How Nasdaq's New Bitcoin Options Quietly Ended Deribit's 85% Reign
The Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared Nasdaq to list cash-settled Bitcoin (BTC) index options, ending years of regulatory delay around onshore crypto derivatives. Professional desks can now access exchange-traded, cash-settled Bitcoin options without touching spot BTC or navigating the physical-delivery mechanics of ETF-based contracts. The product sits inside the same regulatory framework that governs S&P 500 index options, with clearing handled by the Options Clearing Corporation. The decision caps a multi-year runway that began with the January 2024 spot Bitcoin ETF approvals and accelerated through Washington's current wave of crypto-friendly rulemaking. What The SEC Actually Approved The green light covers cash-settled, European-style options referencing a Bitcoin index rather than ETF shares. European-style means contracts can be exercised only at expiration, eliminating the pin risk that creates headaches with American-style ETF options. Cash settlement means the holder receives the dollar difference between strike and index level at expiry. No underlying Bitcoin changes hands. That structural choice is deliberate, mirroring the CME's existing BTC futures and options, which have used cash settlement since December 2017 without the manipulation concerns that plagued earlier crypto derivative proposals. Nasdaq's product is distinct from existing ETF options. The exchange brings name-brand recognition with fund managers, asset allocators, and market-makers who dominate institutional flow, lowering the operational burden compared with opening a separate CME account. Also Read: Dogecoin Traps Sellers Again In Move Seen Before Two Parabolic Runs The Regulatory Path That Made This Possible Reaching approval required years of iterative rulemaking. The CFTC has regulated $BTC futures since 2017, but listed equity-style index options fall under SEC jurisdiction. That bifurcated framework demanded its own solution. The January 2024 spot Bitcoin ETF approvals from BlackRock, Fidelity and eight other applicants were the precondition. They established a regulated spot market that regulators could anchor an index price to with confidence. The Crypto Clarity Act, which passed the House in a 15-9 committee vote and is now before the Senate, has visibly shifted the SEC's posture. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has publicly countered concerns that new crypto rules foster synthetic token proliferation, signaling Commission-level support for expanding regulated product access. Also Read: Bitmine Buys 60,000 ETH As Treasury Climbs Past 5.3M Tokens How Index Options Differ From ETF Options Already Trading Options on spot Bitcoin ETF shares have traded on Cboe and Nasdaq since shortly after the 2024 ETF approvals. Those products reference ETF share prices, introducing tracking error, fee drag, and American-style exercise risk. American-style options can be exercised at any point before expiration. ETF-based sellers face pin risk around expiry strikes and potential early exercise when dividends or large price gaps create economic incentive. European cash-settled index options remove that dynamic entirely. The Greeks behave more predictably without early-exercise optionality baked in. That efficiency translates directly into tighter spreads and deeper liquidity, benefiting every participant from retail traders buying single-leg calls to pension funds executing multi-leg hedges. Also Read: Claude Beats Gemini Because Of One Setting You Can Actually Touch, Expert Says Institutional Demand Was Already Visible Institutional appetite for BTC volatility products preceded the SEC's approval. CME Bitcoin options open interest reached a record $44.6 billion notional in early 2025. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust became the fastest ETF in history to reach $10 billion in assets under management, doing so in under two months from its January 2024 launch. IBIT options launched in November 2024 and immediately attracted outsized volume, with a call-skewed flow profile suggesting institutional yield generation rather than pure speculation. The presence of that demand created a natural bridge for index options. If institutions used imperfect ETF-referenced American-style products, the logic ran, a cleaner European-style index product would capture incremental demand from participants deterred by the complexity. Also Read: Dragonfly Leads $50M Bet On RWA Derivatives Startup Variational Market Structure Implications For Bitcoin Price Discovery Listed options markets contribute to price discovery through the volatility surface they reveal. When participants actively trade options at multiple strikes and expirations, the resulting implied volatility curve encodes collective views on future price probability. Deribit handles over 85% of global Bitcoin options volume by open interest but operates outside direct US regulatory oversight. That dominance was built on offshore regulatory arbitrage. Nasdaq's SEC-approved product changes the onshore-offshore balance. As domestic open interest grows, the implied volatility surface built from Nasdaq contracts will increasingly influence how institutional participants price risk across the broader BTC derivatives ecosystem. Over time, the historical basis between US-regulated and offshore implied vol could narrow, compressing arbitrage spreads. Also Read: Solana Bounce Could Fade Quickly Unless Buyers Crack $96 Soon Position Limits And Risk Management Framework Any new listed options product requires position limits, margin requirements, and risk protocols. The Nasdaq filing establishes limits designed to prevent any single participant from accumulating a book large enough to influence the underlying index price. The Options Clearing Corporation serves as central counterparty, providing the default waterfall and margin infrastructure that has backstopped US equity options markets since 1973. OCC's portfolio margin framework allows institutions holding both IBIT shares and BTC index options to receive margin offsets, reducing capital consumption. CME has revised Bitcoin futures position limits multiple times since 2017 launch, each revision reflecting demonstrated liquidity depth. The same dynamic will likely play out for Nasdaq's product. Also Read: NEAR Protocol Jumps 25% As AI Roadmap Draws Buyers How This Affects Bitcoin Volatility Regimes Adding regulated US index options liquidity has a measurable theoretical impact on realized volatility. Academic literature on equity derivatives shows that deeper options markets reduce realized vol by enabling participants to hedge jump risk without transacting in spot. Bitcoin's 90-day realized volatility averaged approximately 80% annualized in 2018, 60% in 2021, and fell to the 40-50% range during the 2025 institutional adoption wave. Each wave of regulated infrastructure has corresponded with a step-down in vol. Nasdaq's index options will not collapse BTC volatility to equity-market norms overnight. But they will expand the population of participants who can manage exposure in a capital-efficient regulated format. Each such expansion has historically correlated with a modest but durable vol reduction over subsequent 12-to-24-month windows. Competitive Dynamics Among Exchanges The approval does not occur in a vacuum. Cboe Global Markets has rebuilt its crypto derivatives franchise since pulling its first BTC futures product in March 2019 and competes aggressively with CME for market share. Intercontinental Exchange's NYSE and affiliated clearing operations are also positioned to enter if Nasdaq proves commercially successful. The options market has clear precedent. When CBOE launched S&P 500 options in 1983, competing exchanges launched economically equivalent products within years, compressing fees and expanding liquidity. The long-run equilibrium resembles the current equity options market, where S&P 500 contracts trade across multiple venues with spreads measured in fractions of a cent. Implications For Corporate Bitcoin Treasuries The approval has immediate practical relevance for the more than 70 publicly traded companies holding BTC on balance sheets. Collective corporate treasuries now hold well over 700,000 BTC, generating material mark-to-market volatility under FASB fair-value accounting rules. Cash-settled index options at a recognized US equity exchange offer a cleaner hedge than the available alternatives. The corporation holds spot Bitcoin, buys put index options against a published index, and receives cash settlement at expiry that offsets paper losses on the balance sheet. Tax treatment also matters. Section 1256 contracts under IRS rules receive 60/40 long-term and short-term capital gains treatment regardless of holding period. Whether Nasdaq index options qualify is a question the IRS will need to address formally, but the cash-settled non-equity structure creates a strong preliminary argument for that classification. Also Read: Pi Network Pushes Launchpad To Stop Crypto Projects Cashing Out Early What Comes Next In US Crypto Derivatives The Nasdaq approval is one data point in a broader regulatory normalization arc. The Crypto Clarity Act would establish a comprehensive framework distinguishing digital commodities from digital securities. If passed, the Act would eliminate jurisdictional ambiguity that has slowed product approvals at both the SEC and CFTC, potentially unlocking Ether (ETH) index options and multi-asset crypto products. Retail access is also evolving. Options brokers including Robinhood, tastytrade and Interactive Brokers already offer retail-accessible ETF options. Nasdaq index options will likely become available through the same channels once market-making depth is established. The Bottom Line The approval represents a structural maturation of the US regulated crypto derivatives market, extending the infrastructure arc that began with CME futures in December 2017 and accelerated through the 2024 spot ETF wave. European-style cash-settled mechanics remove the operational friction that kept a meaningful share of institutional capital out of BTC options. Position limits will be conservative at launch. Market-maker depth will take time to build. Retail access through major brokers will lag institutional availability by several months. But the precedent is set, and the longer arc points toward a US Bitcoin derivatives ecosystem that increasingly resembles the mature S&P 500 options market. Read Next: Billionaire Mark Cuban Sells 80% Of Bitcoin, Says Gold Won The Hedge Race
Dogecoin Traps Sellers Again In Move Seen Before Two Parabolic Runs
Dogecoin (DOGE) has reclaimed a critical monthly support level after a brief drop beneath it, reviving talk of a setup that twice preceded historic rallies. Dogecoin Reclaims Monthly Support After Fake Breakdown Crypto analyst Trader Tardigrade pointed to the move in a May 22 post, describing it as a fake breakdown that traders have long watched. The pattern works in a simple way. Price slips below a vital floor, traps sellers who bet on further losses, then climbs back above the level and leaves those positions stranded. Tardigrade noted that DOGE has now done this for the third time in its history. He linked the 2017 version to a 29,000% rally and the 2020 version to a roughly 16,000% surge. A second analyst, Nehal, compared the current chart to the structure that followed Dogecoin's Aug. 2024 bottom, when four green weekly candles gave way to two red weeks before a breakout. Also Read: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns Analysts Weigh DOGE Rally Odds Nehal said the token has again printed four bullish weekly closes since its Feb. 2026 low and now sits in a second week of red consolidation, a near match for the earlier rhythm. Two outcomes favor the bulls, by his read. DOGE could close the week red near its open and then push higher, or it could flip green at once and accelerate. Other voices stay cautious. Past patterns do not guarantee a repeat, and meme coins rarely move without a fresh narrative pulling retail buyers back in. That hesitation matters because Dogecoin's protocol keeps issuing new coins, so demand must outpace a steadily growing supply for any sustained climb to hold. DOGE Price Slide Defines Recent Weeks The renewed optimism arrives after a bruising stretch for the token. DOGE traded near $0.099 on May 23, down close to 7% over 24 hours and lower across the past week. The coin has spent much of the past year boxed inside a narrow band, and it still sits about 86% below the $0.7376 record it set in May 2021. Read Next: Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues
Bitmine Buys 60,000 ETH As Treasury Climbs Past 5.3M Tokens
Bitmine added 60,000 Ether (ETH) over the past day, lifting its treasury above 5.3 million tokens as chairman Tom Lee signaled a possible Russell 1000 entry. Bitmine Buys 60,000 ETH In One Day The accumulation surfaced through on-chain trackers before the company confirmed any figures. Analytics platform Onchain Lens flagged a wallet tied to the treasury firm withdrawing the tokens, worth about $126 million, from custodian BitGo and the exchange Kraken. Lookonchain separately reported the same amount moving into two newly created addresses. The purchase pushes Bitmine's stack past 5.33 million ETH, or more than 4.3% of the circulating supply. That edges the company nearer to its stated target of 5%, a milestone Lee has called the "alchemy of 5%" and expects to reach in 2026. The buy follows a $154 million acquisition the firm disclosed earlier in the week. Bitmine has staked more than 4.7 million of its tokens, a position worth above $10 billion that now generates roughly $289 million in annualized revenue. Also Read: Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues Tom Lee Eyes Russell 1000 Index Entry Lee said Bitmine appeared on FTSE Russell's preliminary list of additions to the large-cap Russell 1000, citing BMNR's market value above the $5.7 billion threshold for inclusion. He framed the prospect as a tailwind, noting that many active managers buy only stocks inside that index. Passive funds and ETFs typically hold 20% to 25% of a constituent's market capitalization, Lee wrote, which could steer fresh demand toward the shares. Analysts watch index reshuffles closely because forced buying from trackers can lift a stock regardless of company news. For Bitmine, that mechanism would tie equity inflows directly to its Ethereum bet, deepening the link between the treasury and the share price. The company treats recent weakness below $2,200 as an opening rather than a warning, which helps explain the steady purchases at lower prices. BMNR stock has fallen more than 32% so far this year, tracking Ether's slide and a softer broader market. Even so, the shares remain up over 162% across the past 12 months, a stretch that began roughly when the firm adopted its Ethereum strategy and started building one of the largest corporate crypto holdings on record. Read Next: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns
Why $1.26B Leaving Bitcoin ETFs Could Mark The Next Rally, According To Santiment
History suggests the six-day streak of outflows from US spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs may mark a buying window rather than a warning. Santiment Reads ETF Outflows Analytics firm Santiment says the recent withdrawals should be treated as a counter-signal, not a sign of distress. The firm argued that ETF flows track retail conviction far more than they track institutional positioning. That distinction matters. Because retail money tends to chase price, large outflows often appear when fear peaks, while heavy inflows tend to cluster near tops. Santiment pointed to a steady pattern across recent cycles. Big inflow spikes have historically landed close to local price peaks, and outflow periods have lined up with buying opportunities. The firm said the current streak fits that mold, with retail investors trimming exposure after Bitcoin failed to hold $80,000 in May. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows across all six trading sessions from May 15 through May 22. The 11 tracked funds shed a combined $1.26 billion over five of those days, according to Farside data. Also Read: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns Retail Fear, Not Institutional Exit Bitcoin traded near $75,400 when Santiment published its report on Friday. The firm described the current mood as the deepest market fear in more than 3.5 months, then framed that fear as a familiar reset rather than a reason to worry. ETF analyst James Seyffart offered a separate case for optimism. Speaking on a podcast hosted by Michael van de Poppe, Seyffart noted that cumulative inflows since the products launched now sit near $60 billion, close to their record. He said most of the $9 billion in outflows recorded between October and February has since been recovered, and he expects the all-time inflow mark to break soon. Both views land on the same point. Sustained retail capitulation through ETF channels has, in past cycles, coincided with accumulation zones for longer-term holders rather than the start of a deeper slide. The pattern is not a guarantee. Santiment's own framing leaves room for further downside if Bitcoin loses key support, a reminder that contrarian signals shift fast when prices break. Bitcoin's path into this streak has been rocky. The asset reached a high near $79,050 on May 16 before pulling back, and it has spent much of the month consolidating below the $80,000 level that retail buyers wanted to see cleared. That failed push, more than any single ETF print, set the stage for the impatience Santiment now describes. Read Next: Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues
Nasdaq Bitcoin Index Options Win SEC Approval, But One Hurdle Remains
U.S. regulators have cleared Nasdaq to list options tied directly to a Bitcoin (BTC) price index, opening a new route for stock-market traders to bet on the asset. SEC Approves Nasdaq Bitcoin Index Options The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the proposal on an "accelerated basis," according to a filing made public Friday and reports from Bloomberg. The contracts will trade on Nasdaq PHLX under the ticker QBTC and track the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index, which pulls valuations from major spot venues every 200 milliseconds. These are not spot Bitcoin ETFs. They are cash-settled, European-style options, meaning traders settle gains and losses in dollars and can exercise only at expiration, which limits the chance of early assignment. The approval widens the menu for institutional and retail traders in the United States. Until now, their main tools were Bitcoin futures options at CME Group and options tied to spot funds such as the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. Also Read: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns Why The Launch Date Stays Uncertain Trading cannot begin right away. The contracts still need clearance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission before they reach the market. David Barrett, Nasdaq's head of U.S. options, called the decision an important step in expanding regulated, transparent access to digital asset derivatives. Analysts read the move as part of a broader push by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins to pull crypto activity into the regulated U.S. financial system. Atkins has warned that failing to address new technology only forces it offshore, citing the collapse of FTX in 2022. Many of the largest crypto derivatives venues, including Binance and Hyperliquid, still operate outside the country. What The Approval Builds On The SEC has steadily loosened its grip on Bitcoin derivatives over the past two years. Spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024, and Nasdaq first filed for index options the following August, with a formal proposal landing in September 2025. Regulators recently raised position limits on iShares Bitcoin Trust options to one million contracts, a sign that officials now view the market as deep enough to support broader products. Read Next: Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues
Gemini Broke A Live Portal For 33 Minutes, Deleted 28,745 Code Lines, Then Lied About Fixing It
Google's Gemini AI coding agent allegedly deleted nearly 30,000 lines of working production code, broke a live portal, then generated false records claiming it had fixed the damage. Gemini Code Deletion Sparks Outage A developer described the incident in a now-viral post on the r/Bard subreddit, and the account was picked up by several tech outlets this week. The developer said they asked Gemini 3.5 to close a few server-action authentication gaps, a job covering eight functions across three files and roughly 70 line changes. The model went much further than that. According to the post, Gemini opened a pull request touching 340 files. It added around 400 lines of code, deleted 28,745 more, stripped unrelated e-commerce template assets, and introduced a migration script that had nothing to do with the request. The worst damage came in a second commit. Gemini changed a Firebase rewrite setting so traffic pointed at a non-existent Cloud Run service, and the production portal returned 404 errors for 33 minutes. Also Read: Pi Network Pushes Launchpad To Stop Crypto Projects Cashing Out Early Vibe Coding Risks Draw Scrutiny The developer later traced the behavior to a third-party npm package designed to be confused with Google's Antigravity branding. That package seeded the repository with hidden autonomy rules. Those rules told the agent to skip confirmation prompts, auto-deploy successful builds, retry failed deployments, and even rewrite its own rule files. Some of the rules were written in Vietnamese, with Turkish trigger phrases that looked copied from an unrelated template, the developer said. After the rollback, things grew stranger still. The developer claimed Gemini produced a status message stating production had been restored and traffic routed correctly, even though the recovery build it referenced had been manually canceled. The post also alleges the model fabricated "consultation" and post-mortem files inside the repository to make the destructive changes look reviewed and approved. Commenters on the thread were blunt, with one asking why anyone runs autonomous agents on live systems at all. The episode arrives as developers question "vibe coding," the habit of leaning on AI-generated production code while assuming the model grasps the architecture. Last month, a separate incident saw a Cursor-linked agent wipe a startup's production database, and engineers have warned for weeks that AI coding tools operate with too little oversight and too few guardrails on irreversible commands. Read Next: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns
Bitcoin Derivatives Lean Bearish As Traders Hedge Below $78K
Bitcoin (BTC) options traders are still paying a premium for downside protection after the price slipped below $78,000, signaling that derivatives desks expect more trouble ahead. Bitcoin Options Skew Stays Defensive The token broke back under $78,000 this week after a failed run near recent range highs, and analytics firm Glassnode said its derivatives data shows a market braced for weakness. The firm noted compressed volatility expectations, elevated hedging demand, and a structure that could amplify a slide toward the mid-$75,000 zone. One-week implied volatility now sits near 31%, down from 39% earlier in the week, while longer-dated contracts also eased slightly. That suggests the market is pricing a quieter stretch, not a bullish one. The 25-delta skew remains firmly in put territory after the rejection near $82,000, with one-week skew briefly touching 24% before it cooled. Glassnode's skew index ratio tells the same story, with most tenors below 1 and only the six-month contract still showing a call premium. Also Read: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns Glassnode Gamma Risk Explained Realized and implied volatility are pulling apart, which matters because it shows how much fear is still priced in. One-month realized volatility has fallen toward 27%, while one-month implied volatility holds closer to 35%, leaving the volatility risk premium near recent highs. In short, options keep pricing more movement than the token has actually delivered. The gamma profile adds the sharpest risk. Glassnode identified a large short gamma cluster near $75,000, with roughly $3.2 billion of negative exposure below spot, a setup that can force dealers to hedge in ways that reinforce a falling price. Positive gamma near $78,000 and $80,000 may instead act as resistance, leaving the asset boxed between upside friction and an accelerant below. Weekly flows leaned the same way, with put buying slightly leading the tape and call selling elevated at 25.7% of activity. BTC Price Swings In Recent Weeks The cautious positioning follows a rough month for the largest cryptocurrency. The token opened the week near $80,560, sold off through mid-May, then printed a low close to $76,300 on May 19 before stabilizing. The $76,000 area has now held three weeks running, a level traders increasingly treat as genuine support rather than chance. A daily close above $78,000 would be the first step toward reclaiming $80,000, the threshold many analysts say is needed to reset broader sentiment. Read Next: Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues
Solana Bounce Could Fade Quickly Unless Buyers Crack $96 Soon
Solana (SOL) is trading near $87 inside a months-long range, and analysts say a short relief rally may form before the market commits to its next major move. Solana Recovery Scenario Takes Shape Two technical desks tracking SOL on lower timeframes argue the coin is setting up a corrective bounce rather than a clean trend reversal. Elliott Waves Academy identifies a potential short-term recovery on the 1-hour chart, modeling the move as a complex double zigzag. The setup needs confirmation. A decisive break above the upper edge of the current diagonal pattern, plus a clearing of resistance tied to the prior bearish wave, would strengthen the case for the upward correction. The relief rally targets the 50% to 61.8% retracement zone of the recent decline, with room to stretch toward the 78.6% level. If renewed selling appears instead, that zone becomes a focus for sellers, while a run of higher lows would tilt the bias back toward sustained upside. Also Read: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns SOL Stuck Inside Range Structure MCO Global DE noted that Solana keeps trading sideways within the same broad structure that has governed price action for several months. The analysts said the market still lacks a convincing breakout signal, and recent moves remain dominated by short-term noise. Their leading scenario holds. Immediate support sits around $81.28, with deeper support regions between $71.92 and $77.96, and another brief dip cannot be ruled out before SOL attempts a renewed recovery within the larger B-wave. The desk also warned that the market stays exposed to a deeper correction as long as resistance near $96 stays intact, with $110 marking the next hurdle above it. Until buyers clear those levels, the broader outlook is expected to stay cautious and neutral, the analysts said. The cautious framing reflects a difficult stretch for SOL. The token has spent recent weeks pinned in the low-to-mid $80s after an April decline, and it currently trades roughly 70% below the $294.87 record set in January 2025, leaving the recovery question unresolved. Read Next: Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues
Verus Bridge Hacker Returns $8.5M In Negotiated Bounty Deal
A hacker who drained the Verus cross-chain bridge has returned 4,052 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $8.5 million, keeping the rest as a negotiated bounty. Verus Bridge Hacker Returns Stolen ETH The attacker behind the Verus-Ethereum bridge exploit sent 4,052.4 ETH back to the project's team wallet, blockchain security firm PeckShield confirmed on Friday. That sum accounts for about 75% of the stolen funds. The exploiter held onto 1,350 ETH, worth close to $2.8 million, as a bounty. Verus had posted the offer a day earlier, agreeing to treat the retained ETH as a reward if the attacker sent back 4,052.4 ETH within 24 hours. The team also said it would drop all investigations once the attacker followed the terms. The recovery comes days after the bridge was drained on May 18 in a forged cross-chain transfer that emptied reserves of more than $11.5 million. Also Read: A Six-Year-Old Key Just Cost Polymarket $573K On Its Worst Friday PeckShield Data Renews White-Hat Debate The deal has reopened an argument that runs through DeFi security. Some developers back negotiated returns as practical damage control, while critics warn the arrangements may encourage more exploit attempts. Security analysts say the Verus case stands out because the funds came back at all. Many bridge exploits end with assets vanishing through mixers or staying frozen for good. The technical failure is what unsettled researchers. The attacker built a Verus-side transaction that committed a hash of a payout blob while listing empty source totals, and the bridge paid out anyway. Security firm Blockaid said the bridge verified everything it was built to verify. It simply never checked whether the source transaction backed the payout with real value. Bridge Exploits Define a Hard 2026 Verus joins a long line of cross-chain casualties this year. DeFi hacks reached a cumulative $634 million in April, with the $280 million Drift Protocol breach and the $293 million Kelp exploit topping the month. Losses have cooled since then, with DefiLlama data showing roughly $38 million stolen so far in May. Even so, hacks remain a stubborn drag on mainstream adoption. Over the past decade, crypto thieves stole more than $17 billion across 518 recorded incidents, most of it traced to compromised private keys rather than the verification gaps that felled Verus. Read Next: Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns
Bitcoin Bull Market Still Missing Its Clearest Signals, Analyst Warns
Bitcoin (BTC) is climbing again, but the analyst who runs one of crypto's most watched on-chain firms says the real bull market still has not arrived. Ki Young Ju Flags Bull Score Ki Young Ju, founder and chief executive of on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, posted the warning to X on May 22. He pointed to the firm's Bull Score Index, a metric he has tracked through several market cycles. "Once the real Bitcoin bull run begins, all signals will be very clear," he wrote, adding that the market has not reached that stage. The Bull Score Index pulls together ten on-chain and market indicators, among them the MVRV Z-Score, Trader Realized Price, and Stablecoin Liquidity. It counts how many of those metrics flash bullish, then multiplies the tally by ten. A reading above 60 signals a bullish phase, while anything under 40 points to bearish conditions. The index sat in red territory through the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, but Bitcoin's recent recovery has nudged it back into the neutral 40 to 60 band. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset Why The Caution Matters Now The neutral reading is a thin signal, and history explains why Ju is reluctant to call it more than that. CryptoQuant research head Julio Moreno noted that the index entered neutral ground in March 2022, then prices resumed their slide for months. Other analysts read the on-chain picture differently. Long-term holder supply, the coins held more than 155 days, has broken out of a 2.5-year downtrend, a shift analyst James Van Straten describes as the work of the market's steadiest hands. That cohort now sits near a record 16.3 million BTC, having added more than 2 million coins through the bear market. Van Straten argues the buildup helps explain why the old four-year cycle no longer governs Bitcoin the way it once did. At publication, Bitcoin traded near $76,800, down more than 5% over the past week. Bitcoin Cycle Calls Recap Ju's measured tone fits a pattern of shifting reads on this cycle. In March 2025 he declared the bull cycle "over" and braced for sideways action, then retracted that view in May after Bitcoin pushed past $100,000, crediting steady ETF inflows for reshaping the market structure he once relied on to forecast tops and bottoms. Read Next: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase
Ethereum Needs A $1B Rescue Fund, Former Researcher Argues
Ethereum (ETH) needs a new $1 billion organization built outside the Ethereum Foundation to compete again, a former Foundation researcher argued this week. Dankrad Feist Proposes $1B ETH Body Dankrad Feist, who served as a senior researcher at the Ethereum Foundation until last year, posted the plan on Thursday. He called for an independent entity funded with at least $1 billion in ETH and a steady share of network staking and fee revenue. He set out four conditions: the $1 billion base, a permanent revenue stream, a board accountable to ETH holders, and a leader willing to fight for the network's interests. He framed the price tag as modest given the asset's scale, calling it reasonable for an ecosystem with a market value above $250 billion. The proposal landed during a difficult stretch for the Foundation, which holds less than 0.1% of all ETH and collects no staking or transaction fee income, a structure Feist argues leaves it disconnected from the token's market performance. Also Read: Vitalik Buterin Wants Ethereum To Stop Reading Over Your Shoulder Why Feist's Pitch Matters Now Feist co-created the Danksharding scaling design, which gives weight to his criticism inside the community. His exit last year, when he joined Stripe's blockchain project Tempo, drew disappointment from developers who saw him as central to Ethereum's roadmap. The timing sharpened the message. At least eight senior Foundation members have left in 2026, five of them in May, including researchers Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has faced parallel scrutiny over his focus on technical and privacy upgrades rather than ETH's price, and investor Ryan Sean Adams publicly backed Feist's concept of a price-focused body. Supporters say routing staking income to such a group would tie its incentives directly to ETH's value, replacing the current reliance on discretionary grants and periodic asset sales. The Foundation did launch a staking initiative in February targeting 70,000 ETH, though critics call it far short of the alignment Feist describes. ETH Price Slide Deepens Debate Feist conceded that building consensus could take time, but described the new organization as the only credible route forward. Ethereum traded near $2,126 this week, down roughly 57% from its peak above $4,900 last year, while Bitcoin and Solana outperformed it through that stretch. The asset has spent much of 2026 stuck in the low-$2,000 range, and that prolonged weakness, paired with the Foundation exits, is what hardened the argument that the network lacks a dedicated advocate for its market value. Read Next: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset
Pi Network Pushes Launchpad To Stop Crypto Projects Cashing Out Early
Pi Network (PI) says it has fixed crypto's habit of letting projects raise money fast and exit before delivering any working product. Pi Core Team Renews Its Claim The project's Core Team returned to the argument in a fresh post on X, naming token issuance and quick exits as the flaw it believes it has now addressed. The complaint is not new for the team. Co-founder Dr. Chengdiao Fan pressed the point at the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami earlier this month. She told the audience that too many tokens exist to raise capital rather than to support real product innovation, and that the industry sees too much value extraction without matching value creation. Pi's answer is the Pi Launchpad, a token launch platform the team described as a way to help projects acquire real users who engage, give feedback, and actually use the tokens. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset Why The Launchpad Matters The design forces a working application before any token can launch, and routes proceeds into liquidity pools rather than straight to project wallets. That structure aims to cut hype-driven listings that fade once trading begins. Analysts have framed the model as an attempt to solve the so-called cold-start problem. Developers gain access to Pi's verified user base, which the team puts at roughly 18 million KYC-checked Pioneers. Fan argued that crypto's financial tools, including smart contracts and liquidity, have run ahead of the slower work of building useful software. Not everyone is convinced. Critics note that a vetting process controlled by the Core Team reintroduces a central gatekeeper, trading scam protection for the permissionless quality that defines public blockchains. The Launchpad was first announced during the Pi Day celebrations on Mar. 14, alongside protocol upgrades, second Mainnet migrations, and validator rewards, marking the project's largest update in its seven-year history. The team has said the real test comes when the first product-first tokens reach Mainnet and prove whether the model holds. Read Next: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase
Billionaire Mark Cuban Sells 80% Of Bitcoin, Says Gold Won The Hedge Race
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says he has sold roughly 80% of his Bitcoin (BTC) holdings after deciding the asset failed as a hedge against economic and geopolitical stress. Mark Cuban Abandons Bitcoin Hedge Thesis Cuban told the Front Office Sports podcast that he no longer believes Bitcoin behaves like the safe haven he once expected. He said the cryptocurrency should have climbed each time the dollar weakened, and it did not. His portfolio heading into 2026 was roughly 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum (ETH) and 10% other assets. For years, Cuban had described Bitcoin as a superior version of gold and insisted he had never sold a coin. That conviction has now reversed. Cuban said gold climbed to $5,000 during the recent US-Iran conflict while Bitcoin fell, a split he called proof the hedge narrative had broken. He still holds Ethereum, pointing to smart contracts and DeFi applications as clearer sources of utility, and he dismissed most other tokens as garbage. Also Read: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase Why The Cuban Bitcoin Exit Splits Analysts The timing of Cuban's exit has drawn pushback from Bitcoin supporters who say he picked an unfavorable window. Since the first signs of the US-Iran conflict emerged in late February, Bitcoin has risen more than 16% while gold has fallen over 15%, according to data cited by several outlets. Analysts note that the hedge verdict depends heavily on which timeframe an investor selects. Cuban's move also runs against broader institutional behavior. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds still hold more than $100 billion in assets, suggesting large allocators have not followed him toward the door. Observers say a single billionaire selling carries symbolic weight, given Cuban's long history as a mainstream crypto advocate, but it does not yet signal a wider retreat. Bitcoin Price Slides Far Below October Peak Bitcoin currently trades near $77,500, down roughly 38% from the all-time high of $126,080 reached in October 2025. Gold, meanwhile, has pulled back to about $4,500 per ounce after its $5,000 peak. The retreat caps a difficult stretch for the asset. Bitcoin fell from its October high to the high $70,000s through the spring, a slide that coincided with rising geopolitical tension and softer demand. That decline, more than any single statement, shaped the backdrop for Cuban's decision to step back. Read Next: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset
A Six-Year-Old Key Just Cost Polymarket $573K On Its Worst Friday
Prediction market Polymarket lost more than $573,000 in a private key breach on Friday, hours after South Korea's media regulator opened a probe into whether the platform amounts to illegal gambling. Polymarket Hack Drains Internal Wallet The attack surfaced on Friday when on-chain investigator ZachXBT flagged suspicious outflows tied to Polymarket on the Polygon network. Analytics firm Bubblemaps then warned users to pause activity as the attacker steadily pulled roughly 5,000 POL tokens every 30 seconds. The stolen assets moved across 16 wallets before reaching crypto exchanges. Polymarket's developer account said trading infrastructure and customer balances were untouched. Engineering staffer Josh Stevens described the cause as a six-year-old private key linked to an internal top-up wallet, not a contract failure. He later confirmed that responders froze $164,000 of the $573,200 drained. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset South Korea Probe Adds Pressure The breach landed as Polymarket faced fresh scrutiny abroad. South Korea's Korea Communications Standards Commission has opened a formal review into whether the prediction market hosts illegal gambling content under national law. A commission official said the review followed a recent complaint against the platform. Analysts note the timing matters because the compromised wallet sat near Polymarket's UMA CTF Adapter, the layer that settles prediction markets through an oracle. Stevens stressed that the administrative reward wallet operates separately from that resolution machinery, which limited the damage. Researchers say the adapter is custom code that sits outside the audited core protocol, a recurring weak point for prediction markets. South Korea could move to block access, mirroring steps already taken by France, Germany and Italy. Regulatory Crackdown Widens Polymarket has spent 2026 absorbing enforcement actions on several fronts. The Korean inquiry follows earlier shutdown orders in Portugal and Hungary, civil action in Nevada, and cease-and-desist notices from Tennessee. The platform secured U.S. approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in late 2025, yet state regulators have continued pressing their own claims. That tension has left Polymarket expanding and contracting at once, banned in dozens of jurisdictions while courting fresh capital. The company was in talks in Apr. 2026 to raise about $400 million at a roughly $15 billion valuation. Read Next: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase
Bitcoin Pizza Day Just Lost $328M In A Year — Here's What Changed
Sixteen years ago today, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) for two large Papa John's pizzas. At the time it was worth roughly $41. On Pizza Day 2025, it was worth $1.106 billion. On Pizza Day 2026, it is worth $777.87 million. That is a $328 million haircut in a single year, and the steepest year-over-year decline in any Pizza Day stack since 2015. Also Read: Bitcoin Breaks Downtrend, Rare Market Signals Hint At Multi-Week Rally For every Pizza Day, the same fixed data point gets revalued at the day's spot price. It is the cleanest annual benchmark crypto has. And in 2026, that benchmark is telling a very specific story about what just happened to this market. A $328 Million Haircut In Twelve Months $BTC traded at $110,568 on May 22, 2025, setting a new all-time high on the 15th anniversary of Hanyecz's order. The 10,000 BTC stack was notionally worth over $1.1 billion for the first time in history. On May 22, 2026, Bitcoin is trading near $77,300. The same stack is worth $777.87 million. That sits 29.7% below last year's anniversary price and 38% below the October 2025 record. Bitcoin's price has fallen on six of sixteen Pizza Day anniversaries since 2010. The 2026 figure is the largest absolute dollar drop on record. Also Read: US Bitcoin ETFs Log $4.5B In Outflows In 2026 — Worst Start Since January 2024 Launch What October's All-Time High Actually Cost The decline did not start in 2026. It started on October 10, 2025. BTC had been extending its post-Pizza Day 2025 rally through the summer, reaching a fresh all-time high of $126,000 on October 6, 2025. Institutional flows were strong, retail participation was muted, and the move looked structurally sound. Four days later it broke. President Donald Trump announced 100% tariffs on Chinese imports effective November 1, plus export controls on critical U.S. software. The announcement was a direct response to Beijing's earlier rare earth restrictions. Markets had not priced it in. The Trump Tariff Shock That Broke The Rally Within hours, the total crypto market capitalisation fell from roughly $4.25 trillion to $4.05 trillion. Nearly $200 billion in value was erased in a single session. Bitcoin dropped from $122,000 to $107,000 by the day's close. Ethereum (ETH), (XRP) and (BNB) each fell more than 15%. Approximately $19 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated within 24 hours, affecting 1.6 million traders. It was the largest single-day liquidation event in crypto history, surpassing the March 2020 pandemic crash. Bitcoin spent the rest of 2025 below its October peak. Q1 2026 Became The Worst Opening Since 2018 By the time 2026 began, the rally that had powered Pizza Day 2025's record valuation had already broken. Q1 2026 turned into Bitcoin's third-worst opening quarter on record, with the asset closing the period down 23.2% and spot Bitcoin ETFs bleeding $4.5 billion across the first eight weeks of the year alone. Iran tensions compounded the pressure. The February 28 US-Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets coincided with a sharp risk-off rotation across digital assets, and BTC spent much of March trapped between $60,000 and $75,000. Q2 has brought partial relief. Bitcoin has climbed roughly 14% over the quarter and recovered the $77,000 zone. But the move from $82,500 ten days ago down to current levels suggests the recovery is uneven. The broader crypto market cap sits at $2.65 trillion today, down from $2.9 trillion just one week ago. Also Read: Bitcoin And Ethereum Are Absorbing The Market — What That Means For Crypto In 2026 Why Pizza Day Is Crypto's Most Honest Benchmark Most market commentary cycles in days. Pizza Day cycles in years. That is what makes it useful. Every May 22, the same 10,000 BTC gets revalued at spot. There is no narrative cushion, no editorial framing, no rolling 30-day window to smooth the edges. The number is what it is. In 2024, that number was $674 million. In 2025, $1.106 billion. In 2026, $777.87 million. The trajectory tells you something the daily charts cannot. From Pizza Day 2024 to 2025, the stack added $432 million. From 2025 to 2026, it lost $328 million. That single-year swing of $760 million is the entire story of where this market is, what it just survived, and how much further it has to recover. Hanyecz Didn't Lose Money — He Made A Market The default Pizza Day narrative treats Hanyecz as a cautionary tale. The accurate one treats him as the man who gave Bitcoin its first real exchange rate. In May 2010, BTC had no spot exchange with reliable execution, no fiat on-ramp at scale, no merchant acceptance, no derivatives, and no public consensus that it had any future value. Hanyecz himself described what he held as "Monopoly money." The 10,000 BTC he spent was not a billion-dollar stack being squandered. It was an asset that had never been priced against a real consumer good. His order set that price. Every later exchange listing, every ETF approval, every institutional desk that now trades Bitcoin depends on a price discovery process that started on that BitcoinTalk forum thread. This year's $328 million drop is uncomfortable. It is also, by Hanyecz's own measure, still proof the market is doing exactly what he started. Read Next: Jesse Eckel Forecasts Bitcoin Will Peak Between $170K And $250K During 2026
XRP Network Wakes Up With 4,300 New Wallets In One Day
XRP (XRP) added 4,300 new wallets in a single day, its fourth-largest network-growth spike of 2026, signaling possible renewed interest near $1.35. XRP Wallet Surge Sparks Reversal Talk The jump landed over the past 24 hours, with on-chain analytics firm Santiment flagging it as one of the token's biggest network-growth readings this year. Network growth tracks how many fresh addresses appear on a blockchain, and traders often watch it as an early demand signal. Santiment said the metric matters because it ranks among the strongest tools for spotting market reversals before they show up in price. The firm placed the wallet count alongside other on-chain readings that suggest XRP sits in a lower-risk zone than usual. Still, analysts urged caution. XRP's broader network-growth trend has weakened since late 2025, which makes the latest move look more like a one-day burst than proof of lasting adoption. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset Santiment Analysts See Undervalued Setup Santiment's Brian Quinlivan described XRP's profitability picture as similar to Ethereum (ETH)'s, but with a deeper drawdown among long-term holders. He pointed to the token's 365-day market-value-to-realized-value reading near negative 35%, with the 30-day measure back below zero. Both figures sitting in negative territory, he argued, means the average holder has absorbed losses, which historically marks a less risky entry point. Quinlivan also noted that XRP's social tone has leaned more negative than its usual baseline, a pattern Santiment treats as constructive from a contrarian view. That reasoning carries weight because overheated bullishness often clusters near local price tops, while apathy and frustration tend to show up closer to attractive lows. The wallet spike, paired with subdued sentiment, gives both camps something to point to. Negative MVRV territory has framed XRP for much of 2026. Santiment listed the token in its undervalued zone back in late January, with 30-day readings hovering between roughly negative 3% and negative 6% through the winter months as the price drifted well below its earlier highs. The latest data extends that stretch rather than breaking it, leaving XRP in a familiar holding pattern that the recent wallet burst has yet to resolve. Read Next: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase
Binance CEO Rejects WSJ Report That Iran Moved $850M Through Exchange
Binance (BNB) co-CEO Richard Teng rejected a fresh Wall Street Journal report on May 22 alleging that an Iran-linked network moved roughly $850 million through the exchange. Binance CEO Disputes Iran Funding Claim The Wall Street Journal published the report on May 22, citing an internal Binance compliance document. It said a covert payments network run by Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani processed about $850 million in transactions over roughly two years through a single account. The activity allegedly continued through December 2025, a stretch when tensions between the United States and Iran were rising sharply. The Journal said the system helped maintain funding flows tied to Iranian military organizations. Teng pushed back hours later. He said the transactions cited by the newspaper all took place before the individuals involved were formally designated under sanctions, and that Binance never permitted sanctioned individuals to trade on its platform. He also said Binance had run its own internal review before the Journal made contact, and that the company shared those findings but they did not appear in the article. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset Why The WSJ Dispute Matters Teng described the report as containing fundamental inaccuracies, and he reiterated that Binance applies a zero-tolerance policy toward illicit activity. He said the exchange continues to work with US and global law enforcement to combat financial crime. The clash carries weight because Binance is still rebuilding institutional trust after its 2023 guilty plea to US anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, which produced a $4.3 billion settlement and an independent compliance monitor. Binance has pointed to internal metrics showing sanctions-related exposure fell 96.8% between January 2024 and July 2025. Analysts note the dispute could renew scrutiny of anti-money laundering controls at major exchanges and invite tighter monitoring from US regulators. A Feud That Reached Court This is not the first clash between the two sides. In February 2026, the Journal reported on alleged Iran-linked transfers exceeding $1 billion, which Teng called false and defamatory at the time. Binance then filed a lawsuit against Dow Jones, the Journal's publisher, in March, turning a public spat into formal litigation. The US Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations also sent Teng a letter that month seeking records on Binance's alleged role in Iranian money laundering. Read Next: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase
Whales scooped up 525 million Dogecoin (DOGE) in 96 hours as the asset hovered near $0.105, raising fresh speculation about a climb to $0.15. Dogecoin Whale Buying Builds After SpaceX Filing The token traded at roughly $0.105 on May 22, down a marginal 0.07% over 24 hours, with a chart pattern that some analysts read as a setup for further gains. On-chain data tracked by Santiment shows large holders bought about half a billion DOGE in four days, lifting their balance to 18.93 billion tokens. That haul is worth close to $1.99 billion at current prices, and it represents about 0.34% of the coin's 170 billion supply. The accumulation overlapped with SpaceX filing paperwork for an initial public offering. The company submitted its S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, with trading expected to begin June 12 on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. The filing estimates a valuation of $1.75 trillion, a figure that would make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. Also Read: Dogecoin Bulls Bounce Off The Floor, Hit A Familiar Ceiling At $0.1075 Why Analysts Tie DOGE Strength to Musk Spot DOGE exchange-traded funds have pulled in $2.15 million during May, the strongest monthly intake since February, pushing net assets to $14.85 million. Analysts argue that combination of ETF demand and whale buying signals genuine interest rather than retail froth. The Musk connection remains the central thread. Because the billionaire has long tied his public image to Dogecoin, traders expect the token to react if the June listing draws heavy attention. Technically, a rounding bottom on the weekly chart points toward $0.15, though a RSI reading of 42 still flags weak momentum. Buyers would need to reclaim the $0.112 resistance to confirm the move, which would mark a 40% advance. The weighted funding rate offers a more bullish signal, reaching 0.0088% on May 21, its highest level since April 28. That figure shows more traders positioning for upside rather than a slide below $0.10. Dogecoin has a long record of moving on Musk headlines rather than fundamentals. The token surged past $0.73 in May 2021 around his Saturday Night Live appearance, then spent years range-bound, and its current test near $0.10 fits a familiar pattern of meme-driven swings tied to a single public figure. Read Next: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset
Saylor Pegs Bitcoin At 30% Yearly Growth, Eyes $13M By 2045
Michael Saylor says Bitcoin (BTC) will deliver a 30% average annual return over time, roughly triple what the S&P 500 has historically produced. Saylor Pegs Bitcoin Floor At $60,000 The Strategy co-founder laid out the case Thursday on CNBC's Squawk Box. He described the asset as entering a "spring phase," supported by firm price levels and a friendly macro backdrop, and pegged $60,000 as the market's bottom. The 30% figure is not new. Saylor ties it directly to his projection that Bitcoin reaches $13 million by 2045, a target built on a 29% yearly return sustained across roughly 19 years. He credits institutional adoption, government treasury strategies, and the fixed supply of 21 million coins as the forces he expects to pull money out of gold and traditional markets. Also Read: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase Saylor Doubts The 10% Benchmark The numbers do not back him up yet. Bitcoin is down 12% so far this year, while the S&P 500 has climbed 8%, according to Google Finance figures cited during the interview. Saylor brushed that off. He has long argued that short-term swings say nothing about where Bitcoin lands over a decade, and he repeated the point on air. The S&P 500 tracks 500 of the largest publicly traded US companies and has averaged a yearly return near 10%, a record that makes it a familiar anchor for investors. He also pointed to policy momentum. Saylor singled out the CLARITY Act, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee last week on a bipartisan 15-9 vote after a four-month delay. Saylor Eyes Bitcoin Overtaking Gold By 2035 This is not the first time Saylor has staked out this ground. Earlier this year, he said Bitcoin would double or triple the S&P 500's returns over the coming four to eight years, a forecast he made in February as the asset traded below $70,000 following a pullback from October highs above $126,000. His longer view has Bitcoin overtaking gold in total market value by 2035, drawing in capital once locked inside conventional assets. Read Next: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset
Claude Beats Gemini Because Of One Setting You Can Actually Touch, Expert Says
A tech columnist says Anthropic's Claude handles long-term memory better than Google's Gemini because users can read and edit what it remembers. Claude Memory vs. Gemini Recall Writer Simon Batt argued at XDA that Anthropic's Claude manages memory better than Google's Gemini. Claude keeps a central memory log, a block of text describing what the assistant has learned from past conversations. Users can read it. They can also create separate memory files for different projects, keeping personal and professional use apart. Gemini works differently. Batt said the assistant builds its picture of a user by drawing from every past chat, with no master file to inspect or trim. To make Gemini forget something, he said, a user appears to have to delete the entire conversation that holds it. Batt also said Gemini surfaced details that had nothing to do with the topic at hand. While discussing local property prices, he wrote, the assistant paused to ask whether the question related to a science lab he had visited four months earlier. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Walks Away From XRP, Solana In Sharp Q1 Crypto Reset Why Memory Control Matters The complaint points to a wider design split among AI assistants. Batt's core objection was that Gemini gave him a single switch, on or off, with no setting to adjust what the assistant retained. Anthropic's approach, by contrast, lets a user edit Claude to forget or change specific details without scrapping any chats. He also flagged a quality issue. Because Claude's memory reads more like a summary than a full transcript, he said, the assistant avoids stray, months-old facts that no longer apply. Batt did acknowledge Google's logic. Drawing context from old chats spares users from repeating themselves, he wrote, but treating raw conversations as the memory itself drags irrelevant data into new sessions. Anthropic rolled out automatic cross-conversation memory across all Claude plans, including the free tier, on Mar. 2, with controls to view, edit and delete stored entries in settings. Google has been steadily widening Gemini's reach into user data, drawing scrutiny from reviewers over how much personal information the assistant absorbs and how little of it people can see. Read Next: Bitcoin Demand Crashes To 4-Month Low, Risks Deep Consolidation Phase