On-chain activity suggests Tom Lee-chaired BitMine Immersion Technologies added 89,026 ETH, valued at about $197.64 million, via four newly created wallets. The transfers were split across Kraken and FalconX, and came as ETH traded around the $2,100–$2,300 range. BitMine previously reported holding 5,206,790 ETH and said it has been moderating buys while pursuing a long-term goal of owning 5% of Ethereum's supply.

XRP is seeing stronger institutional and on-chain signals, but its spot price remains under pressure amid broader market consolidation. Over the past 24 hours, XRP fell more than 5% to $1.40 after briefly topping $1.54 for the first time in two months. The divergence shows up in ETF inflows, large Binance withdrawals, and a two-month high in XRPL activity.

Ethereum developers are debating how to address the network's fast-growing "state" and the long-term cost of storing permanent data, with EIP-8037 proposed as a deterrent via higher upfront gas for new contracts and storage. The state is described at about 390 GiB, while one estimate says a 100 million gas limit would add roughly 553 MiB per day (about 197 GiB per year), potentially pushing Ethereum toward a 650 GiB "danger zone" in under 1.6 years. Vitalik Buterin rejected a near-term idea to store only hashes on-chain, saying proofs still require data that ends up close to the state's size.

Bitwise's BHYP posted $4.31 million in debut-day trading volume on May 15, the biggest opening among 2026 US spot altcoin ETF launches. Alongside 21Shares' THYP, which began trading on May 12 with $1.80 million in debut volume, the pair totaled $6.11 million in first-day activity. THYP has recorded $10.6 million in cumulative inflows over its first four sessions, while BHYP inflow data has not yet appeared.

Harvard Endowment has fully sold its $86.8 million stake in BlackRock’s spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF, after first disclosing the position in Q4 2025. ETH has slid nearly 8% this week and is watching $2,000 and $1,700 as key downside levels, while the article notes large holders increasingly taking short positions.

CryptoQuant data shows XRP exchange reserves continued sliding after the May 14 surge, reaching about 2,754,700 XRP across major venues as of May 17. XRP later moved back into gains, trading at $1.42 at the time of writing, up 0.97% over the past 24 hours.

In May 2026, more than 225,000 ETH flowed into Binance within a single day, while ETH traded around $2,100. The move coincided with a 7-day exchange netflow moving average of 64.9K ETH, suggesting the spike followed a week of elevated deposits.

A Hyperliquid whale sold 213,419 HYPE for $8.93 million at $41.84 each, realizing $2.8 million in profit as HYPE traded near $42 after defending $40 support. The wallet still holds 253,769 HYPE worth $10.5 million, while market data showed $17 million in daily inflows and Spot Netflow at -$2.59 million. If inflows persist, HYPE could retest $45; otherwise it may range between $41 and $44.