Decentral Block Post

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s price closely tracks global liquidity growth, with liquidity explaining up to 90% of its price movements, according to Raoul Pal.

In the long term, global liquidity continues to expand, driven by the increasing debt levels in many countries.

On a shorter timeframe, global liquidity follows a cyclical pattern, with Michael Howell projecting the current cycle to peak by mid-2026.

Bitcoin (BTC) price is notoriously sensitive to global liquidity. Some analysts go as far as calling their correlation near-perfect, with a lag of about three months. This relationship is fueling the current bullish narrative as BTC price soars back above $100,000, but how long can this trend last?

The cryptocurrency market continued to surge this past week as the overall digital asset market capitalization exceeded $3.27 trillion, an 8.6% increase over the previous week.

Bitcoin (BTC) reached a high of $103,600 on May 8 after reclaiming $100,000 for the first time since January. Its market dominance also surged above 60%, reflecting more bullish BTC sentiment. This marked the third time BTC has broken through six figures since it reached the milestone on Dec. 5, 2024, and again on Jan. 20, ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. 

The BTC rise coincided with Trump announcing a trade deal with the United Kingdom, which may include removing a 10% blanket tariff on all imports.

In the wider crypto space, Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade implemented much-needed improvements for the crypto ecosystem. The upgrade was followed by a 26% price surge for Ether (ETH), rising from $1,800 on May 7 to over $2,300 on May 9.

Bitcoin DeFi sees surge in mining participation despite drop in TVL

Messari's “State of Rootstock” report for 2025 showed that merged mining participation surged to an all-time high of 81% in Q1 2025, up from 56.4% in the previous quarter. The surge was attributed to onboarding major mining pools SpiderPool and Foundry. 

Galaxy Digital has been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to redomicile in the United States, setting the stage for the crypto investment company’s listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Galaxy anticipates listing on the Nasdaq, a tech-focused US stock exchange, by the middle of May, pending approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange, on which the company is already listed, and shareholder approval at a special shareholders meeting on May 9.

Shareholders at the meeting must approve redomiciling Galaxy Digital in the US state of Delaware, known for its business-friendly regulations, before the process can move forward, according to an announcement from the company.

Galaxy obtained SEC approval for a Nasdaq listing in April this year, and once the company obtains the other necessary approvals, it will trade on the Nasdaq under the GLXY ticker symbol.

The company is the latest crypto firm to announce an imminent stock market listing, as institutional interest in digital assets grows and crypto matures as an asset class that increasingly interacts with traditional financial markets.

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin is driven by its ability to perform well in risk-on and risk-off environments, according to Bitcoin Suisse.

Bitcoin’s Sharpe ratio of 1.72, second only to gold, underscores its maturity as an asset, offering superior risk-adjusted returns.

A buyer-dominant market signals strong institutional and retail interest that could drive a supply squeeze and break new highs in May.

Bitcoin (BTC) price breached the $100,000 mark for the first time since January, fueling speculation of a new all-time high above $110,000 in May. According to Bitcoin Suisse, a crypto custody service provider, BTC’s bullish momentum stems from its ability to thrive in risk-on and risk-off environments since the US presidential elections. 

Opinion by: Naman Kabra, co-founder and CEO of NodeOps Network

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have become the default hardware for many AI workloads, especially when training large models. That thinking is everywhere. While it makes sense in some contexts, it's also created a blind spot that's holding us back.

GPUs have earned their reputation. They're incredible at crunching massive numbers in parallel, which makes them perfect for training large language models or running high-speed AI inference. That's why companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta spend a lot of money building GPU clusters.

While GPUs may be preferred for running AI, we cannot forget about Central Processing Units (CPUs), which are still very capable. Forgetting this could be costing us time, money, and opportunity.

CPUs aren't outdated. More people need to realize they can be used for AI tasks. They're sitting idle in millions of machines worldwide, capable of running a wide range of AI tasks efficiently and affordably, if only we'd give them a chance.

Key points:

Bitcoin continues to attack a key resistance zone below all-time highs.

“Parabolic” BTC price talk begins to resurface as bulls hold six figures after the Wall Street open.

Signs of profit-taking are increasing amid the highest prices since January.

Bitcoin (BTC) is attracting “parabolic” price targets as bulls continue to hold six figures on May 9.

Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark again on May 8 as institutional investors continue stacking sats.

Farside Investors’ data shows that spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded cumulative net inflows of $142.3 million on May 7, in a sign of “sustained institutional interest,” according to the founder of Obchakevich Research, Alex Obchakevich.

“These inflows indicate the activity of institutional investors, including hedge funds and asset managers, who continue to accumulate BTC through regulated instruments,“ he said.

The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) led with $54 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) at $39 million and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) at $37 million. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows BlackRock acquired more than 86 Bitcoin worth $8.4 million in a single transaction on May 7.

Related: Bitcoin price reclaims $100K for first time since January

Ripple’s $25 million donation to a crypto education fund has reignited conversations about how blockchain projects are building influence through academia—but in the latest episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu says that money alone isn’t enough. 

Instead, real-world use cases like student loans backed by DeFi may be crypto’s most convincing value proposition to date.

DeFi student loans

On April 30th, Pencil Finance, a project supported by Animoca Brands and its education arm Open Campus, announced a $10 million student loan financing initiative aimed at providing cheaper, blockchain-backed loans. Siu believes this type of infrastructure investment goes further than symbolic funding.

“What our industry needs a lot more is these kinds of positive-sum use cases that everyone else understands,” Siu said in the interview. “If students can receive better, cheaper and more effective opportunities and interest rates through crypto student loans, what happens? They’re going to be more pro-crypto.”

Related: The Giving Block starts disaster fund for California wildfire victims

The Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that supports development across the Ethereum blockchain, distributed $32.6 million in grants in the first quarter of 2025. 

In an allocation update, the organization reported spending on various initiatives through its Ecosystem Support Program (ESP). 

Categories included community and educational grants, zero-knowledge and cryptography. Other allocations included execution layers, developer experience and tools, layer-2 networks and overall ecosystem growth and support. 

Ethereum Foundation focuses on education and community

Of the 101 grants awarded, 32 went to community and education-focused initiatives. Recipients included educational content creators, conference organizers, bootcamps and hackathons such as ETHPrague and ETHiopia.

Sixteen projects focused on improving the developer experience and tooling. Beneficiaries included projects focusing on creating software-development kits (SDKs), building analytics platforms and validator tooling. 

Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has received regulatory approval to expand crypto derivatives trading across Europe.

Gemini secured a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), allowing the exchange to offer crypto derivatives in the European Union, it announced on May 9.

“Once we commence business activities, we will be able to offer regulated derivatives throughout the EU and EEA [European Economic Area] under MiFID II,” said Gemini’s head of Europe, Mark Jennings.

According to the exec, the MiFID II license is a big milestone in Gemini’s European expansion, putting it one step closer to offering derivatives to both retail and institutional users.

Advanced traders will get perpetual futures

Gemini’s upcoming derivatives offering in the EU and EEA will include perpetual futures and other derivatives, which will be available to advanced users of Gemini, Jennings noted.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott blamed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act’s failure on partisan politics during a Senate speech on May 8.

Scott said the vote, which failed to reach cloture in the Senate, was expected to mark a step toward greater affordability and innovation. Instead, he said, political divisions took precedence.

“Instead, we witnessed a disappointing display of political gamesmanship that puts partisan politics above policy, and obstruction above innovation, “Scott said.

The bill had previously undergone multiple amendments to address concerns raised by Democrats, including stricter requirements for stablecoin issuers and further provisions for Anti-Money Laundering.

Related: Trump tricked into pushing XRP for crypto reserve: Report

Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun has called on the government to consider adding Bitcoin to its national reserves, suggesting it could serve as a hedge against global economic uncertainty.

Ko, a legislator at-large in Taiwan’s legislative body, the Legislative Yuan, took to X on Friday to report that he had advocated Bitcoin (BTC) investment by the Taiwanese government at the National Conference on May 9.

In his remarks, Ko cited Bitcoin’s potential to become a hedge amid global economic risks and urged Taiwan to recognize the cryptocurrency alongside gold and foreign exchange reserves to boost its financial resilience.

Ko’s announcement came shortly after the legislator held talks with Samson Mow, who advocates for Bitcoin adoption by states like El Salvador at his BTC tech firm Jan3.

Taiwan is an export-oriented economy

Ko highlighted that Taiwan is an export-driven economy that has experienced significant fluctuations in its national currency, the New Taiwan dollar, amid global inflation and intensifying geopolitical risks.

Key points:

Bitcoin (BTC) is at its highest levels since January, and traders are eyeing key levels to watch for what’s next.

After hitting $104,000, BTC/USD is retracing to establish support, but the fate of $100,000 is among the concerns for market participants.

Current price action represents an important battleground, as measured from the $75,000 lows this year.

” Headline driven” BTC price gains draw scrutiny

Just $6,000 from new all-time highs, per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, BTC price action has stunned the market by jumping 10% in days.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin was up 4.3% on May 9, after breaking $100,000  for the first time since February.

BTC price gains trigger $800 million in short liquidations, the largest since 2021.

A bull flag on the weekly chart suggests a $182,200 target, with analysts predicting Bitcoin’s price can go as high as $1 million in 2025.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is up 4.3% on May 9 as a fresh liquidity cascade sent BTC price soaring above $100,000 for the first time in over 90 days.

German law enforcement seized 34 million euros ($38 million) in cryptocurrency from eXch, a cryptocurrency platform allegedly used to launder funds stolen after Bybit’s record-breaking $1.4 billion hack.

The seizure, announced on May 9 by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Frankfurt’s main prosecutor’s office, involved multiple crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH). The move marks the third-largest crypto confiscation in the BKA’s history.

The authorities also seized eXch’s German server infrastructure with over eight terabytes of data and shut down the platform, the announcement added.

eXch exchanged crypto without AML

In the statement, the BKA described eXch as a “swapping” service that allowed users to exchange various crypto assets without implementing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures.

The platform had operated since 2014 and reportedly facilitated about $1.9 billion in crypto transfers, some of which were believed to be of “criminal origin,” including assets laundered during the Bybit hack.

Solana does not yet have “convincing signs” that it could overtake Ethereum as the blockchain of choice for institutions, as its revenue is seen as unstable due to its memecoin concentration, according to crypto bank group Sygnum.

In a May 8 blog post, Sygnum said that the current sentiment around Ethereum “remains poor,” with the market focused on Solana’s “transaction volumes and its recent dominance in fee generation.”

However, Sygnum said “the medium-term outlook will primarily be shaped by traditional financial institutions’ platform choices to bring their product offerings,” not by sentiment.

“We do not yet see convincing signs that Solana would be the preferred choice as Ethereum’s security, stability and longevity are highly prized,” it added.

Sygnum argued that institutions could choose Ethereum over Solana as the market has viewed the latter’s revenue generation as “less stable” due to being “highly concentrated in the memecoin sector.”

American fast food outlet Steak ‘n Shake has announced it will begin accepting Bitcoin as payment at all locations starting on May 16.

The firm said on X on May 9 that it was making the cryptocurrency available to more than 100 million customers, adding that “the movement is just beginning,” before signing off as “Steaktoshi.” 

The fast food chain initially hinted at accepting Bitcoin (BTC) in March when it posted “Should Steak ‘n Shake accept Bitcoin?” on social media. 

The tweet drew the attention of the crypto community and Bitcoin proponents such as Jack Dorsey, who rapidly replied with a “yes.” 

The firm has built momentum since then with Bitcoin-themed marketing, Tesla promotions, and visual hints on its social media feeds.

Fresh off its most recent Bitcoin purchase, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet is raising more funds through another bond issue to expand its growing crypto treasury.

Through a $21.25 million issue of “0% Ordinary Bonds,” the firm said in a May 9 statement that the “funds raised will be allocated to the purchase of Bitcoin.”

Zero-coupon bonds don’t offer any interest to the holder. Most of the time, they are issued at a steep discount from their normal value, and when they mature, the holder receives the full value.

Following a board of directors meeting, the firm said it will issue a 14th Stock Acquisition Rights to EVO Fund, an investment management firm in the Cayman Islands, with a redemption date of Nov. 7.

At current prices, Metaplanet could buy 206 Bitcoin (BTC) if it raises the full $21.25 million, according to CoinGecko. The firm first flagged plans to buy Bitcoin last April.