TeraWulf (WULF) surged 13% early Tuesday as the company unveiled plans for a new large-scale AI and high-performance computing (HPC) campus in Kentucky.

The company said it acquired a hyperscale development site capable of supporting more than 1 gigawatt of AI and HPC infrastructure over time. The so-called Muskie Data Campus is expected to deliver an initial 500 megawatts starting in the second half of 2028, with another 500 megawatts targeted by 2030.

The firm said the Kentucky project underscores how access to electricity and transmission infrastructure has become one of the key battlegrounds in the AI boom.

“The defining constraint in this market is no longer computing hardware,” Prager said. “It is power, transmission infrastructure, and execution certainty.”

The rally also tracked the broader strength in AI-linked stocks, including bitcoin miners that have increasingly repositioned themselves as data center and AI infrastructure operators. The sector has become one of the hottest corners of crypto-linked equities over the past year as investors bet that the massive power needs of AI models could create a more lucrative long-term business line beyond mining tokens.

Hut 8 (HUT) climbed 7%, while Keel Infrastructure (KEEL), formerly known as Bitfarms, rose 6.5%. IREN (IREN) gained nearly 5%, and Cipher Mining (CIFR) advanced 5.5%.

Memory chipmaker Micron (MU) jumped 15% to fresh record highs above $870, as global investment bank UBS lifted its target to $1,625 citing strong AI demand for memory, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained 5%, also reaching new highs.

Markets have been rugged numerous times over the past weeks on supposed Middle East peace deals, but President Trump’s Saturday announcement of a coming agreement for the moment continues to have legs.

Oil prices and bond yields are sharply lower in response, and that’s helping stocks, where the Nasdaq has surged 1.4% in Tuesday morning trade.

Crypto, though, is watching from the sidelines as traders shovel capital into AI-related trades and await mega-IPOs like SpaceX and OpenAI.

After briefly attempting to rally, bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at $76,800, down nearly 1% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) are down similarly.

Binance has disclosed a formal market-entry initiative in the Philippines, aligning with fintech partner BlockShoals Technologies to pursue operations through local partnerships and regulatory engagement. The arrangement positions BlockShoals as an approved local intermediary under the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission’s StratBox framework, with Binance providing technology, security, operations, and compliance support. According to Cointelegraph, the effort signifies Binance’s intent to pursue a compliance-first pathway into a market where direct access has historically been restricted.

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the company is pursuing a compliance-oriented market approach in collaboration with local stakeholders. “This represents Binance’s first formal market entry approach in the Philippines through local partnerships and regulatory engagement,” the spokesperson said.

The StratBox-based plan is designed to unfold in phases, with the sandbox portion expected to commence in the second half of 2026 and run for at least two years under the SEC framework. The initiative comes as Binance remains blocked in the country, a status tied to licensing concerns and regulatory action by local authorities.

Key takeaways

• BlockShoals Technologies is an approved StratBox participant, designated to operate as the local intermediary for Binance under the Philippines’ regulatory sandbox framework.
• The StratBox sandbox is slated to begin in H2 2026 and extend for a minimum of two years, reflecting a structured, regulator-led pathway for market access.
• Binance’s ongoing access restrictions in the Philippines persist, tied to licensing and registration requirements; regulators have historically directed or mandated access limitations on unregistered platforms.
• The Philippines’ regulatory regime has evolved through a series of public advisories and enforcement actions targeting unregistered crypto platforms, illustrating a high-risk environment for cross-border exchanges operating without local authorization.
• The development highlights a broader trend toward formalized, compliance-driven market entry strategies for international exchanges seeking a regulated foothold in Southeast Asia.

Formal market-entry strategy through StratBox

The Philippines’ StratBox framework, described by Binance as an approved sandbox, is intended to enable a controlled, supervised pilot of digital-asset activities through locally licensed intermediaries. In this structure, BlockShoals will act as the approved operator within the regulatory perimeter, while Binance supplies the behind-the-scenes technology, security controls, and ongoing compliance oversight. The approach aligns with a broader demand from regulators for direct oversight over market participants, particularly in areas touching securities law and investor protections.

From a practical standpoint, the model reduces immediate exposure to blanket, cross-border access while establishing a clear line of sight into local consumer protections, anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) controls, and licensing requirements. The market-entry plan underscores an emphasis on governance, risk management, and regulatory reporting, with the sandbox design intended to allow regulators to observe, assess, and steer operations before broader permissioning is granted.

Regulatory backdrop: enforcement history and current posture

The regulatory narrative in the Philippines around Binance has been marked by a sequence of warnings, blocking actions, and ongoing licensing considerations. The Securities and Exchange Commission first warned the public against Binance in November 2023, stating that the platform was not authorized to sell or offer securities in the country due to the absence of the required registration and license. This initial advisory underscored the SEC’s stance that unregistered platforms pose compliance and investor-protection risks.

In March 2024, the SEC indicated it had requested the National Telecommunications Commission to block access to Binance and related pages, citing the absence of a Philippine-registered operating license. Local internet-service providers subsequently restricted access in alignment with the regulator’s directive. The episode illustrated the interplay between securities regulators and communications regulators in enforcing market access constraints against unlicensed platforms.

The regulatory emphasis on licensing and registration broadened in 2025, when the SEC issued an advisory against a group of crypto exchanges, including OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, and Kraken, warning that their activities may expose Filipino investors to heightened risks. The advisory reflected a willingness to pursue sanctions or enforcement measures against platforms lacking proper local authorization, signaling a tighter risk posture for overseas exchanges seeking Philippine operations.

Further signals emerged in April 2025, when the regulator named several platforms—dYdX, Aevo, gTrade, Pacifica, Orderly, Deriv, and Ostium—in an investor alert, stating that these entities were not registered with the SEC but appeared to be offering investments to the public. The action illustrated a continued effort to deter unregistered platforms from marketing to Philippine investors and to standardize expectations around registration, licensing, and compliance practices for digital-asset participants.

These enforcement milestones collectively shape the regulatory environment in which Binance’s StratBox plan operates. They indicate a persistent risk that access to Philippine markets remains contingent on regaining licensed status or establishing an authorized local intermediary under a regulator-approved framework. The evolving regime places a premium on formal licensing, registration, and ongoing compliance, with regulators signaling readiness to impose access restrictions on non-compliant platforms.

Regulatory and market-structure implications for cross-border operators

Binance’s attempt to re-enter the Philippine market through a regulator-approved intermediary marks a notable shift in how large, international exchanges may pursue access in jurisdictions with stringent licensing regimes. The StratBox pathway embodies a hybrid model that balances local oversight with international technology and risk-management capabilities. For exchanges, this approach could become a template for navigating disparate regulatory landscapes where outright market access is blocked or revoked absent a local license or licensed intermediary.

From a policy perspective, the Philippines’ evolving framework aligns with broader regional and international trends toward formalizing digital-asset markets. The emphasis on sandbox experimentation, intermediary licenses, and phased market access mirrors regulatory moves seen in other jurisdictions that favor structured pilots before granting broad licensing. The regulatory emphasis on AML/KYC, investor protection, and clear licensing requirements has direct implications for exchanges and market participants seeking to avoid sanctions and ensure compliance with local law.

For financial institutions and banks interfacing with crypto platforms, the Philippine experience reinforces the importance of due diligence and compliance readiness in cross-border payments and custodial arrangements. Banks and payment facilitators are increasingly attuned to the regulatory status of crypto platforms operating within their ecosystems, given the potential reputational, legal, and operational risks associated with unregistered or unlicensed entities. In this sense, the StratBox model could influence how banks assess counterparties, conduct audit trails, and implement cross-border AML controls in collaboration with regulators and local partners.

Broader policy and regional context

The Philippines’ regulatory trajectory sits within a global milieu of enhanced crypto oversight, where frameworks such as the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and corresponding U.S. enforcement priorities shape cross-border operations. Policymakers are increasingly expecting robust licensing, transparent disclosures, and verifiable compliance programs as prerequisites for market access. In this context, StratBox and similar sandbox avenues may serve as pragmatic mechanisms to harmonize innovation with risk management, providing clear benchmarks for registration, reporting, and supervisory review.

For market participants, the evolving landscape also underscores a need to monitor cross-border regulatory differences, potential licensing harmonization efforts, and the degree of regulatory certainty that may emerge from sandbox-based pilots. As regulators balance investor protection with the benefits of fintech innovation, the Philippines’ experience may inform policy discussions on licensing timelines, interim safeguards, and the role of approved intermediaries in overseeing digital-asset activities.

Closing perspective

The Binance-BlockShoals StratBox initiative reflects a deliberate, regulation-aligned strategy to gain a regulated foothold in the Philippines. While the sandbox offers a clear pathway to market access, the ongoing licensing and access constraints illustrate the prudence regulators exercise to balance innovation with investor protection. As the two-year-plus sandbox unfolds, observers should watch for how the framework addresses registration hurdles, supervisory expectations, and the practical implications for institutions seeking to participate in a regulated Philippine digital-asset market. The outcome will likely influence how other international exchanges craft compliant market-entry plans in similarly regulated jurisdictions.

Strive (ASST) purchased 1,109 bitcoin at an average price of roughly $76,989 per coin in the four days ended May 22, according to a Tuesday filing.

The latest acquisition brings the company’s total bitcoin holdings to 16,500 BTC, up from 15,391 BTC. Strive is now the seventh-largest publicly traded company holding bitcoin.

Alongside the increase in bitcoin holdings, Strive also reported higher cash and cash equivalents, which rose to $93.3 million from $87.3 million. The company’s holdings of Strategy Inc.’s STRC preferred stock also increased slightly in value to over $50 million.

The company also disclosed it is evaluating a refresh of its at-the-market programs tied to both its Class A common stock and SATA preferred stock, signaling additional flexibility for future capital raises and bitcoin purchases.

Shares of ASST have surged 133% over the past three months, dramatically outperforming other bitcoin treasury firms, though they remain lower by more than 90% from their 2025 high.

ASST is higher by 3% premarket alongside bitcoin’s rise back to $77,000 over the weekend.

BNB Plus has raised $4.1 million in new convertible preferred stock to bulk up its digital-asset treasury and “explore” AI infrastructure, effectively asking public investors to fund a levered bet that the on‑chain plus AI narrative still has legs.

BNB Plus Corp., a Nasdaq-listed digital asset treasury company trading under the ticker BNBX, said it has secured initial commitments for $4.1 million in Series B‑1 and B‑2 convertible preferred stock, with expectations to lift the total to $5 million. According to the company’s statement, investors include the Comstock Multichain Fund, an investment vehicle managed by Silvermine Capital Advisors, and other crypto-native institutional backers such as Off the Chain LP that specialize in “the monetization of undervalued assets.”

The financing is structured as two tranches of senior convertible preferreds that sit ahead of common equity and can convert 1‑for‑1 into BNBX shares, with obligations guaranteed by the company’s digital-asset treasury subsidiaries. The Series B‑1 preferred stock is priced at $1.05 per share, representing a 176% premium to BNB Plus’s May 22 closing price, carries an 8% annual dividend and a 1.5x liquidation preference, and comes with warrants giving investors the right to buy additional common shares at an exercise price of $0.76 for three years.

A small balance sheet chasing a big story

For a company of BNB Plus’s size, the absolute dollar amount matters more than the headline. With this round, the firm says it expects to hold “over $16.4 million” in cash and digital assets, valued as of May 23, meaning the $4.1 million (and potentially $5 million) raise is material relative to its existing treasury rather than a token top‑up.

BNB Plus positions itself as a specialist “digital asset treasury” operator, offering institutional-grade access to the Binance ecosystem while still carrying legacy biotech operations from its previous incarnation as Applied DNA Sciences. In its latest materials, the company says the new capital will “bolster the Company’s digital asset treasury” and provide working capital to support a “comprehensive strategic review” of both its digital-asset and biotechnology businesses, a phrase that usually signals future portfolio pruning, asset sales, or a rebrand that leans harder into the hotter narrative—in this case crypto plus AI.

The announcement explicitly ties proceeds not just to building reserves but to “explore opportunities for AI infrastructure development,” though it offers no concrete detail on whether that means direct investment in GPUs, co-investment in data centers, or essentially buying equity in other people’s AI hardware. That vagueness is precisely what makes this a pure narrative trade: the company is small, the capital is modest, and “AI infrastructure” is doing more work as a buzzword than as a defined capex plan.

Reflexive capital chasing on‑chain plus off‑chain risk

In isolation, a $4.1 million preferred round would barely register in a market obsessed with multibillion‑dollar ETFs and layer‑1 valuations. But BNB Plus’s raise fits neatly into a pattern where listed, niche balance‑sheet players are raising fresh equity and preferred capital on the promise of blending volatile on‑chain exposure with off‑chain AI compute and infrastructure bets.

The reflexivity is obvious. BNB Plus’s market cap sits in the low single‑digit millions, yet it is now offering investors a structure where they hand over cash in return for senior claims on a digital-asset treasury that itself is supposed to appreciate, while management promises to “review” strategy and maybe invest into AI hardware that is also being chased by every other public company with a pulse. If crypto prices rise, the treasury looks smarter; if AI infrastructure multiples stay inflated, the story looks smarter; in both cases, the company can raise again on the back of that mark‑to‑market.

The danger is that this becomes less about genuine treasury management and more about stacking layers of correlated risk—crypto tokens on one side, AI infrastructure valuations on the other—inside thinly capitalized vehicles that retail investors can trade on Nasdaq. For now, investors seem willing to reward any vehicle that promises exposure to both themes at once; BNB Plus’s financing shows that even tiny balance sheets are learning to speak that language fluently.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2066.65, down 0.4% (-7.39) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.

Four of the 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: NEAR (+2.1%) and TAO (+1.2%).

Laggards: SUI (-1.1%) and CRO (-1.1%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

BitMine Immersion Technologies now controls 5,390,404 ETH—around 4.47% of Ethereum’s total supply—after quietly accelerating its “5% Alchemy” accumulation strategy to within striking distance of its self-imposed goal.

As of May 25, BitMine Immersion Technologies says its treasury has reached 5,390,404 ETH held at an average acquisition price of $2,134, representing 4.47% of Ethereum’s roughly 120.7 million coin supply. According to the company’s latest release, that stash sits alongside 203 BTC, $200 million in Beast Industries equity, $95 million in Eightco Holdings “moonshot” exposure and $444 million in cash, bringing total crypto, cash and moonshot assets to $12.3 billion.

BMNR frames this as progress toward what chairman Tom Lee has branded the “Alchemy of 5%”—a plan to acquire roughly 5% of all ETH in existence, then pivot from accumulation to harvesting protocol-level yield through an internal staking stack called MAVAN. Earlier disclosures show how aggressively the position has ramped: in December 2025 the firm reported holding 4.11 million ETH (about 3.41% of supply), rising to 4.66 million ETH (3.86% of supply) by late March and 4.80 million ETH in early April as it kept buying into the low $2,000s.

A single treasury is turning into an ETH mega-validator

The more important number is not just how much ETH BitMine owns, but how much it has already staked into Ethereum’s consensus layer. Recent materials indicate that the company has staked approximately 4.71 million ETH, with earlier data showing 3.14 million ETH staked as of March 23 and 4.71 million ETH associated with MAVAN and partner validator operations as it moved closer to its 5% target. Using a 7‑day annualized staking yield of roughly 2.75%, BitMine estimates that its staked ETH can generate around $276 million in yearly rewards at current prices, with some earlier projections putting the fully scaled MAVAN revenue closer to $282 million at a 2.78% yield.

That makes BMNR not just a whale, but arguably Ethereum’s most important corporate validator operator in the making. A January analysis of BitMine’s strategy noted that the company had already accumulated more than 4.2 million ETH, around 3.48% of total supply, and explicitly highlighted trader anxiety about what happens when “the largest purchaser” of ETH finishes buying and flips into a pure staking-and-yield posture. The same piece flagged that BitMine was already staking about 1.84 million ETH at that point and planned to deepen partnerships with third-party staking providers while rolling out MAVAN as a dedicated validator network.

Concentration risk, governance leverage and the politics of “5%”

On paper, 4.47% does not sound like control, but in practice a single listed corporation that owns and stakes a low-single-digit percentage of Ethereum’s entire supply is a structural fact for the network. Staking is already dominated by a handful of liquid staking protocols and centralized exchanges; dropping another multi-million‑ETH block into a unified treasury that answers to a board and equity shareholders adds a visibly political actor to Ethereum’s validator set.

This is exactly the concern raised in recent coverage that asked whether Ethereum’s price and security model become more fragile once BitMine reaches its 5% goal and stops being a one-way buyer. The “toll booth for programmable money” language surrounding the Alchemy of 5% strategy, echoed in investor materials and Binance Square posts, is not subtle: BitMine wants to own a systemically important slice of the base asset, run validators at scale, and skim protocol yield at volumes that rival mid-cap public companies’ operating profit.

From a decentralization standpoint, this is a regression disguised as sophistication. Where early Ethereum culture pretended to fear miners and exchanges, the network is now sleepwalking into a regime where a handful of branded, compliant, fully KYC’d mega-validators can credibly threaten to coordinate around contentious forks, censorship of sanctioned addresses, or political pressure from regulators. BitMine does not need to “attack” Ethereum to change it; it only has to exist at this scale and behave like every other large, risk-averse public company.

The market’s complacent response so far—treating BMNR’s accumulation as bullish “institutional adoption”—misses the point. A future in which one treasury controls and stakes 5% of ETH may be good for BitMine’s shareholders, but it makes Ethereum’s consensus and politics meaningfully more legible, more captured, and easier to pressure from the outside.

Key Highlights

• Deutsche Bank maintains Buy rating with $135 price objective on CoreWeave ($CRWV), currently trading near $105.49
• Major institutional investors like Vanguard, PNC Financial, and Invesco dramatically expanded their CRWV holdings
• Company secured a groundbreaking $3.1 billion AI infrastructure financing facility for data center growth
• Analyst consensus shows “Moderate Buy” with mean price objective of $129.63 across 33 Wall Street analysts
• Company insiders offloaded more than $2.8 billion in shares over 90 days, primarily for tax obligations related to equity compensation

CoreWeave ($CRWV) is attracting significant institutional capital and positive analyst commentary as the company aggressively expands its AI-focused cloud infrastructure footprint. Shares started Tuesday’s session at $105.49, notably below the 52-week peak of $187.00 yet comfortably above the $63.80 yearly low.

CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock, CRWV

Deutsche Bank maintained its Buy recommendation while keeping the $135 price objective intact, pointing to robust AI infrastructure demand as the catalyst driving revenue expansion and growing backlogs at specialized cloud infrastructure providers such as CoreWeave.

The investment bank recognized that profitability metrics throughout the industry face headwinds. CoreWeave’s gross margin stands at 69%, yet the firm reported a $3.15 per-share loss across the trailing twelve months as it channels significant capital toward platform expansion.

Deutsche Bank observed that Wall Street has struggled to properly value AI-centric businesses within the broader cloud computing landscape, though it emphasized that CoreWeave’s extended contract terms deliver appealing returns while mitigating risk across their multi-year duration.

Wall Street consensus anticipates revenue growth this year despite the absence of profitability. The average earnings per share projection for the current fiscal year is -$4.58.

Institutional Capital Flows Into CRWV

The surge in institutional ownership of CoreWeave has been remarkable. PNC Financial Services expanded its holding by 248.9% during Q4, purchasing 38,205 additional units to reach 53,556 shares worth approximately $3.84 million.

Vanguard made an even more substantial commitment, growing its position by 275.6% to approximately 28 million units valued near $2 billion. Proficio Capital Partners and Invesco similarly established significant positions during the third quarter.

The inclusion of the stock in the Russell 3000 index is anticipated to trigger additional buying from passive investment vehicles tracking the benchmark.

$3.1B Financing Facility and Platform Innovation

CoreWeave completed a $3.1 billion high-performance computing infrastructure financing arrangement — characterized as the inaugural publicly syndicated HPC infrastructure-backed credit facility. The structure earned Ba2 credit ratings from Moody’s and BB+ from Fitch.

The firm unveiled CoreWeave Sandboxes, a new offering providing protected environments for AI researchers to execute computational workloads. The solution is accessible through CoreWeave Kubernetes Service and a serverless alternative via Weights & Biases.

CoreWeave achieved the top inference performance benchmark for Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2.6 model, reaching 205 tokens per second.

Regarding analyst coverage, Wells Fargo increased its price objective from $135 to $155 while maintaining an overweight stance. Jefferies boosted its target from $120 to $160, continuing with a buy recommendation. Citizens JMP maintains a $180 objective. Macquarie recently upgraded to an outperform rating.

Bearish voices remain present. Bernstein SocGen kept an underperform rating, elevating its target only to $67, expressing concerns regarding potential competitive threats from a planned AI cloud collaboration between Blackstone and Alphabet.

Among 33 Wall Street analysts tracking the stock, 19 recommend Buy, 12 suggest Hold, and 2 advise Sell. The consensus price target stands at $129.63.

Insider selling activity has been substantial, with more than $2.8 billion in shares sold during the previous 90 days, though regulatory filings show these transactions occurred under pre-established Rule 10b5-1 trading plans designed to satisfy tax withholding requirements on vesting equity awards.

Smaller Bitcoin treasury firms added 602.6 BTC worth about $46 million last week, even as the largest corporate holders appeared to pause their acquisitions.

The purchases included a 381.6 Bitcoin (BTC) acquisition by asset manager and Bitcoin treasury company Strive, 200 BTC bought by global consumer food brand DDC Enterprise Limited, 19 BTC acquired by UK-based web design company The Smarter Web Company (SWC), and 2 BTC bought by AI data center company Hyperscale Data.

The buying suggests corporate Bitcoin demand has not disappeared during the latest drawdown, but has shifted toward smaller treasury firms while market leader Strategy paused its usual weekly accumulation.

The purchases came as spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) logged $1.54 billion in combined net outflows in the six trading days leading up to Friday, Farside Investors data shows.

However, crypto sentiment analysis platform Santiment called the mounting outflows a “counter-indicator,” arguing that ETFs disproportionately reflect retail investor sentiment, not smart money positioning, Cointelegraph reported on Saturday.

Strive FORM 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Source: SEC.gov

Bitcoin treasuries bought the BTC dip below $80,000

The Bitcoin treasury companies made their acquisitions shortly after Bitcoin fell below the $80,000 level.

Strive made its latest investment at an average purchasing price of $79,348 per Bitcoin, while DDC bought at an average purchasing price of $79,496 per BTC and SWC at an average purchasing price of $77,687 per BTC.

Hyperscale bought the BTC in the open market and did not disclose an average purchasing price, though it acquired on Sunday, when Bitcoin’s price closed the day at $76,981.

The average purchasing price of Bitcoin treasury firms is an important metric that reveals the unrealized gains or losses on the current BTC position and is often used to gauge a company’s long-term conviction in the underlying asset.

Related: New York lawsuit tests lost property claim over dormant Bitcoin

The development comes a week after Strategy announced a massive acquisition of 24,869 BTC acquired for $2.01 billion between May 11 and 17, at an average purchasing price of $80,985 per BTC. The $2 billion investment marked Strategy’s third-largest investment of 2026.

Top Bitcoin treasury companies by holdings. Source: Bitcointreasuries.net

There are currently about 198 public Bitcoin treasury companies holding 1.24 million Bitcoin, representing about 5.9% of the total supply, data from Bitcointreasuries shows.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs bleed $1B, Aave’s $71M ETH unfreeze bid delayed: Hodler’s Digest, May 10 – 16