Chun Wang, the Chinese-born Maltese entrepreneur who founded the Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool, has joined SpaceX’s first planned interplanetary mission to Mars after “purchasing” the mission.

SpaceX announced Thursday that the two-year-long mission will explore beyond the moon, fly by Mars, and return to Earth. Wang has also bought a ticket for a planned weeklong commercial spaceflight around the moon that will launch before the Mars mission.

“I believe that even without private investment in lunar flights, we will still reach the Moon, and likely very soon. As competition between the United States and China intensifies, governments will turn lunar bases into reality,” Wang said in a post on X on Friday.

“And I am happy to sit back and watch that happen. On the other hand, I have no confidence that Mars will still happen within our lifetime. And I think I should do something about that. I hope that by purchasing a flyby mission to Mars, SpaceX will have another reason not to forget about Mars. Because we seriously shouldn’t defer Mars to our next generation,” he added.

Source: Chun Wang

A growing number of tech entrepreneurs have started funding and taking part in trips to space, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson and Jared Isaacman, founder of the American payment processing company Shift4 Payments.

Starship cargo flights to Mars for research, development and exploratory missions are expected to start no earlier than 2028, according to SpaceX.

The ultimate goal is to establish a self-sufficient city on Mars, which SpaceX estimates will require more than 1 million people and millions of tons of cargo.

“I hope this mission can show the public that Mars is not just a point of light in a telescope. It is a real place, and humans can fly there and come back alive and come back healthy,” Wang said.

Wang, a Chinese-born citizen of Malta, founded F2Pool in 2013, one of China’s first Bitcoin mining pools. It is currently the third largest pool, with a market share of over 11.85%, according to mempool.space.

Related: F2Pool co-founder says Thailand condo bought for 2,900 Bitcoin sold for 7

Last April, Wang also bankrolled and commanded the “Fram2” mission, another SpaceX venture that flew over the Earth’s poles and carried out experiments such as taking an X-ray in space and growing mushrooms.

German polar scientist Rabea Rogge, Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen and Australian Arctic adventurer Eric Philips made up the rest of the four-person crew.

Magazine: Polymarket seeks Japan entry, Harvard dumps entire ETH position: Hodler’s Digest, May 17 – 23

Strategy has paused its Bitcoin purchases this week as the company moved to repurchase convertible debt, while Michael Saylor has continued signaling that future Bitcoin sales remain possible as part of the firm’s capital management strategy.

According to a post published by Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor on X, the company bought bonds instead of Bitcoin this week, with Saylor stating that the “BitVac is charging.” 

The comment came as investors watched for signs of another Bitcoin acquisition following recent weakness in both Bitcoin and MSTR stock.

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Earlier disclosures from Strategy showed the company plans to repurchase nearly $1.5 billion in face value of its 0% convertible senior notes due 2029 for about $1.38 billion in cash. Company filings said the repurchase could be funded through existing cash reserves, proceeds from at-the-market stock sales, and potential Bitcoin sales.

Just days before the latest announcement, Saylor said during an interview that it was “not unlikely” that Strategy could sell some Bitcoin before the end of 2026. During the interview, Saylor said models relying only on equity, credit, or Bitcoin underperformed compared with a more flexible capital allocation approach.

Strategy keeps focus on balance sheet and Bitcoin accumulation

Strategy has continued adding to its Bitcoin holdings in recent months. The company previously disclosed that it purchased 24,869 BTC for about $2.01 billion using proceeds raised through sales of STRC perpetual preferred shares and MSTR stock.

Company data showed Strategy currently holds 843,738 BTC valued at about $65.25 billion. Those holdings were acquired for roughly $63.88 billion, leaving the company with unrealized gains based on current Bitcoin prices.

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Meanwhile, Saylor has framed the temporary pause in Bitcoin buying as part of a larger financing strategy rather than a retreat from accumulation. In the Coin Stories interview, he described Strategy’s treasury model as programmatic and data-driven, with liabilities managed across cash, equity, credit, and Bitcoin.

While discussing possible Bitcoin sales, Saylor has reiterated that any disposal would likely remain small compared with Bitcoin’s estimated daily liquidity of $20 billion to $50 billion. He also argued that the company could still acquire roughly 20 Bitcoin for every one sold if dividend obligations were fully funded through BTC sales.

In the long term, Saylor said Strategy’s target remains increasing Bitcoin per share through 2033, describing any future Bitcoin sale as a capital allocation decision rather than a change in the company’s conviction around the asset.

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Additional comments from Saylor also pointed to the company’s long-term funding structure. He said Strategy does not plan to retire products such as STRF, STRD, and STRK preferred shares, while convertible bonds remain liabilities the company intends to reduce over time.

The debt repurchase has also drawn attention from equity investors because retiring convertible notes at a discount could reduce future stock dilution risks for MSTR shareholders. Strategy stated that the move improves its balance sheet while preserving flexibility to raise capital later through debt, equity offerings, or preferred share issuances.

Recent market pressure has nevertheless weighed on the stock. MSTR closed down 3.01% at $159.89 on Friday after falling more than 5% over the week. 

Strategy share price. Source: Google Finance.

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Artificial intelligence agents handling settlements in crypto have evolved from a speculative idea to a measurable part of the payments landscape over the past year. A collaborative study by crypto investment firm Keyrock, in partnership with Coinbase and the Tempo blockchain, shows machine-to-machine settlements totaling $73 million across 176 million transactions from May last year through April 2026.

Ben Harvey, a researcher with Keyrock, framed the development as a maturation of the field: “In the past 12 months, machine-to-machine payments have gone from concept to a developed ecosystem.” The report adds that incumbents have already deployed more than $8 billion in acquisitions to secure their foothold in what is becoming a new payment stack. This points to a marketplace where automation and programmable finance are increasingly central to everyday crypto activity.

Key takeaways

• AI agents settled $73 million across 176 million transactions between May 2025 and April 2026, according to Keyrock in collaboration with Coinbase and Tempo.
• By the end of Q1 this year, more than 104,000 AI agents were registered across 15+ directories, with the average transaction size around $0.31.
• Nearly all settlements—about 98%—were conducted in Circle’s USDC, highlighting the centrality of a single stablecoin issuer in the nascent AI-agent economy and raising concerns about systemic risk if reserve management or regulatory status changes.
• Industry signals point to rapid acceleration: Circle’s leadership has projected billions of AI agents operating with stablecoins in the coming years, and surveys show strong user appetite for AI-managed trading and portfolio decisions.

Rapid expansion of AI agent settlements

The scale of activity captured in the Keyrock report underscores a shift from experimental pilots to a functioning settlement layer for machine-driven commerce. The collaboration with Coinbase and Tempo aimed to quantify how far the ecosystem has come and where it might be headed as AI agents autonomously initiate and settle transactions across networks.

Harvey notes that the sub-dollar nature of many AI-agent payments exposes the inefficiency of traditional rails. He pointed out that a typical fixed processing fee—often around 30 cents per transaction—renders micro-payments uneconomical on conventional networks. The study emphasizes that stablecoins have become the practical settlement layer for sub-dollar machine payments, enabling cost-effective, near-instant settlements that would be impractical with legacy rails.

USDC’s central role and the risk it entails

Remarkably, the vast majority of AI-agent settlements—about 98%—used USDC, according to the report. While this confirms USDC as the de facto settlement currency for machine commerce, it also centralizes risk around Circle’s reserves, regulatory standing, and operational reliability. Harvey describes this reliance as both a validation and a vulnerability: “If Circle faces a regulatory challenge, a de-peg event, or even sustained downtime, the agent economy has no fallback.”

These observations contribute to a broader conversation about resilience in crypto payment ecosystems. As automation scales, the ecosystem’s dependence on a single stablecoin issuer could become a focal point for regulatory scrutiny and risk management strategies among startups, exchanges, and developers building AI-driven financial primitives.

Signals of acceleration and user appetite

The trend lines extend beyond settlement volumes. Circle’s leadership has publicly forecast a future in which billions of AI agents operate with stablecoins, representing a substantial expansion of automated, programmable payments. At the same time, user sentiment toward AI-managed finance remains cautiously positive. A CoinGecko survey of 2,632 crypto users found broad comfort with AI involvement in trading, with 87% willing to let AI agents manage at least 10% of their crypto portfolios.

Beyond these polls, the ecosystem is already seeing related product activity. Exodus recently launched an AI-agent-focused stablecoin on Solana, reflecting ongoing experimentation with specialized rails and instruments designed to support autonomous finance. Such developments illustrate a broader push to embed AI capabilities into the fabric of decentralized finance, from settlement layers to on-chain applications and liquidity provision.

What this means for users, developers, and investors

The emergence of AI-agent settlement raises practical considerations for users and builders. For users, the promise is faster, cheaper sub-dollar payments that unlock new use cases—micro-tokens for API calls, service payments, or on-demand access to data streams. For developers, the data suggests a growing demand for robust, interoperable agent frameworks that can operate across networks and wallets while maintaining security and auditability. Investors will likely watch for how the ecosystem handles concentration risks around stablecoins, especially in times of macro or regulatory stress, and which protocols diversify their settlement rails to avoid single points of failure.

As adoption accelerates, observers should monitor regulatory clarity around stablecoins and the resilience of crypto payment rails under stress. The next few quarters will reveal whether the AI-agent economy can sustain its early momentum or whether diversification of settlement assets and governance will become a prerequisite for scalable, permissioned machine commerce.

Readers should stay attentive to regulatory developments affecting stablecoins, the evolution of settlement-layer standards for AI agents, and the emergence of new tools designed to broaden anti-fragility in machine-to-machine payments.

Crypto trading platform Hyperliquid is beginning to compete with traditional exchanges and prediction market operators as it expands beyond perpetual futures trading, according to a new report from FalconX.

Senior crypto market strategist David Lawant outlined how Hyperliquid’s recent moves into pre-IPO markets, prediction contracts and tokenized real-world assets are broadening the platform’s appeal beyond crypto-native traders.

“Hyperliquid is seeing traction as demand for its HIP-3 markets expands to include pre-IPO markets,” the report said.

Hyperliquid first gained traction through crypto perpetual futures, a type of derivatives contract that dominates offshore digital asset trading. The platform’s native token, HYPE, has skyrocketed 94% over the past three months. But FalconX said newer products could push the platform into more direct competition with firms such as CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange-backed prediction market Kalshi and Polymarket.

The report pointed to growing activity in Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets, which allow users to trade assets including equities, commodities, forex and pre-IPO contracts around the clock. FalconX said those markets gained attention after traders used them to speculate on companies such as Cerebras, Anthropic and SpaceX before public listings.

The platform has also begun rolling out HIP-4 outcome markets, which function similarly to prediction markets by allowing traders to bet on binary outcomes tied to politics, economics and crypto events.

FalconX said the ability to trade prediction contracts alongside crypto and real-world asset positions on the same platform could become a major advantage.

“For example you could pair a HIP-3 perps position on NVDA with outcome markets that it could miss or beat earnings,” the report said.

The firm also highlighted strong early interest in newly launched exchange-traded funds tied to Hyperliquid’s HYPE token. Spot HYPE ETFs from 21Shares and Bitwise have attracted a combined $53 million in inflows after only a few trading sessions, according to Bloomberg data cited in the report.

FalconX said those inflows represented a larger percentage of HYPE’s market capitalization than early inflows into spot bitcoin, ether (ETH) and solana (SOL) ETFs at similar stages.

Meanwhile, Hyperliquid’s recent partnership with Coinbase (COIN) and Circle (CRCL) to integrate USDC as an aligned quote asset could significantly increase protocol revenue. FalconX estimated the arrangement could generate as much as $160 million in annualized revenue based on reserve yields tied to USDC balances on the platform.

The report also noted that regulatory developments in Washington could help accelerate adoption of tokenized real-world assets on decentralized trading venues. FalconX cited reports that the SEC is considering an innovation exemption framework for tokenized stocks.

At the same time, the firm warned that growing attention from traditional financial exchanges could bring regulatory scrutiny. CME and ICE have raised concerns with regulators about potential manipulation risks tied to Hyperliquid’s markets.

Even so, FalconX said Hyperliquid continues to lead decentralized perpetual futures markets in trading volumes, revenue and total value locked, positioning it as one of the fastest-growing trading platforms in crypto.

Fenwick & West has agreed to pay $54 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by former FTX customers who accused the law firm of helping facilitate fraud at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange.

According to court filings tied to the proposed settlement, the Silicon Valley law firm reached the agreement after initially trying to dismiss the case brought by former FTX users in 2023. The settlement still requires approval from a U.S. judge before it can take effect.

Former customers of the exchange alleged that Fenwick played a central role in legal and corporate arrangements that allowed FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, to move and commingle customer funds without proper safeguards. Plaintiffs claimed the firm helped create structures and entities designed to obscure how customer assets were handled inside the FTX group.

Court records from the original complaint alleged that Fenwick also advised FTX on legal strategies intended to avoid money transmitter licensing requirements in some jurisdictions.

Earlier filings from August 2025 added further accusations against the law firm after plaintiffs sought permission to amend their complaint using evidence from Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial and the FTX bankruptcy process. In that proposed amended filing, former FTX customers argued that testimony from senior insiders and findings from an independent bankruptcy examiner showed Fenwick had become “deeply intertwined” with the exchange’s operations.

At the time, plaintiffs cited testimony from former FTX executives Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, and Caroline Ellison, who allegedly described internal practices involving improper loans, false statements, and misuse of customer funds. According to the filing, Singh told the court that Fenwick had been informed about some of those activities and advised on legal structures connected to them.

Other allegations in the amended filing accused the law firm of helping establish shell companies linked to Alameda Research and North Dimension, an entity used to route customer deposits. Plaintiffs also pointed to the use of encrypted and auto-deleting Signal chats by FTX executives, which they said Fenwick knew about during its legal representation of the exchange.

At the same time, the filing introduced securities law claims under Florida and California statutes tied to the sale of FTT tokens and other FTX-related investment products. Plaintiffs argued that Fenwick attorneys participated in designing and facilitating those offerings for investors.

Legal fallout from FTX collapse continues

Elsewhere in the FTX fallout, former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh agreed in April 2026 to pay a $3.7 million disgorgement to settle charges brought by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

According to the CFTC, Singh also accepted a five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration ban as part of the supplemental consent order tied to the misuse of customer funds at FTX. CFTC enforcement director David Miller said the resolution accounted for Singh’s cooperation with investigators.

Separately, the FTX Recovery Trust has continued distributing recovered assets to former customers and creditors. In March, the Trust distributed $2.2 billion to claimants, while another reimbursement round has been scheduled for May 29.

The US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund market is closing in on recording net outflows for this year after Friday saw the funds hit six consecutive days of outflows.

Net inflows into the Bitcoin ETFs so far in 2026 have shrunk to $536 million after the market bled another $105.2 million on Friday, as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) lost $68.9 million and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) recorded outflows of $36.3 million.

While no other US-based Bitcoin ETF registered a change in flows, Friday’s outflow contributed to the $1.55 billion that has bled out of the ETFs since May 14, the last recorded net inflow among all the funds.

Flows into the US spot Bitcoin ETFs since May 6. Source: Farside Investors

Net inflows into the US spot Bitcoin ETFs are one of the top metrics that signal how strong institutional demand for Bitcoin is and whether fresh capital is flowing into crypto.

Institutional market maker Jane Street reduced its Bitcoin ETF holdings by around 70% in the first quarter, while investment bank Goldman Sachs reduced its Bitcoin ETF position by 10%.

While the US Bitcoin ETF market is still in net inflow territory for 2026, most of those inflows have come from IBIT, which has seen net inflows of $2.7 billion so far this year.

However, its inflows this year are not on pace to eclipse the $25 billion that it took in over 2025, while most of its competitors have retraced in 2026.

The US-based spot Ether ETFs have recorded net outflows so far in 2026, while new altcoin ETFs have not captured the same demand as their predecessors. 

Related: SEC seeks public comment as it weighs prediction market ETFs 

One of the more positive developments has been the launch of the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust ETF (MSBT), which entered the market on April 8 and has already attracted $264 million in net inflows to date.

The $264 million in net inflows already puts it above the Bitcoin products offered by Invesco and WisdomTree, which launched in January 2024.

The US Bitcoin ETF market was also expecting the Donald Trump-backed Truth Social to launch a Bitcoin product sometime this year until its sponsor, asset manager Yorkville America, requested to withdraw multiple crypto ETFs for Trump’s media company on Tuesday.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart suspected that Yorkville America’s decision to pull out may have been due to the competitive landscape for Bitcoin ETFs, particularly with MSBT offering a market-low fee of 0.14%. 

Magazine: eToro founder timed Bitcoin top perfectly due to belief in 4 year cycles 

Bitcoin BTC$77,389.41 was slightly higher on Monday as a sharp decline in oil prices helped lift Asian stock markets.

At 6:35 UTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value traded near $77,200, up 0.4% from midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk data. At that level, bitcoin was trading just above its widely tracked 50-day simple moving average of around $76,940. Traders and chart analysts monitor this key level closely, with sustained breakouts above it typically viewed as bullish.Other major cryptocurrencies were also modestly higher.

XRP and Solana (SOL) rose 0.6% or more, while Ether (ETH) gained 0.4%. However, all three continued to trade below their respective 50-day moving averages, lagging Bitcoin on this metric.

Futures tied to West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped more than 5% to around $91 per barrel, extending a steep slide from last Wednesday’s high above $104. Asian equities rallied, with India’s Nifty climbed over 1%, Japan’s Nikkei rose nearly 3% in early trade, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4%.

These moves follow weekend reports that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint that accounted for over 20% of global oil flows before the Iran war began in late February, was in its final stages.

Last week, Iran’s IRGC claimed to have allowed passage of over 20 tankers through the strait, though that volume remains well below pre-war levels.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington and Iranian negotiators have “a pretty solid thing on the table” and a deal to end the war between the two countries could be reached Monday. He said that the U.S. is ready top exhaust every diplomatic option but would pursue other means if a good deal could not be reached.

Analysts still maintained a cautious outlook on bitcoin, citing more than $2 billion in outflows from spot ETFs over the past two weeks.

“For crypto, the key signal is whether ETF outflows slow. Bitcoin can absorb some institutional selling if stablecoin liquidity remains firm and long-term holders stay patient. Sustained ETF redemptions would make every rally harder to hold,” Timothy Misir, head of research, BRN, said in an email.

India-based FIU-registered CoinSwitch exchange noted that finalization of a U.S.-Iran peace deal would be needed for further sustained gains.

“The sentiments improved after reports of progress in U.S.–Iran peace talks, including a possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, helping BTC rebound toward $77K. Still, the deal is not finalized, so traders are not fully risk-on yet. Exchange data also remains a watchpoint, with 18,528 BTC moving net into centralized exchanges, suggesting potential sell-side pressure,” the exchange said in an email.