Blockchain.com has confidentially filed for a US initial public offering, signaling another attempt by infrastructure-focused firms to re-enter public markets. The company said on 21 May it submitted a draft Form S-1 to the US SEC for a proposed IPO of its Class A ordinary shares, without disclosing share count or valuation. The filing arrives as IPO discussions intensify across AI, fintech, and crypto infrastructure after a prolonged slowdown.

On May 21, 2026, the CFTC and the NHL signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate against fraud, insider trading, and manipulation tied to NHL-related event contracts on federally regulated prediction markets. The pact sets up designated contacts and confidential information sharing, and it builds on the NHL’s October 2025 licensing deals with Kalshi and Polymarket that use official league data for contract settlement.

On May 21, 2026, Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz cautioned the XRP community about a sharp uptick in AI-enabled scam campaigns, including deepfake videos and fake giveaways. He said schemes often push bogus XRP airdrops that lure users into sending funds or connecting noncustodial wallets to malicious sites that can rapidly drain holdings. Schwartz also described a separate phishing effort aimed at Robinhood users that leveraged Gmail address tricks and emails designed to look authenticated.

Hester Peirce, the SEC commissioner widely known in crypto as "Crypto Mom," is set to depart the agency and begin as an associate professor at Regent University School of Law in November 2026. Regent University announced the hire on May 19, and Peirce's move follows her March 2025 statement that she would not seek another nomination after her term expired in June 2025. Her planned exit comes as key crypto rule areas—including stablecoins, tokenization, and exchange registration—remain unsettled.

TRM Labs data published in May 2026 says North Korea was linked to $577 million of the $651 million lost to crypto hacks in January–April 2026, or 76% of the total. The losses were concentrated in two April incidents attributed to Lazarus subgroup TraderTraitor: $285 million from Drift Protocol on April 1 and $292 million from Kelp DAO on April 18–19.

Y Combinator has introduced a set of "crypto deals" that bundles partner tools for startups in its new application batch, as well as for selected hackathon and meetup participants. The package covers items such as wallets, node and API access, gas credits, fiat on-ramps and swap features, plus on-chain data, analytics, and audit services, with separate tiers that include $10K in network-expense support over two years and additional discounts for funded teams.

Binance Research's EVMbench benchmark published in April 2026 reports GPT-5.3-Codex succeeded 72.2% of the time when attacking vulnerable DeFi smart contracts, but reached only 36% when asked to detect issues without exploiting them. The report also puts the average cost at $1.22 per contract attempt, highlighting how cheaply AI can scale offensive testing.

On May 20, 2026, the Federal Reserve proposed creating limited payment accounts for eligible non-bank financial firms, including crypto and fintech companies, while setting strict limits on what those accounts can do. The draft would allow access to Fedwire Funds and FedNow, but not intraday credit, the discount window, interest on reserves, overdrafts, or FedACH, and it keeps eligibility tied to specific state or OCC national trust bank charters.