TLDR:

• • Binance Bitcoin futures Open Interest climbed from $6.4B in March to $8.96B, topping the 180-day moving average.
  • The eight-month deleveraging phase mirrors conditions last seen in 2022, just before the FTX collapse hit markets.
  • Speculative traders returned to Bitcoin derivatives despite a continued deterioration in the global macro environment.
  • Analysts warn the recovery trend stays fragile, as leveraged traders could exit positions quickly if Bitcoin corrects further.

---

Bitcoin traders are re-entering derivatives markets after an extended eight-month deleveraging cycle. Binance futures Open Interest climbed from $6.4 billion in March to approximately $8.96 billion, crossing back above its 180-day moving average.

The shift points to renewed speculative appetite, though analysts caution the trend remains fragile given persistent macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures still weighing on broader risk markets.

Bitcoin Open Interest Climbs Back Above Key Average

Binance futures Open Interest has been a reliable gauge of trader activity in the Bitcoin derivatives market. When Open Interest falls below its 180-day moving average, it typically signals that futures activity is contracting. Liquidations mount, and traders pull back from leveraged positions as corrections deepen.

That is precisely what unfolded following the October 10 event. The downturn, compounded by a weakening global macroeconomic backdrop, pushed traders toward risk reduction. Over the months that followed, Binance Open Interest remained below its 180-day moving average.

Crypto analyst Darkfost noted that this deleveraging phase lasted roughly eight months. According to the analyst, a comparable situation last occurred in 2022, just ahead of the FTX collapse. That event triggered another sharp round of liquidations across the market.

The recent climb above the 180-day moving average, currently near $8.75 billion, marks a potential turning point. Open Interest now sits at approximately $8.96 billion, placing it above that threshold. This crossover is generally read as a signal that the deleveraging period has ended.

Speculative Traders Drive the Recovery, but Risks Remain

The return of traders to Bitcoin derivatives has contributed to the ongoing price correction to the upside. Bitcoin’s sharp pullback from prior highs attracted speculative participants looking to position for a rebound. Their activity has added buying pressure through leveraged exposure.

Darkfost pointed out that despite ongoing macro deterioration, traders moved back into futures positions. The analyst wrote that the sharp correction drew more speculative traders looking to play a rebound. That dynamic has helped stabilize price action in recent weeks.

However, the recovery remains early-stage and should not yet be treated as a confirmed trend reversal. The macro environment has not meaningfully improved, and external shocks could quickly reverse the recent inflows. Leveraged traders tend to exit positions rapidly when conditions shift against them.

If Bitcoin resumes the correction that began in October, these returning traders could unwind just as fast as they entered.

The speed at which Open Interest rose above the moving average also means it could fall back below it. For now, the market is in a transitional phase rather than a clear recovery.

The Verus Ethereum bridge exploiter has returned 4,052 ETH to the project team after a settlement offer, while keeping 1,350 ETH as a bounty.

PeckShield said the Verus bridge exploiter returned 4,052.4 ETH, worth about $8.5 million, to a Verus team address. The firm said the returned assets represented 75% of the stolen total.

Etherscan data shows a successful transfer of 4,052 ETH from a wallet labeled Verus Exploiter 2 to the address 0xF9AB…C1A74 on May 21. The transaction was valued at about $8.59 million at the ETH price shown by the explorer.

PeckShield said the remaining 25% stayed with the exploiter as a bounty. A separate Etherscan transaction shows 1,350 ETH, worth about $2.86 million, moved from the exploiter wallet to a new address minutes after the return transfer.

Some X users framed the recovery as a win for negotiated returns. Bee Swarm said “75% recovery is the new standard” and argued that bounty deals can work better than legal threats after funds are gone.

Others said the exploit still points to deeper bridge risks. Zenthis argued that partial recovery does not fix “centralized custody in bridges,” while pointing to atomic swaps as an alternative.

Bounty offer followed public Verus terms

Verus had earlier posted a message to the bridge exploiter, saying its community and developers had discussed terms for the fund return. The post said the terms covered the bounty size, the exploiter’s obligations, and how the assets could be returned.

Advertisement

According to the public Verus message from X, the community had agreed to a 1,350 ETH bounty. The offer was tied to returning the remaining funds and settling the matter under the proposed terms.

The return now makes the Verus case different from many bridge attacks, where stolen funds often move through mixers or remain under attacker control. In this case, most of the drained ETH moved back to a team address after the bounty offer.

Earlier exploit drained $11.5M

The fund return follows the May 18 Verus Ethereum bridge attack. Earlier coverage reported that the bridge lost more than $11.5 million after attackers used what security researchers described as a forged cross-chain transfer message.

PeckShield had reported that the drained assets included 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and nearly 147,000 USDC. The attacker later swapped the stolen assets into 5,402 ETH, worth about $11.4 million at the time.

Advertisement

Blockaid linked the exploit to missing source-amount validation inside the bridge logic. The firm said the issue was not an ECDSA bypass, not a notary key compromise, and not a parser or hash-binding bug.

Bridge security remains under pressure

The Verus recovery comes during a busy period for cross-chain security incidents. Recent coverage said MAPO fell 96% after attackers exploited the Butter Network bridge and minted a huge amount of unauthorized tokens.

Echo Protocol also paused cross-chain activity after an attacker minted about $76.7 million in unauthorized eBTC on Monad. On-chain investigators said the exploiter used fake eBTC as collateral before moving funds through Tornado Cash.

These cases show why bridge validation remains a core risk for DeFi. Bridges hold assets across chains, so weak checks can allow attackers to trigger transfers, mint tokens, or move reserves before teams can stop the flow.

Advertisement

Bitcoin (BTC) has trended up for 90 days and is seeing a “bull market rally,” analysis says.

Key points:

• Bitcoin has trended up for 90 days within its bear market — something that has never happened before.
• Analysis thus sees price as being in a “bull market rally,” with February’s macro lows untouched.
• Separate commentary calls for a reclaim of the weekly supertrend nearer to $90,000 to confirm that bulls are back.

Bitcoin internal bear-market uptrend makes history

In a post on X on Thursday, trader and analyst Matthew Hyland said that Bitcoin’s recent rebound from macro lows has been unlike any other in history.

“This BTC rally resembles a bull market rally NOT a bear market rally,” he summarized.

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

According to Hyland, BTC/USD has been in a fresh uptrend since the last week of February. At the start of the month, the pair briefly fell below $60,000, hitting its lowest levels since late 2024.

Since then, relief has taken over, with Bitcoin reaching local highs near $83,000 exactly three months after the February bottom, data from TradingView confirms.

“There has NEVER been a rally that trended upward for 89 days ever in a bear market in BTC history,” he continued.

“The break of high time frame resistance also has marked the start of a bull market rally the prior three times.”

BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Matthew Hyland/X

An accompanying chart shows that resistance was cleared when the price first broke above and held $77,000.

“Both of these characteristics are characteristics of a bull market rally NOT a bear market rally,” Hyland reiterated.

Analyst: BTC price needs $88,000 rebound

On the topic of bear market expirations, independent analyst Filbfilb demands a higher resistance reclaim for confirmation that bulls are back in control.

Related: Bitcoin due ‘5%+’ move as analysis stays bullish on BTC price outlook

Bitcoin’s weekly supertrend, currently near $90,000, is the line in the sand to watch.

“The last 2 BTC bear markets ended with a >+20% weekly candle and a break of the weekly super trend – presently around $ 88k,” he told X followers. 

“If the bearish move we see in play at the moment fails, I’m expecting one of those candles to happen rather than much messing about around these levels.”

BTC/USD one-week chart with supertrend data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The super trend is calculated using the average true range of price, coupled with a multiplier. BTC/USD last had a weekly close above the supertrend line in early November 2025.

Layer-1 blockchain Near’s forthcoming upgrade will allow the network to scale dynamically without human intervention.

The market is giving it a thumbs-up, sending the native token’s price sharply higher. NEAR has gained more than 27% in the last 24 hours to trade at $2.25.

“Dynamic resharding is coming to NEAR. The upcoming network upgrade will enable the protocol to add shards automatically as demand grows,” the protocol announced on X. “This delivers on NEAR’s founding vision of building the world’s most scalable blockchain protocol at the highest level of performance.”

Shards are smaller, independent partitions of the blockchain network that process transactions and smart contracts in parallel. Imagine a grocery store with multiple checkout lines. This helps Near handle more traffic than typical blockchains with a single checkout line.

The catch? Until now, opening a new partition on Near has been a slow, manual process, requiring weeks of validator coordination, a vote, and a staged rollout.

The upcoming dynamic resharding in June will automate this process. In other words, when the network sees a specific check out line, a shard, getting too full, it doesn’t wait for a human to fix it. It automatically splits, not in half, but by adding more independent parallel validators to the system, just as the grocery store would hire new cashiers and customer staff.

“Adding shards has required a full protocol upgrade: weeks of validator coordination, a vote, a staged rollout. Dynamic resharding makes it automatic: a shard hits a state size threshold, splits deterministically, and is validated by state witnesses with no human intervention,” Near said in an explainer.

The new feature is particularly foundational to an AI-led onchain economy, where bots are doing business with each other, it explained.

Quantum-proof

Scaling isn’t the only thing changing with the impending upgrade. Near is also adding “post-quantum-safe signing.”

Quantum fears have gripped the developer community ever since Google researchers warned that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer might be able to crack today’s blockchains with significantly less firepower than initially expected.

Near, therefore, is installing new locks so that years from now, those super quantum machines won’t be able to touch funds of Near users.

Native token NEAR is the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 coins by market cap over the past 24 hours thanks to the rally. Bitcoin BTC$77,341.59 has dropped 0.4% to $77,360.

NEAR’s external performance is supported by strong demand for the Bitwise Near Staking ETF (exchange-traded product) listed in Europe. This week, the ETP has pulled in $7 million in investor money, according to data shared by Bitwise’s CEO Hunter Horsley.

US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce has told the crypto industry to cool its expectations about a potential “innovation exemption” to allow tokenized stock trading after a report earlier this week about what it could entail. 

Her comments were made after a Bloomberg report on Monday. Brett Redfearn, president of tokenization platform Securitize, expressed concern following the report, arguing that enabling third parties to tokenize stock “without an issuer at the table” could lead to fragmentation issues. 

In a post to X on Thursday, Peirce said her expectation has always been that any exemption would be “limited in scope” by only permitting “digital representations of the same underlying equity security that an investor could purchase in the secondary market today.”

Peirce said she doesn’t expect synthetic tokens to be included, which would make it more challenging for third parties to offer stock-price tracking tokens under the exemption.

Source: Hester Peirce

Data from RWA.xyz shows that $1.48 billion worth of stocks are tokenized onchain, including shares linked to stablecoin issuer Circle, Bitcoin buying firm Strategy and Google (GOOG). 

However, it hasn’t boomed as rapidly as some financial institutions have expected, including Citibank and McKinsey & Co, which predicted in 2022 and 2024 that the tokenization sector would become a trillion-dollar market by or before 2030.

Peirce’s comments cleared the air

Peirce’s comments are in line with Bloomberg’s report stating that the securities regulator is only considering permitting tokens that carry the same benefits as common stock, such as voting rights and dividends.

Robert Leshner, the CEO of crypto tokenization platform Superstate, said this stricter approach would enable decentralized finance and tokenization to expand “without compromising the standards that make the USA the center of capital markets.”

Carlos Domingo, CEO of Securitize, also said the approach would mitigate the risk of ownership fragmentation in the tokenization market. 

“This is good, we want to do on-chain trading, but for the right assets, and not to help proliferate those derivatives that are fragmenting the market and introducing additional risks.”

Bloomberg said the SEC reportedly spoke with “hundreds of market participants” for feedback on how best to tailor the rules for tokenized trading. 

Related: Kraken parent Payward sees revenue surge as tokenization expands 

Details haven’t been finalized and could change before an exemption is made, Bloomberg added in the report, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Despite the possible exemption, Bloomberg reported that some SEC officials weren’t in support of permitting tokenized stock trading.

Magazine: 5 tech predictions the mainstream media got horribly wrong 

A New Generation of Trading Platforms Is Emerging

Online trading platforms have changed a lot over the past few years. Traders today expect more than basic charts and market access. They want speed, flexibility, mobile functionality, and access to different markets without needing multiple accounts across different platforms.

That shift is creating space for newer platforms to grow, especially those focused on simplicity and modern trading habits. One name that has started appearing more frequently in online trading discussions is Patexone.

The platform has been gaining visibility among traders looking for access to crypto, commodities, forex, and other markets through a single environment that feels easier to navigate than many traditional trading platforms. So, what exactly is Patexone , and why are more people starting to pay attention to it?

What Is Patexone?

Patexone is an online trading platform that provides users with access to multiple financial markets through one account.

The platform focuses heavily on:

• Cryptocurrency trading
• Multi-market accessibility
• Mobile trading
• Fast execution and usability

Rather than building a platform designed only for highly technical traders, PatexOne appears to focus on creating a smoother experience that works for both newer users and active traders. The result is a platform that feels modern without becoming overly complicated.

Crypto Trading Remains a Major Focus

One of the biggest reasons traders are discovering PatexOne is because of its crypto trading environment.

Crypto markets move quickly, and traders often need:

• Real-time price updates
• Fast execution
• Responsive charts
• Mobile access at all times

Patexone performs well in these areas, which helps explain why it’s increasingly appearing in conversations among active crypto traders. The platform supports access to major digital assets while maintaining a relatively clean and accessible interface.

That combination matters because many crypto platforms either:

• Feel too limited or
• Feel overloaded with unnecessary complexity

Patexone sits somewhere in the middle.

More Than Just a Crypto Platform

Although crypto trading is a major attraction, the platform also gives users access to additional markets such as:

• Gold and silver
• Oil and commodities
• Forex markets
• Other trading instruments

This creates more flexibility for traders who want to diversify instead of keeping their entire portfolio tied to one asset class. And honestly, diversification is becoming more important as traders realize opportunities shift constantly between markets.

One-month momentum is in Bitcoin Currency. The next month it’s gold or oil. Platforms that allow traders to move between markets easily are becoming increasingly valuable.

The Platform Feels Built for Mobile Trading

A major part of modern trading now happens on mobile devices. People monitor positions during work, check charts while travelling, and react to market moves throughout the day. Platforms that still treat mobile access like an “extra feature” are starting to feel outdated.

Patexone seems to understand this shift. The mobile experience feels smooth, responsive, and practical for day-to-day trading.

Users can:

• Monitor live markets
• Manage positions
• Access trading tools
• Move between assets quickly

without feeling restricted compared to desktop trading. That flexibility is becoming one of the platform’s stronger selling points.

Simplicity Is Part of the Appeal

A surprising number of trading platforms make simple tasks feel unnecessarily complicated. Overloaded dashboards, endless menus, and confusing layouts can quickly frustrate users, especially newer traders.

Patexone takes a different approach. The platform focuses on keeping navigation relatively clean while still providing the tools active traders actually use.

That balance makes the platform feel more approachable without sacrificing functionality. For many users, that’s a major reason they continue using it after the initial signup phase.

Growing Attention Around the Platform

Patexone has also started gaining momentum through online discussions, reviews, and user feedback. As traders share their experiences across forums and social media, awareness around the platform continues growing, particularly among users interested in:

• Crypto trading
• Commodity markets
• Mobile trading flexibility
• Multi-market access from one platform

This type of organic visibility often matters more than aggressive marketing because it reflects actual user interest.

Bottom Line

Patexone is part of a broader shift happening in online trading. Traders are moving away from platforms that feel outdated, overloaded, or limited to one market category. Instead, they’re looking for environments that combine:

• Speed
• Simplicity
• Flexibility
• Multi-market access
• Strong mobile functionality

PatexOne appears to be building around exactly those priorities. And while every trader should always do their own research before choosing a platform, the growing attention around PatexOne suggests it’s becoming a platform more traders are starting to take seriously.

Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz appeared in court on Tuesday to face off against BitGo CEO Mike Belshe in a long-running legal fight over a failed proposed $1.2 billion merger in 2021.

The planned deal was the largest-ever crypto merger at the time, set to create a massive conglomerate offering a suite of services at a time when investor interest in crypto was high.

Galaxy called off the deal in August 2022 as the crypto market was reeling from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. BitGo has asked Galaxy to pay a $100 million fee for pulling out of the deal and also hid it was being probed by US authorities, while Galaxy has claimed BitGo failed to provide financial information on time.

According to Bloomberg, Novogratz testified in Delaware Chancery Court on Tuesday that he was “pushing to get this deal done,” but Galaxy and BitGo realized regulatory approval for the merger was unlikely because the Securities and Exchange Commission, then headed by Gary Gensler, made it “very difficult.”

Mike Novogratz, pictured in 2018 at a conference in Hong Kong, has appeared in court over a failed merger with BitGo. Source: RISE

He also said Galaxy was not the subject of the probe and it would not have affected the merger, while BitGo did not provide the needed financial information in time, forfeiting its right to a $100 million termination fee.

Related: On-Chain, In Court: What happened in crypto legal news this week

BitGo bargained for the termination fee, including a deadline to hand over financial statements, but that was complicated by the SEC’s accounting rules requiring companies to record customer crypto holdings as liabilities.

“This was incredibly damaging,” Belshe testified on Monday, claiming that BitGo had provided all the needed information. “Galaxy is telling the world we can’t pass an audit.”

The trial is set to end this week, and a judge will decide whether BitGo should receive the $100 million fee.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs: Mid-2026

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.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s move to allow third parties to list tokenized stocks could risk two structural disruptions with liquidity and revenue fragmentation, according to Tiger Research.

Liquidity fragmentation may occur as capital disperses from centralized exchanges across multiple blockchain platforms, said Tiger Research director and head of research Ryan Yoon on Friday.

“Traditional finance views the breakup of its previously consolidated, centralized liquidity as a serious structural threat,” said Yoon.

When third parties tokenize the same listed stock across different blockchain networks and decentralized platforms, the trading volume and order flow that should concentrate on a single venue, such as the NYSE or Nasdaq, instead disperses across multiple venues, he explained. 

“This creates price discrepancies across platforms, increases slippage on large orders, and ultimately degrades overall market efficiency.”

The research comes five days after the SEC announced its “innovation exemption” on Monday, which would allow third-party exchanges to list tokenized stocks without needing the issuer’s approval. 

Revenue fragmentation remains a risk

The second potential structural disruption is revenue fragmentation, which follows directly from market fragmentation. 

“As tokenized stocks trade across multiple platforms in disaggregated form, financial revenues that should accrue to domestic exchanges instead flow offshore, with direct implications for national financial competitiveness,” said Yoon.

Capital fragmentation is already underway with real-world asset open interest on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange hitting an all-time high of $2.6 billion this week.  

Related: Tokenized RWA market grows 420% since 2025 on regulatory clarity, access

Yoon concluded that this shift “poses the deepest strategic dilemma for incumbent financial institutions and regulators alike.”

CEO of digital assets at FG Nexus, Maja Vujinovic, also cautioned that markets could be split into “disconnected pools” which can create “dangerous price tracking errors and shadow-shorting vulnerabilities where there aren’t enough localized buyers to stabilize a specific token’s price.” 

Tokenized stocks make up just 4.4% of total RWA onchain value. Source: RWA.xyz

Meanwhile, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said on Thursday that any exemption would be “limited in scope” by only permitting “digital representations of the same underlying equity security that an investor could purchase in the secondary market today.” The full ruling for what will and won’t be permitted has yet to be finalized. 

Many practical market benefits

There are arguments that tokenized stocks provide practical market benefits, such as faster settlement, fractional ownership, lower transaction costs and the potential for round-the-clock trading, according to the Blockchain Council. 

Global accessibility lets non-US investors gain exposure to high-demand US stocks without being blocked by local brokerage limitations. 

Senior research analyst at Siebert Financial, Brian Vieten, said “We believe this will accelerate the transition of the US financial system from legacy rails to onchain blockchain-based rails.”

“We expect a portion of this flow to eventually flow to high-quality blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Hyperliquid,” he added. 

Magazine: Crypto scammers face death, Aussie CGT makes Asian hubs attractive: Asia Express

• REAL Finance signs first securities tokenization deal with Factori AD.
• Agreement activates institutional pipeline exceeding $100 million in assets.
• Pilot covers 5 million Alpha Bulgaria warrants valued near €2.75 each.

REAL Technologies Inc., the parent company of REAL Finance, has signed its first securities tokenization agreement with Factori AD, a fully licensed and EU-regulated investment broker.

The deal marks the first live deployment of REAL Finance’s infrastructure for regulated securities and activates an institutional pipeline of more than $100 million in client assets.

The initial transaction will involve equity derivatives linked to Alpha Bulgaria AD, a Bulgarian Stock Exchange-listed investment company, and will be executed on an EVM-compatible blockchain before the planned launch of REAL Finance’s Layer 1 mainnet.

REAL Finance moves from infrastructure build-out to live deployment

REAL Technologies said the agreement with Factori AD represents a major step in the commercial rollout of REAL Finance’s tokenization infrastructure.

The company said the deal activates a committed institutional pipeline exceeding $100 million in client assets.

It also marks the first live deployment of REAL Finance’s tokenization infrastructure for regulated securities.

Under the structure, Factori AD will direct institutional and client assets through REAL’s infrastructure.

The broker will continue to manage all regulated brokerage functions, including client onboarding, KYC, AML compliance, licensed OTC execution, and segregated custody arrangements.

International securities custody will be maintained through Bank of New York. Bulgarian securities will be held at the Central Depository in Bulgaria.

The model is designed to keep regulated brokerage and compliance functions with the licensed broker, while REAL Finance provides the infrastructure and settlement layer for tokenization.

REAL Finance said its approach focuses exclusively on tokenizing real securities.

These include publicly traded equities and derivatives, private market shares, and bonds. The company said it does not focus on synthetic exposure products.

First tranche linked to Alpha Bulgaria warrants

The first transaction under the agreement involves equity derivatives tied to Alpha Bulgaria AD, a publicly traded investment company listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange under the ticker ALFB.

The pilot includes 5,000,000 warrants currently valued at approximately €2.75 each.

These warrants have been designated for tokenization through REAL’s infrastructure under Factori AD’s licensed custody and transfer-agent framework.

The transaction represents the first tranche of a broader institutional pipeline.

Factori AD has committed more than $100 million in additional client assets for tokenization through REAL’s infrastructure.

The transaction will be executed on an EVM-compatible blockchain before the planned launch of REAL Finance’s Layer 1 mainnet.

REAL Technologies said the pilot is designed to validate the full workflow for tokenized securities.

That workflow includes regulated sourcing, licensed OTC execution, regulated custody, and on-chain tokenization.

Dimitar Tsvetanov, managing director at Factori AD, said institutional interest in regulated tokenization infrastructure is growing.

We see growing institutional demand for regulated tokenization infrastructure that can bridge traditional securities markets with blockchain-based settlement systems. Through this agreement with REAL Finance, we are able to provide clients with a compliant framework for bringing real financial instruments on-chain while maintaining regulated execution, custody, and onboarding standards.

Regulated custody remains central to the model

REAL Technologies positioned the agreement as evidence that its tokenization model is now operational and under contract with a regulated broker.

“Signing this agreement demonstrates that REAL’s tokenization capabilities are operational and under contract with real securities and a regulated broker. The pilot allows us to validate the full model before we scale to service our multi-nine-figure committed assets pipeline,” said Ivo Grigorov, chief executive officer of REAL Technologies.

Valentin Dimitrov, chief operating officer of REAL Technologies, said the company had built the system around compliance and real financial instruments.

“We designed the architecture around licensed custody, full compliance, and genuine instruments. This first executed deal, together with the committed flow, confirms institutional demand for the infrastructure we are building,” Dimitrov said.

The deal comes amid rising institutional interest in tokenized real-world assets and blockchain-based settlement systems.