Decentral Block Post

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin bulls aim to push BTC above $110,000 by May 30 to capitalize on $4.8 billion in call options.

Spot BTC ETF inflows and weak put positioning give bulls a strong edge in the monthly expiry.

Bitcoin (BTC) is approaching its largest monthly options expiry of 2025, with total exposure reaching $13.8 billion. This event gives bulls a chance to secure Bitcoin’s price above $110,000, as bears were caught off guard by a 25% rally over the past 30 days.

The open interest in Bitcoin put (sell) options stands at $6.5 billion, but 95% of these positions are set below $109,000. Therefore, if Bitcoin’s price holds near current levels, less than $350 million worth of put options will remain relevant at expiry.

The current structure of capital markets is failing to serve a broad base of investors, according to Akshay BD, non-chief marketing officer at the Solana Foundation. During a panel at the Accelerate 2025 conference, Akshay argued that blockchain technology could help address these shortcomings, claiming that Solana could “make everyone an investor or a dreamer over time.”

Akshay noted growing uncertainty among investors, citing concerns from investment managers who report heightened anxiety among clients. “You have low bond yields, you have asset price bubbles, and people don't really know how the traditional asset allocation model works anymore,” he said. The 60-40 portfolio hasn’t delivered consistent returns in a long time.”

He attributed some of this tension to a widening gap between income earned through wages and wealth accumulated through asset ownership. Retail investors, he added, are often locked out of private markets, which are typically accessible only to accredited investors — a dynamic that may be contributing to overheated public markets.

Akshay warned that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence could further deepen existing economic divides. “The question is, which way do we go?” he asked. “Is it […] universal basic income, where we're essentially creating a welfare economy to support those unable to keep jobs or own assets? Or is it what we propose, universal basic ownership, where everybody with a mobile phone can own assets?”

He outlined a vision in which crypto infrastructure enables broader asset ownership, allowing individuals to invest in everything from energy companies to local coffee shops through tokenization. In this model, acquiring an ownership stake could be as easy as scanning a QR code.

Blockchain privacy tools such as zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs will become increasingly necessary to protect online user data in the age of artificial intelligence, according to Eran Barak, CEO of Shielded Technologies, the developer behind the Midnight privacy chain.

In an interview with Cointelegraph at Consensus 2025, Barak said corporate service providers and centralized servers are expected to become honeypots for AI-assisted hackers and malicious actors looking to steal valuable data, including private keys, financial metadata, medical records, and government documents.

Hackers targeting centralized entities have a "massive" return on investment (ROI) and are incentivized to hack centralized targets that contain millions of valuable records, the CEO told Cointelegraph. Barak added that ZK-proofs, a way of verifying onchain data without revealing it, solve this problem:

Privacy solutions have become a major focus for many Web3 developers, as the need to shield metadata from AI algorithms grows and large institutions demand privacy tools to protect sensitive data as a prerequisite to bringing their business operations onchain.

Related: EU to ban anonymous crypto accounts and privacy coins by 2027

Semler Scientific, a medical device company, purchased of $50 million worth of Bitcoin between May 13 and May 22, bringing the market value of the company’s Bitcoin (BTC) holdings to $474.4 million, keeping it within the top 13 of BTC Treasury companies.

According to a May 23 disclosure, Semler bought a total of 455 BTC for an average purchase price of $109,801. To buy the Bitcoin, Semler Scientific used proceeds from an at-the-market stock offering program. So far, the company has sold roughly 3 million shares of common stock for net proceeds of $115 million.

Semler Scientific’s shares have fallen 1.36% on the same day as the disclosure, though the decrease in its share price is largely in line with the Nasdaq’s performance. That index, which follows top tech stocks, is down 1% on the day.

In its Q1 2025 earnings report released on May 13, the company revealed a 44% drop in revenue year-over-year. Despite the claimed success of its Bitcoin treasury plan, Semler Scientific’s shares have dropped 18% in 2025, according to Google Finance.

Bitcoin treasury companies, or companies that traditionally sell equity or issue debt to buy BTC, had been drawing the interest of investors looking for exposure to Bitcoin price fluctuations.

Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has pushed back against a report in The Wall Street Journal, calling it a “hit piece” filled with inaccuracies and negative assumptions. 

In an X post, Zhao criticized the publication’s portrayal of his alleged involvement with World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance project backed by a business entity affiliated with US President Donald Trump. Trump’s sons — Eric and Donald Jr. —are involved in the management of the company.

Zhao said the WSJ article portrayed him as acting as a “fixer” for the WLF team and its co-founder Zach Witkoff during foreign trips. 

The article suggested Zhao facilitated introductions and meetings for WLF leaders during foreign trips, including a visit to Pakistan that reportedly resulted in a memorandum of understanding with a local official.

“I am not a fixer for anyone,” Zhao said, firmly denying that he connected Pakistani official “Mr. Saqib” with WLF or organized any engagements abroad. “They had known each other way back, whereas I only met with Mr. Saqib for the first time in Pakistan.” 

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22, but retraced to $110,700, with analysts noting mixed signals on market overheating.

Funding rates and other metrics suggest a “healthy upward phase.”

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price recorded a new all-time high of $111,970  on May 22. However, BTC price retraced shortly after to trade at $110,700 at the time of writing.

Despite the correction, there are mixed signals about whether the price rally is overheated or whether this is a healthy pullback.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signaled support for a bill recently passed by the state House of Representatives that would establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve.

In a May 22 X post, Abbott posted a Techstory article about Texas state lawmakers’ efforts to create a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. The story pointed out that the decision for the passage of SB 21, the bill in question, now rests on Abbott’s shoulders, roughly three months after it was introduced. 

Since taking office, Abbott referred to himself as a “crypto law proposal supporter” in 2021 and suggested that he would support policies to establish Texas as a “crypto capital” in 2024. Texas was one of a handful of state-level governments that proposed setting up a strategic crypto reserve after the 2024 federal elections.   

Related: Ukraine strategic Bitcoin reserve bill reportedly in final stages

On May 6, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte was the first to sign a Bitcoin reserve bill into law. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs later approved a law allowing the state to claim ownership of unclaimed crypto. Some jurisdictions have rebuffed efforts to pass similar legislation, with roughly half of the 50 state governments considering a Bitcoin reserve.

When Venezuela was experiencing hyperinflation, Ledn co-founder Mauricio di Bartolomeo hedged against the collapsing local currency by shorting it in favor of the more stable US dollar. Today, he’s using a similar strategy — this time borrowing against his Bitcoin (BTC) to hedge against the crumbling US dollar.

Di Bartolomeo connected with me during Canada Crypto Week in Toronto, where he talked about the advantages of Bitcoin-backed loans and the rapid growth of collateralized BTC lending. In our interview, he made a compelling case for continuing to stack sats, even as Bitcoin’s price keeps rising.

This week’s Crypto Biz dives into our conversation with the Ledn co-founder and covers the latest business news from the blockchain world.

A lesson from hyperinflation

Before Bitcoin, di Bartolomeo’s most successful investment was shorting the Bolivar with US dollars, referring to his experience in Venezuela during the hyperinflationary 2010s. 

“I was borrowing Bolivars and buying dollars with them, holding the hard dollars and having a borrow [position] on the weaker currency,” he said.

Members of the US House of Representatives called for the Justice Department to investigate Donald Trump’s May 22 dinner for his top memecoin investors, citing concerns about “foreign influence over US policy decisions” and “potential corruption and emoluments clause violations.”

In a May 22 letter to the Justice Department, 35 House members asked the public integrity section acting chief, Edward Sullivan, to launch an inquiry over the memecoin dinner to determine whether it violated the federal bribery statute or the foreign emoluments clause of the US Constitution. 

Under the emoluments clause, a US president is barred from accepting any gift from a foreign state without the approval of Congress. Bloomberg reported that a majority of the attendees at the memecoin dinner were likely foreign nationals based on their connections to crypto exchanges. 

“US law prohibits foreign persons from contributing to US political campaigns,” said the letter. “However, the $TRUMP memecoin, including the promotion of a dinner promising exclusive access to the President, opens the door for foreign governments to buy influence with the President, all without disclosing their identities.”

The call for an investigation and a press conference asking Trump to “release the guest list” for the dinner both occurred hours before the event, which was held at the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, DC. A group of protesters, joined by Senator Jeff Merkley, gathered outside the venue with signs stating “illegal crypto party” and “democracy is not for sale.”

Key takeaways:

Short-term Bitcoin holders realized $11.6 billion in profit over the past 30 days, suggesting a potential pause or local top in the market.

Technical indicators show cooling momentum as retail investor sentiment falls to a 90-day low and liquidity data points to price volatility.

Bitcoin (BTC) price recently hit a new all-time high of $111,800, but the bullish momentum may slow down as onchain data from Glassnode reveals significant profit-taking by short-term holders (STHs), potentially signaling a market "breather."

Glassnode analysis shows that STHs, often considered traders rather than long-term investors, have realized a staggering $11.6 billion in profits over the last 30 days. This follows a sharp rebound in Bitcoin’s price, pushing past the STH cost-basis of $93,000. The profit-taking peaked at $747 million daily, a rapid increase from the $1.2 billion realized in the last 30-day period, highlighting a shift in new investor sentiment. 

Key points:

Bitcoin slipped below $109,588, but technical charts suggest traders are buying each dip.

Excessive leverage in Bitcoin futures increases the risk of a quick correction.

Select altcoins have turned down from their respective overhead resistance levels, signaling that the bears remain sellers on rallies.

Sellers have pulled Bitcoin (BTC) back below the breakout level of $109,588, but lower levels are likely to attract buyers. Investor interest remains strong, with the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds witnessing inflows of $934 million on May 22 and $608 million on May 21, according to SoSoValue data.

Risk appetite across traditional and cryptocurrency markets saw a sharp rise this week, helping United States cryptocurrency funds recover the capital lost to the correction of February and March, amassing over $7.5 billion worth of weekly inflows.

Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed its old all-time high on May 21, two days after President Donald Trump confirmed ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in a May 19 X post.

Meanwhile, popular analyst and Global Macro Investor CEO Raoul Pal warned of more fiat currency debasement, urging investors to gain more exposure to cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as these assets “will never be this cheap again.”

Exponential currency debasement: “You don’t own enough crypto, NFTs”

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs can help investors protect their eroding purchasing power during an era of exponential currency debasement, according to analysts and industry leaders.

Investing in digital assets is becoming increasingly important in the “world of the exponential age and currency debasement,” according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.

It’s been 30 years since computer scientist Ben Goertzel wrote his first line of AI code, already convinced that artificial intelligence should be decentralized. Today, as the world approaches the dawn of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), who leads this breakthrough could have profound consequences for the future of humanity.

Speaking with Cointelegraph at the Consensus conference in Toronto, Canada, Goertzel said, “We’re likely to be able to launch AGI that can think and generalize beyond its training and programming within the next one to three years.”

His project, SingularityNET, is a decentralized ecosystem building a global marketplace for AI services. Along the way, it has secured partnerships with Mind Network and Filecoin Foundation, invested $53 million in a modular supercomputer dedicated to decentralized AGI, and completed a token merger with Ocean Protocol and Fetch.ai to unify efforts in decentralized AI development.

In 2024, Goertzel founded the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, the world’s largest open-source initiative dedicated to decentralized AGI.

SingularityNET and the ASI Alliance are “probably the only serious AGI R&D team outside of Big Tech, certainly the only one in the crypto space, and I don't mean any slight against others doing cool AI stuff in the crypto space,” Goertzel said. 

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s performance in the current bull market and a new cohort of buyers reflect a maturing market and widening adoption.

A 50% rise in hashrate and a 63% jump in Realized Cap highlight investors’ confidence in Bitcoin.

A recent report from Fidelity Digital Assets explored how the current Bitcoin market cycle reflects a shift toward a maturing market where the rate of adoption deepens and expands.

At block height 892,500—marking 25% progress into the current halving epoch—Bitcoin traded between $82,500 and $85,000, representing a 31% increase from its value on April 19, 2024, when the fourth halving reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC.

Web3 developer platform Alchemy has acquired HeyMint, a California-based non-fungible token (NFT) launchpad, in a move designed to enhance the company’s smart wallet infrastructure. 

The undisclosed funding deal will see HeyMint’s infrastructure embedded within Alchemy as it seeks to simplify user onboarding for Web3 applications, the company disclosed on May 23. HeyMint’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Flor Ronsmans De Vry, joins Alchemy as part of the deal. 

While not a household name in crypto, HeyMint attracted more than 1 million users over its first two years of operations. It was the launchpad behind $38 million in NFT sales and supported the Web3 efforts of major brands, including The Sandbox, Universal Music Group and Ubisoft. 

In 2023, HeyMint facilitated NFT sales for the Partnership for Central America, a private sector coalition that included Mastercard.

The HeyMint acquisition is Alchemy’s second funding deal this month. The company recently acquired Dexter Lab, a real-time data infrastructure provider for Solana, for an undisclosed amount. 

Key points:

Bitcoin joins risk assets in a knee-jerk reaction to the latest instalment of the US trade war, this time focused on the EU.

BTC price action dives up to 4% before recovering with $110,000 now a resistance level.

Traders demand that price holds higher levels going forward to protect bullish momentum.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw flash volatility into the May 23 Wall Street open as news headlines liquidated longs.

Opinion by: Grigore Roșu, founder and chief executive officer of Pi Squared

For some, the audacity of questioning the primacy of blockchain in Web3 is borderline heretical. The idea that decentralization and progress could exist without blockchains seems absurd to those who built careers around Bitcoin, Ethereum, and their descendants. Given blockchain's well-documented scaling limits, however, there is an argument to be made that Web3 doesn't actually need blockchains to thrive. Instead, it requires payment systems and verifiable settlement systems that are super fast. Blockchains are just one way to achieve that, not the only way.

While blockchain solved the double-spending problem, it introduced its own architectural burden: the rigid fixation on total ordering, dictating that every transaction must wait its turn in a global queue, processed through a monolithic consensus mechanism. Initially, this made sense in the context of payments, where security and simplicity were paramount. Still, in the context of Web3, where complex applications require speed, flexibility, and scale, this same mechanism has become a constraint. It imposes a kind of serialized tyranny, throttling throughput and locking developers into a narrow lane of design options. 

The undeniable influence of FastPay

Mobile remittance app FastPay proved that double-spending can be avoided differently without a total order. This inspired systems like Linera, which use independent local orderings while maintaining global verifiability, proving that a different, more scalable future is possible and already underway. FastPay also inspired the likes of POD and Sui's single-owner objects protocol. If FastPay had been invented before Bitcoin, blockchain might never have captured the cultural or technical imagination in the way that it did.

Recent: Beijing to invest in blockchain, integrate into infrastructure

The top 220 holders of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin met yesterday at the president’s golf course in Virginia for an exclusive dinner and purported meet-and-greet.

Attendees spent a grand total of $148 million for an “ultra-exclusive VIP reception with the president,” which crypto industry advocates and critics alike saw as a potential opportunity to discuss crypto policy with the president. 

The crowd contained a number of foreign crypto executives and influencers who otherwise would not have access to the US president, raising questions around corruption and foreign influence. 

Concerns were further augmented when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to release a list of attendees, stating that the event was a private affair outside of Trump’s presidential duties.

However, some attendees spoke to the press or took to social media to talk about the dinner. Here are just a few:

Key takeaways:

Ethereum is forming a bull flag on the daily chart, with a potential breakout to $4,000.

If Ethereum’s network activity and total value locked continue to grow, ETH price may see further gains.

Ether’s price printed a “bull flag” on the daily chart, a technical chart formation associated with strong upward momentum. Could a strengthening technical setup and increasing transaction fees signal the continuation of ETH’s rally toward $4,000?

Ethereum transaction fees rising is bullish

Marketwide recovery, fueled by Bitcoin’s rise to new all-time highs and improving macroeconomic conditions, saw Ether’s (ETH) price rise by nearly 56% to an eight-week high of $2,734 on May 23, from a low of $1,750 on May 6. 

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize more than $24 million in cryptocurrency from Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, a Russian national accused of developing the Qakbot malware.

According to a May 22 announcement, the DOJ unsealed charges against the 48-year-old Moscovite with a federal indictment. Gallyamov is allegedly the malware developer behind the Qakbot botnet.

“Today’s announcement of the Justice Department’s latest actions to counter the Qakbot malware scheme sends a clear message to the cybercrime community,” said Matthew Galeotti, head of the DOJ’s criminal division.

Galeotti highlighted that the DOJ is “determined to hold cybercriminals accountable.” He added that the department will “use every legal tool” to “identify you, charge you, forfeit your ill-gotten gains, and disrupt your criminal activity.”

Related: Microsoft takes legal action against infostealer Lumma