Key Highlights

• ASST experiences pre-market gains following Strive’s addition of 444 BTC to corporate reserves.

• Company’s Bitcoin reserves exceed 15,000 BTC milestone after $33.9M acquisition.

• Average acquisition price reaches $76,307 per Bitcoin in recent treasury transaction.

• Company announces 18.7% year-to-date BTC Yield amid ongoing treasury expansion.

• SATA preferred stock issuance reinforces Bitcoin-centered capital allocation framework.

Shares of Strive Asset Management (ASST) experienced upward movement in pre-market hours following the company’s announcement of Bitcoin treasury expansion beyond the 15,000 BTC threshold. Trading at $16.54 during pre-market sessions, ASST registered a 1.13% increase from its previous closing price of $16.36. This acquisition reinforces Strive’s commitment to its Bitcoin-centered capital allocation approach.

Strive, Inc., ASST

Company Acquires 444 Bitcoin in Recent Treasury Expansion

Strive completed a purchase of 444 Bitcoin valued at approximately $33.9 million, based on recent SEC documentation. The transaction averaged $76,307 per Bitcoin. As a result, the firm’s aggregate Bitcoin reserves have crossed the 15,000 BTC threshold.

This acquisition comes on the heels of a significant April 24 disclosure, when Strive reported holdings of 14,557 BTC following a 789 Bitcoin purchase at $77,890 each. The recent transaction marks a continuation of the company’s sustained accumulation pattern over several months.

Strive now maintains one of the most substantial publicly held corporate Bitcoin treasuries. The estimated market value of its Bitcoin position approaches $1.2 billion, positioning the company among enterprises utilizing Bitcoin as a fundamental balance sheet component.

ASST Shares Advance Following Treasury Announcement

Following the Bitcoin treasury disclosure, ASST stock demonstrated positive momentum. Pre-market trading showed a 1.13% uptick after marginal gains in the prior session. The market response indicates heightened investor focus on Strive’s capital framework.

Current disclosures reveal 15,000 Bitcoin in reserves alongside a quarter-to-date BTC yield of 4.3%. The firm’s year-to-date BTC yield stands at 18.7%. SATA issuance for April 2026 totaled 584,730 shares, representing a 43% amplification ratio.

Management has centered its approach on Bitcoin per share metrics, which serve as the foundation for capital deployment and treasury development. Consequently, the company continues aligning balance sheet growth with Bitcoin acquisition and structured financing mechanisms.

Preferred Stock Instrument Reinforces Bitcoin Treasury Framework

Strive’s regulatory filings revealed $97.9 million in cash and cash equivalents. Additionally, the company disclosed a $50.4 million allocation in Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, connecting Strive to Strategy-linked preferred equity instruments.

In January 2026, Strive completed a $225 million preferred stock raise that was significantly oversubscribed, with demand surpassing $600 million. The instrument offered an approximately 13% annualized yield. Furthermore, company statements indicated the product maintained its peg throughout a significant Bitcoin price correction.

The company bolstered its Bitcoin position through the January 2026 acquisition of Semler Scientific, which elevated Strive’s reported holdings to 12,798 BTC at that time. Subsequently, the firm has accumulated over 2,200 additional BTC, substantially enhancing its corporate treasury footprint.

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz said on May 5, 2026, that his remaining crypto exposure is now almost fully tied to XRP and Ripple equity. 

His comment came during a fresh online discussion about investment choices and XRP loyalty. Schwartz wrote: “Yeah, that’s true now. I have virtually no crypto exposure left except XRP and Ripple.” He also said the position was not fully planned, adding: “I’m not sure I really planned it that way, though.”

Despite his concentrated exposure, Schwartz did not present XRP-only investing as a general rule. He said diversification can make sense when an investor believes a sector may grow but cannot yet identify the clear winners.

“I think it’s rational to spread investment throughout a space if you think that space is likely to be successful in the future and don’t believe that you can personally pick the winners and the losers yet,” He wrote.

His comments place his personal portfolio apart from his broader market view. Schwartz said he now holds little crypto outside XRP, but his explanation showed that he still sees a case for spreading risk across a sector.

Recent XRP debates add context

The comment followed several recent debates involving Schwartz, XRP expectations and older public posts. As noted in our May 3 coverage, Schwartz denied claims that a gag order or non-disclosure agreement controls his comments about Ripple or XRP. He said no NDA forces him to mislead the XRP community.

Moreover, Schwartz also questioned extreme XRP price forecasts. He argued that if wealthy investors saw even a small chance of XRP reaching $10,000, they would likely push the price much higher today.

As outlined in our May 1 article, Schwartz said old XRP comments about liquidity were not a promise of future price levels. He said the debate was about market depth and transaction size, not a guaranteed target.

Old comments remain in focus

In our April 27 update, we covered Schwartz’s response to claims that he misled XRP holders with a 2017 discussion about XRP price and liquidity. He said the post explained how liquidity works when large transfers move through a market.

As highlighted in our April 24 article, Schwartz also rejected claims that XRP has hidden government or central bank deals. He said Ripple’s non-disclosure agreements relate to normal business activity, not secret XRP adoption plans.

At press time, Ripple’s native token (XRP) traded at around $1.4, up slightly in the past 24 hours and over 1% in the past 7 days (per crypto.news data)

Bullish (BLSH) has agreed to acquire transfer agent and shareholder services firm Equiniti in a $4.25 billion deal that would fold a core piece of traditional market infrastructure into its digital asset platform, expanding its push into tokenized securities.

The transaction gives Bullish, CoinDesk’s parent company, a regulated transfer agent, a required function for public companies, alongside its existing tokenization, trading and market infrastructure capabilities.

Equiniti maintains records for more than 2,500 companies and 20 million shareholders and processes roughly $500 billion in annual payments, effectively acting as a system of record for equity ownership.

Combined, the companies aim to offer an end-to-end platform covering token design, issuance, compliance, registry and secondary trading, addressing what Bullish sees as a key gap in blockchain-based capital markets: the lack of a transfer agent built for tokenized assets.

“Tokenization is a once-in-a-generation shift in how capital markets operate, the defining infrastructure trend of the next 25 years,” said Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish, in the release.

“Broad adoption at institutional scale requires three things: end-to-end tokenization services, a single, unified ledger, and issuer relationships at scale. This combination delivers all three, and I believe it uniquely positions us to lead the transition to tokenized securities,” he added.

The deal comes as traditional financial services providers continue to push into tokenizing securities. Most recently, BlackRock-backed Securitize and Computershare said they plan to bring parts of the $70 trillion U.S. stock market onchain via tokenized equities, a move that pushes traditional infrastructure closer to blockchain rails.

M&A wave

Bullish’s acquisition of Equiniti also lands amid a broader wave of consolidation sweeping crypto, as firms race to build full-stack financial infrastructure.

After a lull in 2022–2023, mergers and acquisitions rebounded sharply in 2025, with more than 260 deals totaling about $8.6 billion, according to Pitchbook data. The amount is roughly four times the prior year, driven by clearer regulation and renewed institutional interest.

Companies are increasingly using acquisitions to fill capability gaps in areas like custody, payments, tokenization and derivatives, while larger players absorb smaller firms to scale distribution and compliance. High-profile transactions—from Kraken’s move into regulated derivatives to MoonPay’s push into payments infrastructure, underscore a shift away from speculative bets toward vertical integration and durable revenue models, a trend expected to continue into 2026.

The deal positions Bullish, which went public last year, to connect traditional equity infrastructure with blockchain rails, enabling features like real-time cap table visibility, automated corporate actions and faster settlement, while supporting liquidity in tokenized shares, particularly for non-U.S. investors.

At $4.25 billion, the Equiniti acquisition would rank among the largest crypto-linked deals ever, surpassing Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion NinjaTrader deal. The size underscores how crypto M&A has moved beyond exchanges buying exchanges and into a land grab for regulated financial infrastructure.

Bullish’s last acquisition prior to the Equiniti deal was its 2023 purchase of CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, marking its entry into media, data and index services alongside its trading business. In 2024, it also acquired data provider CCData, a U.K.-regulated benchmark administrator and one of the leading providers of digital asset data and index solutions.

The Equiniti acquisition is expected to close in early 2027, pending regulatory approvals.

Goldman Sachs served as the financial advisor to Bullish, while Evercore and FT Partners advised Siris Capital, a founding investor in Equiniti since 2021.

Read more: Kraken’s parent company Payward to acquire derivatives exchange Bitnomial for $550 million in cash and stock

Ethereum price is showing early signs of a confirmed breakout after pushing above a short-term consolidation pattern that had capped gains over the past week.

According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) climbed around 1% over the past day, trading near $2,370 at press time. The token recently rebounded from lows near $2,300 and has started to build momentum after reclaiming the mid-range zone.

On the daily chart, Ethereum appears to have broken out of a bull flag pattern, typically considered a continuation setup that forms after a strong upward move followed by a period of consolidation. The breakout above the upper trendline suggests that buyers are regaining control after several sessions of sideways movement.

The move comes as ETH holds firmly above the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level near $2,381, which has acted as a key support zone in recent sessions. Sustained strength above this level could reinforce the bullish structure and open the door for further upside.

If momentum continues, the next immediate resistance lies around the $2,400 to $2,460 region, which has repeatedly rejected price advances over the past few weeks. A clean break above this range could accelerate the move toward the 50% retracement level near $2,577, followed by the 38.2% level around $2,772.

Beyond that, the broader measured move from the flag structure points to a potential upside target near the $2,800 to $3,000 zone, aligning with a key psychological level that traders are closely watching.

Momentum indicators are also beginning to tilt in favor of the bulls. The MACD is approaching a bullish crossover on the daily timeframe, suggesting a possible shift toward upward momentum. Meanwhile, the RSI is trending higher and holding above the neutral 50 level, indicating strengthening buying pressure without yet entering overbought territory.

The broader structure also shows Ethereum trading within a larger descending channel, with the current breakout attempt pushing toward the upper boundary of that range. A decisive move above this long-term resistance could further validate the bullish outlook and signal a trend reversal.

While the setup points to growing upside potential, failure to hold above the $2,300 support zone could invalidate the breakout and bring ETH back into its previous consolidation range.

Haun Ventures has raised $1 billion to back crypto startups across early and late stages, marking a strategic expansion into artificial intelligence for the first time. The fund centers on three pillars—crypto financial infrastructure, tokenization, and AI agents—an approach founder Katie Haun calls part of the “new economy.”

In a blog post published on Monday, Haun, a former U.S. government prosecutor turned crypto executive, said this is the most dynamic period in technology and finance she has witnessed. “The foundations of capital, commerce and trust are undergoing meaningful structural changes,” she wrote, adding that founders who can see across all of it—and build accordingly—will define the entrepreneurs of this era.

Key takeaways

• Haun Ventures raises $1 billion to support crypto startups and expands into artificial intelligence for the first time, focusing on crypto infrastructure, tokenization, and AI agents.
• The firm frames these three areas as components of the “new economy,” signaling a broader cross‑disciplinary strategy.
• AI agents are already moving toward autonomous economic activity; analysts project a massive growth trajectory for related payments in the coming years.
• The funding environment for AI remains exceptionally strong, with venture capital for AI surpassing other sectors in early 2026 and signaling momentum for cross‑sector investments.

Haun’s cross-border bet on AI-enabled crypto infrastructure

Haun emphasized that AI agents—software that autonomously performs tasks—will increasingly conduct economic activity on users’ behalf. She argued that new products and services must be designed for a world where computers are the customers. As she put it, “Every supporting layer will need to be rearchitected for this world: fraud prevention, credit, insurance, identity, privacy, provenance, reputation, and verification all require native versions designed for how agents transact, and cryptographic tools will be important here.”

Haun also highlighted tokenization as a technology capable of rendering traditional assets—such as gold or oil—borderless, always on, and programmable. She described the shift in “the core plumbing of global finance” as moving toward an always-on digital world, with crypto-native layers playing a central role in enabling these capabilities.

Bloomberg reported Haun saying the fund would focus on the intersection of AI agents and crypto infrastructure, aiming to invest in “AI that is in our lane.”

Tokenization and AI agents at the core of the “new economy”

Identity, privacy, provenance and verification are among the domains Haun argues will need native, cryptographic solutions tailored for agent-driven transactions. The fund’s emphasis on AI agents follows a broader industry trend: software that autonomously acts in economic contexts, potentially redefining how value is created and exchanged.

Haun’s framing positions tokenization not merely as a way to tokenize securities or commodities, but as a foundational technology that could enable programmable, borderless access to a wide range of assets. The combination of AI agents with tokenized infrastructure may drive a new class of products and services designed for automated, machine-enabled commerce.

Market backdrop: AI funding surge shapes crypto investor strategy

The investment move arrives amid a striking shift in venture capital toward AI. Crunchbase data show AI companies attracted a record $242 billion in venture funding in the first quarter of 2026, accounting for roughly 80% of total global venture funding in the period, which totaled about $300 billion.

Analysts have projected dramatic growth for AI-enabled commerce. The Boston Consulting Group has suggested that payments managed by AI agents could reach around $2.4 trillion per year by 2029, illustrating the scale at which autonomous software could participate in economic activity. Haun has repeatedly stressed the importance of backing “AI that is in our lane”—AI aligned with crypto and financial-infrastructure expertise—as a driver of portfolio value.

Haun’s expansion into AI signals a broader trend among cryptocurrency-focused funds seeking to diversify into adjacent technologies that promise to reshape how finance and commerce operate. The coming quarters will reveal how quickly AI agents can integrate with tokenized rails and what regulators will permit as the technology matures.

Going forward, observers will watch regulatory clarity, security protocols, and cross‑chain interoperability as key factors shaping adoption. The convergence of AI agents with tokenized crypto infrastructure could redefine how value is created and moved across digital ecosystems, but real-world deployment will hinge on robust risk management and practical use cases.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on May 4, 2026, that Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the main force behind The Open Network. 

He also said Telegram will become TON’s largest validator. Durov linked the move to lower network fees and a stronger technical roadmap. He wrote: 

“Fees in TON have dropped 6× — to nearly zero.” He added that Telegram would shift TON’s focus to “tech superiority.”

Durov said TON should receive a new website, new developer tools and performance upgrades within “2-3 weeks.” That places the expected changes in late May 2026, based on the May 4 announcement.

The details remain limited. Telegram has not yet explained how its validator role will work. It has also not disclosed its planned validator stake or how the TON Foundation’s role will change after the shift.

Toncoin rallies after the announcement

Toncoin (TON) moved higher after Durov’s comments. TON climbed from about $1.35 to nearly $1.80 after the announcement, placing it among the top 25 crypto assets during the rally.

Crypto.news data showed TON trading near $1.82 at press time, with a 28.10% gain over 24 hours. The token also posted about $632.75 million in daily trading volume and a market cap near $4.8 billion.

Telegram links deepen around TON

The latest move follows Telegram’s wider push into TON-based products. As highlighted in our February 20, 2026 article, TON has used Telegram’s wallet, digital gifts and social NFT tools to support consumer use across the messaging app.

That report also said TON’s approach focuses on Telegram’s reach instead of only technical features. It noted that TON gives developers access to Telegram’s large user base through wallet features, payments, gifts and asset transfers.

As featured in our April coverage, Wallet in Telegram also added perpetual contract trading across metals, stocks, oil and crypto. The product used Lighter’s infrastructure and offered more than 50 markets inside Telegram.

• Kresus and Canton aim to accelerate institutional blockchain deployment.
• Focus shifts from pilot projects to full-scale production systems.
• Hanwha partnership targets tokenized private market assets.

Kresus and the Canton Network are joining forces to push institutional blockchain use beyond the pilot stage and into production, in a collaboration aimed at making deployment easier for enterprises and financial firms.

Announced Monday in San Francisco, the effort centers on a familiar challenge in digital assets: many institutions have explored blockchain through proofs of concept, but far fewer have moved live systems into full operation.

Kresus says the new collaboration will help organizations design, build and deploy blockchain applications “from first integration to full-scale launch,” combining its implementation capabilities with Canton’s institutional-grade infrastructure.

The companies said they are already working on several projects, with additional developments expected in the coming months.

Focus shifts from experimentation to execution

The collaboration is built around a practical problem that has slowed institutional blockchain adoption: implementation.

According to the companies, the aim is to reduce friction for enterprises and organizations that want to move from strategy to deployment.

That means helping clients navigate the technical and operational demands of production-grade blockchain systems rather than stopping at trials.

Kresus said the arrangement is designed to support institutions across industries, not just financial firms, as they look to deploy live blockchain solutions.

Canton’s infrastructure is positioned as the foundation for that effort, while Kresus brings delivery capabilities intended to bridge the gap between planning and production.

Hanwha partnership highlights real-world asset push

Kresus said it is already working with leading global financial institutions to bring next-generation blockchain applications into production on Canton.

One of those efforts is its partnership with Hanwha Investment & Securities, which is aimed at supporting the development of a tokenized digital asset platform focused on private market assets.

The platform is expected to enable the issuance, management and distribution of tokenized financial instruments aligned with real-world asset, or RWA, use cases.

That places the project squarely in one of the most closely watched areas in digital finance, where institutions are testing how traditional assets can be represented and managed on blockchain infrastructure.

Kresus also said it is bringing its core product stack to the Canton ecosystem. That includes enterprise-grade wallet infrastructure, tokenization systems and its secure middleware layer, KITE.

The company said these tools are designed to integrate into existing financial environments and support production deployments across payments, tokenized assets and digital asset management.

Institutional infrastructure remains the central pitch

The strategic message from both companies is clear: institutions need systems that are secure, reliable and scalable before blockchain can reach broader adoption.

“Financial institutions are moving beyond trials and toward actual blockchain applications,” Trevor Traina, founder and CEO of Kresus said.

The CEO added:

Success in regulated markets requires more than technology; it requires the ability to design, build, and deliver systems that meet real-world requirements. Kresus works directly with clients to bring these applications into production on Canton.

“Institutions need secure, reliable, and scalable systems to advance digital asset adoption,” Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset and co-founder of Canton said.

Through this collaboration, we are combining Canton’s institutional-grade blockchain with Kresus’ ability to implement production-ready applications that meet the needs of financial institutions.