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The U.S. Department of Justice announced it has uncovered at least nine cryptocurrency fraud rings targeting Americans, in cooperation with the FBI, Dubai Police, and China's Ministry of Public Security. At least 276 people have been arrested in connection with the operations, The Daily Hodl reported.

April set a record for the number of hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency industry, with approximately 30 cases reported during the month, according to The Block. The value of the losses also ranks among the highest on record, with the total exceeding $630 million. Major attacks included a $285 million incident involving Drift Protocol and a $292 million exploit of Kelp DAO. The Block noted that the impact of these hacks is not limited to the affected protocols. Such events can put downward pressure on token prices, lower trust in DeFi, and strain liquidity, which has already been struggling since a record sell-off on Oct. 10 of last year.

Prediction market platform Kalshi has signed a multi-year partnership with Madison Square Garden, the home arena of the NBA's New York Knicks, according to Walter Bloomberg. Under the agreement, Kalshi has been named the official prediction market partner of the venue.

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, stated that the Fed must always consider all policy options.

Neobank Revolut has attributed a price error that briefly showed BTC at $0.02 on its app to an issue with an unspecified third-party service provider. According to Decrypt, the company stated that the problem has since been resolved and that prices now reflect market conditions. Revolut added that it is currently reviewing the details behind the third-party provider's service interruption. It is not known whether any trades were executed at the incorrect price.

According to Lookonchain, BlackRock and Fidelity have deposited Ethereum worth approximately 110 billion won ($80.3 million) to Coinbase Prime over the past three hours. BlackRock transferred around 11,475 ETH three hours ago, while Fidelity moved 23,919 ETH within the past hour.

Whale Alert reported that 310,000,000 USDC has been transferred from Ethena to an unknown wallet. The transaction is valued at about $310 million.

Following a partnership between Iren (IREN), formerly Iris Energy, and Nvidia, U.S. investment bank Bernstein has set a price target of $100 for the company. According to The Block, this represents a 76% increase from its closing price of $56.85 on May 7. Bernstein called the deal a significant partnership for both companies in technology and capital, adding that the data center market presents an enormous opportunity with considerable room for growth as it is still in its early stages. The bank maintained its outperform rating for Iren.

An address believed to belong to Garrett Jin, the founder of BitForex and a Bitcoin OG, has deposited 78,077 ETH, worth approximately $177.92 million, to Binance, according to Onchain Lens.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened higher today. - S&P 500: +0.36% - Nasdaq: +0.57% - Dow Jones: +0.45%

Aptos (APT) announced on X it has partnered with Japanese QR code payment service provider Netstars to develop stablecoin and Web3 payment applications. Netstars plans to explore integrating Aptos's blockchain infrastructure into its existing payment system.

Robinhood has announced the listing of BLEND.

Kevin Hassett, Chairman of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), said he believes there will be a rate cut this year due to the war.

Nick Timiraos, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal often described as the Fed whisperer, has analyzed that the Federal Reserve's policy focus is shifting from the labor market to inflation. He explained that while the labor market has stabilized, inflation is once again facing upward pressure due to tariffs and the war in Iran. Timiraos also assessed that the April non-farm payroll report showed strong metrics across employment, unemployment, and wages, weakening the case for an interest rate cut. He added that the Fed is currently maintaining a policy freeze, with inflation data likely to be the key variable going forward.

Police in New South Wales, Australia, have seized 52.3 BTC, worth approximately $4.1 million, linked to an illegal darknet marketplace, Cointelegraph reported. The seizure followed a 15-month investigation that culminated in a raid on a home in Ingleburn, Sydney, where authorities secured electronic devices and a cryptocurrency wallet. Two suspects are accused of involvement in darknet operations related to drug and weapons trafficking. Police described the operation as one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures in Australian history.

A community member known as Q has been appointed as the first CEO of GMX Labs, the team behind the decentralized derivatives exchange GMX. Q is a GMX governance representative and a major token holder. GMX stated that Q has consistently played a significant role across its ecosystem, including in governance and community matters. The appointment follows a proposal from the GMX community to improve operational efficiency by transitioning GMX Labs to a more defined, traditional leadership structure.

Coinbase has resumed trading services that were halted due to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage. According to Cointelegraph, the disruption began after rising temperatures at an AWS data center in Northern Virginia caused problems with some infrastructure. During the outage, Coinbase switched its market to a "cancel-only" mode, later restoring trading functions sequentially through an "auction" mode. The company explained that while its systems are designed to handle a failure in a single AWS availability zone, this incident involved simultaneous issues across multiple zones, causing a prolonged disruption to core trading services. All exchange, web, and mobile app functions have now been fully restored.

Whale Alert reported that 222,000,000 USDT has been transferred from an unknown wallet to Wintermute. The transaction is valued at about $222 million.

USD1, the stablecoin from the DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) led by the Trump family, will be issued on Tempo, a blockchain focused on stablecoins and payments. Issued under the TIP-20 standard, USD1 is being introduced as the first native stablecoin on the Tempo chain. The stablecoin also supports cross-chain transfers with its CCIP functionality enabled.

Whale Alert reported that 221,999,990 USDT has been transferred from Ethena to an unknown wallet. The transaction is valued at about $222 million.

Real estate blockchain firm Balcony has raised $12.7 million in a seed funding round led by Blockchain Ventures, The Block reported. The company plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team and U.S. operations.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, PROS has recorded over 18.8 billion won ($13.72 million) in trading volume since its listing on the South Korean exchange Upbit this afternoon.

A campaign to compel the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to add Bitcoin to its reserves is expected to fail after falling short of the signature requirement for a national referendum. According to Reuters, the initiative secured only about half of the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger a public vote on the constitutional amendment. The proposal sought to have the SNB hold BTC alongside gold and foreign currencies in its foreign exchange reserves. The SNB has consistently maintained that cryptocurrencies do not meet its criteria for reserve assets, citing their high volatility and insufficient liquidity. Yves Bennaim, who launched the campaign, argued that BTC could serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar and the euro, describing it as an internationally neutral asset.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a noted crypto critic, has sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding an explanation of the company's stablecoin initiatives. Warren requested answers by May 20 on seven key points, including the type of stablecoin being piloted, the service launch schedule, changes to Meta Pay, contract structures with third-party issuers, and measures for privacy protection and preventing illicit finance. She warned that Meta's adoption of a specific stablecoin on its platform of 3.5 billion users could have a significant impact on financial stability. The letter follows Meta's earlier announcement that it would offer a stablecoin option for paying some of its creators.

An address believed to belong to BlackRock has deposited 1,224 BTC (worth approximately $98.16 million) and 11,475 ETH (worth approximately $26.27 million) to Coinbase, according to Onchain Lens.