Neo community developer isleepcode released two open-source Neo N3 tools in May: neovest on May 12 and Gasetta on May 16. Gasetta generates AI summaries of Neo GitHub activity and tracks commentary from co-founders Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang to help gauge Neo N4 progress. neovest is an alpha, trustless token-vesting smart contract with multiple schedule types and no external audit yet.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to publish an “innovation exemption” for tokenized stocks as early as this week. The framework would let traditional market institutions test blockchain-based tokenized securities without completing the full registration process. In recent months, the SEC has also approved related rule changes involving Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, alongside a three-year DTCC authorization for tokenizing certain liquid assets.

Standard Chartered said in a May 18 report it expects tokenized assets on blockchain networks to total USD 4tn by end-2028, which it believes would elevate DeFi protocols into core market infrastructure. The bank expects the total to be split evenly between stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, with more deposits and lending potentially increasing protocol activity and capital efficiency.

Revolut said on Monday it will launch its first physical crypto card: a Dogecoin-themed debit card with an LED display that lights up on tap-to-pay. The company said the card can be used wherever Visa and Mastercard are accepted, and it will initially roll out in the UK and the EEA, excluding Hungary, Switzerland, and Portugal.

On May 18, 2026, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England published a joint vision to expand tokenisation and distributed ledger technology across wholesale financial markets, aiming to help the shift from pilot projects to live production use. The plan pairs regulatory work with infrastructure changes, including a consultation on near-24/7 settlement operations and updated prudential guidance covering tokenised exposures and stablecoins.

Adshares said an attacker involved in its bridge incident returned 256 ETH (about $540,700), roughly 86% of the estimated $628,000 taken. The exploit was linked to bridge mint-validation failures, and analysts warned that recovery windows often trigger phishing “refund” sites and impersonator accounts.

Aave reinstated WETH loan-to-value parameters across six V3 deployments on May 18, 2026, after 95.4% of unbacked Kelp DAO rsETH was recovered. The remaining gap is about ~5,200 rsETH, while 30,765 ETH (about $71M) is still frozen on Arbitrum amid a U.S. federal court dispute in Manhattan.

On May 18, the Verus-Ethereum bridge was hit by a coordinated exploit that drained about $11.5 million. The attacker removed 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC, then swapped the proceeds into roughly 5,402 ETH held at address 0x65Cb25F9. Blockaid said it flagged the incident live and linked the wallet’s initial 1 ETH funding to Tornado Cash.