• BTC rallied and then pulled back below $75,000, while ETH remained weak throughout May
• HYPE gained strong momentum from multiple positive catalysts, rising as much as 72% in one month
• Meteora emerged as a standout performer, surpassing Uniswap in trading volume
• OpenSea launched ERC-8257, an Ethereum open standard for AI agent tool registration
• Bloomberg analysts noted that a $1.3 billion IBIT block sale may have triggered a short-term Bitcoin plunge
• The U.S. SEC Chair stated that the agency will promote on-chain capital market reform and clarify the boundaries of digital asset securities
In May 2026, global capital markets and the cryptocurrency market continued to be largely driven by geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran.
At the beginning of the month, reports of easing tensions in the Middle East briefly boosted risk appetite, pushing capital back into risk assets. As a result, Bitcoin (BTC) rose from $75,000 to around $82,000 before entering several weeks of consolidation around the key $80,000 level. However, toward the end of the month, U.S. Iran tensions escalated again, causing risk-off sentiment to rise sharply. Bitcoin not only fell below the critical $80,000 support level, but also briefly dropped into the $73,000 range. From a capital flow perspective, institutional investors and large holders shifted from earlier optimism to a more cautious outlook, while overall market risk appetite cooled significantly.
Compared with April, when Bitcoin (BTC) stabilized and moved higher in a one-sided rally, BTC experienced significantly greater volatility in May. At the beginning of the month, following the upward trend from April, Bitcoin futures saw heavy long liquidations. From May 4 to May 6, daily long liquidations exceeded $100 million on average. Toward the end of the month, as U.S. Iran geopolitical tensions reversed again and crypto assets fell sharply, BTC futures long liquidations reached as high as $265 million on May 28, reflecting a sudden shift toward cautious market sentiment.
In May, funding rates in the Bitcoin (BTC) futures market showed a clear inverse relationship with BTC price movements. The logic behind this trend was that traders were no longer relying on a “buy the breakout, sell the breakdown” approach during this cycle, but instead favored range-bound trading. Under the traditional “buy high, sell low” logic, futures positioning should have been long-dominated when BTC tested $80,000 at the start of the month, and short-dominated when BTC broke below $75,000 near the end of the month. In reality, traders generally believed that BTC lacked sustained upside momentum after reaching the $80,000 level, which led to stronger short positioning. When BTC dropped below $75,000, the market saw potential for a rebound, so traders became more inclined to open long positions.
In May, several major institutions recorded clear net outflows in their Bitcoin (BTC) holdings. IBIT saw a net outflow of 19,200 BTC, FBTC recorded a net outflow of 3,216 BTC, and GBTC posted a net outflow of 4,398 BTC. ETF outflows indicated that traditional financial institutions had turned more bearish on BTC’s future price direction. Binance, which represents retail investors and crypto-native institutions, also saw a net outflow of 11,000 BTC in May, reflecting similarly weak sentiment among crypto investors toward BTC. Notably, Strategy, the treasury company that once stated it would never sell BTC, added 25,300 BTC in May but also sold BTC between May 26 and May 31, with cumulative sales totaling 32 BTC. Although the amount was small, the symbolic significance was strong, suggesting that market psychology may be undergoing a subtle shift.
Unlike BTC’s price action, which rallied before pulling back, the Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate fluctuated widely in May, ranging between 900 EH/s and 1,100 EH/s. On May 27, the real-time network hashrate surpassed 1,270 EH/s, marking a new high for 2026. This formed a clear divergence from the declining BTC price at the same time, showing a disconnect between miner activity and broader market sentiment.
ETH performed weaker than BTC in May. At the beginning of the month, ETH climbed from $2,200 to $2,400 on favorable geopolitical news. However, as the positive momentum faded, ETH began moving lower in a choppy downtrend from mid-May. By the end of the month, as geopolitical tensions escalated again, ETH fell below $2,000. One of the most significant events affecting ETH’s price action this month was Bankless DAO founder David Hoffman’s decision to fully exit his ETH holdings. Hoffman had been an important early supporter of ETH, but ultimately decided to sell his remaining ETH position due to dissatisfaction with the Ethereum Foundation.
According to futures liquidation data, long liquidations in the ETH futures market were significantly higher than those in BTC. On May 17, ETH futures long liquidations reached $243 million in a single day. Notably, this wave of large liquidations occurred earlier than BTC’s, further reflecting ETH’s relative weakness during the market correction in May and showing that price pressure was more pronounced.
However, funding rate changes showed that bullish sentiment toward ETH remained relatively high. Despite several large long liquidation events, the futures market remained broadly long-dominated, indicating that traders did not shift heavily bearish after the liquidations. On May 14, ETH futures funding rates briefly rose to 0.0084%, the highest level since January 2026, reflecting continued market expectations for ETH’s future performance.
As ETH prices remained weak in May, BMNR once again added more than 200,000 ETH against the market trend, maintaining its position as the leading Ethereum treasury company. However, its current unrealized loss has exceeded $8 billion. Meanwhile, Binance added more than 60,000 ETH in May, which contrasted sharply with its BTC reductions during the same period and reflected relatively optimistic expectations among retail investors and crypto-native institutions toward ETH’s outlook. At the same time, BlackRock’s ETHA recorded a net outflow of more than 200,000 ETH in May, showing that traditional financial institutions remained cautious about ETH’s future price direction.
In May 2026, ETH staking continued to decline, with total network staking falling to 39.55 million ETH, down more than 1% from April. As the overall staking market slowed, the competitive structure of the ETH staking sector also changed. ether.fi, which had long ranked third among staking platforms, was surpassed by Coinbase this month. According to the latest data, Coinbase’s total ETH staking volume reached 1.75 million ETH, while ether.fi stood at 1.74 million ETH. Although the difference was very small, Coinbase officially entered the top three ETH staking platforms.
In terms of independent staking nodes, Bitmine had staked a cumulative 4.7187 million ETH, valued at approximately $9.76 billion at current prices. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee stated that the company’s Ethereum treasury is generating $1 million per day from staking rewards, showing that major institutions continue to view ETH staking as an important source of yield.
Since the start of 2026, HYPE has become one of the best-performing crypto assets. For this reason, this edition of the Crypto Market Report includes HYPE as a key asset to watch and reviews its recent price action. Compared with BTC, which rallied and then pulled back in May, and ETH, which remained under pressure, HYPE showed a completely different strength profile. It rose as much as 72% in a single month, becoming a major market focus. At the start of May, HYPE traded sideways around $40. On May 14, supported by multiple positive catalysts including ETF inflows, continued bullish commentary from market KOLs, and ecosystem development, HYPE quickly broke through a key resistance zone, surging from around $40 to above $55. After that, HYPE continued its choppy uptrend and successfully held above the $70 psychological level by the end of the month. This not only set a new all-time high, but also further strengthened its position as a standout asset in the current market cycle.
In May, Hyperliquid continued to lead in core metrics such as gas fee revenue and trading activity. Data showed that Hyperliquid’s average daily gas fees reached $1.55 million in May, up 9% from April, reflecting continued growth in on-chain transaction demand and user activity. By contrast, Ethereum’s on-chain activity cooled significantly. Its average daily gas fees fell from $810,000 in April to $530,000 in May, a decline of more than 30%. The weakening of on-chain revenue occurred almost in parallel with ETH’s price decline in May, showing that both market activity and capital participation weakened. Among other major public blockchains, Solana, BNB Chain, and Base recorded average daily gas fees of $460,000, $320,000, and $120,000 respectively, ranking third to fifth among public chains. Aside from Hyperliquid’s continued strong growth, most major public blockchains have yet to overcome the pressure caused by the broader market correction.
In May, Meteora successfully surpassed Uniswap to become the decentralized exchange with the highest spot trading volume. Although the gap between the two was not large, Meteora recorded average daily trading volume of $2.16 billion, while Uniswap recorded $1.89 billion. Meteora is an important decentralized trading and liquidity infrastructure platform within the Solana ecosystem. Its key feature is the use of the DLMM, or Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker, mechanism to improve capital efficiency. Compared with traditional AMMs, Meteora allows liquidity providers to allocate capital precisely within specific price ranges, enabling them to capture higher fee income. In perpetual futures trading, Hyperliquid maintained a clear leading position, followed by perpetual exchanges such as Lighter, Aster, and edgeX.
Kalshi, the leading prediction market platform, maintained strong growth in May, with average daily trading volume reaching $577 million, up 29.3% from March. By comparison, Polymarket’s average daily trading volume fell to $283 million, meaning Kalshi’s trading scale was nearly double that of Polymarket. A key reason Kalshi continued to expand its lead was its strong focus on sports event markets. During May, major events such as the UEFA Champions League and NBA playoffs took place intensively, generating substantial trading demand and user participation for the platform. Looking ahead to June, as more major global sports events take place, sports-related prediction markets are expected to gain further traction and continue driving Kalshi’s trading activity and market share growth.
On May 25, Hyperliquid launched a prediction market on mainnet for the “U.S. May CPI Year-Over-Year Change.” The outcome of the prediction market will be determined based on the May 2026 Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on June 10, 2026. Hyperliquid now supports official prediction markets based on off-chain events. These markets will be published by validator-operated automated news feed software as part of the chain’s regular on-chain operations. This move marks an important step forward for Hyperliquid in integrating on-chain and off-chain data.
Base launched Base MCP, which is designed to connect AI interfaces with Base wallet infrastructure. Through this integration, users can complete token swaps, transfer funds, and interact with Base ecosystem applications using natural language commands within AI tools that support the MCP open standard. Supported AI interfaces include Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor. Base MCP will serve as a secure gateway between users’ Base accounts and AI interfaces. At launch, it will connect to applications such as Morpho, Bankr, Moonwell, Avantis, Aerodrome, Virtuals, and Uniswap, covering use cases including lending, swaps, perpetual futures, new token launches, and AI agent issuance.
NFT marketplace OpenSea announced the launch of ERC-8257, an Ethereum open standard also known as the Agent Tool Registry, positioning it as an “app store for AI agent tools.” Developers can use the standard to register tools on-chain, define access rules and pricing, and enable AI agents to autonomously discover tools, purchase access, and call those tools without human intervention. OpenSea stated that ERC-8257 can be combined in layers with protocols such as ERC-8004 for agent identity, MCP for tool discovery, and x402 for payments, jointly forming infrastructure for AI agents to operate on-chain. ERC-8257 is currently still in draft form, and OpenSea has invited developers to participate in further refining the specification. The launch of this standard suggests that the on-chain AI ecosystem may become more autonomous and collaborative, paving the way for broader adoption of intelligent agents in the future.
On May 27, an unknown trader sold approximately $1.3 billion worth of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, in the dark pool market on Tuesday, drawing market attention. The trader sold 29.2 million IBIT shares at around 14:30 UTC at a transaction price of $43.16. As a result, Bitcoin dropped from $77,875 to $76,720 within 10 minutes, a decline of approximately 1.5%, before falling further to around $75,600. Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn stated that this was the largest IBIT dark pool trade he had ever seen. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the trade was more than 22 times larger than the second-largest IBIT sell order that day.
On May 24, CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler stated that Bitcoin had lost structural upside momentum amid a sharp deterioration in the macro environment. This was an important signal, suggesting that the market was currently more similar to a “risk-off” phase. Until its on-chain “Impulse” indicator returns above the zero line, each BTC rebound still lacks confirmation. CryptoQuant added a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF dashboard this week, covering weekly net inflows, cumulative flows, 30-day ETF Flow Momentum, four-week demand changes, and capital distribution across funds. The current 30-day ETF momentum stands at only $362.8 million. This metric previously reached a high of $13.21 billion in December 2024 and fell to a low of negative $5.36 billion in November 2025.
On May 20, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas posted on X that trading activity for Hyperliquid-related ETF product THYP continued to rise after listing, with daily trading volume reaching tens of millions of dollars. This represented an increase of around 8 times from the first day, showing strong organic market demand. The ETF surged approximately 20% on its first day of listing, further increasing market attention. Balchunas said the expansion in trading volume was a positive signal of stronger organic interest, while market sentiment continued to heat up.
On May 29, U.S. SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins stated during a speech at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is advancing a new era of SEC regulatory reform. Key priorities include modernizing digital asset regulation, promoting the development of on-chain capital markets, and supporting the United States in becoming a global crypto hub. Paul Atkins criticized the SEC’s previous “regulatory hostility” toward the digital asset industry, saying that a large amount of crypto innovation had been forced overseas as a result. He said that with support from the Trump administration, the SEC has launched “Project Crypto” and is cooperating with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to promote the on-chain development of market infrastructure and the harmonization of crypto regulation.
On May 27, during a Senate Banking Committee review, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, also known as the CLARITY Act, made meaningful progress. The bill advanced to full Senate consideration with a vote of 15 to 9. Several bipartisan lawmakers emphasized during the discussion that the United States urgently needs a unified regulatory framework for digital assets to clarify asset classification, trading platform oversight, and market structure rules, thereby providing long-term certainty for the industry. Angela Alsobrooks noted from a family perspective that younger generations show natural interest in digital assets, and that the regulatory system should strike a balance between “opportunity and protection” to prevent technological development from moving outside the boundaries of rules. Tim Scott emphasized that legislation should be promoted from the perspective of economic opportunity and the American Dream, while Cynthia Lummis stated that the legislative process had already shown a clear foundation of bipartisan cooperation.
On May 22, the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag rejected a cryptocurrency tax reform proposal from the Green Party. The proposal planned to eliminate the policy that exempts capital gains tax on crypto assets sold after being held for more than one year. Under current German law, individuals who sell crypto assets after holding them for more than one year are exempt from capital gains tax. The Green Party argued that crypto assets should be subject to the same tax rules as other investment assets. However, opponents noted that the proposal could result in crypto investors facing a higher tax burden than ordinary stock investors. The Green Party estimated that removing the tax exemption could increase Germany’s annual tax revenue by approximately 11.4 billion euros.
In May 2026, the cryptocurrency industry experienced a total of 40 security incidents, with cumulative losses exceeding $81 million. Compared with losses of more than $500 million in April, the overall amount lost from risk events declined. However, several major security incidents remained highly concerning for the market, while hacker attack methods continued to evolve, sending a warning signal across the industry. Superfortune suffered a major security incident. The team originally planned to transfer additional unlocked tokens into an airdrop claim contract, but during the execution of a multisig transaction, the target address was abnormally altered, causing approximately 14.98 million GUA to be mistakenly sent to an address suspected of being controlled by hackers. In addition, the cross-chain bridge project Verus-Ethereum Bridge suffered a smart contract vulnerability exploit, with attackers successfully stealing approximately $11.58 million in assets.
| Date | Project Name | Loss Amount | Event Summary |
| May 7 | TrustedVolumes | $6.7 million | TrustedVolumes, an important liquidity provider and resolver for multiple protocols, was attacked by hackers who exploited a vulnerability in its custom RFQ Swap Proxy contract, resulting in losses of approximately $6.7 million. The project disclosed three addresses holding the stolen funds and stated that it was willing to engage in constructive communication with the attacker regarding a bug bounty and negotiated resolution. |
| May 15 | THORChain | $10.7 million | One of THORChain’s Asgard vaults was compromised, and the attacker withdrew funds from multiple supported chains, causing total losses of approximately $10 million to $11 million. The protocol paused trading. User funds remained safe, and only protocol-owned funds were affected. The attack was suspected to be related to address poisoning during the vault churn process or a GG20 TSS implementation vulnerability, which may have led to key material leakage and private key reconstruction. |
| May 18 | Verus-Ethereum Bridge | $11.58 million | The cross-chain bridge Verus-Ethereum Bridge was attacked. The attacker drained approximately $11.58 million in assets. Part of the funds was swapped through DEXs such as Uniswap and consolidated into a drainer wallet. On May 22, the Verus attacker returned 4,052.4 ETH to the team address. |
| May 27 | Superfortune | $15.18 million | Superfortune ($GUA) experienced a security incident. The team originally planned to transfer additionally unlocked tokens into an airdrop claim contract, but during multisig transaction execution, the target address was abnormally replaced. As a result, approximately 14.98 million GUA was sent to an address suspected of being controlled by hackers. The hacker then sold all the tokens, received approximately 2,784 ETH, and distributed the funds across multiple wallets. |
In May 2026, although the overall number of security incidents in the cryptocurrency industry declined, several major attacks still highlighted vulnerabilities in industry infrastructure and contract design. From liquidity providers and cross-chain bridges to multisig vaults, hacker methods continued to evolve, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses and exposing challenges in asset management and monitoring. These incidents remind project teams that while pursuing innovation, they must continue strengthening risk protection and security audits.
| Date | Event Name | Event Summary |
| June 2 | Proof of Talk 2026 | A leading European Web3 summit held in Paris, focusing on institutional adoption, Web3 legal compliance, crypto asset wealth management, and deeper integration between traditional finance and decentralized finance. |
| June 5 | ETH Beijing 2026 | A three-day Ethereum Beijing hackathon will be held soon. ETH Beijing is jointly hosted by PKU Blockchain DAO and WTF Academy, inviting developers to explore the frontier of Web3 innovation together. |
| June 12 | ETHGlobal New York 2026 | One of the world’s most influential Ethereum developer hackathons and ecosystem conferences. Thousands of top developers will gather to showcase cutting-edge technologies based on Layer 2, chain abstraction, full-chain democratization, and crypto AI applications. |
| June 12 | Historic SpaceX IPO Listing | An epic event for global capital markets. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has officially filed its S-1 prospectus and is expected to list on Nasdaq under the ticker “SPCX” as early as today. The IPO valuation is expected to reach $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion, with fundraising expected to range from $40 billion to $80 billion. |
| June 17 | Federal Reserve FOMC Meeting | The Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision, Summary of Economic Projections, and the highly watched dot plot. Powell’s subsequent press conference will provide signals on the rate cut path for the second half of 2026, which will have a major impact on macro liquidity across global crypto markets. |
| June 22 | Dutch Blockchain Week 2026 | EU Blockchain Week will be hosted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Against the backdrop of global regulatory normalization, the conference will focus on the implementation of the EU regulatory framework, cross-border RWA settlement liquidity, and the clearing applications of programmable euros among mainstream financial institutions. |
In June 2026, global macro capital markets and the Web3 industry are expected to enter a key period of dual-track convergence. In early June, the Proof of Talk summit in Paris will open discussions on the integration of traditional finance and decentralized finance. The Ethereum Foundation will hold hackathons in Beijing and New York, attracting thousands of top developers to focus on frontier technologies such as Layer 2 and crypto AI. At the same time, SpaceX’s expected historic IPO on June 12 is set to become an epic event for global capital markets. Its massive capital absorption effect could significantly reshape liquidity across the technology and AI sectors.
In June 2026, the crypto market may experience multiple converging forces across macro liquidity, regulatory policy, and industry innovation. In the short term, BTC and ETH will continue to be influenced by ETF fund flows, the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting, and geopolitical developments, while market volatility is expected to remain elevated. At the same time, emerging sectors such as Hyperliquid, prediction markets, and AI agents continue to attract capital and developer attention, while strong assets such as HYPE may continue to receive a market premium. As the U.S. regulatory framework becomes clearer and on-chain capital markets accelerate. The crypto industry is gradually shifting from pure price speculation toward a new stage driven by institutionalization and real-world applications.
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