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South Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economy will proceed with virtual asset taxation as planned next January, an official confirmed today. This marks the first time the ministry has publicly stated its position on the matter. Moon Kyung-ho, director of the ministry's Income Tax Division, said the National Tax Service (NTS) is currently preparing the specific taxation plan, Edaily reported. "We expect the NTS notification to be pre-announced for legislation soon," Moon added. He also noted that the NTS is coordinating the practical details through multiple meetings with the country's five major virtual asset service providers: Dunamu, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax.

Lookonchain reported that an address suspected to be associated with Matrixport has deposited 403,289 HYPE, worth approximately $17.4 million, to Hyperliquid and appears to have begun selling. According to on-chain data, the address is estimated to have sold 100,000 HYPE so far, realizing 4.24 million USDC.

Aptos is investing $50 million to expand its AI-based financial infrastructure, Yonhap News reported. The Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs plan to develop their own financial platform with enhanced compatibility with the existing financial system. The initiative also includes continuing technology research and considering investments in AI and financial investment companies.

People Power Party lawmaker Park Soo-young, who serves as the opposition secretary of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee, criticized the government's plan to tax virtual assets on May 7, arguing it would sever a key path for young people to build wealth. According to Edaily, Park made the remarks during a congratulatory address at an emergency forum on virtual asset taxation. "It is unfair to tax virtual assets while the financial investment income tax is being abolished," he said. Park also rebuked South Korea's National Tax Service, noting that after a meeting with the country's five major crypto exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax—it was clear the agency was not properly prepared to implement the tax.

Bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin (ABTC), which has ties to the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, has purchased an additional 300 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. The acquisition brings the company's total holdings to 7,300 BTC.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov claimed that the TON network's transaction processing speed is approximately 6,000 times faster than Bitcoin's, BeInCrypto reported. According to Durov, the TON network achieves transaction finality in about 0.6 seconds, compared to roughly one hour for Bitcoin and 13 minutes for Ethereum. These metrics were measured following TON's Catchain 2.0 upgrade, which reportedly reduced block creation time to around 400 milliseconds.

An on-chain asset theft on the Base chain resulted from an exploit in the trust model between AI agents, blockchain security firm SlowMist reported via a Medium blog post. The stolen coins amounted to three billion DRB, valued at $174,570. According to the report, a hacker input a prompt in Morse code to the AI model Grok on X (formerly Twitter). An automated trading agent named Bankr then executed the command, withdrawing the funds on the Base chain. The 'Grok Wallet' used in the hack was not owned by xAI but was a custodial wallet automatically generated by Bankr. SlowMist pointed out that the vulnerability stemmed from Bankr directly mapping Grok's natural language output into an executable transfer command without sufficient verification of the user or their intent. Additionally, high-risk permissions were granted simply by activating a membership. The firm added that Grok itself does not hold private keys and was not the direct executor of the on-chain transaction, but was merely exploited as a tool. Following negotiations between the hacker and the victim, approximately 80-88% of the stolen funds were returned in USDC and ETH, with the remainder treated as an unofficial bug bounty.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch (1INCH) announced on X that it was not affected by the recent hack of Trusted Volume. 1inch explained that Trusted Volume is a liquidity provider used by multiple protocols across the industry and is not exclusive to its platform. The company assured that its systems, infrastructure, and user funds remain secure, adding that it is continuously monitoring the situation and collaborating with relevant security organizations.

Jed Finn, head of Morgan Stanley's Wealth Management division, predicted that DeFi will be treated like traditional finance within five years, causing the term "DeFi" itself to disappear. Speaking at the Consensus 2026 conference, he explained that traditional finance will ultimately absorb the DeFi sector. Finn also announced a new crypto-related product from Morgan Stanley. The offering will allow clients to transfer cryptocurrency held on external platforms into their Morgan Stanley accounts, convert it into an ETF, and then take out loans against the ETF without selling the underlying assets. He noted that this structure enables clients to access liquidity without triggering a taxable event.

The CME gap is set to disappear as CME Group plans to introduce 24-hour trading for its cryptocurrency futures and options products starting May 29. The CME BTC futures gap refers to the price difference between the Friday closing price and the Monday opening price on the exchange's charts. This phenomenon occurs because while the spot Bitcoin market operates around the clock, CME's markets have traditionally been closed on weekends. Historically, many investors have used this gap as a directional indicator, operating on the assumption that the price of BTC tends to move to fill the gap over time.

On-chain analyst IT Tech, who has around 46,000 followers on X, argued that Bitcoin must reclaim and hold the $88,880 level to confirm a market bottom. He explained that this price corresponds to the average realized price—the on-chain acquisition cost—for investors who have held BTC for three to six months. For those holding for 12 to 18 months, the level is $93,450, and for six to 12-month holders, it is $111,850. These price ranges act as break-even points where buyers currently at a loss may choose to sell. Therefore, for a bottom to be confirmed, BTC must reclaim the break-even price for the three to six-month holder cohort. The analyst stressed that a temporary breach with a candle wick or a failed breakout after a retest would be insufficient. Instead, a clear breakout with the candle body is necessary for buyers to return to profitability and for downward pressure to ease. "Bitcoin has not yet reached this stage," he concluded.

Binance has announced it will list BILL/USDT perpetual futures at 8:15 a.m. UTC today. The new contract will support up to 20x leverage.

Open-source AI reasoning lab Sentient (SENT) announced the release of version 1.1.0 of its EvoSkill toolkit on May 6 via its official X account. According to the announcement, the update supports running the EvoSkill loop in remote environments using tools like Docker and Daytona. EvoSkill is an open-source, general-purpose framework designed to enhance AI agent performance by automatically generating structured skills from analyzing failure cases. Builders can access the toolkit on Sentient's GitHub page.

Industry leaders argue that the cryptocurrency lending market must prioritize risk management to consistently attract institutional capital, CoinDesk reported. At the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami, Two Prime CEO Alexander Blume stated that institutions are not rejecting crypto lending because they oppose Bitcoin, but because the complex operational processes are difficult to explain to boards and risk committees. He emphasized that the lending market should move closer to traditional finance rather than experimenting with DeFi. Panelists at the event also pointed out a persistent gap between the capital efficiency of DeFi and the predictability and legal accountability required by institutions. In particular, the practice of rehypothecation—using assets posted as collateral for one transaction as collateral for another—was highlighted as a key risk that contributed to the serial collapse of crypto lenders like Celsius in 2022. This has led to calls for borrowers to directly scrutinize the collateral management structures of their lending institutions.

Near Protocol is beginning full-scale preparations to counter threats from quantum computing, Cointelegraph reported. Anton Pieyev, CTO of Near Protocol developer NearOne, explained that the quantum computing era could create problems not only with decryption but also with verifying the true ownership of assets. He noted that it could become difficult to confirm whether a person requesting a transaction is the genuine asset holder in the event of a quantum attack. To address this, Near Protocol developers plan to apply FIPS-204, a quantum-resistant signature method approved by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to the testnet by the end of the second quarter.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is discussing the establishment of a regulatory framework for exchanging Dirham- and U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins, Cointelegraph reported. The framework would cover AE Coin, a Dirham-based stablecoin licensed by the UAE Central Bank, and USDU, a dollar-based stablecoin that complies with regulations from the Abu Dhabi Global Market's Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Payment infrastructure for the system will be handled by Al Maryah Community Bank. The system is designed for institutional payments, treasury management, and cross-border remittances, with plans to expand its use to trade finance and multi-currency payments in the future.

Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of the Bitcoin mixing service Samourai Wallet, has appealed for donations to cover his legal fees and fines, Cointelegraph reported. Rodriguez, who is on trial for operating an illegal money transmitting business, stated on X that he is "completely financially ruined" by $2 million in legal fees and a $250,000 fine and is in desperate need of help. He and fellow co-founder William Lonergan Hill were indicted last November and subsequently sentenced to five and four years in prison, respectively.

Binance has announced the temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals for POND, QUICK, and VIC on select networks, starting at 8:00 a.m. UTC on May 14. The affected services are as follows: - POND: Deposits and withdrawals via the BNB Chain and Arbitrum networks - QUICK: Deposits and withdrawals via the Ethereum network - VIC: Deposits and withdrawals via the Ethereum network

Prominent macro investor and Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal said at the Consensus 2026 conference that if forced to choose between Bitcoin and Solana (SOL), he would pick Solana. He also noted that the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) signifies a major turning point in human history, with its capabilities growing exponentially each year. In this context, Pal suggested that cryptocurrency could become the "Universal Basic Equity" of the AI era. He further predicted that within the next five years, the user base of decentralized finance (DeFi) will shift to a ratio of three AI agents for every two human users.

The Spot CVD chart provides an order book analysis for the BTC/USDT spot pair. The top section shows the Volume Heatmap, while the bottom represents the Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD). - The top Volume Heatmap tracks the volume of trades at specific price levels. The background color brightens when the price lingers in a certain range or moves significantly. These brighter areas may act as potential support or resistance levels. - The bottom Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) indicator shows buy and sell orders categorized by trade size. As buy orders increase, the corresponding colored line rises. The yellow line represents orders between $100 and $1,000, while the brown line indicates large orders between $1 million and $10 million.

South Korean crypto exchanges Bithumb and Coinone have issued an investment warning for Across Protocol (ACX). The exchanges announced the decision, citing an official proposal from the protocol to dissolve its existing Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) structure and transition to a new entity, AcrossCo. Under the proposal, ACX holders can choose between exchanging their tokens for shares in the new entity on a one-to-one basis or exercising a buyout option at a 25% premium. Both exchanges urged investors to exercise particular caution regarding ACX due to these developments.

The following are the 24-hour long/short ratios for BTC perpetual futures on the world’s three largest crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 50.29% long, 49.71% short - Binance: 51.08% long, 48.92% short - OKX: 50.38% long, 49.62% short - Bybit: 51.77% long, 48.23% short

If Iran begins accepting cryptocurrencies like BTC and stablecoins for passage fees through the Strait of Hormuz, virtual assets will evolve from simple investment assets into a tool of national strategy, according to an assessment by Chainalysis. Maeil Business Newspaper reported that Caitlyn Martin, a senior researcher at the firm, noted this would be the first instance of a state embedding virtual assets into its international trade infrastructure. She also pointed out that stablecoins have become a practical tool for sanctioned countries like Russia, Iran, and North Korea. However, Martin predicted that dollar-backed stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) would be used more frequently than Bitcoin, explaining that price stability is essential for charging passage fees to commercial ships, making Bitcoin's volatility unsuitable for large-scale daily payments.

Bullish signals for BTC are emerging simultaneously across on-chain data, the futures market, and the options market, CoinDesk reported. Citing Glassnode, the report notes that BTC has surpassed both its True Market Mean, an indicator of the average investor cost basis, and the average purchase price for short-term holders. This is considered a sign of a transition to a bull market, with the next major resistance level at $85,200. In the futures market, the funding rate has turned positive after being negative for several months, raising the possibility of a large-scale liquidation of short positions. Additionally, in the options market, market makers are in a short gamma state around the $82,000 mark. This condition could accelerate an upward price move, as a rally would prompt further buying from these market makers for hedging purposes.

BNY, the world's largest custodian bank with $59 trillion in client assets, is expanding its digital asset custody business to the Middle East in partnership with local firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), CoinDesk reported. According to an announcement from BNY, the bank will collaborate with Finstreet and the ADI Foundation to establish a regulated digital asset infrastructure within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a financial free zone that has become a hub for crypto companies entering the region. The initiative will initially focus on custody services for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), with plans to gradually expand its scope to include stablecoins and tokenized assets (RWA).