Six straight weeks of inflows into crypto investment products came to an end last week, with digital asset funds recording $1.07B of net outflows, according to CoinShares. Bitcoin-focused products bore the brunt of the selling, posting $982M in redemptions as Iran-linked geopolitical tensions weighed on risk appetite. XRP and Solana products were comparatively resilient. CoinShares' head of research James Butterfill said momentum around the Clarity Act still left 11 assets showing net inflows over the period.

THORChain published its third incident update on Monday, saying the team now has a solid understanding of how the roughly $10 million exploit was carried out but is not yet ready to release technical details. The team said the attack vector does not appear to be linked to any currently known GG20 exploit, and it is still evaluating whether other GG20 implementations could face similar risk. A new release, version 3.18.1, is expected to be delivered to node operators tomorrow. How the lost funds will be addressed is still undecided and will be put to a community governance vote rather than a confirmed compensation plan. The network remains partially paused until nodes reach consensus on the recovery approach.

A hacker siphoned about $11.58 million from the Verus–Ethereum bridge in a single outbound transaction on May 17, 2026, striking a cross-chain project that had promoted itself as resistant to smart-contract exploits. The activity was first spotted in real time by blockchain security firm Blockaid and later circulated by on-chain intelligence account @coinxtreme_en on X. On-chain data shows the receiving wallet, 0x65Cb8b128Bf6e690761044CCECA422bb239C25F9, took one transfer comprising roughly 1,625 ETH (about $3.43 million), 103.57 tBTC (about $7.96 million), and 147,000 USDC (about $147,000). Traces indicate much of the haul was quickly swapped into ETH on Uniswap. Verus had marketed its bridge as relying on "protocol rules, not custom code," emphasizing cryptographic proofs, notary witnesses, and protocol-level validation rather than bespoke smart-contract logic. The breach highlights a key weakness for bridges: even designs aimed at minimizing exploitable code can still fail in implementation or operations. The sequence of events has also drawn scrutiny. Two days before the theft, Verus issued an emergency update (version 1.2.14-2) described as urgent and mandatory, citing an unspecified vulnerability. According to @coinxtreme_en, the attacker wallet received funds via Tornado Cash about 11–13 hours after the announcement, a pattern consistent with an actor positioning infrastructure around the update window. Cross-chain bridges remain one of DeFi's most targeted components and have accounted for an outsized share of sector losses since 2021. The Verus incident reinforces calls for stronger formal verification, independent audits, and operational safeguards such as pausing or restricting functionality when credible threats emerge. In markets, Ethereum extended its recent weakness, down about 10% over the past week and roughly 3% over the last 24 hours at the time of writing. Cover image: generated by ChatGPT. ETHUSD chart from TradingView.

NextEra Energy has agreed to acquire Dominion Energy in an all-stock transaction valued at about $67 billion, setting up what would be the largest merger ever in the power and utility sector. The scale is headline-grabbing, but the strategic logic is clear: the company is positioning for a long runway of electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence. The offer implies a 21% premium to Dominion's May 15 closing price. Including assumed debt, the combined enterprise value is estimated at roughly $400 billion, a level that dwarfs previous utility combinations. Under the terms, NextEra shareholders are expected to own about 74.5% to 75% of the combined company, with Dominion shareholders holding the balance. NextEra, already the largest U.S. utility by market capitalization, would add Dominion's extensive presence along the Eastern Seaboard. The Florida-based buyer operates the world's largest wind and solar portfolio, while Dominion's regulated utilities serve millions of customers across Virginia, the Carolinas, and other states. The transaction still faces significant regulatory review. Federal regulators are likely to examine the deal for antitrust concerns, and multiple state utility commissions will need to sign off. The core thesis centers on Virginia's outsized role in global data-center infrastructure. Dominion's service area sits within PJM Interconnection, the U.S. region with the heaviest concentration of data centers. Northern Virginia alone represents a massive share of global data-center capacity, and that footprint is expanding as hyperscalers including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google accelerate AI buildouts. After nearly two decades of broadly flat U.S. power consumption, AI training clusters and inference workloads are driving the first sustained uptick in electricity demand utilities have seen in a generation. For crypto-native investors, the implications are closer to home than they may appear. Bitcoin mining and AI data centers often compete for the same inputs: low-cost power, available grid interconnection, and supportive regulatory conditions. The key swing factor is regulation. State commissions will likely seek commitments that residential and commercial ratepayers are not indirectly funding data-center expansion, while federal antitrust review adds another layer of uncertainty. If approved, the combined NextEra-Dominion company would emerge as a utility heavyweight with exceptional scale in renewables generation and regulated distribution, aligned with both clean-energy growth and rising AI-driven demand.

G7 finance ministers and central bank leaders meet in Paris this week with global bond markets under renewed pressure and little clarity on where the selloff may stabilize. The talks take place as volatility in sovereign debt rises and trade tensions widen, amplifying concerns that multiple slow-burning risks are starting to collide. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said discussions will focus on what he described as "deep-seated global economic imbalances", pointing to persistent trade deficits, fiscal expansion and diverging monetary policy paths among major economies. Officials' near-term worry is that a disorderly market adjustment could shift from a risk scenario to a real-world outcome if policy coordination breaks down. Critical minerals are set to be a major track alongside debt-market developments. The G7 is examining ways to reduce reliance on China for rare earths and other strategic inputs used in electric vehicles, renewable-energy infrastructure and defense systems. Options under consideration include price floors to support allied producers, pooled purchasing arrangements to strengthen bargaining power, and tariffs intended to stabilize markets while encouraging investment in mining and processing. Price floors have drawn attention because they aim to address a longstanding vulnerability: in past cycles, China's ability to push low-cost supply into the market has undercut competitors and forced some non-Chinese operations to shut. A guaranteed minimum price could make new capacity outside China more financeable by reducing the risk that a price war erases returns before projects reach profitability. For investors, the Paris meeting is a test of whether major economies can signal credible coordination, particularly on fiscal sustainability—a key focus for bond markets. The minerals agenda carries more direct implications for mining equities, EV supply chains and defense contractors; concrete steps such as price floors or pooled purchasing could trigger meaningful re-ratings for companies with rare-earth assets outside China. Crypto is not part of the formal agenda and no cryptocurrency-specific measures appear to be under discussion. Any spillover is expected to come through broader risk sentiment: when yields jump and appetite for risk fades, correlations between crypto and other risk assets tend to tighten, leaving digital markets vulnerable to any escalation in bond volatility or trade tensions linked to the G7 talks.

Bitcoin Depot Inc., once North America's largest operator of cryptocurrency ATMs, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, marking another setback for a segment of the digital-asset industry that has been shrinking for years, CoinDesk reported. CEO Alex Holmes said the company's business model had become "unsustainable," adding that Bitcoin Depot will begin selling assets and wind down operations. The firm has taken offline its network of thousands of "BTM" terminals that enabled customers to buy, sell, send and receive bitcoin. Founded in 2016, Bitcoin Depot grew rapidly during the crypto boom as consumers sought simple ways to convert cash into digital assets. In recent years, the company has struggled as demand weakened following the 2022 collapse of crypto exchange FTX. The market has remained lethargic, while tighter regulation has weighed on ATM operators; some U.S. states have banned crypto ATMs outright amid concerns the cash-based machines can be used for illicit activity. Holmes cited "increased litigation and regulatory enforcement" as the main drivers behind the bankruptcy filing. While crypto prices briefly rebounded during Trump's second term, that uptick failed to revive traffic at bitcoin ATMs in locations such as gas stations, convenience stores and nightclubs. The market then turned lower again in October, with bitcoin dropping about 40% from its all-time high. In a statement Monday, Bitcoin Depot said it filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Its Canadian entity is also included in the proceedings under the U.S. court's oversight. CoinATM Radar, which tracks the sector, lists other bitcoin ATM providers including CoinFlip, Athena Bitcoin, Bitstop and RockItCoin.

Crypto investment products posted their first weekly setback after six straight weeks of inflows. CoinShares said digital-asset ETPs and ETFs recorded $1.07B of net outflows in the week ended May 18, ending one of the year's longest sustained run-ups in demand. Bitcoin products accounted for the bulk of the redemptions at $982M. Ethereum followed with $249M in outflows, its largest single-week withdrawal since Jan. 30. The pullback was driven overwhelmingly by the U.S. CoinShares data showed U.S.-domiciled products saw about $1.14B of net outflows, more than the global total as other regions were net buyers. Switzerland registered $22.8M of inflows, Germany $22M, Canada $12.6M and the Netherlands $7.5M. That split points to a regional divergence in positioning: U.S. institutions appeared more responsive to last week's risk-off backdrop, while European allocators treated the decline as a buying opportunity. It also underscores that institutional crypto demand is increasingly fragmented by geography and risk framework, rather than moving as a single block. Altcoin flows diverged from the headline trend. XRP attracted $67.6M in inflows and Solana added $55.1M, together drawing more than $120M in new capital during a week when overall products saw more than $1B leave. The pattern suggests rotation within crypto rather than broad capitulation, with investors trimming exposure to the largest, most liquid assets while adding positions in tokens with distinct risk-reward profiles. CoinShares estimated digital-asset products brought in $47.2B of inflows during 2025, with the U.S. contributing more than $44.5B. The latest Bitcoin outflows cut year-to-date inflows to $3.9B, still positive but lower than the prior week. Bitcoin dominance hovered near 58% in May, or about 64% when adjusted for stablecoin market capitalization. CoinShares said the week's drawdown ranks as the third-largest weekly withdrawal of 2026 so far. The reversal coincided with broader macro pressures, including elevated inflation concerns and geopolitical tensions, conditions that often prompt rapid de-risking across risk assets. CoinShares head of research James Butterfill detailed the figures in the firm's weekly flows report. For investors, the key signal is speed: six consecutive weeks of inflows followed by a billion-dollar swing highlights how quickly institutional positioning can change. The concurrent inflows into XRP and Solana also suggest a market where institutions increasingly differentiate among crypto assets rather than treating the sector as a single trade, with potential implications for portfolio construction. In scale, a $1.07B weekly outflow against $47.2B of 2025 inflows is about 2.3% of the prior year's total—meaningful, but not systemic. Still, the concentration of selling in U.S.-domiciled products and in Bitcoin and Ethereum indicates the most institutionally owned segment may also be the most sensitive when macro conditions deteriorate. Key watchpoints in coming weeks include whether U.S.-based outflows ease or intensify, whether European inflows can expand enough to offset them, and whether the altcoin rotation persists or proves temporary.

Kraken has eliminated roughly 150 jobs as it ramps up the use of artificial intelligence, a shift Bloomberg says may push the crypto exchange's long-anticipated U.S. initial public offering out to 2027. According to Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the matter, the reductions stem from operational efficiencies gained as Kraken expands internal AI tools across its corporate entity, Payward. The person said the company does not currently expect another round of layoffs, even as AI adoption spreads across multiple teams. The move comes as the broader crypto industry trims costs. Softer crypto prices and rising spending on automation have pressured firms to rein in budgets, and publicly traded crypto companies reported weaker first-quarter results after market momentum faded late last year. Kraken confidentially filed IPO paperwork with U.S. regulators in November, then paused the process in March as market conditions deteriorated. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi later confirmed at an industry conference that the company had made a confidential filing, without providing a listing timeline. Bloomberg's report indicates the latest restructuring could delay a U.S. listing until 2027. Kraken's cuts also reflect a wider push toward AI-driven efficiency. More than 5,000 crypto-related jobs have reportedly been eliminated so far in 2026, with companies citing automation and organizational reshuffles. Other recent examples include: Coinbase: The company said it plans to cut about 14% of its workforce. CEO Brian Armstrong described the move as an effort to become "lean, fast, and AI-native," arguing AI is letting engineers complete work in days that previously took weeks and enabling nontechnical employees to ship production code through automated workflows. Coinbase also plans to remove management layers, cap the organization at five levels below the CEO and COO, and test smaller, AI-focused teams. Gemini: The exchange said in February it would lay off around 200 employees and wind down operations in the U.K., EU, and Australia, citing growing losses, IPO-related costs, and weaker markets after Bitcoin fell below $70,000. Dune: The crypto analytics platform cut about 25% of staff as it refocuses on core products. As exchanges and platforms race to integrate AI while controlling expenses, the sector is navigating a trade-off: capturing long-term efficiency gains from automation without eroding operating capacity or investor confidence, both of which influence future fundraising and IPO plans.

May 18 — Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz rebounded last week as the Middle East conflict continued, according to AFP citing Kpler vessel-tracking data. A total of 55 cargo ships transited the strait, up from 19 the prior week, which marked the lowest level since the conflict began. Since March 2026, weekly traffic has averaged about 55 commercial vessels, placing last week's throughput back in the range seen during the war. Roughly half of the ships were tankers. The flow included three very large crude carriers bound for China, Oman and Japan. Kpler data suggest the recovery remains partial, with overall volumes still below pre-conflict levels. The Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint carrying about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, has faced ongoing disruption from geopolitical tensions and sanctions. The report added that Iran has tightened oversight of transit arrangements and introduced fees and restrictions on some shipping, keeping the waterway central to U.S.-Iran talks and regional security concerns.