Today's top news highlights:
Upbit will list its B3 token on the Korean won market.
OpenTrade raises $17 million to expand stablecoin yield infrastructure
Base launches deSPXA, a tokenized product of the S&P 500, provided by Centrifuge.
Regulation & Macro
Moon Kyung-ho, head of the Income Tax Division at South Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economy, stated that the government will proceed with its planned taxation of virtual assets starting January 1st next year. Income from the transfer or lending of virtual assets will be classified as other income, with a 22% tax rate applied to amounts exceeding 2.5 million won. The tax will target approximately 13.26 million investors, and the National Tax Service is currently drafting related notices, with a legislative announcement expected soon.
Sources say the US and Iran have reached an agreement on gradually opening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for easing the blockade, and the next few hours will see a breakthrough in the situation of ships stranded in the strait. International oil prices plunged in the short term, with WTI crude falling more than 3% and Brent crude falling nearly 3% intraday.
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil confirmed that the government plans to adopt different tax policies for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, potentially abolishing the tax exemption policy for holdings exceeding one year and instead taxing them like stocks. Previously, Germany treated Bitcoin as a privately disposed asset, similar to gold, exempting it from taxation for holdings exceeding one year.
White House advisor: Latest news on the US Bitcoin reserve will be released "in the coming weeks".
Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Advisory Council on Digital Assets, stated at the Consensus conference that more information regarding the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve will be released "in the coming weeks." He cited the recent attack on the U.S. Marshals Service's digital assets as evidence that federal crypto assets need centralized custody. Witt revealed that after President Trump established the reserve through executive order, the White House halted the previous administration's "fire sale" liquidation, but the reserve still needs to be codified through legislation.
Project Updates
American Bitcoin Corp., a Bitcoin mining company backed by the Trump family, increased its holdings by 300 Bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 7,300 Bitcoins, ranking 16th in the Bitcoin holdings rankings.
TrustedVolumes has confirmed being attacked, with approximately $6.7 million stolen from three different addresses. TrustedVolumes stated its willingness to engage in constructive communication with the attackers regarding a bug bounty and a mutually acceptable solution.
1inch clarified that it was not affected by the TrustedVolumes attack and that user funds are safe.
Binance Futures will launch BILLUSDT U-margined perpetual contracts.
Binance Futures will launch BILLUSDT perpetual contracts on May 7, 2026 at 16:15, with a maximum leverage of 20x.
Upbit will list its B3 token on the Korean won market.
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will list the B3 token on the Korean won market, with trading starting at 13:45 local time on May 7.
NEAR Protocol is adding support for post-quantum cryptography, decoupling the account model from cryptography and controlling access through rotatable access keys. The NEAR One team has added the NIST-approved FIPS-204 scheme as its first post-quantum signature option, enabling any account to achieve quantum security through key rotation in a single transaction. NEAR is also collaborating with wallets to advance post-quantum support and developing a quantum-secure cross-chain signature scheme by providing threshold signatures for over 35 chains through chain signature functionality.
GameStop CEO permanently banned from eBay platform
Two days after GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen made a $56 billion offer to acquire eBay, his personal platform account was permanently banned by eBay because "some of the user's activities are posing a risk to the eBay community."
Musk announced that xAI will no longer exist as an independent company and will be integrated into SpaceX, renamed SpaceXAI. Previously, SpaceXAI had partnered with AI company Anthropic, allowing it to use over 300 megawatts of computing power from Anthropic's Colossus 1 supercomputer. The two companies also expressed their intention to jointly develop several gigawatts of orbital AI computing power.
Bullish completes tokenization of 151 million shares on Solana
Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish tokenized all 151 million of its shares on the blockchain and migrated its entire equity structure to the Solana network after acquiring Equiniti. Bullish CEO Thomas Farley completed a live wallet-to-wallet share transfer via Phantom wallet at Consensus 2026.
Hut 8 secures $9.8 billion long-term AI data center lease, sending its stock to a record high.
Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 has signed a 15-year lease with an unnamed, highly rated firm to provide 352 megawatts of AI data center computing power at its Beacon Point, Texas campus. The contract is valued at approximately $9.8 billion, with an annual rent increase clause of 3% and three 5-year renewal options, potentially bringing the total value to approximately $25.1 billion. Driven by the news, Hut's stock price surged approximately 33% in a single day, hitting an all-time high of $109.88 during the session.
Base launches deSPXA, a tokenized product of the S&P 500, provided by Centrifuge.
Coinbase's on-chain network Base announced that deSPXA, a tokenized exposure product of the S&P 500 index offered by Centrifuge, has been launched on Base. Based on the S&P Dow Jones Indices, managed by Janus Henderson, the product is available to compliant non-US investors and is traded on-chain 24/7.
American Bitcoin Corp., a Bitcoin mining company backed by the Trump family, reported a second consecutive quarterly loss, with a net loss of $82 million in the first quarter, widening from the previous quarter. Revenue fell by about 20% to $62 million. The company held approximately 1,600 Bitcoins in the first quarter, an increase of about 30% in its holdings.
Coinbase launches perpetual contracts for gold and silver outside the United States
Coinbase has launched perpetual gold and silver contracts on its International Exchange and Coinbase platform for compliant non-US users, with the codes GOLD-PERP and SILVER-PERP respectively. The contracts are linearly pegged to 1 troy ounce of spot gold/silver, settled in USDC, offer up to 25x leverage, and support 24/7 trading. Coinbase is also working with the CFTC to expand gold and silver futures trading to 24/7.
Investment and financing news
OpenTrade raises $17 million to expand stablecoin yield infrastructure
London-based crypto startup OpenTrade has raised $17 million in strategic funding, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC, CMCC Global, and others, bringing its total funding to over $30 million. OpenTrade offers on-chain and real-world asset-backed lending and stablecoin yield products to institutions, with total value locked exceeding $200 million and a projected transaction volume of over $250 million by 2025.
Core Scientific, a U.S.-listed mining company, announced it will acquire Polaris DS LLC, an Oklahoma-based Bitcoin mining company, for approximately $421 million, securing a 440-megawatt power contract to rapidly expand its AI and high-performance computing hosting business. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.
Opinions & Analysis
Analysis: Three signals suggest Bitcoin may rise to $85,000.
Bitcoin has surged from around $63,000 to above $80,000 over the past three months, with multiple signals, including on-chain data, futures funding fees, and options gamma, pointing towards a $85,000 target. Bitcoin has broken through the real market average of $78,200 and the short-term holder cost baseline of $79,100. If it maintains above these two levels, the next major resistance level is $85,200. Funding rates returning to neutral or slightly positive indicate short covering, and further gains could trigger a short squeeze. Options market makers have approximately $2 billion in hedging pressure around $82,000, which could accelerate the rebound to $85,000. However, Bitcoin remains highly correlated with US tech stocks, and the risk of a stock market reversal should be noted.
Arthur Hayes: It's liquidity, not regulatory benefits, that influences Bitcoin's price.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated at Consensus 2026 that the crypto industry does not need regulation; the core factors determining Bitcoin's price are technological reliability and fiat currency liquidity. Each round of monetary expansion has closely coincided with a significant rise in Bitcoin prices. Despite the Trump administration signing crypto-related legislation, Bitcoin's price has still fallen by about 25% in the past 18 months, proving that regulatory benefits do not directly impact price increases. If Bitcoin becomes merely a derivative on bank balance sheets, it will lose its true meaning.
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng stated that AI technology is inherently neutral. While malicious actors may exploit it for malicious purposes, through industry coordination and user education, AI can also become a powerful tool for protecting the ecosystem and community.
Important data
On May 6th, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net inflow of $46.3306 million, marking the fifth consecutive day of net inflows. BlackRock ETF IBIT saw a net inflow of $135 million, while Fidelity ETF FBTC experienced a net outflow of $38.9528 million. The total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $108.756 billion, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $59.764 billion.
After 100 million PENGU ($1.08 million) were transferred from the Pudgy Penguins token deployment address to centralized exchanges, the price of PENGU fell 7% from $0.01147 to $0.0106. Six hours earlier, the deployment address transferred out 137 million PENGU, of which 100 million were transferred to exchanges such as OKX.
The "1011 Insider Whale" deposited 166,023 ETH into Binance and still holds 381,695 ETH.
The "1011 Insider Whale" deposited 166,023 ETH, equivalent to approximately $395 million, into Binance. This address currently holds 381,695 ETH, with a market value of approximately $907 million.
