Three DeFi protocols overseeing close to $1 billion in assets have moved, or are in the process of moving, cross-chain operations from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP. Solv Protocol said it is migrating about $700M in tokenized bitcoin (SolvBTC and xSolvBTC) across Corn, Berachain, Rootstock, and TAC, while Re chose CCIP as the exclusive bridge for reUSD with over $160M market cap. The changes follow an April 18, 2026 exploit that drained about 116,500 rsETH valued near $292M from a LayerZero-powered bridge used by KelpDAO.

Bitcoin shed about 245,000 wallet holders over five days, marking the quickest contraction in nearly two years and drawing comparisons to a similar wallet-exit phase in summer 2024. BTC has since fallen back under $80,000 after peaking near $83,000, while $80,300 is cited as a key cost-basis level for recent buyers amid price pressure around $79,500.

Wall Street’s AI trade broadened this week as Intel and AMD each rose about 25%, Micron gained more than 35%, and Corning climbed roughly 20%, while Nvidia added 16% in 2026 after a 9% weekly rally. Investors are shifting attention from GPUs to CPUs, memory, and fiber as demand expands from chatbots toward AI agents. Bank of America projects the data-center CPU market could grow from $27 billion in 2025 to $60 billion in 2030, underscoring the scale of the buildout.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said on the Crypto In America podcast that XRP holders could get "something special" if Ripple eventually goes public, while stressing an IPO is "not a priority". XRP was trading at $1.42, after losing the $1.40 area and failing near $1.45, with support discussed around $1.35. The article also cites a Standard Chartered 2026 model at $2.80 and notes claims of Q1 2026 whale accumulation totaling 1.2 billion XRP.

Over the last 24 hours, bitcoin hovered near $80,000 and stayed range-bound between $80,200 and $79,200 while long liquidations hit $28.3 million. Total crypto liquidations reached $202 million, with $103 million from longs, even as equities rallied and oil briefly spiked before settling at $101 (Brent) and $95 (WTI). A Bitunix analyst flagged $78,000 as a key downside liquidity pocket, while $82,000–$83,000 holds notable short liquidity.

Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies have outperformed much of the crypto market in 2026, with Zcash, Monero, Ycash, Zano and Midnight posting notable gains amid growing demand for confidential onchain activity. In early May 2026, ZEC briefly touched $600 as Grayscale moved to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF, while Monero began beta testing FCMP++ on May 6, 2026 and Zano's fUSD reserves climbed past $10M.

XRP network usage has cooled since late 2024, with new addresses falling from about 18,000 per day in December 2024 to roughly 2,700 currently, an 85% drop. Whale-to-Binance inflows also slid to around 736 million XRP after peaking near 2.6 billion XRP in early March, suggesting reduced exchange-transfer pressure. Separately, analyst Ali Martinez said a TD Sequential buy signal appeared on the 4-hour chart, pointing to a potential rebound toward $1.45 and possibly $1.80 if resistance is cleared.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said the traditional fiat monetary system is "dead", pointing to a shift in hedging behavior. A May 7 JPMorgan note said investors have been favoring Bitcoin over gold, with Bitcoin ETFs posting a third straight month of inflows as gold ETFs struggled after outflows that began in March.