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 ArringtonWhile 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.
A major crypto theft has sent shockwaves through the industry, with $330 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) stolen. Experts say this was a social engineering attack and not a technical hack.
Investigations led by blockchain analyst ZachXBT suggest the victim was an elderly US citizen who was manipulated into granting access to their crypto wallet. On April 28, 2025, ZachXBT detected a suspicious transfer of 3,520 BTC, worth $330.7 million.
The stolen BTC was quickly laundered through more than six instant exchanges and converted into the privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Monero (XMR). Onchain analysis shows the victim had held over 3,000 BTC since 2017, with no previous record of substantial transactions.
Unlike typical cyberattacks that exploit software vulnerabilities, this incident relied on psychological manipulation. Scammers posed as trusted entities, slowly building credibility before persuading the victim over the phone to share sensitive credentials. This is the hallmark of social engineering — exploiting human trust rather than system weaknesses.
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.
US President Donald Trump has signed a bill criminalizing nonconsensual artificial intelligence-generated deepfake porn, which also requires websites to take down any illicit images within 48 hours.
Trump signed the bill into law on May 19, known as the TAKE IT DOWN Act, an acronym for Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks.
The bill, backed by first lady Melania Trump, makes it a federal crime to publish, or threaten to publish, nonconsensual intimate images, including deepfakes, of adults or minors with the intent to harm or harass them. Penalties range from fines to prison.
Source: Melania TrumpWebsites, online services, or apps must remove illegal content within 48 hours and establish a takedown process.
Trump said in remarks given at the White House Rose Garden and posted to the social media platform Truth Social that the bill also covers “forgeries generated by an artificial intelligence,” commonly referred to as deepfakes.
Shares in the Indonesian fintech firm DigiAsia Corp nearly doubled after the company said it plans to raise $100 million to seed its first of many Bitcoin buys.
The Jakarta-based Nasdaq-listed company said on May 19 that its board of directors approved creating a Bitcoin (BTC) “treasury reserve” and it was “committing up to 50% of any net profits generated to fund the acquisition of BTC.”
DigiAsia said it was also “actively exploring a capital raise of up to US$100 million” to kickstart its Bitcoin holdings and would look to earn yield on its holdings through means like lending and staking.
DigiAsia said it had “initiated discussions with regulated partners” on yield strategies and managing its planned Bitcoin holdings. The company added that it was also assessing whether to offer convertible notes or crypto finance instruments linked to its planned Bitcoin haul.
Shares in DigiAsia Corp (FAAS) closed May 19 trading at a gain of just over 91% at 36 cents after the company’s Bitcoin announcement, according to Google Finance.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s sole Democratic Commissioner has said the agency is “playing a game of regulatory Jenga” with its approach to the crypto industry and market regulation under the Trump administration.
In May 19 remarks at the SEC Speaks event, Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw cautioned against what she described as a dangerous dismantling of “discrete but interrelated rules” on crypto and the wider market.
She likened market stability to a “Jenga tower” that the agency’s rules had “carefully developed over the years,” which could topple if some rules were removed.
In addition to a lamentable loss of staff, Crenshaw said the SEC has used staff guidance to effectively reverse rules without proper analysis or public comment, particularly around crypto
“Our statements on these crypto-related issues are the equivalent of a wink and nod intended to convey that we do not plan to rigorously apply our laws in certain, specific situations.”She added that the regulator has abandoned enforcement actions, especially in crypto markets, creating what she calls “regulation by non-enforcement.”
Crypto exchange Binance has asked a US federal judge to send all members of a class-action lawsuit alleging it sold securities to arbitration, arguing that the group waived their ability to form a class action under the company’s terms.
The exchange said in a May 16 filing to a New York federal court that its terms of service, which it claimed the class group agreed to, has a clause that users agree to arbitrate all claims, along with a clause preventing users from launching class actions against the crypto exchange.
“The Court should hold that Plaintiffs are required to arbitrate claims that accrued after Feb. 20, 2019, even if the Court adheres to its initial decision as to claims that accrued before then and that the class-action waiver in the 2019 Terms of Use is enforceable for all of Plaintiffs’ claims,” Binance said.
Binance argues that its terms of service have a clause about users agreeing to arbitrate all claims. Source: PACERIn March, Judge Andrew Carter denied Binance’s request to have all of the class action’s claims sent to arbitration for users who bought tokens on the exchange between April 1, 2017, and Feb. 20, 2019, and partially denied the motion for users who bought tokens after 2019 until a decision could be made to what extend the arbitration clause would apply.
Binance said in its latest filings that it updated its terms in February 2019 to include the arbitration clause and argued that an earlier version of the terms of service included a clause that informed users that Binance could amend the terms as needed without any individual notice.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, said his bank will soon allow its clients to buy Bitcoin, but it won’t custody the cryptocurrency.
“We are going to allow you to buy it,” Dimon said at JPMorgan’s annual investor day on May 19. “We’re not going to custody it. We’re going to put it in statements for clients.”
CNBC reported that Dimon also remarked on his long-held skepticism about crypto assets, pointing to their use in money laundering, sex trafficking and terrorism.
“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke. I defend your right to buy Bitcoin,” he said.
Michael Saylor comments on Dimon’s announcement. Source: Michael SaylorJPMorgan will offer clients access to Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), CNBC reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Until now, the firm has limited its crypto exposure primarily to futures-based products, not direct ownership of digital assets.
Update (May 20, 3:17 am UTC): This article has been updated to add statements from senators and information on the GENIUS Act.
The US Senate has voted to advance a key stablecoin-regulating bill after Democratic senators blocked an earlier attempt to move the bill forward over concerns about President Donald Trump’s sprawling crypto empire.
A key procedural vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed in a 66-32 vote on May 19 local time.
Several Democrats, including Mark Warner, Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego, changed their votes to pass the motion to invoke cloture, which will now set the bill up for debate on the Senate floor.
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill’s key backers, said on May 15 that she thinks it’s a “fair target” to have the GENIUS Act passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.
Anza, a Solana blockchain infrastructure firm spun out of Solana Labs, has proposed a new proof-of-stake consensus called Alpenglow that it claims would be “the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol” and compete with current internet infrastructure.
“We believe that the release of Alpenglow will be a turning point for Solana. Alpenglow is not only a new consensus protocol, but the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol since, well, ever,” Anza’s Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski and Roger Wattenhofer said on May 19.
Alpenglow consists of Votor, which processes voting transactions and block finalization logic, and Rotor, a data dissemination protocol that would replace Solana’s proof-of-history timestamping system and aim to reduce the time it takes for all nodes to agree on the network state.
Source: Anza
Anza researchers claimed that “Alpenglow will shatter both these latency bounds” and the project expects it to reach actual finality in about 150 milliseconds, rivaling internet infrastructure.
Votor — which would replace TowerBFT — would aim to finalize blocks in a single round if 80% of the stake is participating, and in two rounds if only 60% of the stake is responsive.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin’s Sharpe ratio converges with gold’s, indicating similar risk-adjusted returns, supporting its store-of-value role.
Gold outperformed Bitcoin in Q1 2025 with a 30.33% price gain versus Bitcoin’s 3.84%, driven by economic uncertainty.
Bitcoin ETF inflows are recovering, and analysts predict BTC could reach $110,000–$444,000 in 2025.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is holding above $100,000, leading Fidelity Director of Global Macro, Jurrien Timmer to say the crypto asset could reclaim its position as a leading store-of-value contender.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin onchain and technical data suggest new all-time highs are imminent.
Glassnode data shows most Bitcoin wallet cohorts accumulating BTC.
A daily timeframe bearish divergence signals fading momentum, raising doubt on BTC’s ability to rally into the $120,000 to $130,000 range.
Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied back above $105,000 during the US market trading session, after forming a double bottom pattern in the 1-hour chart.
The US Department of Justice is reportedly conducting a probe over Coinbase’s contracted customer service agents in India, who accepted bribes in exchange for allowing criminals access to user data.
According to a May 19 Bloomberg report, DOJ investigators are looking into the data breach, which Coinbase disclosed to the public on May 15. The exchange reported that a group of customer support contractors — subsequently fired — “abused their access to [...] systems to steal the account data for a small subset of customers.”
“We have notified and are working with the DOJ and other US and international law enforcement agencies and welcome law enforcement’s pursuit of criminal charges against these bad actors,” said Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, according to Bloomberg.
Related: New Zealand man arrested in $265M crypto scam tied to FBI probe
Though “no passwords, private keys, or funds were exposed” according to Coinbase, the data breach resulted in social engineering attacks targeting users, including a Sequoia Capital partner, with losses estimated at up to $400 million. The attackers also attempted to extort $20 million from Coinbase in exchange for not disclosing the breach, which the company refused.
On May 22, US President Donald Trump is expected to host up to 220 people who had purchased the most significant quantities of his memecoin at a private event in Washington, DC.
Though the exact number of attendees was unknown as of May 19, reports and blockchain data have revealed some of the tokenholders who qualified to apply for the May 22 dinner and “VIP tour” and reception, presumed to be in the White House. Bloomberg reported on May 7 that more than half of the 220 wallets were likely controlled by foreign nationals.
Among the memecoin dinner applicants, who likely still face background checks ahead of getting a confirmed appearance before the president, included Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, a consultant named Vincent Deriu, and crypto user Morten Christensen, who reportedly only paid $1,200 for the opportunity.
Others included a World Liberty Financial adviser going by the pseudonym “Ogle,” and a representative from the Singapore-based startup MemeCore. Cointelegraph has also learned that Vincent Liu, chief investment officer of the Taiwan-based company Kronos Research, plans to attend.
Trump’s memecoin, even before the announced dinner and reception, was criticized by many members of Congress.
Circle, the issuer of stablecoin USDC (USDC), is still planning an initial public offering (IPO), but the company is also in informal talks with Ripple and Coinbase about a sale, according to a report from Fortune.
Circle is seeking at least $5 billion, which is its target for the IPO, according to the four banking and private equity sources Fortune cited. Ripple tried to purchase Circle on April 30, but the $4 billion to $5 billion bid was rejected as being too low.
If Ripple or Coinbase were to buy Circle, the details of a purchase would differ. Ripple would pay using cash and XRP (XRP), a cryptocurrency that Ripple created. Coinbase, on the other hand, would use cash and stock.
Coinbase and Circle have a relationship dating to 2018, when they launched the Centre Consortium. That venture was meant to establish standards for fiat-backed stablecoins, including USDC. Coinbase also has an agreement with Circle to put USDC onto its exchange.
Circle filed for an IPO on April 1 with a goal to complete the process by the end of that month. The company backpedaled slightly on April 4, indicating it might delay its IPO due to economic uncertainty.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin buying in the spot and futures markets helped BTC price keep its upward momentum despite $170 million in margin liquidations.
Weak stablecoin demand in China and the limited use of futures leverage suggest Bitcoin’s current rally is sustainable.
Bitcoin (BTC) price has displayed strength at the $102,000 support level on May 19, following the $170 million in liquidations of leveraged positions. The abrupt $5,000 correction after hitting $107,090 may have been unexpected, but it does not mean the odds of reaching an all-time high in the near term are lower, especially since Bitcoin derivatives metrics have shown resilience.
Bitcoin 1-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.chThe annualized one-month futures premium for Bitcoin remained close to 6% despite the retest of $102,000 support. This current level is within the 5% to 10% neutral range, which has been the norm over the past week. While at first glance such data might suggest a lack of optimism, at the same time, it proves that the buying pressure is coming from the spot market rather than from leveraged bets.
Quantum Biopharma has purchased an additional $1 million worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the Canadian biotechnology company said.
The buys take Quantum’s total cryptocurrency holdings to approximately $4.5 million, according to a May 19 press release. The biotech company plans to stake a portion of its crypto to generate revenue.
Quantum expects that holding a treasury of Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets will “provide a return on investment for shareholders and […] provide some hedge against the Canadian dollar,” it said.
Shares of Quantum’s stock, QNTM, rose by approximately 25% following the announcement, according to data from Google Finance.
Quantum Biopharma’s stock rose on the announcement. Source: Google FinanceRelated: Basel Medical shares down 15% on $1B Bitcoin buying plans
