Between May 18 and May 22, spot bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of $1.26 billion, while spot ether ETFs logged $216 million in withdrawals. Over the same period, inflows went to spot XRP ETFs ($22 million), solana ETFs ($15.6 million), and HYPE ETFs ($72.4 million), pointing to a rotation into alternative crypto-themed products.

Iranian officials arrived in Doha on May 25, 2026, to hold high-level discussions with U.S. counterparts on a peace framework that also covers the Strait of Hormuz. Markets reacted with Brent crude down roughly 4%–6% to about $95–$97 per barrel, while bitcoin traded near $77,699 and was up 1.47% over 24 hours.

Texas voters will decide two runoff primaries on Tuesday, with crypto-aligned groups spending millions on media in races involving Al Green vs. Christian Menefee and John Cornyn vs. Ken Paxton. Protect Progress reported $5 million in support of Menefee and $2.8 million in ads opposing Green, while Fellowship PAC reported a $500,000 spend backing Paxton. On Kalshi, users priced Menefee at 91% and Paxton at 96%, with the Senate runoff seeing more than $16 million in total volume.

Strategy paused its usual Monday Bitcoin purchase again and said it will redirect resources toward bond-related balance sheet actions. The company pointed to a planned repurchase of $1.5B of debt due in 2029, while it reported no new STRC sales over the past week as the preferred stock traded below its ATM level. MSTR shares slipped to $159.89 and BTC was last cited at $77,216 as investors weighed dividend obligations and funding questions.

At the 2026 Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific FinTech Conference, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said tokenization could move traditional assets onto blockchain faster than markets anticipate, citing atomic settlement and 24/7 trading as key drivers. He pointed to a tokenized Treasury market that has exceeded $2Bn and referenced projects across Asia-Pacific and Europe, framing Bybit as infrastructure for bridging banking access and on-chain liquidity.

Evercore ISI strategists say prediction markets are most useful when contracts have high trading volume, short time to expiration, and simple questions with clear resolution rules. In a May 17 report, they argued higher-volume contracts tend to generate more dependable probabilities than thin markets, while markets closer to termination often show stronger signals. They also cautioned that many markets remain low-volume and can be distorted by mixed trader motives or large orders in shallow markets.

From May 18 to May 22, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.257 billion in net outflows, while Ethereum ETFs posted about $216 million in redemptions over the same window. In contrast, DRAM, a memory chip ETF launched on April 2, amassed more than $6.5 billion in 27 trading sessions and later topped $10 billion within 30 sessions, rising over 84% since inception.

On May 25, 2026, Tether said it invested in remittance fintech LemFi to broaden USDT-based cross-border settlement services across Africa and Asia. LemFi will integrate USDT settlement rails into its payments stack to reduce reliance on traditional networks such as SWIFT, while the investment size was not disclosed.