Deloitte Buys Blocknative; Checker Closes $8M Round; a16z Emerges as HYPE's Largest External Holder

Key updates (last 24 hours) Strategy CEO: 13 of the top 15 institutional holders increased MSTR in Q1 2026 Strategy CEO Phong Le said that during the first quarter of 2026, 13 of Strategy's 15 largest institutional shareholders added to $MSTR, lifting their combined position by 27%. Variational raises $50M Series A led by Dragonfly Decentralized derivatives platform Variational closed a $50 million Series A led by Dragonfly Capital, with Bain Capital Crypto and Coinbase Ventures participating. Based in the Cayman Islands, the company is building onchain derivatives infrastructure for institutional and traditional market participants, aiming to aggregate liquidity across TradFi and crypto to enable instant trading of real-world assets such as oil and commodities. Its core Omni platform uses a zero-fee model paired with liquidity pools to improve depth and execution. Variational said it is not trying to replace centralized exchanges, but to connect multiple liquidity sources via a "brokerage" model to solve the onchain "liquidity cold start" problem. ICE to develop hash power futures tied to GPU computing costs Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, plans to launch futures contracts linked to "computing power" to reflect cost movements for resources such as GPUs used in the AI industry, pending regulatory approval. ICE will work with Ornn to build a derivatives pricing system based on a GPU cost index that would underpin the hash power futures. Tether buys SoftBank's entire stake in Twenty One Capital (XXI) Tether International announced it has acquired SoftBank's full stake in Twenty One Capital (XXI), becoming the larger controlling shareholder. SoftBank-appointed board members have stepped down in line with the shareholder agreement. Tether said the deal signals its long-term commitment to XXI's goal of building a public company with Bitcoin at its core, and credited SoftBank's early support for helping establish governance and institutional credibility. Mercury raises $200M led by TCV; pursues federal bank charter path Fintech Mercury closed a $200 million funding round led by TCV, with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coatue Management and others participating. Mercury provides banking services to startups and says it now serves more than 300,000 customers with roughly $650 million in annualized revenue. The company attributed recent growth to a surge in AI startups driving incorporations and account openings. Mercury also said it received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to apply for a federal bank charter, targeting expanded lending capacity and direct access to payment networks such as Zelle, while reducing reliance on partner banks. Founders reiterated their long-term goal is an independent IPO rather than a sale. Goldman Sachs to lead SpaceX IPO; Cursor deal expected 30 days after IPO begins Goldman Sachs will act as lead underwriter for SpaceX's IPO, overseeing pricing, roadshows and allocation, according to The Information. Separately, sources cited by Jin10 Data said SpaceX is expected to move forward with its acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor 30 days after its IPO process begins. Bankr wallets compromised via unauthorized signatures tied to Grok-Bankrbot interactions SlowMist's Yu Xian said multiple user wallets on Bankr were compromised. @bankrbot described the incident as a social engineering attack targeting the trust layer between automated agents, involving interactions between Grok and Bankrbot that resulted in unauthorized transaction signatures. Mastercard drops Zerohash investment plan; pivots to BVNK for stablecoin payments Mastercard has scrapped plans to invest in Chicago-based crypto infrastructure firm Zerohash after previously agreeing in March to acquire UK stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for $1.8 billion, with up to an additional $300 million in performance-based consideration possible. Earlier this year Mastercard had explored a strategic stake in Zerohash while the company sought $250 million at a $1.5 billion valuation; Zerohash is now pursuing a new round at a higher valuation. Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides APIs and developer tools for crypto, stablecoins and tokenized assets. Mastercard plans to integrate BVNK into its Mastercard Move network to enable 24/7 stablecoin settlement for payment institutions and merchant acquirers, and to explore stablecoin checkout features for payment gateways. Analysts say the move could sharpen competition with Visa and accelerate adoption of stablecoin-based cross-border settlement. GitHub probes suspected breach of internal code repositories GitHub said it is investigating unauthorized access to its internal codebase. The company said it has no evidence that customer, enterprise or organizational data—or repositories outside GitHub—were affected, and it continues to monitor systems for abnormal activity. If user data or services are later found to be impacted, GitHub said it will notify customers through existing incident-response channels. a16z's HYPE position tops $356M; may be largest external holder Onchain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) said a16zcrypto may have become the sixth-largest holder of HYPE and potentially the largest external institutional holder, as the top five holders are believed to be within the Hype ecosystem. Data indicates a16z began accumulating in August 2025, building a position of 9.18 million HYPE (about $356 million) at an average price of $38.77. After transfers to exchanges and market makers, 8.844 million HYPE remain spread across dozens of addresses. Over the past 11 hours, it added 206,000 HYPE (about $9.95 million). Since April 16 it has accumulated 2.35 million HYPE (about $102 million). Since 2026, the total accumulated is 4.92 million HYPE (about $183 million). At current prices, unrealized profit on the position is about $79.29 million. Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini urge Senate to remove token-listing restriction clause Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini asked U.S. senators to remove a provision from the Digital Asset Market Structure Act that would restrict platforms from listing tokens deemed susceptible to market manipulation. The exchanges argued the standard borrows from traditional commodities futures rules and could prevent compliant venues from listing low-liquidity small-cap tokens, limiting innovation. Deloitte acquires Blocknative in talent-focused deal; services to wind down by June 19 Deloitte said it has acquired blockchain infrastructure company Blocknative via an acquisition centered on talent. Deloitte said the team will focus on advancing Web3 innovation within Deloitte's client ecosystem. Blocknative's website said the company is "gradually winding down operations." Its Blocknative API and Gas Network offerings will be phased out, with discontinuation expected by June 19. Founded in 2018, Blocknative provides real-time mempool monitoring, gas fee prediction and transaction management tooling; its Gas Network is a decentralized oracle network delivering real-time gas data. Stablecoin infrastructure startup Checker raises $8M Checker said it has completed its pre-seed and seed rounds, raising $8 million. Investors include Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures, Framework Ventures, Bitso, Airtm, DFS Lab, Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital and Velocity. Checker provides a single API to help financial institutions launch and scale stablecoins and related products. The company said it processed more than $3 billion in transaction volume over the past 12 months and plans to use the funding to expand its financial institution network across Brazil, Kenya, Hong Kong and the U.S., while preparing AI agents for onboarding, compliance assessments and treasury operations. Meme token trend watch (GMGN, as of May 21, 09:00) Top 5 trending ETH tokens (24h): HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, mUSD Top 5 trending Solana tokens (24h): TROLL, HANTA, Buttcoin, testicle, MAGA Top 5 trending Base tokens (24h): B3, SKYA, TOSHI, toby, KEYCAT Recommended reads (last 24 hours) • Duan Yongping's first crypto equity bet: Why Circle? — Duan's H&H International Investment LLC disclosed a new position in Circle (NYSE: CRCL) in its Q1 13F as of March 31, 2026. Portfolio value rose from $17.49 billion to $20.004 billion, while maintaining large holdings in Apple (AAPL), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) and NVIDIA (NVDA). • Ethereum faces departures and institutional selling — Core researchers Carl Beek and Julian Ma left as additional exits brought the total to at least seven senior departures this year. Holdings data showed Goldman Sachs reduced BlackRock's ETHA by about 70%, Harvard's endowment fully exited nearly $87 million in Ethereum ETFs, and South Korea's seventh-largest pension fund recorded an estimated $32.73 million loss on a leveraged Ethereum ETF position. The Ethereum Foundation also withdrew 21,271 ETH from Lido and has sold ETH onchain to rebalance the treasury. • Crypto asset recovery is becoming a quiet, high-fee business — A look at an under-the-radar industry where cases often start at $1 million or more, with many driven by everyday operational mistakes rather than headline-grabbing hacks. • Tokenization could reach trillion-dollar scale—but four major obstacles remain — Stablecoins now exceed $300 billion in circulating supply, while other tokenized financial assets exceed $30 billion. BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton have collectively tokenized tens of billions of dollars in real-world assets as institutions compete to lead the shift onchain.