Key takeaways

• Solana surged nearly 15% last week as spot SOL ETFs attracted $39.23 million in inflows — the strongest since January. 
• Solana surged nearly 15% last week as spot SOL ETFs attracted $39.23 million in inflows — the strongest since January. 

Solana (SOL) is trading just above $95 on Monday after rallying nearly 15% over the past week, with bullish momentum supported by strong institutional demand, improving on-chain activity, and rising derivatives participation.

Institutional demand pushes SOL above $90

Institutional appetite for Solana strengthened sharply last week, with spot Solana Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) recording net inflows of $39.23 million, according to CoinGlass data. 

The figure marked the strongest weekly inflow since mid-January, signaling renewed investor confidence in the asset. Continued inflows could provide additional upside support for SOL in the near term.

On-chain and derivatives metrics also point to a constructive outlook. CryptoQuant data indicates cooling conditions across both spot and futures markets while showing buy-side dominance in futures activity — a combination that often precedes further upside. 

Although several metrics remain neutral, overall sentiment has improved considerably compared to previous weeks.

In the derivatives market, Solana’s funding rates turned positive on Sunday before climbing to 0.0067% on Monday, showing that long traders are now paying shorts to maintain positions. 

Historically, similar flips from negative to positive funding rates have coincided with strong upward price moves for SOL.

Open Interest (OI) in Solana futures has also surged. CoinGlass data shows total OI rising to $6.46 billion on Monday from $4.83 billion on May 5. 

The steady increase since early May suggests fresh capital continues to enter the market, reinforcing bullish momentum and signaling growing trader participation.

Solana technical forecast: Bulls target the $100 psychological level

The SOL/USD 4-hour chart is bullish thanks to Solana’s recent rally. SOL is now trading above both the 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $93.87 and the 50-day EMA at $87.51, strengthening the bullish case.

Momentum indicators also remain supportive. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits at 69, reflecting strong but not yet overextended momentum.

Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator remains firmly positive and continues to rise.

If the rally persists, immediate resistance is seen near the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $98.53. 

A daily candle close above this resistance could open the door toward the $108.12–$110.62 range, where the 50% retracement level and the 200-day EMA converge. 

Additional resistance levels stand near $117.71 and $120.00, while an extended rally could target the 78.6% retracement level around $131.35.

However, if the market undergoes a correction, immediate support sits near the former channel resistance around $92.11, followed by the 100-day EMA at $93.87 and the 50-day EMA at $87.52. 

Losing these levels could expose the support near $86.67, while deeper pullbacks could revisit the channel floor around $77.12 and the broader cycle low area near $67.50.

Strategy bought 535 Bitcoin for $43 million last week, resuming its accumulation strategy days after its chairman, Michael Saylor, said the company may sell some of its holdings to fund dividend payments.

The world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder acquired the Bitcoin (BTC) between May 4 and May 10 at an average price of $80,340 per BTC, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The purchase lifted Strategy’s total holdings to 818,869 BTC, acquired for about $61.86 billion at an average price of $75,540 per coin, including fees and expenses.

The acquisition was Strategy’s first since April 27, when the company bought 3,273 BTC for $255 million. It also followed the company’s first-quarter earnings call, where Saylor said Strategy would “probably sell some Bitcoin” to fund a dividend and show that a sale would not undermine the company or the broader Bitcoin market.

On Sunday, Saylor hinted that the company would resume BTC purchases after the prior week’s pause.

Strategy Bitcoin acquisition, 8-K filing. Source: SEC

The Bitcoin purchase was made using proceeds from share sales. The majority of the acquisition, or $42.9 million, was funded through the sales of Class A common stock (MSTR), while another $100,000 was funded through the issuance of Stretch (STRC) stock, the filing shows.

Related: Capital B raises $17.8M to expand its Bitcoin treasury

Strategy shares gain in pre-market, despite Bitcoin sales concerns

Strategy shares rose in premarket trading on Monday after the company disclosed the Bitcoin purchase.

Its shares rose 4.3% to change hands above $187.50 at the time of writing, according to Yahoo Finance.

Strategy’s shares are up 23% year-to-date despite Bitcoin’s 7.2% decline during the same period, data from TradingView shows.

MSTR/USD, 1-day chart. Source: Yahoo Finance

Still, investor concerns persist following Strategy’s first quarter earnings call, when Saylor said Strategy may periodically sell portions of the company’s Bitcoin holdings to fund dividends and to “inoculate the market.”

While some investors feared that a Strategy sale could create more cascading liquidations, others, such as Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow, said that Strategy’s potential sales can give it greater room to maneuver in the market.

Strategy investor Adam Livingston argued that periodic sales may allow the company to finance more Bitcoin purchases in the future.

Magazine: Strategy reveals why they would sell BTC, Trump Media posts loss: Hodler’s Digest, May 3 – 9

Solana developer Anza said Monday that Alpenglow, the network’s biggest proposed consensus overhaul to date, is live on a community test cluster, marking a major step toward a potential mainnet rollout.

The update means validator operators can now test software designed to move Solana from its current consensus system, which combines Proof-of-Stake with TowerBFT and Proof-of-History, toward a new architecture intended to dramatically reduce finality times and improve network responsiveness.

“Alpenglow is live on the community test cluster,” Anza wrote on X. “The biggest consensus change in Solana’s history, now running on validator infrastructure ahead of mainnet.”

Today, Solana relies on Proof-of-History, a cryptographic clock that timestamps transactions, alongside TowerBFT, a voting mechanism validators use to agree on the state of the blockchain. While the design has helped Solana achieve high throughput and low fees, some have pointed to outages and network instability during periods of heavy demand.

Alpenglow proposes replacing major portions of that system with a redesigned framework centered around new components. In simple terms, the new model aims to let validators communicate and confirm blocks faster and more efficiently, potentially cutting transaction finality from several seconds to near real-time speeds.

The start of the community test cluster also suggests that validator software can successfully perform what developers are informally calling “Alpenswitch,” transitioning validator nodes from Solana’s existing process to Alpenglow in a live network environment.

The test milestone comes just days after Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said at Consensus Miami 2026 that Alpenglow could reach mainnet as soon as next quarter if testing continues smoothly.

Read more: Solana’s ‘Alpenglow’ upgrade could arrive next quarter, co-founder Yakovenko says

Peter Thiel-backed payments startup Augustus received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a US national bank built around artificial intelligence and stablecoin-based payments.

The approval, announced Monday, would allow Augustus to expand its existing European banking operations into the US, as financial firms increasingly compete to modernize cross-border settlement infrastructure using tokenized dollars and blockchain-based payment systems.

The company describes Augustus National Bank as “the first clearing bank for the AI era,” built on an AI and stablecoin-native core designed to interact directly with machine agents at “the speed of compute,” rather than relying on batch processes and human clerks.

Founded in 2022, Augustus operates under European banking licences and says it already processes billions of dollars for institutional clients, including cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. Its proposed US national bank charter, however, is still at the conditional approval stage and will only become effective once the OCC’s pre-opening requirements are satisfied.

Augustus secures OCC conditional approval. Source: PR Newswire

Related: Stablecoin issuer Circle faces lawsuit over $280M Drift Protocol hack

While companies such as Ripple and Circle have pursued national trust bank charters under the OCC framework, only a limited number of digital asset firms have reached comparable advanced stages in the federal chartering process. The OCC approval places Augustus among a small group of companies that have progressed toward a national bank charter in recent years, according to the release.

Race to build the stablecoin bank

The move comes as competition intensifies to modernize cross-border payments and stablecoin settlement infrastructure in the US.

Under the Guiding and Establishing Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act regime for payment stablecoins, banks and trust companies can issue fully reserved dollar tokens, and a growing group of issuers and payments companies are testing ways to integrate tokenized dollar flows into regulated banking rails.

Circle’s collaboration with core banking provider Finastra in August 2025, for example, lets banks settle cross-border payments in USDC via Finastra’s Global PAYplus hub, and Citi and HSBC introduced live tokenized deposit services for 24/7 cross-border and interbank payments in November 2025.

Augustus, backed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Creandum, and the founders of companies including Ramp and Deel, has raised about $40 million, according to the company. At 25, Dabitz would be the youngest chief executive of a federally chartered bank in over 100 years.

Cointelegraph reached out to Augustus for comment, but had not received a response by publication.

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

Solana nears key resistance as cloud mining platforms like AJC Mining gain traction in crypto recovery phase.

As whale activity, ETF capital inflows, and bullish momentum in the derivatives market continue to build, Solana is preparing to challenge the key resistance level near $97.40. 

For everyday users, this market rebound is not only a sign of Solana’s ecosystem recovery but also a clear indication that the digital asset market is entering a new phase driven by institutional capital, on-chain data, and global user participation.

Crypto market recovery makes cloud mining a new entry point for everyday users

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Against this backdrop, AJC Mining is gaining attention as a cloud mining service platform. Through professional mining farm deployment, global hashrate management, and transparent system operations, AJC Mining aims to provide users with a more convenient and efficient Cloud Mining experience.

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Real users share their views on Bitcoin cloud mining

Recently, AJC Mining conducted street interviews in the United Kingdom with real cryptocurrency users to understand how they view the current crypto market and the growing popularity of lower-barrier cloud mining.

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Another user added:

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AJC Mining: Cloud mining is becoming a new choice for entering the crypto market

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Circle Internet Group agreed to sell 740 million ARC tokens for $222 million in a private placement led by a16z Crypto, valuing the Arc blockchain network at $3 billion on a fully diluted basis.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed issuer of the USDC stablecoin disclosed the token presale Monday alongside its first-quarter 2026 results, which showed higher revenue and reserve income but lower net income.

The round was led by a16z Crypto and backed by a consortium including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ARK Invest, Bullish, General Catalyst, Haun Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange, IDG Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Marshall Wace, SBI Group and Standard Chartered Ventures.

Circle entered into the token purchase agreements on Friday, agreeing to sell the ARC tokens at $0.30 each in a private placement exempt from registration under the US Securities Act of 1933.

The sale marks a major step in Circle’s effort to expand beyond stablecoin issuance into blockchain infrastructure, as the company seeks to build Arc into a settlement layer for stablecoin finance, tokenized assets and programmable financial markets.

Circle first introduced Arc in August 2025 as an open layer-1 blockchain focused on stablecoin finance. It also published a whitepaper on Monday, describing ARC as a “native coordination asset” designed to support governance, security and network operations on the system.

ARC token powers Circle’s “Economic OS” blockchain

Circle’s Arc whitepaper describes ARC as the native token of its layer-1 “Economic OS” blockchain built for stablecoin-based finance and tokenized markets.

The network uses a hybrid consensus approach, combining permissioned validators with a planned shift toward proof-of-stake (PoS) from the proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus model.

ARC’s five interconnected functions. Source: ARC

Circle said ARC has a fixed initial supply of 10 billion tokens allocated across three buckets, with about 60% going to the ecosystem for developers, grants and network growth, while 25% is reserved for Circle to support development, staking and governance participation.

The company said the remaining 15% is set aside as a long-term reserve to provide flexibility and stability during market stress or future network needs.

Related: Canton Network creator targets $300M in capital raise: Report

Circle’s Q1 revenue rises as USDC growth offsets higher costs

Circle’s financial performance in the first quarter was driven primarily by continued growth in USDC circulation and transaction activity.

USDC in circulation rose 28% year over year to $77.0 billion at quarter end, while onchain transaction volume surged 263% to $21.5 trillion. Total revenue and reserve income, which includes earnings from USDC reserves and other business lines, rose 20% to $694 million.

Source: Circle

Net income fell 15% to $55 million, as higher costs outweighed revenue growth. Operating expenses rose 76% to $242 million, driven mainly by post-IPO stock-based compensation and related payroll taxes, along with continued investment in product, distribution and infrastructure.

Even so, Circle’s underlying business performance improved, with adjusted EBITDA rising 24% to $151 million.

Circle (CRCL) stock price chart year-to-date. Source: Yahoo Finance

Circle (CRCL) shares were up around 3% in premarket trading to $116.7, extending recent gains, according to Yahoo Finance. The stock is up around 12.2% over the past month and more than 40% year to date.

Magazine: XRP ‘probably going to $12,’ Bitcoin ETFs add $1B: Market Moves

Ripple’s prime-brokerage unit announced Monday it closed a $200 million funding agreement with global investment firm Neuberger Berman to expand the margin it offers investors to trade in traditional and digital asset markets.

In its announcement, Ripple also said the funding will help support the ongoing growth of its multi-asset prime brokerage platform, Ripple Prime, citing increasing client demand for its institutional-grade services and margin financing solutions.

The crypto firm said that since it acquired Hidden Road and rebranded it as Ripple Prime in 2025, this platform’s revenue has tripled year over year. Neuberger Berman has approximately $570 billion in total assets under management (AUM).

Ripple acquired prime-brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, one of the largest deals in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. The company later agreed to buy treasury-management software provider GTreasury for $1 billion.

“Dependable access to financing and balance sheet strength are critical to institutional participants in today’s dynamic markets,” said Noel Kimmel, President of Ripple Prime. “This facility enables us to grow alongside our clients by delivering increased margin capacity, greater responsiveness, and improved capital efficiency.”

Kimmel said that apart from the funding, Neuberger Specialty Finance brings deep expertise in asset-based finance and a strong understanding of Ripple Prime’s services and business model.

“Ripple Prime has built an innovative brokerage platform combining fintech-grade technology and agility with bank-level compliance and operational rigor,” said Peter Sterling, Head of Neuberger Specialty Finance.

Institutional investors are getting increasingly more involved in crypto assets, in part due to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s Administration’s drive for more crypto-friendly rules and regulations.

State Street Corp. announced a digital-asset platform earlier this year, while Standard Chartered Plc has plans to set up a prime brokerage for crypto trading.

Ripple also raised $500 million, giving the firm a $40 billion valuation, with backing from Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities. That capital was used to boost Ripple’s expansion into custody, stablecoins and prime-brokerage services.