakout direction.
Price discovery is keenly awaited, but downside predictions include levels further toward $90,000.
BTC/USD has delivered highly patterned moves since its rebound began in April.
Bitcoin (BTC) kept traders guessing at the May 16 Wall Street open as consolidation sparked both bullish and bearish forecasts.
Opinion by: Megan Knab, CEO, Franklin Payroll
There are few historical examples of such a massive about-face for an industry, from banks debanking crypto businesses to now embracing stablecoins. If you talk to most crypto startup founders or companies with crypto on the balance sheet, they will all have war stories about finding, applying for and maintaining bank accounts.
Over the past three years, over half of debanking complaints have been lodged against four American banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citibank. Now, as the policies that discriminated against the crypto industry, like “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” and the recision of controversial accounting rule SAB 121, have been repealed, a new openness to blockchain technology from the finance sector is possible.
It is imperative that the banking industry stop shunning crypto and start — at least understanding it — to stay competitive. How stablecoins are deployed will separate the banking winners and losers.
Of course, stablecoins are not a new concept. For years, large institutions like JPMorgan and Santander have experimented with stablecoins and blockchains. Those experiments were around small functions like internal treasury reconciliation and interbank settlement. Much of this was also on private blockchains created by those banks. Implementing digital dollars on private chains, however, misses out on the core innovation of stablecoins.
The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation — better known as MiCA — is now in its critical implementation phase. Designed to unify crypto regulation across all 27 EU member states, MiCA promises clarity, consumer protection and long-term market stability. But as implementation begins, cracks are already showing.
In this week’s episode of Byte-Sized Insight, we explore the key provisions of MiCA now in force, particularly around stablecoins, and why some of the largest players in the market are refusing to comply.
As of January 2025, crypto asset service providers (CASPs) began acquiring licenses to operate legally within the EU. A transitional or “grandfathering” period allows existing firms up to 18 months, depending on the member state, to comply. Still, with deadlines approaching, firms are being forced to act quickly.
One of MiCA’s earliest and most controversial provisions involves stablecoins. Under the law, no stablecoin can be offered to EU users unless the issuer is authorized in the EU and publishes a regulator-approved white paper.
Strict rules around asset reserves, governance, conflict of interest and marketing are also part of the package. Issuers are even banned from offering interest on tokens, removing a common incentive for adoption.
As cryptocurrency gains in popularity and price, some criminals are taking to violent measures to steal funds from high-profile crypto holders.
Jameson Lopp’s GitHub repository, which logs such incidents, has recorded 22 “$5 wrench” attacks on crypto holders in 2025 alone. The moniker comes from the crude and violent methods perpetrators use to compel crypto holders to hand over their bags.
In many cases, local law enforcement can intervene before anyone is harmed and funds are lost. But there is a growing trend of increasingly violent and successful attacks, some of which have resulted in permanent harm and even death.
The most recent incident in Paris, France compelled the French Ministry of the Interior to hold a meeting to address the rising trend. Here are just seven of the most high-profile attacks this year.
The founder of crypto wallet Ledger, David Balland, and his wife, Amandine Balland, were kidnapped from their home on Jan. 21. The couple was put in a car, then separated and held at different locations.
Ripple’s legal chief said a US court’s rejection of a proposed XRP settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not pose a threat to Ripple’s win.
Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected a joint Ripple-SEC motion seeking an indicative ruling on their proposed settlement, according to a filing on May 15.
Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, said the rejection does not reverse the company’s victory in the case. The company announced the end of the lawsuit on March 19.
Source: Stuart AlderotyAlderoty stressed that the latest court decision does not change the fact that XRP (XRP) is not a security, adding that the rejection is related to “procedural concerns with the dismissal of Ripple’s cross-appeal.”
According to the court document, Torres denied the motion as “procedurally improper” since the SEC and Ripple failed to file the correct procedural motion to support the proposed settlement.
Shares of luxury watchmaker Top Win surged more than 60% in premarket trading after the company said it would adopt a Bitcoin accumulation strategy and had changed its name to AsiaStrategy.
In a May 16 announcement, AsiaStrategy said it is partnering with Sora Ventures to adopt a Bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategy. Sora previously partnered with Metaplanet in 2024 to create Japan’s first corporate Bitcoin treasury.
The stock market took immediate notice of the announcement. Top Win stock closed the trading day at $7.50 on May 15, but traded at $12.12 in premarket at the time of writing — a jump of over 60%.
Top Win share price. Source: Google FinanceAsiaStrategy’s luxury watchmaking business will continue alongside its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, rather than a full pivot.
Related: Jim Chanos takes opposing bets on Bitcoin and Strategy
Fantom was one of the pioneers of the directed acyclic graph (DAG) design for distributed ledgers. It featured fast finality and transaction fees of a fraction of a cent. However, Fantom relied on the Ethereum-derived account storage model and the EVM, which led to bloated storage and slow execution times.
To address these bottlenecks and implement numerous other updates, the team behind Fantom rolled out Sonic, a fully independent new blockchain network. A new report by HTX explores Sonic's technological background, its new tokenomics model and the innovations it brings to DeFi.
Download a full version of the report for free here
Sonic runs on the proprietary SonicVM execution engine, which dynamically translates EVM bytecode into a faster internal format for speedier execution. It also optimizes heavy computations to prevent repeated work and pre-analyzes contract code to cache valid jump destinations. The SonicVM is fully compatible with the EVM, meaning that Fantom smart contracts can run seamlessly on the new blockchain.
To address the issue of hefty onchain data storage and slow node synchronization, Sonic uses a new database design called SonicDB. SonicDB separates the blockchain state into two databases. It uses the LiveDB for fast access to the current state and execution, and the ArchiveDB for storing full historical data. This separation allows consensus nodes to cut data storage requirements by up to 90% and thus significantly reduces hardware requirements and synchronization time.
Ethereum Merge architect Justin Drake told Cointelegraph that he believes it would be cheaper to launch a 51% attack on Bitcoin than on Ethereum.
Drake said it would be “much cheaper to 51% attack Bitcoin” and that it would cost “on the order of $10 billion.”
Drake led work on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) implementation and was a principal architect in the Merge (the full PoS transition event). His remarks echo a May 14 X post by Grant Hummer, the co-founder of Ethereum-focused marketing and product company Etherealize.
In the post, Hummer said that Bitcoin “is completely screwed because of its security budget.”
Hummer claimed it would cost $8 billion to run a successful 51% attack, and he expects a successful attack to be “virtually certain” when the cost slips to $2 billion. A 51% attack occurs when a single entity or group controls over 50% of a blockchain network’s mining or staking power, gaining power over the network. Hummer added:
Key takeaways:
XRP price is forming a bullish V-shaped recovery pattern targeting $3.40.
A 53% surge in open interest to $5.06 billion signals bullish sentiment.
XRP (XRP) price shows positive signs as a bullish technical pattern emerges on its weekly chart, coinciding with increasing open interest.
XRP price is down 2% over the last 24 hours to trade above $2.40 on May 16, but has gained 13% over the past two weeks as the broader cryptocurrency market recovered and XRP open interest (OI) surged.
A fake Eric Trump-themed memecoin launched on Solana’s memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, rose more than 6,200% in the past 24 hours, raising red flags among blockchain analysts who warned of a potential rug pull.
A newly-created Eric Trump (ERICTRUMP) memecoin with the token address “jv7d” surpassed $140 million in market capitalization within a day since its launch on May 16, CoinMarketCap data shows.
ERICTRUMP/USD, all-time chart. Source: CoinMarketCapThe memecoin’s distribution raises significant red flags that point to a rug pull “in the making,” warned blockchain data platform Bubblemaps in a May 16 X post.
Source: BubblemapsA rug pull typically refers to the sudden removal of liquidity or mass sell-off by token insiders, often resulting in a steep price collapse that leaves retail holders with worthless tokens.
Looking at Bubblemaps’ token clusters for the 250 largest holders, the majority of these tokens are held across 10 token clusters, founded by 10 main crypto addresses.
Key takeaways:
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway earned $250 million from its complete exit from crypto-friendly Nubank.
The decision to divest didn’t appear to be performance-based; Nu Holdings posted record profits in 2024 and Q1 2025.
Buffett’s exit aligns with Berkshire’s broader financial sector pullback and growing cash reserve strategy.
Warren Buffett, the legendary investor long known for his skepticism toward cryptocurrencies, has fully exited his position in one of Latin America’s most crypto-friendly banks, Nubank, before his departure from Berkshire Hathaway.
AI vibe coding is a novel approach to software development that generates advanced, executable code based on well-crafted natural language user prompts.
Yet another innovation fueled by artificial intelligence capabilities, AI vibe coding is proving to be a game-changer, especially for non-technical enthusiasts who can now experiment with software development and contribute to the ever-expanding technology ecosystem.
At a fundamental level, AI vibe coding uses advanced machine learning algorithms to interpret natural language instructions and generate corresponding code in the desired software language.
Users can input their requirements in plain language, such as “create a crypto website with a blog section and user login functionality,” and AI tools will generate the appropriate body of code needed to realize the project. This contrasts with traditional software development practices, which require the user to be skilled in programming languages and incorporate formal reviews along the journey.
Mainland China, one of the world’s most restrictive countries toward cryptocurrency, may be inching closer to adoption as a locally operating brand announced a Bitcoin reserve strategy.
DDC Enterprise, also known as DayDayCook, a US consumer brand with Hong Kong roots and operations in mainland China, is adopting a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve strategy, CEO Norma Chu announced in a shareholder letter on May 15.
As part of the strategy, DDC has acquired 100 BTC for about $10.4 million and plans to accumulate 5,000 BTC in the next 36 months, with 500 BTC targeted by the end of 2025.
Chu’s Bitcoin reserve announcement came after the firm posted a 33% revenue increase in 2024, with total revenue amounting to 273.3 million Chinese yuan ($37.4 million), according to its Form 20-F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 15.
Despite the public announcement, DDC’s latest SEC filings do not explicitly mention the company’s Bitcoin holdings or a Bitcoin reserve strategy.
Update May 16, 11:24 am UTC: This article has been updated to add comments from Ran Goldi, senior vice president of payments and network at Fireblocks.
A report from enterprise-grade digital assets platform Fireblocks shows that 90% of institutional players are using or exploring the use of stablecoins in their operations.
The report, published May 15, surveyed 295 executives across traditional banks, financial institutions, fintech companies and payment gateways. Almost half of the respondents (49%) said they already use stablecoins in payments, while 23% are conducting pilot tests and another 18% are in the planning stage.
Only 10% of institutions surveyed said they were undecided about stablecoin adoption.
“The stablecoin race has become a matter of avoiding obsolescence as customer demand accelerates and use cases mature,” Fireblocks wrote.
Central banks are experimenting with smart contracts to implement monetary policy in tokenized environments, signaling a growing interest in integrating blockchain technology into traditional finance (TradFi).
According to a joint research study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Center and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, smart contracts could offer central banks flexible, rapid-response tools in a tokenized financial system.
The study, dubbed Project Pine, tested a prototype “generic customizable monetary policy tokenized toolkit” for further research by central banks, according to a BIS report published May 15.
“The smart contract toolkit was fast and flexible,” the BIS wrote. “In hypothetical scenarios, the central bank was able to add and change tools instantly.”
The report emphasized that if tokenization becomes widely adopted for money and securities, smart contracts could play a central role in how monetary policy is executed.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin price consolidates as resistance at $105,000 prevents a rally to new all-time highs.
Traders are slightly bearish, but historical data suggests a sudden bullish move should not be ruled out.
Bitcoin (BTC) price has been consolidating within a roughly $3,500 range over the past seven days as the $105,000 level remains the overhead resistance to break.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Bitstamp shows that BTC’s price has been oscillating between its resistance level at $105,000 and $101,500, where it has found support.
Bringing student loans onchain would increase the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) by more than four times, supercharging the industry, according to Yat Siu, chairman of Animoca Brands.
Speaking at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, Siu pointed to the $3 trillion global student loan market as an untapped opportunity for the crypto industry. He said moving even 10% of that market onchain could significantly boost DeFi’s growth.
“You basically more than quadruple TVL in all of DeFi,” he said, underscoring how the industry is still in its early stages.
Consensus chairman Michael Lau (left) with Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu (right) at the Consensus mainstage in Toronto, Canada. Source: CointelegraphSiu said that Web3-based financial tools for the education sector could drive mass crypto adoption, especially among the young and unbanked.
“The first unbanked are the kids,” he said. “If a student receives a loan onchain and pays it back onchain — which is regulated, better, faster, cheaper — they become onboarded for crypto for life.”
Key points:
New Bitcoin price targets leverage interplay with gold to deliver $200,000 and higher this year.
Bitcoin price cycles remain in focus as part of the BTC price “power curve” model.
Eating gold’s market cap could propel BTC/USD to nearly $1 million by the decade’s end.
Bitcoin (BTC) has a “decent chance” of hitting $250,000 or more in 2025 as attention turns to gold copycat moves.
Tether AI is an open-source, decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) platform launched by Tether, the company behind the Tether USDt (USDT) stablecoin. Unlike traditional AI services that depend on centralized servers and require application programming interface (API) keys, Tether AI runs on a distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) network, offering enhanced privacy, autonomy and resilience.
Designed to be modular and composable, Tether AI can operate on any hardware, whether mobile, desktop or edge devices, without centralized control or a single point of failure.
A core innovation of Tether AI is its integration with cryptocurrency infrastructure. It natively supports Bitcoin (BTC) and USDt payments using Tether’s Wallet Development Kit (WDK), enabling seamless onchain transactions. This makes Tether AI one of the first AI platforms to offer direct crypto payment functionality at the protocol level.
According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether AI, it is a “fully open-source AI runtime, capable of adapting and evolving on any hardware and device, no API keys, no central point of failure, fully modular and composable, WDK-infused to enable USDT and Bitcoin payments.”
Blockchain gaming user activity dipped and funding slowed in April, but the overall ecosystem is healthier and maturing, according to blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.
User activity dropped 10% over April, with blockchain gaming reaching a 2025 low of 4.8 million daily Unique Active Wallets, DappRadar analyst Sara Gherghelas said in the platform’s April Games Report.
Gaming dominance over the decentralized app industry also fell and is now tied with decentralized finance at 21%.
Gherghelas said it’s clear user attention is shifting away from gaming, but under the surface, new infrastructure went live, major publishers doubled down, and high-quality games edged closer to launch.
Source: DappRadar“The blockchain gaming industry isn’t dead — it’s evolving. It’s moving from noise to signal,” she said.
