Crypto venture investment slowed in Q1 2026, with firms putting about $4 billion into 355 crypto and blockchain deals, down 50% quarter-over-quarter and 16% by deal count. Later-stage rounds took roughly 57% of capital, while median deal sizes rose above $4.5 million even as valuations eased from Q4 2025 highs. The US led activity with over 70% of invested capital and 43.5% of deals, while only eight new crypto-focused venture funds raised nearly $1.1 billion.

US prosecutors say Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo (aka 'AlphaRaccoon') used nonpublic 'Year in Search 2025' data to trade on Polymarket and net about $1.2 million. The complaint alleges he placed at least 23 bets from October to December 2025 and risked roughly $2.75 million before Google published the results on December 4, 2025.

XRP has remained range-bound near $1.30–$1.38 after multiple failed breakouts, as on-chain data suggests traders are under heavy pressure. Santiment says the average XRP trader over the past 30 days is down 47% and notes the 30-day MVRV has fallen to its lowest level since December 2020, a zone it associates with capitulation risk. Separately, CryptoQuant reports Binance XRP perpetuals show rising speculative activity, with volume imbalance near 0.54 and Z-Score close to 0.95 while spot price hovers around $1.34.

Two newly launched US spot ETFs tied to Hyperliquid's HYPE token have posted early inflows that, by one measure, outpaced the debuts of spot Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana ETFs. The products include 21Shares' THYP (listed May 12) and Bitwise's BHYP (listed May 14), which together have drawn more than $95 million in net inflows within weeks; HYPE was trading near $62.31 at the time of writing.

A fraudulent site mimicking Uniswap is reportedly emptying victims' crypto wallets, with on-chain analyst "b-block" saying scammers control at least $400,000 in stolen assets. A separate SEAL review of malicious Google Ads found Uniswap was the most frequently impersonated platform, representing 41% of tracked phishing-related sites, and linked losses from March 13 to March 30 exceeded $1.27 million.

XRP has trended lower over the past month, slipping nearly 6% and struggling around $1.34 after several brief pushes above $1.50 faded. Santiment says social sentiment has shifted into a "FUD zone," with bullish-to-bearish commentary near 1.1 to 1. It also highlighted spot XRP ETFs drawing $22.04 million last week, taking May inflows above $116 million.

Ethereum (ETH) is down nearly 30% so far this year and struggled to sustain rebounds during May as frustration built across social media. Santiment says the selloff reflects multiple bearish narratives rather than one single shock, including weakening sentiment ratios and ETF outflows during May. The firm adds that extreme pessimism can sometimes mark exhaustion and set up a contrarian turning-point risk.

CME's XRP futures have logged nearly $63 billion in notional trading volume since trading opened on May 19, 2025, with totals measured as of May 15, 2026. The exchange listed both a 50,000-XRP standard contract and a 2,500-XRP micro contract, and reported 1.32 million contracts traded over the period. Despite reported inflows of over $98 million into US spot XRP ETFs so far in May, XRP was down over 26% year to date and traded around $1.35 at the time of writing.

Two US-listed ETFs tied to Hyperliquid's HYPE token—21Shares' THYP and Bitwise's BHYP—have posted strong early trading, reaching nearly $41 million in combined volume since launching earlier this month. On Wednesday, their trading volume rose another 50%, while HYPE was up 37% since THYP debuted on May 12. THYP reported $1.2 million in net inflows at launch, and BHYP followed on May 14 with $750,000.