Kelp DAO and Aave burned 17,132 rsETH linked to an exploiter on Arbitrum, and said rsETH withdrawals for ETH are expected to restart within 24 hours. Since the April 18 hack, Aave said it raised 137k ETH (worth $317 million) via DeFi United, while Kelp reported additional security tightening across LayerZero bridging configurations.

Kevin Warsh was confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve on May 13 after the Senate approved him 54-45, with John Fetterman the lone Democrat voting yes. Senators had first confirmed him to a full 14-year term on the Board of Governors on May 12 by a 51-45 vote. Lawmakers split over whether his leadership will prioritize inflation control while protecting the central bank’s long-term independence.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) burned 100 million tokens on May 11 as its token unlock schedule began, with six transfers valued at about $6.68 million. The project's vesting framework includes a 2-year cliff plus a 2-year linear release for presale buyers holding over 17 billion WLFI, while insiders face an immediate 10% burn on 45.2 billion WLFI. WLFI's May rally has cooled from 47% to around 30%, and the market impact of daily unlocks remains uncertain.

In March 2026, China's Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) processed about $214 billion (1.46 trillion yuan) in settlements, as Russia and Iran increased reliance on the yuan amid deeper sanctions pressure. Reports also say Iran is seeking yuan or cryptocurrency payments tied to Strait of Hormuz transits, while sanctioned entities received $154 billion in crypto in 2025.

XRP-based investment products saw inflows of $39.6 million last week, rising 1,220% from about $3 million the prior week. The weekly jump came as digital asset investment products extended a sixth straight week of net inflows totaling $857.9 million. XRP year-to-date flows reached $191 million, with assets under management at about $2.56 billion.

Bitcoin is trading just under $80,000 as President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing for talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with traders treating the summit as a key risk-sentiment catalyst in a week already pressured by inflation and rising yields. April data showed CPI at 3.8% year over year and PPI at 6% year over year, while Wintermute flagged a leverage-led move as open interest rose from $48 billion to $58 billion in a month. BTC was down 1.42% over the past 24 hours at the time of publication.

Solana activated SIMD-0266 (the P-Token Optimized Token Program) on mainnet on May 13, 2026, replacing the SPL Token program with a more efficient version. The update is designed to cut compute unit usage for common token actions by as much as 98% and free about 12% of block space, potentially expanding capacity for DeFi, payments, NFTs, and high-frequency use cases.

On April 23, 2026, blockchain investigator ZachXBT said a Discord call in which Dritan Kapllani Jr. displayed an Exodus wallet helped link him to a broader social-engineering theft network exceeding $19 million. The investigator connected the shown Ethereum address to a March 14, 2026 Bitcoin theft of 185 BTC (about $13 million at the time) and alleged the wallet later received roughly $5.3 million, with nearly $1.6 million spent or laundered within six weeks.