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AEON, a layer project for settlement and payments between AI agents, has raised $8 million in a pre-seed investment round led by YZi Labs, The Block reported. Other participants in the round included IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, and the Stanford Blockchain Builder Fund. In May, AEON launched a payment product that allows AI agents to connect with over 50 million real-world offline merchants. Through its "x402 Facilitator," which runs on the BNB Chain, the project provides transaction verification, on-chain settlement, and the issuance of tamper-proof receipts.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is increasingly using stablecoins over Bitcoin as a key tool for funding and trade settlements, BeInCrypto reported, citing a new analysis from Chainalysis. Wallets associated with the IRGC received over $3 billion in assets in 2025 alone, a figure that represents approximately 50% of Iran's total virtual asset trading volume as of the fourth quarter of 2025. Chainalysis estimated that the $3 billion figure is a minimum based on public data and that the actual amount is likely much larger.

The median Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) for the top 500 cryptocurrencies has reached one, indicating a break-even point for investors, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode reported. The firm noted that historically, overall selling pressure has tended to increase in the market immediately after this level is reached, adding that most altcoin investors have been selling at a loss since the end of 2024.

The United States has accepted the lifting of oil sanctions against Iran in a new negotiation document, Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported, citing a source close to the U.S. negotiating team. The U.S. has also reportedly proposed a temporary suspension of related sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) until a final agreement is reached.

Noted Bitcoin skeptic and gold bull Peter Schiff has pushed back against MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor's characterization of Bitcoin as a digital skyscraper. Schiff argued that simply holding Bitcoin generates no cash flow. According to BeInCrypto, Schiff also strongly criticized MicroStrategy's Bitcoin-based financial products, such as STRC, labeling them a 'centralized Ponzi scheme' and calling for an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Volatility in U.S. Treasuries, a weakening Japanese yen, and surging international oil prices could increase selling pressure on cryptocurrencies, according to CoinDesk analyst Omkar Godbole. He noted that instability is growing in the U.S. Treasury market, with the ICE BofA MOVE Index recently jumping 14.7% to its highest level since April, which could dampen risk appetite. Additionally, the U.S. dollar-yen exchange rate is nearing 159 yen, raising concerns that a Bank of Japan intervention could trigger an unwinding of the yen carry trade and tighten global liquidity. Godbole also pointed to surging oil prices, with both West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude exceeding $100 per barrel. Citing an International Energy Agency (IEA) warning about declining inventories due to conflict in Iran, he suggested that rising oil prices could heighten inflation and financial tightening, intensifying pressure on risk assets like crypto.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BOE) have initiated a process to gather industry feedback on establishing a regulatory framework for tokenized financial markets. According to The Block, this consultation is part of the UK government's broader strategy for digital financial markets. The scope of the discussions includes regulatory approaches to security tokens, collateral assets, and payment methods. The authorities noted that tokenization technology could present significant opportunities, particularly in post-trade processing and collateral. The consultation is open to banks, investment firms, asset managers, central securities depositories, trading platforms, and fintech companies. While the current focus is on security tokens like bonds, stocks, and funds, the regulators have left open the possibility of expanding the scope to other asset classes in the future.

Binance has announced the listing of CBRS perpetual futures at 9:30 a.m. UTC on May 19.

BlackRock has purchased an additional 3.14 million shares of MicroStrategy for $535.6 million, BitcoinTreasuries reported. This brings the firm's total holdings to 17.75 million shares, valued at $3.02 billion.

An address believed to belong to crypto custody and banking firm Anchorage Digital purchased an additional 397,000 HYPE, worth approximately $18 million, from Bybit and OKX starting about six hours ago, Onchain Lens reported. The same address has accumulated a total of 2.13 million HYPE, valued at $91.99 million, over the past month.

Goldman Sachs sold its entire holdings of XRP and SOL exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the first quarter of this year. According to Cointelegraph, the investment bank had previously disclosed in its fourth-quarter report that it held approximately $154 million in XRP ETFs from Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, and 21Shares, making it the largest institutional investor in the asset at the time. The firm also divested from all its Solana ETFs, including products like GSOL, BSOL, and FSOL. Goldman Sachs continues to hold over $700 million in BTC ETFs.

Bithumb has announced that it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Casper (CSPR) starting at 10:00 a.m. UTC on May 19 to support the network's mainnet upgrade.

Standard Chartered is considering acquiring the cryptocurrency custody business of its subsidiary, Zodia Custody, Bloomberg reported. According to a statement released today, the acquisition proposal has received the consent of Zodia Custody's major shareholders and creditors. Margaret Harwood-Jones, Global Head of Financing and Securities Services at Standard Chartered, explained that integrating Zodia's custody business with the bank's own crypto operations would enable expansion into new markets, including the UK and Australia. Meanwhile, Zodia's infrastructure business will be spun off into a separate company called Zodia Solutions.

The first appeal hearing for the inaugural case under South Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act is scheduled for next month, Newsdream reported. The hearing comes roughly three months after the initial verdict in February, in which two defendants, including the CEO of a virtual asset management firm, were convicted of market manipulation and received prison sentences and fines. The appeal is being pursued by both the prosecution and the defendants, signaling a contentious legal battle ahead. A key point of contention is expected to be whether prosecutors can successfully prove the approximately 7.1 billion won in illicit gains, a claim for which forfeiture was denied in the first trial. In the initial ruling, defendant A was sentenced to three years in prison, a 500 million won fine, and the forfeiture of about 840 million won. An accomplice, defendant B, received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for three years.

Decentralized prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi are continuing to allow users in India to sign up and trade despite a government warning that the platforms are illegal, Bloomberg reported. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently notified VPN providers that Polymarket and similar prediction market platforms are subject to blocking. Authorities noted that some users are circumventing access restrictions with VPNs and warned that providers enabling such access could face legal liability. The country's stricter online gambling regulations took effect on May 1.

B.AI, a project building financial infrastructure for AI agents by combining AI and Web3, has announced via X that it now supports the Solana network. This update allows users to log in easily using MetaMask and Phantom Wallet. It also introduces new payment and subscription features on the Solana network. Supported cryptocurrencies include SOL, USDT, USDC, and WBTC.

According to data from CoinGlass, short positions worth $421.87 million on major centralized exchanges will be liquidated if BTC surpasses $77,654. Conversely, long positions valued at $375.62 million face liquidation if the price drops below $76,196.

JPYC, the issuer of the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC, announced that its testing tool, JPYC Faucet, now supports Kairos, the testnet for the Kaia blockchain. This allows developers to receive testnet JPYC for free, enabling them to verify payment flows and business system integrations on the Kaia network without using real funds. The JPYC Faucet, which provides test tokens simply by connecting a wallet, also supports Ethereum Sepolia, Polygon Amoy, and Avalanche Fuji.

Yuzo Kano, CEO of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer, has pushed back against a government proposal to increase capital gains taxes on stock sales for company founders and executives, arguing the move will trigger a talent exodus. He contended that compensation for venture founders is already "at a very low level." While other countries offer preferential tax rates to attract top talent, Japan is moving in the opposite direction, Kano noted. He explained that most venture founders receive almost no initial salary, citing his own experience of earning just 4.8 million yen (about $33,000) annually only after bitFlyer had achieved some growth. Without the potential profits from his stock holdings, he added, the company itself would have struggled to survive. The Japanese government and ruling party have recently signaled their intent to impose a tax of up to 80% on such capital gains, prompting backlash from Kano and other business leaders.

An anonymous whale address starting with 0x54d purchased 5,001 ETH ($10.6 million) on CowSwap over the past three hours at an average price of $2,110, on-chain analyst EmberCN reported. The address now holds a total of 132,000 ETH, valued at $290 million, which has been acquired through lending protocols such as Aave and Spark. The position's liquidation price is $1,324.

The expansion of AI agent-based financial trading is pushing existing crypto compliance systems to their limits, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. In an interview with CoinDesk, Elliptic CEO Simone Maini said that agent-based commerce will cause an exponential increase in transactions requiring monitoring, a volume that current compliance staff cannot handle. To address this, Elliptic plans to build an "AI agent-type" compliance system to automate transaction monitoring and investigation. The company raised $120 million in a new funding round on May 12, backed by Deutsche Bank and Nasdaq's venture arm. CoinDesk noted that as AI technology also fuels an increase in hacker attacks, the crypto security landscape is turning into an arms race.

Ethereum's price is heavily influenced by spot ETF fund flows, according to an analysis by 10x Research CEO Markus Thielen. He noted a high correlation over the past year between the price of ETH and the 30-day moving average of daily net inflows into its spot ETFs, establishing institutional capital as a key variable. However, Thielen explained that with U.S. 10-year Treasury yields exceeding 4.6% amid rising inflation, the appeal of Ethereum's approximate 2.5% staking yield is relatively diminishing. As ETH spot ETFs have reverted to net outflows in May, he suggested that if this trend persists, the price of ETH is likely to remain range-bound without a clear direction for the time being.

An address associated with leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has purchased an additional 372,000 HYPE ($16.91 million) over the past three hours, Lookonchain reported. The address has now bought a total of 2.11 million HYPE ($90.87 million) since April 14.

Line Next announced that its stablecoin wallet, Unifi, will begin supporting the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYC on May 22.

The Smarter Web Company, a London Stock Exchange-listed firm that has adopted a Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation strategy, has appointed Jon Bird as its new Head of Marketing, the company announced on X. Bird, co-founder of the marketing firm Squarebird, will oversee communications, including brand development, digital marketing, PR, and content. He is also expected to expand the marketing organization.