Decentral Block Post

Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange, is weighing an entry into the US market, encouraged by what it sees as a friendlier regulatory climate under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a recent Financial Times report.

The Dubai-based exchange, which processed $1.3 trillion in notional volume last year, is “actively reassessing potential opportunities” in the United States, CEO Luuk Strijers told the FT.

He cited the “recent shift toward a more favorable regulatory stance on crypto in the US” as a key motivator behind the decision.

Deribit’s potential plan to expand into the US comes amid reports that Coinbase is in advanced negotiations to acquire the platform.

In a March 21 report, Bloomberg said both companies have notified regulators in Dubai, where Deribit is licensed. If the deal is finalized, the license would need to be transferred to Coinbase.

In a move that hopes to challenge Big Tech’s grip on artificial intelligence, AI agent protocol Thinkagents.ai has launched a new open-source framework for building onchain agents that operate autonomously across decentralized networks.

While traditional systems aim to restrict data ownership and platform abilities for their users, Thinkagents.ai is creating an interoperable ecosystem owned and controlled by its users. For Mike Anderson, core contributor at THINK, the Think Agent Standard is the future of AI.

Anderson and his team developed the Think Agent Standard to enable millions of autonomous onchain AI agents to transact and communicate. The protocol now has over 70 companies, like Arbitrum and Yuga Labs, on board to help out. 

The platform is now live, allowing developers, enterprises and Web3 communities to experiment with the framework.

“There was always this idea that it’s so much harder to [build AI] and so much more expensive when you have to build a thousand custom ways of doing it,” Anderson said during an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. “By standardizing demand — the way people want to receive AI — you can get the whole market to line up because they want customers, and getting customers in AI is really difficult.”

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves, effectively ending efforts to make Arizona the first US state to adopt such a policy.

The Digital Assets Strategic Reserve bill, which would have permitted Arizona to invest seized funds into Bitcoin (BTC) and create a reserve managed by state officials, was formally struck down on Friday, according to an update on the Arizona State Legislature’s website.

“Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1025. The Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments,” Hobbs wrote in a statement aimed at Warren Petersen, the President of the Arizona Senate.

“Arizonans’ retirement funds are not the place for the state to try untested investments like virtual currency,” she added.

On April 28, the bill passed a final vote in the state House when 31 members of the Arizona House voted in favor of the bill, with 25 opposing. 

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called for simplifying Ethereum’s base protocol, aiming to make the network more efficient, secure and accessible, drawing inspiration from Bitcoin’s minimalist design.

In a blog post titled “Simplifying the L1,” published on May 3, Buterin laid out a vision to restructure Ethereum’s architecture across consensus, execution and shared components.

“This post will describe how Ethereum 5 years from now can become close to as simple as Bitcoin,” Buterin wrote, arguing that simplicity is key to Ethereum’s resilience and long-term scalability.

While recent upgrades like proof-of-stake (PoS) and Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) integration have made Ethereum more robust, he said that technical complexity has led to bloated development cycles, higher costs and greater risks of bugs:

“Historically, Ethereum has often not done this (sometimes because of my own decisions), and this has contributed to much of our excessive development expenditure, all kinds of security risk, and insularity of R&D culture, often in pursuit of benefits that have proven illusory.”Buterin praises Bitcoin for its simplicity. Source: Vitalik Buterin

Related: ‘Vitalik: An Ethereum Story’ is less about crypto and more about being human

Crypto app developers are now free to direct users to payments outside of Apple’s ecosystem without restrictions or hefty fees, after a United States district judge ruled that Apple violated an injunction in its antitrust legal battle against Epic Games.

“The Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction, which was issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing. Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in an April 30 court filing.

Apple must make changes “effective immediately”

“Effective immediately, Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users, nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases,” Rogers added.

Rogers reiterated, “This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence.”

Source: Hector Lopez

The ruling stated that Apple must not impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app.” It added, “no reason exists to audit, monitor, track or require developers to report purchases or any other activity that consumers make outside an app.”

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes says the United States is unlikely to add more Bitcoin to its reserves beyond what it has already seized due to the country’s high debt levels and the stereotype behind “Bitcoin bros.”

“I’m not really into the whole Strategic Reserve situation,” Hayes said in a May 1 interview.

Hayes doubts print money plans for Bitcoin

“The United States is a deficit country; the only way they can do a Strategic Reserve is not sell the Bitcoin they took from people, fine, that’s 200,000 Bitcoin,” he said.

Arthur Hayes spoke to Kyle Chasse on his crypto interview series. Source: Kyle Chasse

However, Hayes said it’s hard to imagine any “properly elected” politician openly announcing that the government plans to print money to buy Bitcoin (BTC).

“Especially when the popular narrative is a bunch of Bitcoin bros going to the club.”

“Is that really what you want people to think about your policy?” he asked.

Key takeaways:

BTC hit $97,900 due to soaring institutional investor demand, but futures pricing shows traders aren't confident in a sustained rally.

Macroeconomic risks and global trade tensions cap bullish sentiment despite $3.6 billion in spot BTC ETF inflows.

BTC options lean bullish, suggesting big players expect upside, but their caution keeps leverage use low.

Bitcoin (BTC) broke out of a tight trading range between $93,000 and $95,600 on May 1, following six days of limited movement. Despite reaching its highest price in ten weeks at $97,930, sentiment remains neutral according to BTC derivatives indicators. This price action has occurred alongside significant net inflows into US spot exchange-traded Bitcoin funds (ETFs).

Senator Cynthia Lummis and at least one other Republican in Congress are reportedly critical of US President Donald Trump for offering the top holders of his memecoin a dinner and White House tour.

According to a May 2 CNBC report, Lummis said the idea that the US president was offering exclusive access to himself and the White House for people willing to pay for it “gives [her] pause.” She wasn’t the only member of the Republican Party to be critical of Trump’s memecoin perks, announced on April 23, roughly three months after the then-president-elect launched the TRUMP token.  

“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to charge people to come into the Capitol and take a tour,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, according to NBC News.

Despite Lummis’ reported “pause” over the president’s actions, on May 2, she posted a video to X of herself speaking on the Senate floor, saying she was “particularly pleased” by Trump’s support of legislation to establish a strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve in the United States. The Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide, or BITCOIN, Act would seemingly codify Trump’s executive order to create a national crypto reserve.

Related: House Democrats want ethics probe on Trump over crypto projects

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin network economist Timothy Peterson raised Bitcoin’s (BTC) chances of hitting a new high in 100 days, and he maintains an optimistic outlook in 2025. 

In an analysis shared on X that ties BTC’s price action to the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) —an indicator that measures 30-day market volatility expectations — the analyst pointed out that the VIX index has dropped from 55 to 25 over the past 50 trading days. A VIX score below 18 implied a “risk-on” environment, favoring assets like Bitcoin. 

Ethereum’s relative dominance among layer-1 (L1) blockchain networks has declined, resulting in an “open race” to become the leading Web3 platform, according to Alex Svanevik, CEO of data service Nansen.

“If you’d asked me 3–4 years ago whether Ethereum would dominate crypto, I’d have said yes,” Svanevik said during a panel discussion at the LONGITUDE by Cointelegraph event. “But now, it’s clear that’s not what’s happening.”

Ethereum is still the most popular L1 network. According to data from DefiLlama, its roughly $52 billion in total value locked (TVL) represents 51% of cryptocurrency residing on blockchain networks.

However, Ethereum’s dominance has diminished sharply since 2021, when the L1 controlled as much as 96% of aggregate TVL, the data shows. 

Panelists at the LONGITUDE by Cointelegraph event in Dubai. Source: Cointelegraph

“It’s an open race between multiple L1s for becoming the go-to platform for trading and broader blockchain use,” Svanevik said.

Merchants in Cannes, France, the site of the international Cannes Film Festival, are set to begin accepting crypto payments by summer this year in an effort to attract clientele with high disposable income by modernizing the city's commercial payment ecosystem.

According to Artem Shaginyan, founder and head of strategy of Web3 payment company Lunu Pay, the Cannes municipal government is aiming for a 90% adoption rate among local merchants. The executive also told Cointelegraph:

"This is a big signal. When a city like Cannes, known globally for culture and commerce, starts integrating crypto at scale, it shows that Web3 payments aren’t just a niche thing anymore. It’s about proving that crypto can work in everyday settings, not just online or in theory."

In February, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard announced a crypto payment integration training session for business owners and professionals to promote the widespread acceptance of crypto payments in the city.

The Rue d’Antibes, Canne’s shopping and commercial district. Source: City of Cannes

Canne's shift toward embracing cryptocurrencies reflects the broader trend of crypto adoption by city, state, and federal governments as these institutions seek to remain competitive on the global stage.

Related: Panama's capital to accept crypto for taxes, municipal fees

Ben McKenzie, an actor known for his roles on television shows including Gotham and The OC, will make his directorial debut in a scathing documentary about cryptocurrency.

According to an April 29 Deadline report, McKenzie wrote, directed, and produced the documentary Everyone Is Lying To You For Money, set to premiere at SXSW London in June. The film features footage from 2022 of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky before their respective companies folded. 

“Why is the false story of crypto still spreading?” said McKenzie, according to Deadline. “That’s the question I set out to answer with this film.”

Sam Bankman-Fried (left) with Ben McKenzie (right). Source: Instagram

Working with The New Republic staff writer Jacob Silverman, McKenzie pivoted from a role in Hollywood to speaking out against many of the issues surrounding cryptocurrency in 2021. After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, the actor testified at a US Senate hearing investigating the downfall of the crypto exchange. 

In addition to interviews with SBF and Mashinsky, the documentary will reportedly explore El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s connections to crypto. Bukele rose to prominence in the industry after proposing that El Salvador recognize Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in 2021.

XYO Network has onboarded more than 10 million nodes to its decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN), co-founder Markus Levin told Cointelegraph in an interview.

The nodes mostly comprise human users who provide data in exchange for rewards via the network’s mobile application, COIN. “The vast majority of our 10 million nodes are mobile users, but some are IoT devices like smart speakers,” Levin told Cointelegraph. 

Approximately 80% of XYO’s users are non-crypto natives who are participating in Web3 for the first time, he added.

They include truckers, rideshare drivers, delivery people, and nurses among others, Levin said, adding that “95% convert after onboarding through the COIN app.”

XYO launched a layer-1 blockchain network in January. Source: XYO

Related: DePIN XYO launches on Solana

The cryptocurrency market continued its recovery in the past week as the total crypto market capitalization breached the $3 trillion mark for the first time since the beginning of March.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to an over two-month high of $97,300 last seen at the end of February, before the “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement in the US, bolstering analyst predictions for a rally driven by “structural” institutional and exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows into the world’s first cryptocurrency.

Risk appetite continued rising among crypto investors, as Chinese state-linked news outlets indicated that the Trump administration has quietly contacted Beijing to discuss tariff reductions.

Total crypto market cap, 1-year chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

In the wider crypto space, Ethereum developers proposed a new token standard to improve the interoperability of the world’s second-largest blockchain network.

Bitcoin to $1 million by 2029 fueled by ETF and gov’t demand — Bitwise exec

Bitcoin’s expanding institutional adoption may provide the “structural” inflows necessary to surpass gold’s market capitalization and push its price beyond $1 million by 2029, according to Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch.

Key points:

Bitcoin trends toward $100,000. Will bears sell at this level?

Altcoins are trading above their respective support levels, suggesting that an altcoin rally is brewing.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) tight consolidation resolved in favor of the bulls with a break above the $95,000 barrier on May 1. The bulls are trying to push the price to the psychologically crucial level at $100,000, which may again witness a tough battle between the bulls and the bears. 

Veteran trader Peter Brandt sounded positive when he said in a post on X that Bitcoin could rally to the $125,000 to $150,000 range by August or September 2025 if it manages to regain its broken parabolic slope. However, Brandt cautioned that the rally could be followed by a sharp correction of more than 50%.

In the annals of financial history, few institutions have faced the tempests of competition with the steadfast resolve of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Born in 2013 as a private placement, GBTC pioneered regulated Bitcoin investment, granting investors access to Bitcoin’s (BTC) meteoric rise without the perils of digital wallets or unregulated exchanges.

On Jan. 11, 2024, it transitioned into a spot Bitcoin ETF following a landmark victory against the SEC. This marked a pivotal moment with the SEC’s view that ETFs can offer lower expense ratios and enhanced tax efficiency compared to traditional funds. 

Even still, GBTC’s financial resilience shines, generating $268.5 million in annual revenue, surpassing the $211.8 million of all other US spot Bitcoin ETFs combined, despite losing over half its holdings with $18 billion in outflows since early 2024. This is no fleeting triumph of inertia. 

The numbers tell a tale of paradox. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), with $56 billion in assets under management (AUM) and a 0.25% fee, generated $137 million in 2024 while achieving $35.8 billion in inflows and $1 billion in daily trading volume within weeks of launch. Meanwhile, GBTC’s 1.5% expense ratio, up to seven times higher than competitors, fuels its revenue lead, even though it bled $17.4 billion in outflows, with a record single-day loss of $618 million on March 19, 2024, driven by investors chasing lower fees or capitalizing on the trust’s historical discount to net asset value (NAV), which plummeted from 50% to near zero by July 2024.

This clash of revenue dominance and capital flight demands scrutiny, unveiling the intricate dance of investor psychology, market dynamics and Grayscale’s calculated resilience.

The US Central Intelligence Agency is increasingly incorporating Bitcoin (BTC) as a tool in its operations, and working with the cryptocurrency is a matter of national security, Michael Ellis, the agency’s deputy director, told podcast host Anthony Pompliano.

In an appearance on the market analyst and investor’s show, Ellis told Pompliano that the intelligence agency works with law enforcement to track BTC, and it is a point of data collection in counter-intelligence operations. Ellis added:

"Bitcoin is here to stay — cryptocurrency is here to stay. As you know, more and more institutions are adopting it, and I think that is a great trend. One that this administration has obviously been leaning forward into."

"It's another area of competition where we need to ensure the United States is well-positioned against China and other adversaries," Ellis said.

Podcast host and investor Anthony Pompliano (left) and Deputy CIA director Michael Ellis (right). Source: Anthony Pompliano

Although Ellis's comments point to Bitcoin maturing as an asset, they also reflect the increased involvement of governments and institutions in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. This increased involvement runs contrary to the libertarian and cypherpunk ethos originally inherent in crypto.

Related: Geopolitical tensions fuel central bank shift toward gold, crypto — BlackRock exec

Key points:

The US labor market is “still holding up” as nonfarm payrolls data comes in higher than expected.

Bitcoin and stocks head higher as US President Donald Trump repeats calls for the Fed to lower interest rates.

BTC price action may spark a “liquidity grab” above $97,000, a trader warns.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit new multimonth highs after the May 2 Wall Street open as US nonfarm payrolls data beat expectations.

Opinion by: Chris Jenkins, adviser to Pocket Network

Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the World Wide Web is dead. Instead of an open and accessible global information system, the web is controlled by centralized global data conglomerates, which don’t just restrict free speech but also monetize your data as a price of entry. Web2 firms have built walled gardens with massive information asymmetry between companies and users.

Blockchain-based decentralized tech challenges the status quo, offering an alternative to Web2’s closed-source infrastructure. 

It enables developers and engineers to build a censorship-resistant and accessible open-data web to champion the cause of free speech. Open-source technology creates a paradigmatic shift in a fair and inclusive internet where centralized web companies won’t dictate the terms.

A vision deferred

In 1989, Berners-Lee’s invention created a virtual space for collaboration, sharing and learning from one another. The web’s first iteration was based on openness, where anyone could contribute, access information, work together, and enjoy the same opportunities.

As Ether’s price has struggled in the first quarter of 2025, a US-based investment adviser firm, Two Prime, has dropped support for ETH and adopted a Bitcoin-only strategy.

After lending $1.5 billion in loans both in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) over the past 15 months, Two Prime decided to ditch ETH to focus solely on BTC asset management and lending, the firm announced on May 1.

“ETH’s statistical trading behavior, value proposition, and community culture have failed beyond a point that is worth engaging,” Two Primes stated.

The firm’s shift to a Bitcoin-only approach comes as ETH has lost 45% of its value year-to-date, with some optimists speculating that ETH is potentially close to the bottom and reversing its negative trend soon.

“Ether no longer trades predictably”

“As an algorithmic trading firm, we value data more than narratives,” Two Primes said, adding that the “data suggests ETH has fundamentally changed.”