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The U.S. government is strengthening its efforts to crack down on Iran's use of cryptocurrency, Fox Business reported. The move is intended to block alternative financial channels that Iran uses to evade sanctions. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that authorities have frozen approximately $500 million in crypto linked to the Iranian regime. Meanwhile, Iran is estimated to hold around $7.7 billion in digital assets.

Pro-crypto U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis urged the passage of the CLARITY Act on X, stating that a lack of regulation does not mean a lack of harm, but rather a lack of remedy when problems occur. She added that she has worked for years to enact the CLARITY Act to allow the digital asset industry to grow within the U.S. under clear guidelines.

Nasdaq-listed Solmate (SLMT), a company strategically holding Solana (SOL), announced a plan on May 21 to raise $11.4 million. The capital will be raised through a direct investment from the company's CEO and board members. The transaction is expected to be finalized around May 27.

Cryptocurrency payments firm MoonPay has acquired cross-chain routing startup Descent.xyz, CoinDesk reported. Following the acquisition, MoonPay has launched MoonPay Trade, a single platform that allows banks and fintech companies to access tokenized assets, decentralized finance (DeFi), and stablecoin liquidity across more than 200 blockchains.

Seturion, a European payment platform under Germany's second-largest stock exchange operator Boerse Stuttgart Group, has announced the addition of Societe Generale, SG Forge, and flatexDEGIRO as participants in its security token settlement infrastructure. According to The Block, Seturion connects banks, brokers, and exchanges into a single digital securities settlement layer. The platform plans to expand its pan-European tokenized securities trading and settlement network through these new collaborations.

Wallets associated with crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital appear to have been swapping large amounts of ETH for HYPE since January, according to an analysis by on-chain analyst MLM, Wu Blockchain reported. MLM, who has about 27,000 Telegram subscribers, explained that on Jan. 22, these wallets deposited 87,100 ETH, worth $220 million, into a Galaxy Digital deposit address linked to Multicoin Capital. The following day, Jan. 23, a Multicoin-related wallet began receiving HYPE from Galaxy. Emmett Gallic, an analyst at on-chain analysis platform Arkham (ARKM), added that the analysis is plausible.

The Avalanche (AVAX) Foundation has launched the "Call For Research Program," a grant initiative aimed at supporting academic research on the economics of decentralized networks. The foundation, which supports the Layer 1 blockchain, has also formed an independent selection committee to evaluate grant applications. Selected research projects will receive grants of up to $50,000.

Tom Lee, chairman of the publicly traded Ethereum strategy reserve company Bitmine (BMNR) and co-founder of Fundstrat, stated on X that the April minutes from the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) clearly illustrate why ETH and crude oil prices have an inverse correlation. He explained that the FOMC mentioned the need for monetary tightening if inflation remains persistently above 2%. According to Lee, rising crude oil prices fuel inflation, which in turn increases the likelihood of a Fed interest rate hike. As cryptocurrency prices, including Ethereum, are linked to monetary liquidity, they consequently show an inverse correlation with oil prices. He also noted that a war between the U.S. and Iran would have a decisive impact on oil prices.

Iran's ambassador to France has stated that various nations must bear the costs of reopening the strait.

Iran and Oman are discussing a plan to permanently impose passage fees for the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's ambassador to France stated.

As Hyperliquid (HYPE) hit a new all-time high today, an anonymous, newly created address starting with 0x41Ad withdrew 198,535 HYPE, worth $11.62 million, from Bybit. Withdrawals from exchanges are generally interpreted as an intention to hold. According to CoinMarketCap, HYPE is currently trading at $59.32, up 16.02%.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, Hyperliquid (HYPE) has hit a new all-time high amid a continued upward trend. The token reached $59.69 on its USDC pair on Hyperliquid, surpassing its previous peak of $59.406. This marks the first time HYPE has set a new high in approximately eight months.

The whale known as '1011', who previously faced a liquidation of around $230 million, has deposited an additional 9 million USDC into Hyperliquid (HYPE), according to on-chain analyst ai_9684 xtpa. This brings the total deposit amount since yesterday to 19.01 million USDC. The whale has currently placed buy orders for HYPE worth approximately $1.15 million in the $49.725 to $52.36 price range. Their current spot holdings of HYPE are valued at around $2.48 million. Additionally, the whale is maintaining a 5x leveraged long position of 504.4 BTC, worth about $38.95 million, which currently has an unrealized loss of approximately $85,000.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $77,000. BTC is trading at $76,954.25 on the Binance USDT market.

The supply of Bitcoin (BTC) held by long-term holders (LTH) has climbed to 16.3 million BTC, nearing its all-time high, CoinDesk reported. LTHs are typically defined as investors holding BTC for over 155 days. According to on-chain data, LTH holdings have grown by more than two million BTC from the 14.12 million BTC recorded when the cryptocurrency hit its all-time high last year. Approximately 200,000 BTC has been added in the past month alone. This trend mirrors the typical accumulation pattern of long-term investors, who generally build their positions during bear markets and realize profits during bull runs. Notably, this recent surge breaks a two-and-a-half-year downtrend in LTH supply that had persisted since the launch of U.S. spot BTC ETFs in 2024. This shift suggests that long-term investors may once again perceive the current price level as an accumulation zone.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened lower today. - S&P 500: -0.38% - Nasdaq: -0.51% - Dow Jones: -0.30%

Guy Wuollet, a partner at a16z Crypto, the cryptocurrency investment arm of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has argued that the financial industry is entering a digital transformation phase similar to the cloud computing era, with blockchain set to become its core infrastructure. He explained that Wall Street is adopting blockchain not for ideological reasons but for practical benefits, including reduced counterparty risk, improved settlement efficiency, and guaranteed fair transaction ordering. Furthermore, Wuollet stated that digital assets are not just tokens but represent the migration of the financial system itself to on-chain infrastructure. He emphasized that blockchain-based finance can accelerate innovation through composability—the ability for assets to be freely combined and expanded. He predicted that this will lead to the transformation of the current closed financial system into an on-chain collaborative network.

Crypto finance infrastructure company Cycles has raised $6.4 million in a seed funding round, TechFundingNews reported. The round was led by Blockchainje Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Compound VC, and Primitive Ventures. Cycles plans to use the funds to build a private clearing network for the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin hardware wallet company Foundation announced it has raised $6.4 million in a new funding round. The round was led by Fulgur Ventures, with participation from Arche Capital. Foundation stated it plans to use the funds to expand beyond its Bitcoin self-custody wallet business into AI agent authentication, digital identity, and multi-factor authentication.

Christopher Giancarlo, the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) known as "Crypto Dad," has joined Jefferies Financial Group as a senior advisor to its investment banking division, Bloomberg reported. During his tenure at the CFTC, Giancarlo supported the launch of BTC futures products by CBOE and CME and was also involved in advancing the self-certification of BTC derivatives.

Cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S., Unfolded reported. The company is currently valued at $7 billion, down from $14 billion in 2022.

JPMorgan has analyzed that tokenized money market funds (MMFs) account for only about 5% of the total stablecoin market, despite offering yields. According to CoinDesk, the bank explained that stablecoins are established as the core cash instrument within the crypto ecosystem for trading, collateral, settlement, and DeFi liquidity management. In contrast, tokenized MMFs are classified as securities, subjecting them to regulatory burdens such as registration, disclosure, and transfer restrictions. JPMorgan projected that without regulatory changes, the tokenized MMF market is unlikely to exceed 10% to 15% of the stablecoin market. However, some market analysis suggests that the growth of tokenized MMFs could continue, driven by expanding demand from institutional investors for on-chain settlement and collateral.

Curve Finance (CRV) has announced it will conduct a database upgrade and maintenance on May 25. The platform stated that the work is expected to take approximately 20 minutes to one hour, during which the Curve user interface will be temporarily inaccessible.

DDC Enterprise, an e-commerce company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, announced the purchase of an additional 200 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 2,583 BTC.

AllianceDAO founder Qiao Wang has set a conservative target for Zcash's (ZEC) market capitalization at three to 5% of Bitcoin's (BTC), suggesting that BTC holders may allocate some of their assets to ZEC as a hedge. In a more aggressive scenario, he argued that ZEC could grow to reach 15% to 20% of BTC's market cap, an assertion he compared to the value ratio of silver to gold. Wang also noted the possibility of ZEC surpassing BTC in the event of a catastrophic event for Bitcoin, such as a massive sell-off initiated by Michael Saylor or a quantum computing attack. ZEC has risen more than 25% over the past month, with its current market capitalization standing at approximately $10.9 billion.