Coin360 Weekly Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | May 10 - May 16, 2026

Weekly Crypto Market Performance 

Period: May 10–May 16, 2026

Total crypto market cap: $2.57T

Crypto Fear & Greed Index: 31 (Fear)

BTC.D: 60.85%

Price action

Bitcoin and Ethereum finished the May 10–16 week under pressure, with BTC down about 2.51% and ETH down about 5.62% as the market failed to hold the early-week constructive tone. 

Bitcoin opened the week at $82,164 on Monday and is trading on Saturday at below $79,000, logging a slight weekly decline after being rejected by the key 100-week EMA overhead supply around $82,500. ETH continued to underperform BTC on a relative basis. The ETH/BTC ratio hit a 10-month low on Tuesday. By Saturday, ETH had dropped below $2,200, placing the week's aggregate ETH loss significantly wider than BTC's drawdown. 

Market structure

The dominant crypto-native drag was ETF flow reversal, not a single technical failure. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted about $1 billion of weekly net outflows through May 15, their largest weekly outflow since Jan. 30, ending a six-week inflow streak; while ETH ETFs saw $255.11 million in outflows. 

The Senate Banking Committee’s Clarity Act progress helped crypto-linked equities earlier in the week, but that boost faded by Friday as BTC slipped below $80,000 and major crypto-linked stocks sold off with broader risk assets. 

Macro context

Two back-to-back inflation prints delivered the sharpest macro shock of the week. April CPI data published May 12 showed prices rising 3.8% year-over-year, driven by a 17.9% surge in energy costs from the U.S.-Iran conflict, which is blocking oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. 

Core inflation, which strips out food and energy, climbed to 2.8% — above expectations. The following day, the inflation picture worsened further: PPI surged to 6% year-over-year in April — the highest since 2023 — against an estimate of 4.9%. Core PPI came in at 5.2% year-over-year. "Both CPI and PPI are now officially at 3+ year highs. Odds of rate hikes are rising," stated analysts at the Kobeissi Letter.

The April data arrives in a specific macro context. The Q1 2026 GDP advance estimate showed the economy expanding at a solid pace, while the PCE price index — the Fed's preferred gauge — came in at 4.5% for the quarter, well above the Fed's 2% target. Post-CPI, Treasury yields pushed higher after the release. The 30-year yield rose to 5.042%, just below its 19-year peak. Bond traders priced in renewed Fed rate hike risks, and Goldman Sachs recently pushed back its next cut forecast to December 2026.

Tensions over the U.S.-Iran conflict are escalating, with President Trump declaring the ceasefire "on massive life support," causing Brent crude oil to rise to $107 per barrel and the U.S. Dollar Index to increase by 0.4%. Trump's summit with Xi Jinping in China this week, where the two leaders stated they want the straits open, introduced an additional layer of diplomatic complexity without producing a resolution. The IEA warns of potential oil supply shortages until October amidst limited tanker traffic.

Cross-asset comparison

BTC underperformed major U.S. equity indexes for the week, while oil was the standout winner: WTI rose about 3.46% weekly and Brent gained 5.36%, compared with the S&P 500’s 0.62% weekly gain after hitting a new all-time high and BTC’s decline. Gold and silver gave mixed signals rather than a clean safe-haven bid, which reinforces the main read: this was less a crypto-specific unwind and more a shared liquidity shock led by oil, inflation, yields, and ETF outflows.

Regulation and Institutional Access

Clarity Act Advances From Senate Banking Committee

The Clarity Act advanced from the Senate Banking Committee on May 14 in a 15-9 vote, sending the crypto market-structure bill to the full Senate. Two Democrats, Sen. Ruben Gallego and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, joined Republicans in support.

The bill would define SEC and CFTC roles for digital assets, place asset-classification rules into legislation, prohibit passive stablecoin yield, allow rewards tied to active use, and add developer-liability protections. Full Senate passage remains unresolved because the bill still faces a 60-vote cloture threshold.

Charles Schwab Starts Retail Bitcoin and Ethereum Trading

Charles Schwab began a phased rollout of Schwab Crypto accounts for eligible U.S. retail clients, giving selected users direct spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading alongside traditional investments. Access is currently limited to clients from an interest list after an employee pilot.

Schwab Crypto uses a separate account structure, with Charles Schwab Premier Bank as custodian and Paxos handling trade execution. The service supports only BTC and ETH at launch, charges a 0.75% transaction fee, and is unavailable in New York and Louisiana.

Cross-Chain Infrastructure and Stablecoin Expansion

LayerZero Fallout Pushes Crypto Firms Toward Chainlink

Kelp reopened rsETH bridging after Aave transferred 25,000 rsETH into the LayerZero OFT adapter, beginning a staged refill process tied to the April Kelp DAO exploit. The full bridge lockbox refill target is 117,132 rsETH, valued at about $278 million.

Kraken, Lombard, Solv Protocol, Re and Kelp moved or planned to move infrastructure toward Chainlink CCIP. The broader migration involved roughly $4 billion in assets, while LayerZero said its internal RPCs had been attacked and blamed Kelp’s single-DVN configuration.

Circle Raises $222M for Arc Token Presale

Circle raised $222 million through a pre-launch Arc token presale, valuing the planned Arc network at $3 billion fully diluted. Andreessen Horowitz led the raise with a $75 million investment, alongside investors including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ICE, SBI Group, Standard Chartered Ventures and others.

Arc is positioned as institutional blockchain infrastructure for stablecoin-based capital markets, tokenized assets, settlement and regulated onchain finance. Circle’s Q1 net income fell 15% year over year to $55 million even as USDC circulation and onchain transaction volume increased.

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Policy, Tokenization and Regulated Products

Kevin Warsh Confirmed as Federal Reserve Chair

Kevin Warsh was confirmed as Federal Reserve chair on May 13 in a 54-45 Senate vote, replacing Jerome Powell during a period of elevated inflation and pressure over interest rates. The article frames Warsh as more crypto-receptive than Powell, while noting mixed views on crypto projects.

Warsh previously said Bitcoin “does not make me nervous” and has disclosed investments in crypto-native projects including Polymarket and Solana. He is expected to chair the Fed’s June 16-17 policy meeting.

Fidelity Backs CLARITY Act After Tokenized Fund Launch

Fidelity International launched FILQ, its first tokenized liquidity product, on May 13, while Fidelity Investments separately backed the CLARITY Act the next day. FILQ uses Sygnum Bank’s tokenization platform and Chainlink-linked infrastructure for regulated, yield-bearing U.S. dollar liquidity.

FILQ received a Moody’s AAA-mf assessment and targets institutional and professional investors. The product is issued as permissioned ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, with JPMorgan providing approved daily NAV data and Chainlink publishing NAV and distribution metrics on-chain.

CME, Nasdaq Plan Crypto Index Futures Launch

CME Group plans to launch Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures on June 8, pending regulatory review. The contract would be CME’s first market-cap-weighted crypto futures product and would settle to the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index.

The index currently includes Bitcoin, Ether, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK and lumens. CME said the product would offer regulated broad crypto exposure through micro-sized and larger-sized contracts, aimed especially at institutional investors and portfolio managers.

Corporate Crypto Treasuries

Strategy Resumes Bitcoin Buying as Bitmine Slows Ethereum Accumulation

Strategy bought 535 BTC worth $43 million between May 4 and May 10, raising total holdings to 818,869 BTC. The purchase followed a pause after its April 27 acquisition and was funded mainly through share-sale proceeds.

Bitmine added 26,659 ETH for roughly $63 million, slowing from an earlier pace above 100,000 ETH per week. The company reported 5,206,790 ETH in total holdings, with more than 90% staked through MAVAN and partner validators.

Capital B, Sharplink Expand Crypto Treasury Strategies

Capital B announced a €15.2 million private placement to support its Bitcoin treasury strategy. The company said proceeds, combined with ongoing operations, could support the acquisition of 182 additional BTC and lift potential holdings to 3,125 BTC.

Galaxy Digital and Sharplink entered a non-binding MOU to form the Galaxy Sharplink Onchain Yield Fund. The planned fund is expected to launch with $125 million in commitments, including $100 million from Sharplink’s staked Ethereum treasury and $25 million from Galaxy.

Ethereum Foundation Unstakes $50M in ETH

The Ethereum Foundation initiated the unstaking of 21,270 ETH from Lido, worth nearly $50 million. The move sends staked ETH into the withdrawal process and does not automatically indicate a planned sale because Lido withdrawals enter a queue before ETH can be claimed.

The foundation also advanced Glamsterdam upgrade milestones, including a 200 million gas limit floor as a post-upgrade target, and named Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn and Fredrik as new Protocol cluster leads.

Public-Market Readiness and IPO Pressure

Consensys, Ledger Delay IPO Plans

Consensys pushed its potential U.S. IPO to fall 2026 at the earliest, while Ledger paused a possible U.S. listing. Both moves were tied to weaker crypto market conditions and reduced investor appetite for crypto public offerings.

Consensys had reportedly worked with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs and had aimed for a confidential SEC filing by late February. Ledger had reportedly hired Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Barclays, but had not filed any draft S-1 registration statement.

Payward Cuts 150 Jobs Ahead of Kraken IPO Push

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, is cutting about 150 jobs, or roughly 5% of its global workforce, as part of an optimization effort ahead of a planned IPO. Kraken declined to comment on the reported cuts.

The restructuring follows earlier workforce reductions and a paused IPO timeline after weaker recent crypto listings cooled investor appetite. Payward has continued investing in acquisitions, derivatives, payments, tokenized assets and private funding while preparing a leaner financial profile.

Security, Hacks and Political Exposure

THORChain Pauses Trading After Suspected Exploit

THORChain paused trading and signing on May 15 after investigators flagged a suspected multi-chain exploit that may have drained more than $10 million across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain/BSC and Base.

ZachXBT and PeckShieldAlert estimated losses above $10 million, while Blockaid linked the suspected issue to a Bifrost Attestation Gossip proposer-forgery bug. THORChain had not published final loss details, a complete postmortem, patch confirmation, recovery plan or attacker identity.

North Korean Hackers Led 2025 Crypto Theft Losses

North Korea-linked hackers stole $2.06 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, accounting for 60% of all crypto theft losses that year, according to CertiK’s Skynet analysis. CertiK said DPRK-linked groups have stolen $6.75 billion across 263 incidents since 2016.

Binance said its AI-powered security tools prevented $10.53 billion in user losses from scams and fraud between early 2025 and March 2026. The exchange said it protected more than 5.4 million users and intercepted 22.9 million scam and phishing attempts in Q1 2026.

Trump Discloses Crypto-Linked Stock Trades

President Donald Trump disclosed first-quarter 2026 securities trades involving crypto-linked public companies including Coinbase, Robinhood, Strategy, MARA Holdings and CleanSpark. The filings covered Donald Trump, Melania Trump and dependent children rather than assigning each trade to one family member.

Crypto-linked equity activity involved around 50 transactions with disclosed value estimated between $1.5 million and $3.8 million. The Trump Organization said the holdings were maintained through fully discretionary third-party accounts managed by financial institutions.