Bitcoin DeFi eyes $500bn in idle BTC as ETF demand cools
As spot Bitcoin ETF flows stall, BTCfi protocols Lombard and Babylon are pitching idle BTC as onchain collateral — targeting $500bn in custody.
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Digital Assets
Crypto exchanges, tokenisation, custody and stablecoins from the industry side.
494 stories since 2021 · page 9 of 25
June 2026
Hyperliquid flips Solana on FDV as revenue-chain race heats up
Hyperliquid's FDV has overtaken Solana's, but circulating market cap and revenue tell three different stories about the 'revenue chains' race.
Strategy sells its first bitcoin since 2022 to fund payouts
Strategy sold 32 BTC — its first bitcoin sale since 2022 — to fund preferred dividends as its mNAV premium compressed and bitcoin slid below its cost basis.
CFTC clears Coinbase to offer US clients offshore crypto perps
The CFTC cleared Coinbase to route US clients into offshore crypto perpetual futures via its Deribit-backed Bermuda book — a first for the industry.
Aave rewrites listing standards after $230m rsETH bridge hack
Aave is reviewing every V3 asset and rewriting its listing standards after a $230m rsETH bridge exploit, importing exchange-style collateral governance into DeFi.
Ethereum whales buy $2bn as spot ETF outflows hit 10 days
US spot Ether ETFs have bled for 10 straight days and shorts are piling up — yet ETH whales just absorbed $2bn off the books. The squeeze setup, decoded.
XRP ETFs draw $84m in May as BTC and ETH funds shed $2bn
XRP ETFs pulled in roughly $84m in May 2026 — their strongest month — even as Bitcoin and Ether funds shed over $2bn. Inside the institutional rotation.
May 2026
Solana leads all chains in tokenized stocks for 50th straight week
Solana has led all L1 and L2 chains combined in tokenized stock volume for 50 weeks, holding ~94% of on-chain equity flow as its RWA stack tops $2bn.
Tether’s USAT jumps 540% to $141m but trails USDC’s $76bn
Tether's US-regulated stablecoin USAT grew 540% to $140.8m in April 2026 — but at $141m it remains a minnow against Circle's $76bn USDC under the GENIUS Act.
Kraken routes BTC into Aave as DeFi’s $1.1bn hack year bites
Kraken's Bitcoin Vault routes BTC into Aave and Morpho for yield - the same week OpenZeppelin's co-founder called DeFi unsafe amid $1.1bn of hacks in a year.
HYPE ETFs draw $72m as BTC and ETH funds lose $1bn
Hyperliquid HYPE ETFs (BHYP, THYP) absorbed $72m in a week while spot BTC ETFs shed $1bn+ and ETH funds $215m — capital rotation, not exit.
Coinbase Base opens DeFi to ChatGPT and Claude via MCP
Coinbase Base ships Base MCP on May 26, 2026 — first major L2 to bridge AI agents (ChatGPT, Claude) into onchain DeFi via OAuth 2.1 with 6 protocols.
Bitcoin ETFs bleed $1.26bn over six days as BTC retests $74k
Six days of US spot Bitcoin ETF outflows total $1.26B, dragging 2026 net inflows to $536M; Santiment says the pattern marks bottoms, not capitulation.
BitMine’s 5.28m ETH treasury slows pace as ETH dips below $2,200
BitMine's Ethereum treasury reaches 5,278,462 ETH ($12.6bn) after a 71,672-ETH week — but the buying pace just slowed as ETH dipped below $2,200.
Solana’s Alpenglow goes live for testing, finality drops to 150ms
Solana's Alpenglow upgrade went live for testing on May 11, 2026, cutting finality to ~150ms and reshaping validator MEV economics ahead of mainnet.
Truth Social withdraws Bitcoin ETF filings amid 14bp fee war
Trump Media withdrew its Truth Social Bitcoin, BTC+ETH, and Crypto Blue Chip ETF filings on May 20, 2026 — a fee-war casualty, not a regulatory rejection.
Hyperliquid’s SpaceX pre-IPO perp draws CME and ICE fire
Trade.xyz lists the first SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual on Hyperliquid at a $1.78 trillion valuation, opening a new front in the CFTC oversight fight with CME and ICE.
Morgan Stanley’s 50bps crypto play tests Coinbase fee floor
Morgan Stanley's 50bps E*Trade crypto launch undercuts Coinbase, Robinhood and Schwab — a margin attack on the retail crypto take-rate, not a flow story.
