Ethereum

Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said on May 18 that rising oil prices have been a key factor weighing on Ethereum, arguing the inverse ETH-oil correlation is at a record high. He made the comments as ETH traded near $2,100, down about 3% in 24 hours and 12% over the past month. Lee added that while the move may be near-term "noise," he still views tokenization and agentic AI as longer-term tailwinds into 2026.

Goldman Sachs changed its crypto-linked ETF positioning in an SEC filing, fully removing XRP- and Solana (SOL)-related products while reducing its Ethereum (ETH) ETF exposure by about 70%. The disclosure also shows the firm still held roughly $700 million in Bitcoin ETFs and initiated a new Hyperliquid-related position valued at about $3.3 million.

Digital asset investment products posted net outflows of $1.074B last week, ending a six-week streak of inflows, with the US accounting for $1,140M of redemptions. Bitcoin led the pullback at -$982M and Ethereum followed at -$249M, while XRP (+$67.6M) and Solana (+$55.1M) still attracted capital. Total AUM slipped to $156.87B from $159B in the prior week.

Between May 11 and May 15, spot bitcoin ETFs reversed course with $1 billion in weekly net outflows, led by withdrawals from ARKB and Blackrock's IBIT. Spot ether ETFs also stayed under pressure, posting $255.11 million in net outflows. In contrast, XRP and solana ETFs drew $60.50 million and $58.12 million in net inflows, respectively.

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.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies said that as of May 18, 2026 it held 5,278,462 ETH valued at $2,191 per token, describing the position as 4.37% of Ethereum's 120.7 million circulating supply. Chairman Tom Lee said the company added 71,672 ETH over the past week and expects Bitmine to reach its "alchemy of 5%" milestone sometime in 2026. The company also reported staking 4,712,917 ETH, with annualized staking revenue of $289 million based on a seven-day yield of 2.80%.

Crypto investment funds logged $1.07 billion in net outflows for the week ending May 16, snapping a seven-week streak of positive weekly flows. Bitcoin products accounted for $981.5 million of withdrawals and Ethereum funds saw $249.3 million leave, while XRP and Solana attracted $67.6 million and $55.1 million in inflows. Total assets under management slipped to $157 billion from $159 billion a week earlier.

Goldman Sachs eliminated its U.S. spot XRP ETF exposure in Q1 2026, exiting a position valued at about $154 million that had been spread across issuers including Bitwise, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton and 21Shares. Over the past week, XRP ETF net inflows totaled $60.49 million and reached $176.3 million since early April, while total AUM hit $1.18 billion as XRP traded at $1.43. In the same quarter, the bank also reshuffled other crypto-linked holdings, adding 654,630 shares of Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. (PURR) worth $3.33 million.

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.