CoinPhoton

Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road darknet market, received a donation of 300 BTC (approximately $31.4 million) to his personal wallet on June 1, 2025, following his pardon by President Donald Trump in January 2025. This reflects strong support from the Bitcoin community after his long imprisonment since his arrest in 2013.

The donation is part of a growing engagement by the crypto community with Ulbricht, who is believed to still hold around 430 BTC (~$47 million) in untouched wallets from Silk Road, according to Coinbase director Conor Grogan. Access to these funds may be limited due to lost keys—a common issue affecting about 20% of Bitcoin’s total supply.

Silk Road, launched in 2011, was a pioneering platform for anonymous Bitcoin transactions on the Tor network, enabling illegal trades before its shutdown.

Source: https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/entity/ross-ulbricht

James Wynn, a well-known trader famous for huge leveraged trades on Hyperliquid, was fully liquidated, ending with just $23 in his account. He once held a $1.25 billion long BTC position but lost over $37 million when prices plunged. Wynn then switched to memecoins like PEPE, gaining 10% briefly before liquidation. Throughout the month, he traded ETH, SUI, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN, reaching unrealized gains of $85 million. On X, his account said he would return, enjoying the game and betting big to win big.

CZ mocks Gensler after SEC drops lawsuit against Binance

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) posted an image of Gary Gensler with a clown nose and the caption “Crypto is still here” on X, mocking the former SEC Chair after the agency officially dropped its lawsuit against Binance — a case originally filed during Gensler’s tenure in 2023.

CZ has repeatedly criticized the SEC for targeting major industry players instead of focusing on smaller bad actors, arguing that Gensler’s “regulation by enforcement” approach has stifled innovation in the United States.

The SEC announced that certain proof-of-stake staking activities do not constitute securities transactions and do not require registration under the Securities Act. This applies to self-staking and third-party services such as node operators and custodians. The decision paves the way for crypto ETFs to integrate staking, offering more regulatory clarity to the industry. However, some SEC commissioners raised concerns over potential investor risks.

Source: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/statement-certain-protocol-staking-activities-052925

Bitcoin is poised for a breakout in June as selling pressure from both short- and long-term holders significantly eases. The Coinbase premium has stayed positive for 20 consecutive days — the longest streak of 2025 — signaling strong demand from U.S. investors, especially institutions. Coinbase also saw a net outflow of over 8,700 BTC on May 26, a move often linked to ETF inflows or corporate buying. On-chain metrics like SOPR and RSI show limited profit-taking and weakening bearish momentum. A descending triangle pattern on the chart points to a potential breakout toward $118,000 if BTC bounces from the $104,000–$106,000 support zone.

Ripple donates “Skull of Satoshi” to promote cross-chain unity

At the Bitcoin Conference on May 28, Ripple donated the “Skull of Satoshi” sculpture to the Bitcoin community as a goodwill gesture to ease tensions between crypto ecosystems. CEO Brad Garlinghouse said it symbolizes Bitcoin’s resilience and the industry’s unity. However, the move sparked division, as Ripple previously funded a campaign criticizing Bitcoin. The artwork was created by Benjamin Von Wong for the 2023 “Change the Code” campaign urging Bitcoin to switch from PoW to PoS.

Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after 130 days serving as a special government employee under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). During his tenure, he helped cut 260,000 federal workers—nearly 12% of the civilian workforce. Musk expressed disappointment with the Republican budget bill, saying it increases the deficit and undermines DOGE’s reform efforts. Despite protests, Musk defended his unelected role, granted extraordinary authority by Trump to restructure parts of the U.S. government. He emphasized that DOGE’s mission will continue and become a long-term standard across federal agencies.

Ripple Asks SEC: When Does a Token Stop Being a Security?
Ripple has urged the SEC to clarify when a digital asset, initially sold under an investment contract, should no longer be treated as a security. Citing Judge Torres’ 2023 ruling that XRP is not a security on secondary markets, Ripple proposes a “maturity” test—based on market cap, decentralization, and network openness—to determine a token’s status.
The company criticized the SEC’s vague guidance and called for legal clarity, also supporting a safe harbor for good-faith actors.
#Ripple #XRP #SEC #CryptoRegulation #CoinPhoton
Source: https://www.sec.gov/files/ctf-written-input-ripple-052725.pdf

A third suspect has been arrested in New York in connection with the violent kidnapping of an Italian Bitcoin investor. The 28-year-old victim was held captive for two weeks in a luxury Manhattan apartment, where he was reportedly tortured with electric shocks, beaten, and threatened at gunpoint to force access to his crypto wallet. Main suspects William Duplessie and John Woeltz now face multiple felony charges. The case highlights a growing trend of violent crimes targeting cryptocurrency holders. If convicted, both men could face sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison.

According to CryptoQuant, 99% of UTXOs are currently in profit, signaling potential market euphoria. UTXOs (Unspent Transaction Outputs) are a technical mechanism that ensures each BTC is only spent once, and they allow for assessing unrealized profits on unspent BTC.
Reaching the 99% profit threshold is often associated with periods of market euphoria—typically a very bullish signal—but also one that calls for caution. At present, however, it's unclear whether the market has entered such a phase, as macroeconomic uncertainties and unclear policy direction from the Trump administration are keeping investors cautious.
If this percentage starts to decline, it could mean shrinking unrealized profits, which may trigger significant profit-taking and force latecomers to capitulate and sell at a loss.

Cetus, a DEX on the Sui network, pledged to fully compensate users affected by the $223 million hack on May 22 through an upcoming community vote. Regardless of the outcome, Cetus will begin recovery immediately and has already patched the smart contract vulnerability. The move helped restore community trust, driving the CETUS token price up by over 30%.

Alpaca Finance to shut down; ALPACA token drops 30% in 24 hours

Alpaca Finance has officially announced it will begin sunsetting all of its products after four years of operation. The protocol gained popularity in early 2021 for its leveraged yield farming on BNB Chain, but has since lost relevance due to the rise of concentrated liquidity AMMs and prolonged market weakness.

The team introduced new products such as Automated Vaults, the AUSD stablecoin, and the Alperp perpetual DEX, but none gained sufficient traction. Merger talks with other projects also fell through amid the downturn in early 2025.

With no VC funding and revenues tied directly to protocol activity, Alpaca has been operating at a loss for over two years. The recent delisting of ALPACA from Binance further impacted the project's outlook. The token price has plunged 30% in the past 24 hours.

The shutdown will proceed in phases: new positions will be disabled starting in June, remaining positions will be auto-closed in June and July, and the front-end will remain online until the end of 2025 to allow users to withdraw their funds.

According to Lookonchain, over the past 7 days (as of May 26), the amount of USDT and USDC stablecoins on the Tron network surged by $913 million, while Solana experienced an outflow of $267 million, following a previous outflow of $1.38 billion the week before.

The inflow into Tron reflects its growing role as a stablecoin settlement layer, thanks to low fees and high transaction speed (over 2 billion transactions annually). Meanwhile, Solana faces challenges such as declining DeFi yields and recent bridge issues.

Tron currently handles over $10 trillion in stablecoin volume annually, surpassing Visa in some months. The outflows from Solana are seen by some traders as a signal to short SOL/USDT.

Google slashes quantum resources needed to break RSA by 20x, Bitcoin faces earlier threat

Google has released new research showing that breaking RSA encryption—the backbone of banking and Bitcoin wallet security—now requires 20 times fewer quantum resources than previously estimated. Instead of 20 million qubits as estimated in 2019, it may now only take under 1 million noisy qubits to crack a 2048-bit RSA key in less than a week.

Although the most powerful quantum computer today—IBM’s Condor—only has 1,121 qubits, the pace of development is accelerating. This puts Bitcoin at increased risk, since it uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which is also vulnerable to quantum attacks via Shor’s algorithm.

Google attributes the breakthrough to faster algorithms and smarter error correction techniques. The research team also utilized "magic state cultivation" to boost computational efficiency without needing extra quantum resources.

While powerful quantum machines remain a future prospect, projects like Solana and Ethereum are already developing quantum-resistant solutions. A hard fork to protect Bitcoin may happen before any real-world quantum hacks occur.

Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15917

Monero overtakes Litecoin and Toncoin, enters top 25 crypto assets by market cap

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) has surpassed Litecoin (LTC) and Toncoin (TON) in market capitalization, hitting $7.5 billion, ahead of TON ($7.48B) and LTC ($7.35B), according to Coingecko.

XMR’s price has surged over 100% this year to above $400 — its highest level since early 2021. The rally is fueled by optimism over an upcoming privacy upgrade and rumors of relisting on major exchanges like Coinbase.

Meanwhile, LTC has dropped 6% this year to below $100, and TON has fallen 25% despite its deep integration with Telegram’s ecosystem.

Robert Kiyosaki: Want to Be Rich? Follow Two Laws of Money and Hold Bitcoin

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, has once again reaffirmed his trust in Bitcoin. He argues that Bitcoin is one of the few assets that obey two key “laws of money”: Gresham’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law. Most people, he says, stay poor because they violate or ignore these principles.

“I don’t save USD. I save Bitcoin.”

In posts made on X (formerly Twitter) on May 24–25, Kiyosaki wrote:

“I do not save U.S. dollars because the U.S. dollar violates Gresham’s Law.”

“I invest in Bitcoin because it is a network. Most cryptos are not.”

He calls fiat currencies like the dollar “fake money,” being constantly devalued by inflation and reckless monetary policy. Following Gresham’s Law, he argues that “bad money drives out good,” prompting him to store wealth in gold, silver, and Bitcoin instead.

Bitcoin’s value lies in its network

Kiyosaki also cites Metcalfe’s Law: the value of a network increases with its number of users. He compares Bitcoin to global networks like McDonald’s and FedEx, which derive their value from structure and scale. In contrast, most altcoins lack real user adoption and utility, making them, in his words, “shitcoins.”

His advice: Follow the laws

Quoting Michael Saylor, Kiyosaki reminds investors:

“Only invest in things a rich person will buy from you.”

His conclusion is simple:

“To become rich, follow Gresham’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law. They are the foundation of lasting wealth.”

Charles Hoskinson supports Ripple’s potential acquisition of Circle, dismisses antitrust concerns

During a YouTube AMA on Sunday, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson expressed support for Ripple acquiring Circle, stating the deal could improve the crypto ecosystem.

He criticized the dominance of the "Coinbase–a16z–Circle alliance" and believes Ripple could break the current monopoly and bring more diversity to the stablecoin market. Hoskinson also emphasized that Ripple would be a "better custodian" than Circle.

Ripple reportedly offered $5 billion to acquire Circle but was rejected. Hoskinson mentioned rumors that Ripple may raise the offer to $11 billion. Meanwhile, Circle is still moving forward with its IPO despite ongoing acquisition speculation.

BlackRock’s IBIT leads U.S. ETF inflows as Bitcoin surpasses $110K

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) recorded the highest inflows among all U.S. ETFs on May 22 after Bitcoin reached a new all-time high above $110,000.

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas reported that IBIT attracted $877.18 million in a single day, far exceeding traditional ETFs like Vanguard’s VOO, which saw $558 million and ranked fifth.

Balchunas also noted May 21 was IBIT’s second-largest trading day ever. The surge extended to other Bitcoin ETFs, with trading volumes nearly doubling due to rising institutional demand.

Total net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs now exceed $44.5 billion, with IBIT alone pulling in around $8 billion in the last five weeks.

Solana launches SAS to enhance on-chain identity verification

On May 23, Solana introduced the Solana Attestation Service (SAS), an open-source and permissionless protocol for verifying off-chain data like KYC, investor status, and wallet reputation without revealing sensitive information.

SAS uses signed attestations to protect user privacy and allows for reusable verification across multiple applications. Supported by Civic, Trustalabs, and Solana Identity, the launch signals a broader move toward decentralized identity and verifiable credentials in blockchain.

HSBC launches Hong Kong’s first blockchain-based payment service

HSBC has introduced Hong Kong’s first blockchain-based settlement service, enabling real-time HKD and USD transfers between corporate wallets. The tokenized deposit program converts traditional deposits into blockchain-based digital tokens, improving payment speed and reducing costs.

Initially available only in Hong Kong, the service will expand to Asia and Europe later this year. Ant International, affiliated with Alibaba, was the first to complete a live transaction on the system, built on Ant’s Whale platform. HSBC is working under HKMA’s supervisory incubator for distributed ledger technology and aims to support more digital settlement use cases.