Key Takeaways

• Anthropic is pursuing funding that would establish a pre-money valuation near $900 billion
• The AI company seeks to secure up to $50 billion to boost its computing capabilities
• Annual revenue projections show the company reaching beyond $45 billion soon, jumping from $9 billion in late 2024
• Major investors like Dragoneer, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed are reportedly interested
• If finalized, this funding would position Anthropic above OpenAI in market valuation

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The AI firm Anthropic, creator of the Claude suite of artificial intelligence tools, is currently negotiating a fundraising effort that could bring in as much as $50 billion, the Financial Times reports. Sources indicate the company could achieve a valuation approaching $900 billion on a pre-money basis.

Should this valuation materialize, Anthropic would eclipse its competitor OpenAI in terms of market worth. Industry sources cited by the FT suggest the funding round could reach completion in the next two months.

The company’s valuation stood at $380 billion just months ago in February 2026. A leap to nearly $1 trillion would represent one of the most dramatic valuation accelerations in private technology sector history.

Annualized revenue figures for Anthropic are projected to exceed $45 billion in the near term. This represents a fivefold increase from the $9 billion figure recorded at year-end 2024.

According to the FT’s sources, investment firms including Dragoneer Investment Group, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners have expressed interest in participating in the funding round.

Major Tech Giants Already Invested Billions

Anthropic has previously attracted substantial financial backing from leading technology corporations. Google pledged as much as $40 billion at a $350 billion valuation, structured with $10 billion in immediate funding and an additional $30 billion contingent on hitting specific performance targets.

Amazon put $5 billion into the company with provisions allowing for up to $20 billion in additional investment. These arrangements were both negotiated at the $350 billion valuation established during February’s funding activity.

The new capital injection is earmarked for scaling up computational resources. Strong customer demand for Anthropic’s offerings has accelerated, and company representatives have indicated that supply limitations are currently constraining output capacity.

Strategic partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Google, and Broadcom have been established to guarantee sustained access to computing resources over the long term.

Claude Code and Cowork Fueling Revenue Surge

A significant portion of the demand surge stems from Claude Code, Anthropic’s specialized AI assistant engineered to accelerate software development workflows. Bloomberg’s reporting suggests this product’s explosive growth prompted the company to pursue additional funding on an accelerated timeline.

The company’s Cowork AI agent, targeted at professionals in non-technical departments, has similarly experienced rapid market uptake, company statements indicate.

Founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei alongside former OpenAI team members, Anthropic has emerged as one of the artificial intelligence industry’s most scrutinized players.

The ongoing fundraising discussions underscore the remarkable velocity at which investor interest in AI infrastructure has intensified. Anthropic is positioning itself to capitalize on this momentum through what could become one of the largest private capital raises ever recorded.

This potential funding round arrives as Anthropic continues building out partnerships with cloud computing providers to guarantee sufficient processing power for operating its sophisticated AI models.

The U.S. labor market continued to show at least modest strength in April, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The economy added 115,000 jobs during the month, well above economist expectations for 62,000, though down from 185,000 in March (revised from an originally reported 178,000).

The unemployment rate remained at 4.3%, in line with forecasts.

Bitcoin BTC$79,876.65 traded at $80,200 in the minutes after the release, roughly flat over the past 24 hours. U.S. stock index futures added to earlier gains, the Nasdaq 100 higher by 0.9%. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 2 basis points to 4.37%.

The report arrives at a delicate moment for markets and policymakers. Last week, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark fed funds rate range unchanged at 3.50%-3.75%, extending its holding pattern as officials weigh slowing economic growth against persistent inflation pressures.

The data also comes ahead of a new chairman taking the reins at the Fed, with Kevin Warsh expected to soon be confirmed by the Senate to replace Jerome Powell later this month.

Though off their highs, oil prices have remained elevated, with uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz keeping energy markets on edge. Higher crude prices risk feeding into headline inflation while also weighing on consumer spending and economic activity.

Coinbase stopped working for over seven hours on Thursday after hot air in an Amazon data center threw its cloud services into disarray. 

The exchange’s users found themselves unable to buy or sell crypto, while order book prices displayed hundreds of dollars higher than rival exchanges Binance and Hyperliquid. 

The cause? Coinbase blames “increased temperatures in the affected AWS service.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is one of the largest providers of cloud infrastructure that keeps much of the internet ticking over, claims to have suffered from a “thermal event” in one of its data centers in Northern Virginia. 

⚙️ Recovery Update: EC2 US-EAST-1 Region

We are observing early signs of recovery. We continue to work towards restoring temperatures to normal levels and bring impacted racks back online in the affected Availability Zone in the US-EAST-1 Region. In the impacted Availability…

— AWS Support (@AWSSupport) May 8, 2026

Read more: Blockchain ‘alternative’ to Amazon Web Services just another crypto scam

The increase in temperature apparently affected its cloud hosting hardware, leading to a loss of power. 

AWS quickly got to work on a solution, and as of this morning said it was “actively working to bring additional cooling system capacity online, which will enable us to recover the remaining affected racks in a controlled and safe manner.” 

Amazon notes that its data centers rely on evaporation cooling, a system that involves filters in its air conditioning units being “dampened” with water, cooling any hot air that comes in and evaporating the water in the process. 

Read more: Major crypto exchanges suffer complications after AWS outage

Whatever the fix was to the cooling system, it seems to have paid off as Coinbase noted in the last two hours that, “All markets have been re-enabled for trading on Coinbase Exchange.”

Before this, it said that it was working to re-enable trading and that it would have to place all markets “in ‘Cancel Only’ mode before we move to re-enable trading.”

After this, it moved the markets into “auction mode.”

AWS outage adds to Coinbase’s growing problems

The entire debacle adds to a pretty bad start to 2026 for Coinbase. It fired 14% of its staff last week, and suffered $394 million in losses during the first quarter of 2026.

Software engineer Gergely Orosz picked up on this, noting how the hours-long outage makes for “unfortunate optics for Coinbase… a few days after their CEO said how non-technical teams are shipping code to production.”

He said, “This outage is because Coinbase seems to have a hard dependency on AWS, and when AWS (or a part of it) is down, so is Coinbase,” adding that the whole thing is “terrible advertising.”

Crypto exchanges have already suffered outages related to AWS before in 2025, which caused Binance to suspend its withdrawals and caused issues for KuCoin, MEXC, and Rabby wallet.

In this case, data centers within the Singapore region had experienced a power loss, causing knock-on disruptions to firms reliant on AWS data centers within the area.

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Cardano price has started recovering after breaking above a key descending resistance trendline, raising hopes that bulls may attempt a larger move toward the important $0.30 psychological level.

According to data from crypto.news, Cardano (ADA) was trading around $0.264 at press time on May 8, up nearly 8% from its recent weekly lows at $0.245. The token has also reclaimed levels last seen in late April after spending several months trapped under a broader downtrend structure.

The latest recovery comes as the broader crypto market stabilizes following renewed risk appetite across major digital assets. Bitcoin (BTC) holding above the $80K support level has also helped improve sentiment toward altcoins, including ADA.

On the daily chart, ADA recently broke above a descending resistance trendline that had capped upside attempts since February. The breakout followed weeks of consolidation between roughly $0.24 and $0.27, suggesting that selling pressure may gradually be weakening.

At the same time, derivatives activity indicates traders are positioning for increased volatility. CoinGlass liquidation heatmap data shows a large concentration of liquidation liquidity clustered around the $0.28 to $0.30 range. These dense liquidity pockets often act as magnetic zones for price action, especially when momentum begins building in one direction.

If ADA continues climbing toward those levels, it could trigger a wave of short liquidations that may accelerate upside momentum further.

Meanwhile, whale accumulation trends continue to strengthen. Recent on-chain data from Santiment indicates that large Cardano holders have steadily increased their positions over recent weeks despite the broader market consolidation. Wallets holding between 10 million and 100 million ADA reportedly continued accumulating tokens during the recent dips, signaling that larger investors may still be positioning for a longer-term recovery.

Such accumulation trends are often closely watched by traders because sustained whale buying can help absorb selling pressure while improving overall market confidence.

Cardano price analysis

The daily chart shows ADA successfully pushing above its descending trendline resistance after several failed breakout attempts earlier this year. Price has also started forming a series of higher lows since mid-April, suggesting buyers are gradually regaining control of the trend.

Momentum indicators are beginning to support the bullish structure. The RSI has climbed above 60 and continues trending upward while remaining above its signal line, reflecting strengthening buying momentum without yet entering overbought territory.

Meanwhile, the MACD has completed a bullish crossover and moved higher above the signal line. The histogram has also turned increasingly positive, suggesting bullish momentum is continuing to build.

Despite the breakout, ADA still faces several important resistance levels ahead. The $0.27 region remains the first key barrier, followed by heavier liquidation clusters near $0.28 and the major psychological resistance at $0.30.

If bulls manage to push price above the $0.30 zone, it could open the door for a stronger rally toward levels not seen since the first quarter of 2026.

On the downside, failure to hold above the broken trendline could invalidate the breakout setup and pull ADA back toward the $0.25–$0.24 support region, where buyers previously stepped in aggressively.

Key Takeaways

• Futures for the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow all advanced Friday morning even as US-Iran military tensions flared in the Strait of Hormuz
• Iranian forces launched coordinated missile, drone, and small-boat assaults on American warships; US military retaliated with strikes on Iranian installations
• Trump downplayed the confrontation as minor and reaffirmed the ceasefire agreement, providing reassurance to investors
• Energy markets showed muted reaction with Brent crude gaining 1.1% and WTI adding 0.7%, indicating contained anxiety over supply disruptions
• Focus shifts to April’s employment situation report, with projections calling for 65,000 new positions and unemployment steady at 4.3%

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Investors largely dismissed military hostilities between the United States and Iran on Friday, pushing stock futures into positive territory as attention turned toward crucial employment statistics.

Contracts tied to the S&P 500 advanced 0.5%, with Nasdaq 100 futures gaining 0.7%. Dow futures increased 0.3%, representing approximately 137 points. The three benchmark indices had retreated on Thursday, with the Dow momentarily breaching 50,000 before settling below that psychological threshold for the second consecutive session.

Iranian military forces executed coordinated attacks involving missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and small naval vessels targeting US warships positioned in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. US Central Command characterized these strikes as “unprovoked” while emphasizing American forces did not seek further escalation.

American forces answered by targeting Iranian military installations connected to the offensive operations. President Trump communicated via Truth Social that US destroyers sustained no damage and characterized the response as measured.

Trump further minimized Iran’s attacks as trivial and confirmed the bilateral ceasefire remains operational. This messaging appeared to ease market concerns.

Wall Street Maintains Composure Amid Geopolitical Flare-Up

Henry Allen, a macro strategist at Deutsche Bank, acknowledged the obvious escalation while observing that financial markets were not incorporating a catastrophic outcome.

Oil prices climbed but remained relatively stable. Brent crude increased 1.1% to reach $101.15 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate advanced 0.7% to $95.50 per barrel.

The measured response in energy markets indicates investors do not anticipate significant interruption to global oil flows.

The greenback strengthened 0.1% versus a basket of major currencies. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield declined one basis point to 4.38%.

Employment Data Commands Attention

Friday’s release of April’s nonfarm payrolls data represents the primary catalyst for market participants. Consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg anticipate 65,000 positions were created during the month.

The jobless rate is projected to remain unchanged at 4.3%. Such an outcome would signal a resilient employment landscape despite persistent geopolitical headwinds.

Quarterly financial results are scheduled for release Friday from Toyota Motor, Sony, and Brookfield Asset Management.

Bitcoin retreated beneath the $80,000 threshold following reports of the US-Iran military engagement, based on earlier trading session data.

Government bond yields drifted lower during early morning trading on expectations for de-escalation in the Middle Eastern theater.

The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq remain positioned for weekly gains if premarket momentum persists through the closing bell.

Bitcoin (BTC) revisited $80,000 on Friday after US-Iran war nerves sparked 3% daily losses.

Key points:

• Bitcoin bullish momentum slowly returns after a shakeout amid familiar geopolitical tensions.
• Traders flag support levels in the mid- to high-$70,000 zone as important for bulls to defend.
• Unprecedented Bollinger Bands data calls for more volatile conditions going forward.

Bitcoin retests $80,000 after sell-off

Data from TradingView showed BTC price downside pressure easing toward the Wall Street open.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Thursday had seen risk assets lose out amid rumors of the US restarting its “Project Freedom” campaign against Iran, while military strikes from both sides placed a fragile ceasefire in jeopardy. The S&P 500 came off new all-time highs.

S&P 500 one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Commenting, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe said that the retracement was no “surprise” given recent brisk gains.

“Assets trend in waves. Bitcoin has seen multiple days of momentum upwards, so it’s not strange to expect it to consolidate just now,” he wrote in an X post at the time. 

“As long as the trend remains intact, I think we’ll see more upside during coming weeks.”

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe/X

Van de Poppe subsequently described Bitcoin as “doing just fine,” but said $76,000 needed to hold as support.

“The first rally out of a bear market lands at that resistance, and it would give some more momentum for Altcoins,” he added.

Trader Jelle also remained optimistic on the outlook while arguing that the day’s lows near $79,000 needed to hold.

“Even in the bearish case, I believe the turquoise zone will hold the price and trigger a reversal to the upside,” he told X followers about charts showing $74,500 as a potential downside target.

BTC/USDT charts. Source: Jelle/X

Bitcoin volatility metric demands larger moves

On daily time frames, BTC/USD thus failed to sustain a break beyond the upper band of the Bollinger Bands volatility metric.

Related: Bitcoin can crash to $50K if ‘most critical’ bear market test fails: Analysis

BTC/USD one-day chart with Bollinger Bands data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

As Cointelegraph reported, positive signals from the Bands even inspired their creator, John Bollinger, to take a position via his proprietary investment funds.

In an X response, trader SuperBro observed the narrowest-ever conditions for the Bands on monthly time frames — a key prerequisite for heightened volatility next.

BTC/USD one-month chart with Bollinger Bands data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

Mantle tokenholders backed a proposal authorizing a credit facility of up to 30,000 Ether (ETH), worth about $68 million, for Aave DAO, advancing remediation tied to bad debt from the April rsETH exploit.

The proposal, MIP-34, passed in a seven-day Snapshot vote that ended Friday, according to DAO governance platform Snapshot. The measure authorizes the Mantle Foundation to negotiate and execute definitive agreements with Aave DAO for a loan from the Mantle Treasury, though the facility remains subject to Aave implementing its recovery plan and the parties finalizing terms.

The credit facility is intended to help address the impact of the rsETH incident on Aave V3. The proposal said the attacker deposited 89,567 unbacked rsETH on Aave and borrowed about $190 million in WETH, wstETH and stablecoins, creating potential bad debt estimated at between $123.7 million and $230.1 million.

The vote comes as the fallout from the rsETH exploit has moved beyond the initial liquidity shock into a broader remediation phase, with Mantle positioning its treasury as a backstop while Aave works to address bad debt and restore confidence in its lending markets. 

Source: Aave

Aave WETH market cools after post-exploit squeeze 

The Mantle credit facility would address the shortfall that also created liquidity stress across Aave’s lending markets.

Galaxy Research said in a Thursday report that the rsETH exploit pushed Aave’s Wrapped Ether (WETH) market into a prolonged squeeze, with WETH utilization staying above 99% for 12.7 days after the incident. 

“Across the full analysis horizon, WETH utilization stayed structurally elevated and close to the 100% ceiling, with an average around 99.6% and only easing to about 98.47% by the end of the snapshot period,” Galaxy said. 

Related: Aave asks Arbitrum to send 30K ETH from Kelp exploiter to ‘DeFi United’

High utilization means most of the supplied asset has already been borrowed, leaving little idle liquidity available for immediate withdrawals. In Aave’s case, Galaxy said the WETH market remained strained because supply contracted faster than borrows declined, keeping utilization near full capacity even after the initial shock. 

30-day WETH utilization rate chart. Source: Aavescan

The market has since cooled from the near-100% levels described in Galaxy’s analysis. Aavescan data showed Aave’s Ethereum V3 WETH market at about 91.6% utilization on Friday, with roughly 2.02 million WETH supplied and 1.85 million WETH borrowed. 

Magazine: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple: Asia Express

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Ether’s (ETH) price has retraced by over 5.6% to $2,275 after being rejected by resistance at $2,400. Now, multiple data points suggest ETH/USD may drop below $2,000.

Key takeaways:

• Low network activity signals declining usage and reduced onchain demand for ETH.
• Coinbase Premium remains negative as spot Ethereum ETF outflows returned, reflecting strong US-driven sell pressure.
• Ether’s falling wedge pattern targets $1,830.

Ether’s total value locked hits 12-month lows

Ethereum’s network fundamentals are weakening, with weekly average transactions dropping by 10% to 4.79 million, per data from Nansen. Active addresses dropped by 8% to 2.5 million over the same period. 

Related: Three reasons why Ether price rallies fizzle near $2.4K

Network fees also dropped by approximately 27%, leading to a 47% reduction in onchain revenue over the last seven days. 

Blockchain comparison: Daily transactions, active addresses and network fees. Source: Nansen

Additional data from DefiLlama shows that the weekly DEX volumes dropped to $1.64 billion on May 8, a 46% drop over the last three weeks.

Low transaction count, a drop in active addresses and declining DEX volumes reflect reduced ecosystem usage. As a result, the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum’s DeFi protocols has dropped to $124.7 billion, levels last seen in May 2025.

Total value locked on Ethereum. Source: DefiLlama

This subdued network activity signals weak user conviction, affecting Ether’s ability to sustain upside price momentum. 

Ether’s exit queue jumps 72,000%

Ethereum’s unstaking queue jumped by approximately 72,000% within two weeks to 530,985 ETH on May 2. 

As of Friday, over 202,000 ETH were queued for redemption, with a wait time of around three days.

Number of Ether queued for exit. Source: Validator Queue

The surge comes after a series of significant DeFi hacks, reflecting investor caution. April 2026 saw DeFi platforms suffer a record $625 million in monthly losses following 30 separate attacks, including a $292 million loss from the KelpDAO bridge hack, leading to over $15 billion in deposits withdrawn from the Aave platform. 

These incidents have prompted investors to unstake ETH to regain liquidity, signaling flight from perceived risk.

“The exit queue went from ~700 ETH to ~500K ETH in 2 weeks,” analyst Pete said in a recent post on X, adding:

“DeFi yield on Ethereum is getting crushed by hacks, exploits and increasingly nasty attack surfaces.”

Despite the sharp surge in outflow pressure, 3.6 million ETH remains queued for staking entry (7x exit volume), pushing total staked ETH to 38.6 million (31.72% of supply) despite 45-day wait times.

Ether’s Coinbase Premium remains negative

The Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks the price difference between ETH on Coinbase and Binance, has stayed negative since April 27.

A negative premium confirms that the selling pressure is originating heavily from US entities. As long as US investors are selling at a discount compared to the global market, downside momentum will likely accelerate.

Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index. Source: CryptoQuant

Additionally, US-based spot Ethereum ETFs snapped a four-day inflow streak with $103 million in net outflows on Thursday, the largest withdrawal since mid-March.

Spot Ethereum ETFs flows chart. Source: SoSoValue

Coupled with more than $81.6 million in outflows from global Ethereum investment products last week, this points to institutional selling, adding to Ether’s headwinds.

Meanwhile, ETH taker buy volume dropped to as low as -$25 million on Binance in recent days, indicating a “sharp increase in aggressive market sell orders,” CryptoQuant analyst BorisD said in a Quicktake note on Friday, adding:

“This structure raises the risk of short-term volatility and a support retest for ETH price action.”

ETH taker buy volume on Binance. Source: CryptoQuant

Ether’s rising wedge breakdown is underway

The daily chart shows the ETH/USD pair validating a rising wedge pattern after the price lost support at the pattern’s lower trend line at $2,300. 

Bulls are now fighting to keep the price above $2,150-$2,200, where the 100-day and 50-week simple moving averages (SMAs) are, respectively.

Another key line of defense is the $2,000 psychological level, which, if breached, would clear the path for Ether’s drop toward the measured target of the wedge at $1,830, about 20% below the current price.

ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

As Cointelegraph reported, the ETH price may descend to $1,750-$1,850 if support at $2,300 is not reclaimed in the short term.

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.