Bitcoin whales and investors shift to distribution as realized losses surge past $600 million, as BTC price declines toward $76,000.
Kraken to Expand in Dubai After VARA Approval
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken moved closer to a launch in the United Arab Emirates after its operator, Payward, received preliminary approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), according to the company.
Payward on Thursday announced its UAE expansion alongside receiving preliminary approval for a broker-dealer, investment and management licence from VARA.
A spokesperson for Kraken told Cointelegraph the preliminary approval was granted on Thursday, with a full launch date to be confirmed.
At launch, Kraken plans to offer UAE dirham (AED) funding, along with a full suite of services including margin and over-the-counter trading, as well as access to Kraken Prime for institutional clients, the representative added.
The move builds on Kraken’s earlier regulatory footprint in the region, including its 2022 approval to operate in the UAE under Abu Dhabi’s financial free zone framework.
Dubai’s VARA register now includes 49 active crypto firms
Dubai’s public VARA register currently includes 49 active companies spanning exchange, broker-dealer, custody and lending businesses.
The list includes major global crypto players such as Binance, Crypto.com, OKX, Deribit and HashKey, reflecting Dubai’s push to position itself as a regional hub for companies in the digital asset industry.
Source: Kraken
Kraken and parent company Payward do not yet appear on the regulator’s public register. The latest company recorded on the list was centralized crypto exchange CoinCorner, which received approval to operate virtual asset broker-dealer services on May 5.
Related: Crypto.com receives UAE license for Dubai government crypto payments
Dubai remains a major crypto hub despite recent Iran-linked tensions
Kraken’s expansion in Dubai adds to signs that the UAE continues to emerge as a major global crypto hub, even as recent Iran-linked regional tensions have unsettled some investors and disrupted major events across the Gulf.
Industry executives have increasingly pointed to regulatory clarity as a key reason crypto firms are choosing the UAE over jurisdictions with more fragmented or uncertain rules.
“Dubai wrote a rulebook for crypto before most jurisdictions even acknowledged the asset class,” Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in the announcement. “That clarity is why real liquidity and institutional capital now sit in the UAE,” he added.
Magazine: Crypto scammers face death, Aussie CGT makes Asian hubs attractive: Asia Express
Boerse Stuttgart, Societe Generale, flatexDEGIRO Join Forces for EU Blockchain Securities Settlement
Boerse Stuttgart Group’s tokenized securities settlement platform Seturion has partnered with Societe Generale, its crypto subsidiary SG-Forge and online broker flatexDEGIRO to build out a blockchain-based securities settlement system across Europe.
Under the plan, Societe Generale will issue tokenized structured securities, such as turbo warrants and investment certificates, on Seturion, according to a Thursday announcement. SG-Forge, which holds a Markets in Crypto-Assets authorization from French regulators, will settle transactions using its CoinVertible euro and dollar stablecoins, EURCV and USDCV.
FlatexDEGIRO, which says it serves serve 3.5 million customers across 16 countries, will also connect its retail investor flow to the platform.
Source: Societe Generale Forge
Seturion has submitted a license application to Germany’s financial regulator BaFin under the European Union’s DLT Pilot Regime, though approval is still pending, a Boerse Stuttgart representative told Cointelegraph.
Related: Europe Bitcoin Treasury Model Won’t Mirror Strategy: PBW 2026
Nasdaq’s European venues to join Seturion
Nasdaq’s European trading venues will also connect to Seturion to facilitate trading of tokenized securities settled through the platform. The two platforms previously announced a partnership in March, revealing plans to build out a broader ecosystem of issuers, brokers and financial institutions across Europe to cut settlement costs and reduce the fragmentation.
“With Seturion, we are building the European settlement platform for the unified European capital market,” said Matthias Voelkel, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Group. “As an open industry solution, Seturion contributes to overcoming Europe’s fragmented settlement landscape,” he added.
Boerse Stuttgart launched Seturion in September 2025 to replace Europe’s fragmented national settlement systems with a single open infrastructure. The platform supports public and private blockchains, settles in both central bank money and onchain cash, and is already live at BX Digital, Switzerland’s FINMA-regulated DLT trading facility.
Related: Augustus CEO says banks can’t rebuild for AI and stablecoins
European bank consortium Qivalis expands to 37 members
The Seturion deal comes as European financial institutions race to build regulated blockchain infrastructure. Qivalis, a European banking consortium building a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin, has grown to 37 member institutions after adding 25 banks across 15 countries, including ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Nordea and Intesa Sanpaolo.
The Amsterdam-based group, which is pushing to build regulated alternatives to US dollar-dominated stablecoins, is targeting a second-half 2026 launch.
Magazine: eToro founder timed Bitcoin top perfectly due to belief in 4 year cycles
Bitcoin Price Fails to Retake $78,000 as Markets Eye Nvidia Earnings
Bitcoin (BTC) halted its latest recovery at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as US traders sold off.
Key points:
- Bitcoin nears $78,000 before the US open spoils momentum, continuing a trend from earlier in the week.
- US stock markets await Nvidia earnings amid a tense macro atmosphere.
- Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium sees multi-month lows in a sign of “soft” US demand.
BTC price stops short of $78,000 ahead of Nvidia numbers
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $77,678 on Bitstamp before the US trading session sparked fresh losses.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Copying its moves from the week’s first two trading days, Bitcoin faced tailwinds as US market sentiment stayed bearish on the macroeconomic outlook.
The S&P 500 fell 1.3% before rebounding, with traders waiting for the week’s key potential volatility catalyst: Q1 earnings from tech company Nvidia.
On Monday, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter described the numbers as the “biggest earnings event of the quarter.”
Continuing, it noted the role of tech stocks in driving S&P 500 strength — even as the US-Iran war and associated inflation risk spooked other markets.
“A handful of tech stocks are driving the entire market,” it summarized in a post on X.
S&P 500 one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium reflects “soft” demand
In crypto circles, attention focused on the Coinbase Premium Index, which highlighted the ongoing lack of bullish sentiment during US trading sessions.
Related: BTC price ‘bull trap’ at $76.5K? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
The Index, which measures the difference in price between Coinbase’s BTC/USD and Binance’s BTC/USDT pairs, fell to its lowest levels since February on the day.
Commenting in one of its QuickTake blog posts, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said that spot Bitcoin demand “remains soft.”
“The latest Coinbase Premium Gap reading stands near -$66.8, meaning Bitcoin is trading at a lower price on Coinbase Pro’s USD pair compared with Binance’s USDT pair. This is deeper than the late-March reading of around -$62.6, when Bitcoin was trading near $68,000,” contributor Amr Taha wrote.
“The comparison is important because Bitcoin is now trading much higher, around $77,200, yet the Coinbase discount versus Binance is wider than it was when BTC was nearly $9,000 lower.”
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium gap (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant
Others monitored familiar trend lines, including the 21-week exponential moving average (EMA).
As Cointelegraph reported, BTC/USD reclaimed that level on weekly time frames in late April, only to lose it again this week.
“Bitcoin has Weekly Closed below the 21-week EMA (green) which technically positions price to potentially turn it into new resistance on any upcoming rebound,” trader and analyst Rekt Capital told X followers on Tuesday while analyzing the weekly chart.
“Turning the 21-week EMA into new resistance would fully confirm the breakdown from it.”
BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital/X
Bankr Disables Transactions After Hacker Accessed 14 Crypto Wallets
AI-powered crypto trading assistant Bankr said it disabled transactions after identifying an attacker who gained access to at least 14 wallets, with users reporting that as much as $150,000 in crypto was drained from some.
In an X post on Tuesday, Bankr said it was investigating reports that several wallets had been compromised and that transaction activity, including swaps, transfers and deployments, had been disabled “out of caution” while the investigation continues.
“We’ve identified an attacker was able to access 14 Bankr wallets. We’ve temporarily locked things down while we work through the details. We will be reimbursing any and all lost funds. Will provide more updates as we have them,” it added.
Bankr allows users to prompt AI to trade, transfer and launch tokens using plain language rather than a standard wallet interface. It also automatically creates a crypto wallet for every X handle that interacts with its bot. Earlier this year, someone reportedly exploited this feature and tricked Grok into requesting that Bankr launch a token, then drained funds from the token into a wallet they controlled.
Source: Bankr
Crypto hackers have been active in recent months. Bad actors stole more than $168.6 million in crypto in the first quarter. April saw the two largest hacks of the year so far: the $280 million Drift Protocol exploit at the start of the month and the $292 million Kelp exploit. More recently, Verus Protocol’s Ethereum bridge was exploited Monday.
Social engineering attack targeting bot could be to blame
SlowMist founder Yu Xian said the exploit, from Bankrbots’ own reply, was likely a social engineering scheme targeting the AI agent, adding that three identified attacker addresses collectively hold $440,000 in crypto.
“It was a social engineering exploit targeting the trust layer between automated agents—specifically an interaction between grok and Bankrbot that allowed unauthorized transaction signing,” Xian said.
Source: Yu Xian
“It seems like a combo of social engineering exploits targeting Grok + Bankrbot. Previously, the wallet-related assets allocated by Bankrbot to Grok were also stolen through a similar combo, prompt injection exploitation,” he added.
Don’t sign transactions until further notice: Bankr
Bankr has recommended that users avoid signing transactions until further notice and warned one individual that their seed phrase “is likely in the hands of an attacker.”
Bankr also said anyone with a compromised wallet should stop using it, create a new wallet, generate a new seed phrase on a clean device, move any remaining tokens or nonfungible tokens to the new address and revoke approvals if remaining assets can’t be moved.
Related: Aethir halts bridge exploit, promises compensation after $90K loss
“Attackers often use existing approvals to drain funds. Check your devices, scan your computer and phone for malware or suspicious browser extensions. If you used a software wallet, the leak likely came from your device,” Bankr added.
Losses could reportedly be up to $150,000 per wallet
Some X users reported as much as $150,000 in crypto had been drained from affected wallets.
Tech entrepreneur Austen Allred said a Bankr wallet connected to his Kelly Claude AI assistant project was among those compromised. The hacker stole Ether (ETH), but none of the project’s memecoin stash was touched.
Source: Austen Allred
“There’s no evidence anyone other than myself ever logged into the Bankr account; they must have accessed the keys some other way,” Allred added.
Magazine: The legal battle over who can claim DeFi’s stolen millions
xAI Integrates Grok AI with OpenClaw Personal Assistant
Tony Kim
May 19, 2026 20:14
xAI enables Grok AI use in OpenClaw, an open-source assistant. Here’s what it means for users and the AI ecosystem.
xAI, Elon Musk’s generative AI venture, announced that Grok AI is now compatible with OpenClaw, an open-source, privacy-focused personal assistant. Starting May 22, 2026, users with SuperGrok or X Premium subscriptions can integrate Grok into OpenClaw, enabling new functionality across messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and Discord.
OpenClaw is designed to run on local hardware, from Mac Minis to Raspberry Pis, prioritizing user control and persistent memory across sessions. With Grok integration, users can leverage xAI’s large language model (LLM) capabilities directly in OpenClaw, regardless of their subscription tier. This move potentially expands Grok’s reach beyond its existing platforms, which include X (formerly Twitter), Grok.com, and a standalone iOS app.
What’s Driving the Integration?
This integration aligns with xAI’s broader strategy to embed AI into daily workflows while addressing increasing concerns about data privacy. Unlike traditional cloud-based AI assistants, OpenClaw emphasizes local-first architecture, offering users more control over their data. This could help xAI counter regulatory scrutiny, such as bans in Malaysia and Indonesia earlier this year over Grok’s controversial AI-generated images.
The move also comes on the heels of a security breach earlier this month, where a Grok-linked crypto wallet lost 3 billion $DRB tokens in a prompt injection attack. By collaborating with an open-source platform like OpenClaw, xAI may be seeking to rebuild trust and highlight its commitment to transparency and decentralized solutions.
How to Get Started
To use Grok in OpenClaw, users can follow a straightforward setup process. OpenClaw can be installed on macOS, Linux, or Windows using a simple command-line script:
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bashOnce installed, users can onboard their Grok subscription through a guided setup, including authentication via device codes for remote installations. OpenClaw also allows users to connect directly with messaging apps, enabling seamless communication with the AI assistant.
For more detailed instructions, xAI has provided documentation on OpenClaw’s official website.
Where Does This Fit in the AI Ecosystem?
Grok’s integration with OpenClaw underscores the growing demand for customizable, local AI solutions. Open-source tools like OpenClaw offer a counterpoint to centralized AI systems, which have faced criticism for overreach and data exploitation. Grok, which already differentiates itself with real-time access to trending data on X, now gains an additional edge by entering the privacy-first, open-source market.
This development also reflects xAI’s ongoing efforts to compete with giants like OpenAI and Google while navigating a challenging regulatory and security environment. However, xAI will need to address lingering concerns, such as the indexing of private Grok conversations reported last year and the recent crypto wallet exploit, to maintain user confidence.
What’s Next?
xAI hinted at further open-source agent integrations in the pipeline, signaling that OpenClaw may not be the last platform to receive Grok capabilities. For now, users and developers curious about the potential of privacy-first AI assistants have a new tool at their disposal. Whether this moves the needle for broader adoption of Grok remains to be seen, but it clearly expands the utility of xAI’s flagship AI product.
Image source: Shutterstock
Bitcoin at ‘Crucial’ Support as US Bonds Pressure Crypto, Stocks and Gold
Bitcoin (BTC) consolidated near month-to-date lows on Tuesday as surging US bonds punished stocks and safe havens.
Key points:
- Bitcoin joins risk assets feeling the pressure from skyrocketing US bond yields.
- Catalysts, such as high oil prices, continue to impact market sentiment with the US-Iran war stakes still high.
- Bitcoin is now at a “crucial level of support,” the latest market analysis warns.
US 30-year yields reach highest since 2007
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD lingering below $77,000 around the Wall Street open while preserving the previous day’s floor.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Macro headwinds on the day continued to focus on US bond markets, with the 30-year yield hitting its highest levels since July 2007.
This sparked downside pressure on stocks, along with gold and silver. XAU/USD fell below $4,500 to reach its lowest levels since late March.
XAU/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Commenting, Ole S. Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxobank, said that bonds reflected demand for “greater compensation for holding longer-dated debt amid war-driven energy inflation and mounting concerns over widening budget deficits.”
“This development has sent gold below USD 4,500 support, highlighting the current market reaction function driven by oil, inflation expectations, bond yields, and central bank rate expectations,” he wrote in a reaction on X.
US yield curve data. Source: Ole S. Hansen/X
News that US president Donald Trump had canceled strikes on Iran offered markets little relief.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump added that gulf countries should be “prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached” on the conflict.
Source: Truth Social
Bitcoin analysis sees “crucial” support holding
In crypto circles, the outlook became gloomier. Trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe warned of a double BTC price headwind of high bond yields and high oil prices.
Related: BTC price ‘bull trap’ at $76.5K? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
“Neither of these are progressive for risk-on assets (including Bitcoin), which means that we clearly need to see those reverse in order to see strength pouring back into the ecosystem,” he told X followers.
Van de Poppe said that Bitcoin itself did not “look great.”
“Bitcoin is at a crucial level of support and it seems to be that it’s going to be holding,” a previous X post stated.
“Anything lower of $75,000-76,000 might signal that the accumulation needs to take longer.”
BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe/X
Estonia Suspends Zondacrypto Operator License
A European regulator has partially suspended the operating license of the company behind troubled crypto exchange Zondacrypto.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Estonia partially suspended the license of BB Trade Estonia OÜ, operating under the Zondacrypto brand, according to a statement on Monday.
According to the FIU, the company is now barred from accepting deposits and onboarding new clients, while existing users are still allowed to withdraw their funds.
The suspension puts BB Trade Estonia OÜ at risk of losing its operating license if it does not meet compliance requirements set by Estonian authorities.
Source: FIU
Zondacrypto faces broader regulatory scrutiny in Europe following withdrawal issues and its CEO saying that an exchange cold wallet holding about 4,500 Bitcoin ($345.9 million) was inaccessible.
A 30-day compliance window and potential license revocation
The FIU said that BB Trade Estonia OÜ has 30 days to bring its operations into compliance with legal requirements following the partial suspension of its license.
“If it fails to do so, the law obliges the FIU to revoke the operating license,” the regulator said.
The FIU did not specify what compliance breaches led to the suspension. Cointelegraph contacted the authority for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Estonia’s Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (FSA) previously issued a warning against BB Trade on May 8, saying its “TeamPL” crypto token violated the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) because it was listed without a white paper.
Zondacrypto at center of regulatory debate in Poland
The suspension comes amid broader concerns around Zondacrypto, including reported withdrawal issues and past comments by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk referencing around 30,000 potential victims linked to crypto-related losses.
Market data from CoinGecko shows little to no recent trading activity on the exchange at publishing time.
Cointelegraph was unable to reach Zondacrypto for comment, as email attempts bounced at the time of publication. Key BB Trade staff also left the company following earlier developments involving the exchange.
Founded in Poland in 2014 as BitBay, Zondacrypto has grown into a major European crypto exchange, particularly among Polish-speaking users.
Despite its Polish origins, the company has been registered in Estonia since September 2019, according to InfoRegister data, well before the EU’s MiCA regulation fully took effect in late 2024.
Source: InfoRegister
Zondacrypto has since become part of a broader regulatory debate in Poland, where officials have raised concerns about its potential links to Russian capital and political influence.
Related: Polish lawmakers back revised crypto bill after repeated vetoes
Some Polish policymakers have also criticized delays and inconsistencies in the country’s implementation of MiCA rules, even as the exchange operated under its Estonian registration.
On Tuesday, the FSA issued a MiCA license to LHV Pank, one of the country’s largest banks, making it the second financial institution in Estonia to receive approval under the EU’s crypto regulatory framework.
Magazine: eToro founder timed Bitcoin top perfectly due to belief in 4 year cycles
Pump.fun Drives Over a Third of Solana’s Q1 Revenue Despite Memecoin Slowdown
Pump.fun remained Solana’s largest revenue generator in the first quarter of 2026, pulling in $124.7 million, more than a third of the network’s $342.2 million in total app revenue, despite cooling memecoin activity.
The memecoin launchpad’s revenue rose 17% quarter over quarter, a sign that its core business remains resilient, Messari said in its Solana Q1 report.
Launchpads generated $144 million in Q1, roughly 42% of Solana’s total app revenue. A standout within the sector was Bags, whose quarterly revenue surged 1,347% to $11.5 million, fueled by a wave of AI-themed memecoins in January. The surge proved short-lived, with monthly revenue dropping 85% by February.
Solana revenue. Source: Messari
Solana’s memecoin revenue is holding up even as the network increasingly attracts a broader range of users, with major institutions like BlackRock, Visa and JPMorgan expanding their presence across its payments and tokenization ecosystem.
“Memecoins don’t define Solana,” Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, said in a recent interview.
Related: MoonPay Acquires DFlow, Adding Solana Trading Infrastructure
Trading apps, RWAs grow on Solana
Trading apps on Solana were the quarter’s strongest-growing sector overall, with revenue rising 40% to $79 million. Axiom led the pack at $42.4 million, making it the second-highest revenue-generating app on the network.
Elsewhere, Solana’s real-world asset market cap crossed $2 billion, up 43% in the quarter, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL doubling to $525 million after Anchorage Digital added custody support.
DeFi total value locked fell 22% to $6.16 billion, though Messari researchers attributed the decline largely to SOL’s 33% price drop rather than user exits. The network’s share of total DeFi TVL remained roughly flat at 6.7%.
RWAs grow on Solana, fueled by institutional inflows. Source: Messari
On the infrastructure side, the focus is on Alpenglow, a sweeping consensus upgrade targeting the Agave 4.1 release. If it ships as planned, the upgrade would cut Solana’s transaction finality from around 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds.
Related: Solana Clients Introduce Post-Quantum Solution Falcon
Goldman Sachs exits Solana positions
As Cointelegraph reported, Goldman Sachs exited its Solana ETF positions in Q1 2026, dropping stakes in funds from Grayscale, Bitwise and Fidelity.
Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, also nearly wiped out its Solana position in Q1 2026, slashing its stake in Bitwise’s Solana ETF from 266,320 shares to just 2,817, even as it more than doubled its total crypto holdings to $235 million by piling into Bitcoin ETFs from ARK 21Shares and BlackRock.
Market Moves: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signs
AAVE Price Prediction: $95 Target Within 7 Days as DeFi Token Tests Critical Support
Darius Baruo
May 19, 2026 10:35
AAVE sits precariously at $88.54, hugging Bollinger Band support with bearish momentum stalling. Technical bounce toward $95 has 65% probability if $87 support holds, but break below triggers deepe…
AAVE’s Technical Reality Check
AAVE is painting a classic oversold bounce setup at $88.54, sitting dangerously close to the lower Bollinger Band at $86.76. With RSI at 39.19, we’re in that sweet spot where momentum hasn’t cratered completely but sellers are clearly exhausted. The MACD histogram flatlining at zero tells the real story – bearish pressure is losing steam without any real bullish conviction emerging yet.
Trading 6% below the 20-day SMA at $93.99, AAVE has created a technical gap that screams mean reversion. The Bollinger Band position at 0.12 shows we’re essentially kissing the lower boundary, historically a strong bounce zone for this token. However, the price action remains trapped well below all major moving averages, creating resistance layers that will challenge any upward move in Blockchain.news technical analysis patterns.
Volume & Price Alignment
The $14.4 million in 24-hour Binance volume tells a story of selective selling rather than panic capitulation. At just 0.50% daily gains despite testing support, AAVE is showing resilience that suggests smart money isn’t dumping aggressively. The narrow trading range between $87.08-$90.11 indicates consolidation rather than distribution.
Stochastic indicators at %K 11.37 and %D 9.09 are deeply oversold, creating conditions ripe for a technical bounce. The key resistance cluster between $90.07 (immediate) and $91.61 (strong) represents the battleground where any recovery will be tested. Volume patterns suggest buyers are waiting for clearer signals before committing significant capital.
Market Context and Sentiment
Current price action reflects broader DeFi sector consolidation, with institutional interest remaining measured rather than aggressive. The absence of major protocol announcements or significant whale movements suggests AAVE is trading purely on technical factors rather than fundamental catalysts.
Market structure remains fragmented, with no clear directional bias from major trading desks. The token’s behavior mirrors broader altcoin patterns, where technical levels dictate short-term movements more than Blockchain.news fundamental developments in the decentralized finance ecosystem.
Forward Price Path
The probability matrix favors a technical bounce to $95 within 7 days at 65% odds, assuming the $87.04 immediate support level holds firm. This target aligns with the gap fill toward the 7-day SMA at $92.13, with momentum carrying through to test the psychological $95 level.
Downside scenario carries 35% probability, triggered by a break below $87 support that would target the strong support at $85.55 before potentially extending to $82. The 14-day ATR of $5.02 suggests any move will be volatile, creating opportunities for nimble traders.
For the 30-day outlook, technical models point to a range-bound environment between $82-$98 until broader DeFi sector catalysts emerge. The 200-day SMA at $137.64 remains the ultimate bullish target, but that requires a fundamental shift in market structure that isn’t visible in current data.
Image source: Shutterstock