Weekly Crypto & Blockchain Update: May 12-18

Here's a recap of last week's developments in crypto and blockchain that can impact both individual investors and businesses handling crypto payments.

Catch up with the latest:

Top Industry News

Market Movements

• Bitcoin is down 2.8% over the last 7 days, currently at $102,400
• Ethereum is sitting at $2,300 with a 7.3% decrease from the previous week
• Last week’s top 3 gainers were XCN (+8%), BGB (+2%), and HYPE (+1%), while the top 3 losers were PI(-50%), TIA (-22%), and BONK (-22%)
• The crypto market’s Fear & Greed Index is at 71 Greed today
• Crypto market capitalization is at $3.25 trillion, down 1.75% since yesterday
• Bitcoin's market cap dominance is currently at 63%, Ethereum at 8.9%, and other cryptocurrencies at 28%
• Stablecoins' market capitalization has risen by 0.35% in the last 7 days, currently at $243 billion, with USDT dominance at 62.36%
• NFT sales volume increased by 80% over the previous 7 days, while total sales increased by 27%, with 152,702 sales in a week
• Coinbase prepares for S&P 500, eToro and Galaxy Digital join Nasdaq

Crypto Security

• Curve Finance's front-end website was hit with a DNS attack, which led users to a fraudulent site
• Binance and Kraken blocked social engineering attacks similar to what led to Coinbase’s hack
• A retired artist from Australia lost all of his $2 million worth of crypto investment portfolio due to the Coinbase impersonation scam
• Coinbase to pay back impacted users of the social engineering scams, potentially up to $400 million in reimbursements

Blockchain Technology

• JPMorgan settled its first transaction on a public blockchain last week, using Ondo Finance and Chainlink
• Ridesharing company Lift partnered with Bee Maps and began sourcing street-level mapping from their decentralized platform, which is built on Solana’s Hivemapper network
• British Museum, in collaboration with Asprey Studio, will put 11 sterling silver sculptures of Dürer’s Rhinoceros on the Bitcoin blockchain, inscribed in Ordinals

Investments & Partnerships

• Mastercard to launch stablecoin-powered cards in partnership with MoonPay
• Tether purchased $460 million worth of BTC to support the funding of a new publicly traded Bitcoin company, Twenty One, through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners
• Robinhood will acquire Vancouver-based WonderFi for $179 million and thereby enter the Canadian market
• Blockchain dev platform Alchemy acquired Solana’s DexterLab to accelerate blockchain applications built on Solana

Regulatory Developments

• Ukraine is potentially creating a national strategic crypto reserve (similar to El Salvador); the deputy chairman will submit a new bill
• Australian FIA fined the crypto exchange Cointree for delaying the filing of suspicious activity reports
• The UK will require crypto businesses to collect and report data about every customer transaction starting January 2026, including full name, address, tax ID

More Important Updates

• Nasdaq-listed healthcare company Basel Medical Group from Singapore plans to buy $1 billion worth of Bitcoin to add to its balance sheet
• FTX creditor distributions will begin on 30.05, with more than $5 billion in repayments to be handed out
• Publicly traded Brazilian cashback company Meliuz bought a little over $28 million worth of Bitcoin for its treasury; its shares rose following the news
• Investment firm Avenir from Hong Kong bought 3.4 million more shares of BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT); now the total is worth $688M
• Bitcoin ATM operator Bitcoin Depot reported Q1 profits, and shares rose 20%
• Japanese firm Metaplanet bought another $100 million worth of BTC this weekend, now their Bitcoin holdings total about $800 million

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Wishing you a great week ahead!

- Swapin Team