On May 18, Iran introduced a Bitcoin (BTC)-backed digital shipping insurance product called "Hormuz Safe" aimed at Iranian shippers and cargo owners. The service is positioned as a fast, verifiable way to cover transit-linked risks, while lawmakers also pointed to a new mechanism to manage passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Goldman Sachs fully unwound its Solana (SOL) spot ETF exposure in the first quarter of 2026, reversing a position valued at about $108 million. The move was disclosed in a Form 13F filed with the SEC on May 15, 2026, and coincided with SOL sliding over 13% in the past seven days to around $84.31, with market cap near $48.8 billion.

On May 18, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) stepped up Bitcoin selling after its six-week streak of cash inflows ended. The fund moved 2,221 BTC to Coinbase Prime, worth about $170.59 million at press time, while BTC was down 4.61% over seven days to around $77,410 and its market cap fell by $22.3 billion over 24 hours to about $1.5 trillion.

SpaceX holds 8,285 Bitcoin valued at roughly $637 million, putting more than $600 million of BTC on its balance sheet. The figures were compiled on May 18 from Arkham Intelligence data. The company is also targeting a June 12, 2026 Nasdaq listing under the ticker SPCX.

Top XRP holders reduced exposure over the past 30 days, with the top 100 XRPL wallets posting a net outflow of 481,409,805 XRP valued at about $693,229,719. Over the last 24 hours, the same cohort trimmed 27,085,842 XRP worth roughly $38,003,612, while XRP traded around $1.45 after failing to hold above $1.50.

XRP's derivatives leverage on Binance climbed to about 0.179 on May 15, marking a two-month high. The move coincided with XRP retesting supply near $1.50, increasing the odds of forced liquidations if momentum flips. XRP was down nearly 2% over the past 24 hours to around $1.44 at the time of reporting.

Bitcoin has repeatedly failed to hold above $82,000, but analyst Michaël van de Poppe said on May 15 that BTC could still move toward $90,000 in the next few days. He pointed to a rebound from the 21-day moving average, which he described as key support since early April, while flagging $71,438 to $73,408 as a critical liquidity support zone.

As of May 14, a $1,000 purchase of XRP made at the start of 2026 would be valued at $802.09, based on 541.95 XRP acquired at that time. The token is down 19.79% year-to-date, a drop of $0.3639 per XRP. The position remains below break-even after a sharp early drawdown and a lengthy period of consolidation around $1.40.

On May 14, on-chain metrics indicated that Cardano (ADA) whale addresses holding at least 1 million tokens continued accumulating even as price weakened. Whale wallets held 25.09 billion ADA worth about $6.52 billion at press time and controlled roughly 67.47% of the total supply.