YZi Labs launches a curated Creator Program that plugs Web3 and AI storytellers into over 300 portfolio projects, extending its push to fuse capital, hiring and narrative.

The program effectively turns YZi Labs’ deal flow and existing network—built over years of crypto and frontier‑tech investing—into a structured pipeline between early‑stage teams and a vetted bench of creators who can translate complex tech into narrative and distribution. The firm framed the initiative as a way to curate talent on both sides: creators gain warm access to founders and distribution, while portfolio companies avoid the typical spray‑and‑pray marketing spend on generic agencies.

YZi’s expanding Web3 and AI stack

In its post, YZi Labs said the Creator Program aims to cover “Web3, AI, and cutting‑edge technology fields,” explicitly aligning it with the same verticals targeted by the firm’s flagship EASY Residency incubation track. EASY Residency has been pitched as a global program “supporting early‑stage, long‑term founders across Web3, AI, and biotech,” giving YZi a pipeline from incubation to hiring to now media and narrative.

The launch follows YZi’s recent rollout of YZi Talent, a recruitment platform that aggregates open roles from its Web3, AI, and biotech portfolio into a single funnel for senior engineering and business talent. In that announcement, the firm described YZi Talent as “integrating open positions in Web3, AI, and biotechnology from its portfolio,” mirroring the language now used for creators and suggesting that hiring, media, and capital are being welded into one ecosystem play.

Earlier this year, YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance Labs, also unveiled a $1 billion Builder Fund aimed at backing early‑stage founders on BNB Chain, with teams able to secure up to $500,000 each plus access to YZi’s global user base and network. That capital vehicle sits alongside strategic bets like YZi’s investment in BitGo’s New York Stock Exchange debut and its backing of Temple Digital Group to power the first institutional trading platform on Canton Network, both moves that underscore its focus on regulated infrastructure and institutional‑grade rails.

Web3 creators, capital and distribution

The new Creator Program lands at a moment when Web3 platforms are aggressively pitching themselves as the place where creators finally get paid directly and own their audiences, a thesis laid out in detail in earlier analysis of how Web3 can shift value away from legacy platforms and toward individual content producers. Projects such as Promeet have been framed as “platforms that help creators monetize their videos, images, live streams, and meetings” using tokens and instant settlement instead of the opaque payout structures of YouTube or Twitch.

Against that backdrop, YZi’s decision to formalize a curated creator network looks less like a marketing perk and more like an attempt to hard‑wire narrative, hiring, and capital into one vertically integrated stack. By giving creators priority access to founders across more than 300 portfolio companies and their distribution channels, the firm is trying to ensure that the next wave of Web3 and AI stories gets told by specialists already embedded in its ecosystem, rather than by whichever influencer happens to have the loudest account that week.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest assets in the market, continue to frame the macro backdrop for this type of ecosystem building, with bitcoin (BTC) trading above $70,000 and ether (ETH) above $2,000 according to the cryptocurrency prices page, reinforcing the capital base and attention that still flows into crypto and adjacent AI bets. As YZi Labs layers a creator program on top of its recruitment platforms, builder funds, and strategic infrastructure bets, it is effectively betting that those flows will be intermediated not just by code and capital, but by a tightly controlled narrative machine built inside its own portfolio.

Trezor has launched a Morpho integration that lets users earn yield on USDC and USDT inside Trezor Suite.

Hardware wallet maker Trezor has launched a native stablecoin yield feature inside Trezor Suite. The product runs through a Morpho integration that lets users earn on USDC and USDT without leaving the app.

The move signals how custody providers are folding DeFi into their core products. The Steakhouse Prime USDC vault on Morpho, one of two vaults Trezor selected at launch, allocates deposits against blue-chip crypto and real-world asset collateral, with yield generated from borrowing demand.

How the Morpho integration works

Trezor picked two vaults curated by Steakhouse Financial: USDC Prime and USDT Prime. Both sit in Steakhouse’s institutional-grade lending range, which the curator says targets a 4.5% to 6.5% APY for USDC and 4.5% to 6% for USDT, with a 15% management fee.

Deposits, withdrawals and reward claims are signed directly on users’ Trezor hardware devices through clear-signing, which displays transaction details in human-readable form on the device screen. That keeps custody local while routing capital onchain.

Trezor said the yield is generated from borrowing demand on Morpho rather than token incentive programs. The wallet provider is widely considered the second-largest hardware wallet maker behind Ledger, which already offers native stablecoin yield through Ledger Live.

Why Morpho keeps winning institutional flows

Morpho has become the default backend for custodians and asset managers adding yield. The protocol powered Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed loans launched in early 2025 and now sits behind crypto-backed lending for XRP, DOGE, ADA and LTC on the same platform.

Asset managers have followed. Bitwise launched its first onchain vault on Morpho in January, targeting around 6% APY on USDC, and Apollo Global Management agreed to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over 48 months.

Vitalik Buterin recently criticised many “USDC yield” strategies as overly dependent on centralised issuers, but Trezor’s framing positions its product as on-chain lending with hardware-signed transactions, not a custodial yield account.

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 1961.44, down 3.1% (-62.25) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

One of the 20 assets is trading higher.

Leaders: XLM (+10.5%) and HBAR (-1.7%).

Laggards: NEAR (-12.2%) and BCH (-12.1%).

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

Solana (SOL) futures dropped sharply in May as traders reduced leveraged exposure across all exchanges. SOL open interest (OI) dropped to $1.90 billion on Thursday from $2.75 billion on May 11, a 30% decline, while funding rates remained close to neutral. The combination points to weakening investor sentiment as SOL eyes a retest of its yearly low at $68. 

SOL spot demand offsets futures market weakness

The aggregated funding rate for Solana futures held near -0.005, showing balanced positioning between longs and shorts. SOL traders have not built aggressive directional bets despite the recent price slide to $80.

SOL price, aggregated open interest, and funding rate. Source: velo chart

At the same time, the aggregated futures volume cumulative volume delta (CVD) for stablecoin-margined orders fell to a yearly low of -$13 billion. The CVD tracks whether buyers or sellers are more active over time. The decline signals stronger sell-side pressure in futures markets through May.

BTC price, aggregated spot and futures CVD. Source: Coinalyze 

However, spot activity paints a steadier picture. Spot CVD has improved to $350 million since March, showing that buyers have continued to absorb supply on spot exchanges even as derivatives positioning has weakened. 

The positive flows into spot SOL exchange-traded funds (ETFs) added to that trend. The monthly net inflows reached $113 million in May, marking the strongest monthly total for SOL ETFs in 2026.

The split between futures selling and steady spot accumulation often points to a lower level of speculative appetite rather than panic selling. This indicates that leveraged traders reduced risk exposure, while spot buyers continued to add positions gradually.

Spot SOL ETF netflows. Source: SoSoValue

Related: Three key XRP metrics suggest ‘explosive price expansion’ is next

SOL retests the $80 price floor of a three-month range

From a technical standpoint, SOL continues to trade inside a broad range between $80 and $95. The range formed after Solana fell 42% during Q1. The price returned to the lower boundary on Wednesday after another rejection near the resistance level.

SOL/USD, one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

A move below $80 places focus on the yearly low near $68. The liquidation heat maps show more than $800 million in cumulative long leverage sitting near that zone, making it an important liquidity pocket if downside pressure increases.

Crypto trader Cold Blooded Shiller described SOL as one of the weaker large-cap charts in the market. In a post on X, the trader said SOL has been in a downtrend since October and lacks strong support below the current price level of $80.

Crypto commentator Zoe also placed bids near $67, closely aligning with the yearly low and the largest cluster of leveraged liquidations identified on the open leveraged positions heatmap. 

SOL liquidation map. Source: CoinGlass

Related: HYPE chases new highs as ETF inflows, institutional adoption accelerate

The crypto sector remains deeply out of favor, not only from a price perspective, but also in terms of investor sentiment.

Capital flows and market attention have increasingly shifted toward other high-growth sectors, lately semiconductors and memory-related equities, which have effectively replaced crypto as the market’s dominant momentum trade.

This analysis compares the performance cycles of bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap; gold, the largest precious metal; NVIDIA (NVDA), the leading AI-driven equity; and memory and semiconductor names, including SanDisk (SNDK) and Micron Technology (MU).

Bitcoin experienced a huge rally from its November 2022 low through its October 2025 peak, surging more than 650% from roughly $15,000 to nearly $125,000. A significant portion of that move occurred between September 2024 and January 2025, when the price doubled from approximately $55,000 to $110,000 alongside Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory. The price ultimately topped around $126,000 last October.

Gold followed a delayed but similar trajectory, driven largely by the growing “debasement trade” narrative surrounding fiscal deficits and monetary expansion. The metal began its breakout in early 2024 near $2,000 per ounce and eventually climbed above $5,200 per ounce in February 2026, roughly four months after bitcoin peaked. Since then, gold has corrected nearly 20% and now trades below $4,400 per ounce.

NVIDIA followed a similar pattern, reaching a peak near $225 per share in May before easing back to $212, and it is now only slightly higher over the past six months.

Hot money trading has now shifted decisively toward memory and semiconductor companies such as Sandisk and Micron Technology, with Micron recently entering the $1 trillion market capitalization club after having a valuation of just $70 billion only one year ago.

With SpaceX potentially approaching the largest IPO in history, and OpenAI and Anthropic possibly soon to follow, investor attention could shift once again. Much like crypto, gold and AI infrastructure before them, these companies could become the next major destination for speculative and momentum-driven capital, potentially defining the next phase of the market cycle.

With investors about to get a new shiny object on which to shower attention and money, bitcoin and crypto could be sidelined from bull runs for far longer than expected.

UniCredit director Elena Carletti has warned Europe may struggle to contain a crypto bank crisis under MiCA rules.

UniCredit deputy vice chair Elena Carletti has warned that Europe may struggle to contain a crypto-linked banking shock under MiCA. The Italian bank executive said EU tools are weaker than the US emergency response of 2023.

The comments land as MiCA pulls stablecoin issuers closer to traditional lenders. Carletti, who chairs UniCredit’s board risk committee, said at an IESE Business School conference in Madrid that the same systemic-risk exception used to guarantee all SVB and Signature deposits “cannot be easily taken in Europe.”

Why MiCA creates a “double weakness”

MiCA requires stablecoin issuers, classified as electronic money tokens, to hold reserves in liquid assets including bank deposits and government securities. That ties stablecoin stability directly to bank balance sheets.

The link became visible during the March 2023 SVB collapse. Circle, issuer of USDC, disclosed $3.3 billion of reserves stuck at the failed bank, and the stablecoin briefly lost its dollar peg before US regulators guaranteed all deposits.

“The coverage and protection … was given to all deposits, including stablecoin companies, and that also allowed to maintain the stability of the stablecoin,” Carletti said. EU deposit insurance, capped at €100,000, cannot absorb stress from large stablecoin reserve accounts the same way.

What it means for Europe’s stablecoin push

Carletti’s warning comes as European banks lean further into stablecoins. UniCredit itself is a founding member of Qivalis, the consortium planning a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin for launch in the second half of 2026.

Italy’s Banca Sella, another Qivalis founder, recently won Bank of Italy approval to offer crypto custody and transfer services under MiCA’s notification route for credit institutions. The full MiCA rollout tightens supervision of CASPs, stablecoin issuers and DeFi front-ends by July 2026.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has previously argued MiCA’s 60% uninsured cash reserve requirement could itself trigger systemic risk, echoing Carletti’s concern from the issuer side.

Latest developments: Calamos says its protected Bitcoin ETFs are attracting inflows even as spot Bitcoin ETFs see redemptions.

• Matt Kaufman, head of ETFs at Calamos, said the firm saw roughly $10 million to $15 million in inflows over the past several weeks.
• Kaufman said advisors are increasingly looking for Bitcoin exposure that reduces volatility and downside risk.
• The firm offers three versions of its protected Bitcoin ETFs, including products with full downside protection and others with 10% or 20% downside risk.
• “You can get upside of Bitcoin with no downside risk,” Kaufman said.
• Kaufman joined CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie on Public Keys.

How it works: Calamos structures the products using Treasuries and options tied to Bitcoin-linked indexes.

• Kaufman said the firm allocates roughly 90% of assets into Treasuries to build downside protection.
• The remaining budget is used to buy Bitcoin-linked call spreads through FLEX options.
• Calamos created its own Bitcoin-linked index and listed FLEX options tied to that index after the launch of spot Bitcoin ETF options.
• The products are offered in quarterly structures as well as laddered versions designed for model portfolios.

What advisors are asking: Wealth managers are becoming more sophisticated in how they evaluate crypto exposure.

• Kaufman said advisors previously focused on whether Bitcoin belonged in portfolios at all.
• Now, advisors are asking how to improve risk-adjusted returns and portfolio construction using crypto exposure.
• Calamos positions its products as alternatives to traditional portfolio allocations, including broad equities, bonds and cash.
• Kaufman said some investors are moving from cash-like products into fully protected Bitcoin ETFs tied to Bitcoin performance but without downside exposure.

Reading between the lines: The crypto ETF market is evolving beyond simple spot exposure.

• Kaufman said the industry is increasingly dividing crypto ETF strategies into three categories: protection, income and growth.
• Calamos previously launched auto-callable income ETFs and is exploring additional crypto-related strategies.
• Other ETF issuers have focused on generating yield from Bitcoin volatility through options-based products.
• “You don’t just have to sit in the spot vehicle anymore and ride out those waves,” Kaufman said.

What comes next: Calamos expects Bitcoin volatility to remain a defining feature of the asset.

• Kaufman said he expects Bitcoin to revisit previous highs despite recent market turbulence.
• He argued Bitcoin’s volatility profile creates opportunities for structured products and options-based strategies.
• “I think we’re going higher,” Kaufman said.