🏦 Global central banks scooped up 244 tons of gold in Q1 2026, the highest figure in five quarters. Poland, Uzbekistan, and China are leading the acquisitions.
🌏 Gustavo Petro talked about bitcoin mining, warning that if fossil fuels are used, it could worsen the climate crisis, but emphasized that with clean energy, it can attract investment and generate growth.
⚠️ Strategy might short bitcoin to pay dividends.
Michael Saylor stated that the company is considering using part of its BTC reserves to fund STRC payments if necessary. This would be a shift from its historical stance of not selling its holdings in the digital currency.
📈 Bitcoin is hovering around USD 82,000, driven by a potential thaw in the Middle East conflict, reaching levels not seen since January.
🤝 The uptick is a response to the pause of the "Project Freedom" in the U.S. and Iran's willingness to strike a "fair and comprehensive" diplomatic deal.
🛢 Goldman Sachs warns that global oil reserves would drop below 100 days by the end of May.
🚢 The crisis is sparked by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime corridor through which 20% of the world's oil flows.
Now Bitcoin is flirting with the $81,500 mark. This level, as we reported earlier, represents a crucial price point as it is the average price for those who have accumulated in the short term.
📊 CME Group will launch Bitcoin volatility futures on June 1, a new derivative that will allow trading directly on the asset's fluctuations without exposing oneself to its price.
🚀 Zcash (ZEC) is skyrocketing in the market and trading between $500 and $520, with surges of up to 20% in 24 hours.
The momentum comes from renewed interest in privacy coins, the entry of institutional players, and increased activity in private transactions within the network.
🇻🇪 USDT is trading above 650 bolívars in Venezuela. The adjustment narrows the exchange gap to less than 6.5% compared to the banking rate (611 bolívars). The dollar from the Central Bank of Venezuela, on the other hand, has surged over 60% this year. Its gap relative to USDT is around 32%.
🚀 Companies scooped up over 50,300 bitcoins in Q1 2026, marking an unprecedented institutional adoption. This isn't just noise; it's strategic positioning that tightens supply and strengthens the actual bitcoin balance.
This figure is the net result of those trades, accounting for both BTC buys and sells.
💸 Tetra Digital Group launched CADD, the first Canadian stablecoin backed 1:1 by CAD and issued by a regulated financial institution. It's already trading on Base and Ethereum, with a soon-to-come launch on Solana.
👉🏻 World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project of the Trumps, countersues Justin Sun for defamation. They accuse him of using bots and "lies" to tank the WLFI token after the freeze on their assets.
1📈 The founder of Tron, Justin Sun, files a lawsuit against the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial.
"They unjustly froze all my tokens, stripped me of my right to vote on governance proposals, and threatened to permanently destroy my tokens". #regulacion
🧑💻A hacker stole approximately USD 200,000 in DRB tokens from a wallet linked to Grok on the Ethereum Base network. To pull this off, they manipulated the AI agent Bankr by sending a message in Morse code which, when decoded, instructed to execute the transfer.
DTCC will kick off a pilot phase in July with tokenized assets alongside over 50 firms like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan. The full launch is slated for October.
📉 Bitcoin dropped from the $80,000 level reached early this morning, Monday, May 4th.
⚓️ There's uncertainty in the markets due to reports of a supposed Iranian attack on a U.S. vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, a claim denied by Washington.
📉 Strategy pauses its weekly buy of Bitcoin ahead of the financial results report set to be released tomorrow, May 5th.
El Salvador targets holding 8,000 Bitcoin in reserves after acquiring 1,633 coins in just over a year. With a treasury valued at over $600 million, the country strengthens its long-term vision with BTC. 🚀📈
The **Solana** ecosystem is at a technical inflection point this May 2026, focusing on two key pillars: **Alpenglow** and **Firedancer**.
While the promise of performance is massive, the market remains cautious due to price action and the need to test stability under real fire.
Here’s the breakdown of what’s happening:
### 1. The Technical Upgrade: The Leap to "Alpenglow" The **Alpenglow** consensus upgrade is the most radical change since the network's inception. Its goal is to transform Solana from a "very fast" network to an "institutional-grade" one: * **Instant Finality:** Aims to reduce confirmation time to **100-150 milliseconds**.
* **Goodbye TowerBFT:** Replaces old components with a more agile system that improves execution under extreme loads. * **Firedancer on Mainnet:** The client developed by Jump Crypto is already live, raising the theoretical ceiling to over **1 million TPS**, eliminating the "single point of failure" that having a single validation client represented.
### 2. The Market "Wall" Despite these advances, the current sentiment is **bearish or neutral** for several reasons: * **Price Trapped:** SOL is currently trading around **$83 - $85**, facing strong resistance at the 20-day moving average. For a real bullish confirmation, analysts are looking for a solid close above **$118 (200-day SMA)**.
* **Sentiment Divergence:** While the "whales" (smart money) maintain long positions (75%), retail traders are showing selling pressure, which often precedes aggressive volatility (squeeze).
* **Real Adoption vs. Speculation:** The market demands to see the impact of partnerships like **Western Union** (which plans to launch its stablecoin on Solana this semester) before validating a new push towards $150.
▶️The 2017 cycle had 9 monthly red candlesticks before the bottom
The 2021 cycle had 9 monthly red candlesticks before the bottom
Bitcoin is currently on 5 monthly red candlesticks
This is a very interesting technical observation about Bitcoin's historical cyclicality. What you're analyzing is commonly referred to as **"Time Capitulation"**, where the market purges excess optimism through a prolonged bearish trend. Here's a breakdown of what that data tells us and the current context: ### Candlestick Series Analysis The "9 candlestick" pattern in 2017 and 2021 (which actually represent the bear markets of 2018 and 2022 respectively) suggests that the price needs a period of constant "pain" to reset technical indicators and investor sentiment. * **2018 (Post-2017):** The bottom was found after a vertical drop that culminated at $3,200. * **2022 (Post-2021):** The bottom consolidated around $15,500 after the collapse of several crypto ecosystems. * **Current Cycle (2025-2026):** If history were to repeat itself exactly and we needed 9 red candlesticks, we would be just a little over halfway through the corrective phase. ### Key Points to Consider: 1. **Diminishing Returns:** Historically, each Bitcoin cycle tends to be less volatile than the previous one. This could mean that corrections don't necessarily have to be as long or deep as in the past. 2. **Institutional Context:** Unlike in 2018, today there is institutional buying pressure (ETFs and corporate treasuries) that usually acts as a stronger "floor" during prolonged drops. 3. **The Halving Factor:** Price behavior often pivots around Halving events. We are entering a phase where, technically, the supply shock should start to become noticeable, which could "break" the streak of red candlesticks before reaching the ninth.
Top crypto news of the week: Bitcoin: Driven by corporate buys, Regulation: Panama-El Salvador meeting, Canada: Proposal to ban crypto ATMs and more
What were the crypto news highlights this week? Let's recap what happened with Bitcoin, blockchain, and the ecosystem so we don't miss a beat. Everything about the last seven days is right here!
It's been a busy week for the ecosystem! It seems the crypto board is being reshaped between massive institutional adoption and increasingly strict regulations in the West.
Here’s a summary of the key milestones from the last seven days:
## 🚀 Bitcoin: The "fever" of corporate treasuries
Bitcoin has maintained a steady bullish pressure, hovering around **$77,000 - $80,000**. The big driver this week hasn’t been retail traders, but corporations:
* **Institutional hoarding:** Data reveals that corporations are buying Bitcoin at a rate **2.8 times higher** than mining production.
* **Relentless strategy:** Companies like **Strategy Inc.** (led by Michael Saylor) have solidified their position, with massive buys that now account for nearly **3% of the total BTC supply**.
* **Scarcity effect:** With reserves on exchanges at their lowest levels since 2018 (just 2.3 million BTC), any uptick in corporate demand is causing sharp price swings.
## 🤝 Regulation: The Panama-El Salvador axis In Latin America, the narrative remains one of integration and sharing experiences:
* **Bilateral cooperation:** Meetings between regulators from **Panama and El Salvador** have intensified.
While El Salvador continues to bolster its national reserve (now exceeding **7,600 BTC**), Panama is looking to define a framework that attracts investment without losing its focus on financial transparency and anti-money laundering (AML) controls.
🚀 Grayscale Research points out that asset tokenization could shift over USD 300 trillion towards public and institutional networks, benefiting projects like Ethereum, Solana, Canton, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Chainlink.
- The price is still respecting the support around ~$74k, the same significant zone as in 2024 and 2025. - The pattern resembles previous rallies, with an increase in OI alongside SPOT buys pushing the price upwards. - There’s resistance from $79.5k to $80.0k that we’ll likely target next week.
IMHO: Breaking through $80k for Bitcoin won't be easy, as the options market is betting against it. $74k remains a crucial support level.