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According to Jinshi reports, Goldman Sachs President Waldron stated that the Federal Reserve, under the leadership of Waller, will mainly focus on the balance sheet and inflation issues.

According to Jinshi reports, Wall Street traders expect a strong employment report to be released on Friday, but fluctuations in oil prices have shifted attention more towards inflation issues. Crude oil prices continue to rise, and the stock market is performing steadily. Traders are concerned about the persistence of inflationary pressures and the Federal Reserve's response, anticipating that the Fed's interest rate decision in June will be the most important event for the S&P 500 index in the coming month. Data from Citigroup shows that the options market expects the index to fluctuate by 0.6% on Friday.

According to Fortune, the crypto-focused venture capital firm Variant has completed the fundraising of its new fund, Variant 4, totaling $222 million. The fund will invest in projects at their earliest stages, focusing on the theme of "autonomy" to integrate AI and crypto applications.Partner Jesse Walden stated that in the future, the label "crypto investor" will disappear, and crypto will become a universal "underlying pipeline" like internet infrastructure. The core is to provide users and businesses with greater autonomy and security through decentralized and contract security architecture, supporting the development of applications including DeFi platforms Uniswap and Morpho.

According to Jin Shi, citing the Iranian Students News Agency, a member of Iran's National Security and Foreign Policy Council, Khosravi, stated that the current focus of the negotiations is to completely end the war. The nuclear issue has been excluded from the negotiating table. Negotiations are still ongoing, but no final agreement has been reached yet.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve official Kashkari stated that the data still makes me more concerned about inflation risks.

According to The Block, the publicly listed company Sequans Communications in Paris, France, announced the completion of all convertible debt redemptions related to Bitcoin reserves, selling approximately 80% of its Bitcoin holdings to repay the debt, and currently only 658 BTC remain, which are fully unrestricted.The company's CEO Georges Karam stated that this move marks a strengthening of the company's balance sheet and a simplification of its capital structure, and in the future, the company will fully focus on the scaled expansion of its 4G/5G IoT semiconductor, RF transceiver, and defense wireless application businesses.

According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, there has been a significant style shift in global stock markets, with funds rotating from growth sectors to value and defensive assets. The Dow Jones Index rose by 2.22%, and labor market data remains resilient. Macroeconomic indicators show a divergence, with the composite PMI preliminary value rising to a two-year high of 54.4, but input cost pressures still exist. Coupled with the ongoing impact of high interest rates on real estate activity, the economy overall presents a structural state of coexistence between expansion and pressure. The cryptocurrency market has slightly retreated, with BTC down 0.5% and ETH down 1.6%; the total market capitalization declined by 0.4%, remaining flat compared to last week, and market sentiment is in a moderate recovery phase.At the asset and industry level, the top 30 assets averaged a rise of 4.2%, with HYPE and ZEC leading the performance, influenced by factors such as ecosystem expansion, liquidity improvement, and easing regulatory uncertainty. In terms of industry dynamics, on-chain infrastructure and the compliance process continue to advance, with active financing and product iteration in areas such as prediction markets, on-chain derivatives, and payment networks. In terms of investment and financing, a total of 24 transactions were completed last week, disclosing a total financing amount of approximately $532.6 million, with infrastructure and DeFi being the main sectors of flow, and Kalshi securing a single financing of $200 million.Additionally, Variational completed a $50 million Series A financing, AEON completed $8 million in pre-seed financing, while infrastructure and social blocks recorded 12 and 6 transactions, respectively. Overall, against the backdrop of macro volatility and market divergence, capital allocation continues to trend towards long-term infrastructure and real application scenarios.

YZi Labs announced the launch of its flagship global incubation program EASY Residency Season 4 (S4), with the application deadline set for June 21. This 10-week founder program adopts a "5 weeks online + 5 weeks offline in Bhutan" model, with the offline phase taking place in the newly established special administrative region of Glimpse Mindfulness City in Bhutan. Selected projects can receive up to $500,000 in investment, including a $150,000 SAFE agreement for 5% equity and a $3.5 million unlimited SAFE agreement, with founders' accommodation, meals, and workspace costs fully covered during their stay in Bhutan.This round of incubation focuses on the fields of Web3, AI, and biotechnology, including global payments, Agentic Economy, next-generation DeFi, AI infrastructure, AI × healthcare biotechnology, and Web3 × healthcare biotechnology. The mentor lineup includes Zhao Changpeng, He Yi, and Balaji, among others.

According to CoinDesk, approximately $6.25 billion in Bitcoin options contracts will expire on May 29, with a strike price of $75,000 gathering the largest put position with a notional value of about $394 million, while the $80,000 strike price has the largest call position of about $532 million. The current maximum pain point is at $75,000, which is about 3% lower than the current Bitcoin price of $77,250. Data shows that this expiration involves a total of 80,535 contracts, with 43,184 call options and 37,351 put options, resulting in a Put/Call Ratio of 0.86, indicating that the market overall still leans towards a moderately bullish outlook.It is worth noting that the Bitcoin call option expiring on May 29, 2026, with a strike price of $82,000 became the most actively traded single option product on Thursday, with about 1,600 contracts traded and a notional value of approximately $126 million, indicating that some traders are betting on a breakout for Bitcoin.

According to BizWatch, FocusAI, the largest shareholder of Busan Digital Asset Exchange, is seeking to acquire Flybit, which is also a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea. It is reported that the two companies are in the final stages of discussions regarding the details of the transaction, which includes the sale of shares held by Flybit's CEO and largest shareholder Kim Seok-jin.Flybit was registered as a virtual asset service provider in 2021 but exited the KRW-denominated market due to its failure to establish the required real-name account partnerships with banks.

According to Ventureburn, Mouro Capital, the fintech venture capital fund under Santander Bank, announced the completion of its first round of fundraising for its third fund, raising $400 million. The investor is also Santander Bank. This fund will prioritize investments in areas such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, capital markets, and wealth management, aiming to enter the deep intersection of financial services, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software.It is reported that Mouro Capital had previously co-invested in the DeFi platform M^ZERO.

Gate Europe CEO Dr. Giovanni Cunti attended the VI3NNA Congress 2026 and delivered a keynote speech titled "The Role of Exchanges and Stablecoins." The conference was held from May 19 to 20 in Vienna, Austria, bringing together industry representatives from Web3, AI, finance, and regulation to discuss the future development direction of the European digital economy.Giovanni Cunti's speech analyzed the popularization of stablecoin applications, industry development trends, and how blockchain financial infrastructure is gradually reshaping the traditional financial market landscape. It focused on how crypto asset service providers, including Gate Europe, are transitioning from meeting user needs to playing a key role in driving industry structure and future market development. In addition to the keynote speech, Giovanni Cunti also participated in several roundtable discussions, engaging with policymakers, financial institutions, investors, and industry innovators on topics such as digital asset regulation, infrastructure development, and real market implementation.Currently, Gate's Malta company, Gate Europe, has obtained European MiCA and PI licenses under the regulation of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). As the industry continues to move towards compliance and institutional development, Gate is actively participating in global key industry dialogues and promoting the long-term development of the digital asset ecosystem.

According to official news, the online presentation "Build the Next Era: How HTX Genesis Empowers Web3 and AI Innovators," hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI, and co-hosted by TinTinLand and OpenCity, will be held on May 21 at 20:00 UTC+8.At that time, HTX DAO ambassador Molly, HTX DAO Core Builder Helium, independent developer Fengda, 0G Asia-Pacific head JT, TinTinLand co-founder Zhiyuan, HTX DAO governance committee member DaDa, and HTX Ventures senior investment analyst Jenny will be invited to attend, focusing on the integration trends of Web3 and AI, and discussing how to utilize ecological resources, financial support, and more to build a growth bridge for the new generation of Web3 and AI builders, seizing innovative opportunities in the new cycle.

Mastercard has abandoned its investment plan for the cryptocurrency infrastructure company Zerohash, which had previously agreed in March to acquire the UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for $1.8 billion. Mastercard had considered a strategic investment in Chicago-based Zerohash in January of this year. At that time, Zerohash was seeking to raise $250 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, while the company is currently advancing a new funding round at a higher valuation. Founded in 2017, Zerohash primarily provides APIs and developer tools for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized products.Meanwhile, recent transactions involving Kraken's parent company Payward and Bullish indicate that consolidation in the digital asset infrastructure sector is ongoing. In terms of stablecoin payment arrangements, Mastercard has acquired BVNK for $1.8 billion and may pay an additional $300 million in performance-based compensation. BVNK currently serves payment and payroll platforms like Worldpay and Deel for cross-border payments, fund settlement, and financial management.Mastercard plans to integrate BVNK's technology into its Mastercard Move network to support 24/7 stablecoin settlement for payment institutions and merchant acquirers, and to explore adding stablecoin checkout functionality in payment gateways. Analysts believe that this transaction will further intensify the competition between Mastercard and Visa in the networked strategy of payment networks and accelerate the evolution of traditional cross-border clearing systems towards stablecoin settlement models.

According to Reuters, three insiders revealed that a fund management company based in Hong Kong is planning to launch a new hedge fund to capitalize on the growing interest of investors in Asian artificial intelligence stocks, focusing on the markets in Taiwan and Japan. Kuark Capital, led by Kyle Su, has already raised at least $400 million in funding before the official launch of the hedge fund. One of the sources stated that the three insiders requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

According to Axios, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Playground Global has completed fundraising of $475 million for a new fund, which will focus on investing in startups in the fields of artificial intelligence, automation, advanced computing, and deep tech.Playground Global was founded by Android co-founder Andy Rubin and others, and has long focused on AI infrastructure, robotics, and hardware innovation. This new fund indicates that, driven by the surge in generative AI and automation, capital continues to pour into the frontier technology sector.Playground Global is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and previously completed fundraising of $410 million for its third fund in 2022. Its investment portfolio includes companies such as Agility Robotics, PsiQuantum, Skydio, Ultima Genomics, Virta Health, and Unconventional AI.

According to Decrypt, the cryptocurrency technology company Quantography Labs has announced the launch of the early access version of the cryptocurrency wallet Lock.com. This product uses "Isolated Signing" and an Air-Gapped architecture, enabling offline private key management without the need for dedicated hardware wallet devices.The official statement indicates that Lock.com separates the signing environment from the network broadcasting environment: private keys are always stored in a completely offline device, while transactions are created and broadcast on a connected device, thus avoiding private key exposure to the internet. The platform emphasizes that users can directly use existing devices without relying on third-party hardware manufacturers or supply chains. Additionally, Lock.com integrates post-quantum cryptography architecture, including ML-DSA digital signatures and ML-KEM key encapsulation mechanisms, to enhance security in future quantum computing environments.Quantography Labs stated that the current early access phase is mainly used to collect user feedback and prepare for a subsequent full launch.

According to CoinDesk, Nasdaq-listed company SUI Group and London hedge fund Karatage jointly led a $15 million financing round for Nof1, an AI research lab focused on financial markets. The two previously also partnered with TwinPath Ventures to invest in Recursive Superintelligence, a self-evolving AI startup valued at over $4 billion.Both investments are based on the same core judgment: autonomous AI agents will become the core infrastructure of the investment field in the future, and companies that establish training environments today may dominate the future financial landscape.

The crypto data platform Dune Analytics announced a major restructuring on Thursday, cutting 25% of its workforce while shifting its strategic focus to two main areas: AI-driven data tools and the on-chain asset adoption by financial institutions. The company stated that it is well-funded and emphasized that it has built a complete end-to-end technology stack for crypto data infrastructure, covering data collection, quality assurance, storage, cleaning, standardization, and querying. Its core product, Dune MCP, allows teams and agents to build dashboards and workflows without the need for SQL knowledge or managing data infrastructure costs.Dune stated that it currently serves almost all leading crypto companies and is expanding to large financial institution clients to address the trend of traditional assets such as currencies, stocks, bonds, and commodities migrating on-chain. Since its establishment in 2018, Dune has experienced multiple market cycles, and this restructuring reflects a broader trend in the industry towards institutional-grade infrastructure and AI integration tools.