As global trading trends race toward 24-hour, no-days-off markets, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission argued that it may be fine for the new blockchain-native players, but that expanded hours might not be appropriate for some of the traditional markets, the derivatives watchdog said in a Friday letter issued to the wide waterfront of firms it regulates.

The advisory — coming on the same day that the agency gave a consequential green light to native crypto platforms offering perpetual futures contracts — marks what may be a growing divide between the traditional firms and the new entrants.

“Because of inherent differences between underlying markets, switching to 24/7 trading and clearing may not currently be suitable for all asset classes,” the agency wrote to its regulated exchanges and clearing operations.

“The ability to engage in, and maintain, markets on a 24/7 basis has been, in part, paralleled by evolutions in market technologies, such as blockchain networks and decentralized infrastructure, alternate forms of collateral, including stablecoins and crypto assets, and market accessibility through smartphones and associated software applications,” the CFTC noted. “With this evolution, an increasing number of platforms, with a growing list of tradeable products, are providing 24/7 access to retail and institutional participants.”However, it said, “other derivatives markets, such as in agricultural products, may be less

suited for 24/7 trading due to their unique customer bases, regional nature, and the specialized

trading and hedging practices in those markets.”

The derivatives watchdog’s primary concern is the potential for market abuse in less-observed, off-peak activity, contending that “extending trading hours to a 24/7 schedule for certain markets or products could potentially result in reduced liquidity, increased volatility, widened bid/ask spreads, and, as a result, create greater opportunities for market manipulation.”

The platforms are responsible for policing themselves as the first line of defense and “should implement additional compliance measures designed to address the unique challenges associated with expanded trading hours.”

The advisory was meant to lay out the considerations for firms looking to expand trading hours, and the CFTC urged them to communicate their plans to the agency.

The current chief of the agency, Chairman Mike Selig, has made it one of his leading priorities to embrace new technologies including crypto and prediction markets. His enthusiasm for the advances — tracking the orders and encouragement from President Donald Trump — has led to a surge in crypto policy work meant to clear a regulatory path for the industry.

One of the crypto-native firms supervised by the CFTC, Coinbase, said in a blog post on its website on Friday that it’s trying to rebuild traditional financial services atop crypto infrastructure.

“Equities, futures, and prediction markets all operate 24/7 on our platform,” the company said, noting the agency’s new allowance of global options and perps through one of its CFTC-regulated affiliates. “Today’s announcement adds the largest and most liquid category of global crypto trading to that lineup.”

Ethereum is clinging to support near $1,800 as rising leverage, crowded longs, and persistent U.S. spot ETF outflows deepen downside risks for the second largest cryptocurrency.

Ethereum (ETH) price is extending a weak trend after losing the psychologically important $2,000 level, with market focus now locked on whether bulls can defend the $1,800–$1,750 support area.

According to on chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, analyst PelinayPA noted that Ethereum’s estimated leverage ratio remains elevated at roughly 0.74, while funding rates have stayed positive since April, a combination that signals “crowded long positions” even as prices continue to grind lower.

Advertisement

The same analysis shows Ethereum’s relative strength index hovering near 31, indicating conditions are close to oversold but without “an effective rebound signal,” leaving spot price exposed if forced liquidations begin to cascade.

At the same time, U.S. spot Ethereum exchange traded funds have logged net outflows for 13 consecutive trading sessions, with roughly $695 million in capital pulled and a single day peak of around $121 million in redemptions, underscoring what the report describes as a “continued cooling of institutional allocation demand.”

ETF outflows and derivatives pressure converge

The mounting stress around the $1,800 level comes after weeks of structurally bearish signals in both spot and derivatives markets.crypto+1
A recent crypto.news analysis observed that Ethereum had already broken below an ascending channel on the daily chart, warning that MACD had turned bearish and that failure to hold supports near $2,080 could open the door to a swift move toward the $1,800 region.crypto

That same report cited CoinGlass estimates suggesting more than $1.7 billion in leveraged long positions could face liquidation if ETH fell below roughly $2,044, a level now decisively lost as intraday price action grinds closer to the $1,800 line in the sand.crypto
In parallel, flows data compiled by CryptoSlate show that combined Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have seen nearly $2.7 billion in net redemptions over the past two weeks, with allocators rotating into niche products tied to Solana, XRP, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token instead.cryptoslate

Advertisement

Key support at $1,800 becomes sentiment pivot

Within this backdrop, ChainCatcher’s summary stresses that “short term risks are skewed to the downside,” arguing that Ethereum currently “maintains a weak structure against the backdrop of high leverage, crowded long positions, and ongoing ETF outflows,” making the $1,800 support “a key observation point for market sentiment and technical aspects.”

That language echoes earlier commentary from crypto.news, which described $1,800 as a “psychological floor” that traders have been defending for more than a month, warning that “a drop below this key structural pivot point could trigger more downside, especially considering the stressed macro environment.”

Recent coverage on crypto.news also underlined that Ethereum still trades below a crucial $2,500 resistance cluster and that a weekly close under roughly $1,850 would likely accelerate volatility toward lower range boundaries.
At press time in the ChainCatcher report, Ethereum was quoted around $2,019, but price action has been defined less by spot demand than by the slow bleed of ETF capital and a derivatives market where funding and leverage remain stubbornly tilted long even as the chart breaks down.

For now, the question facing traders is brutally simple: can Ethereum absorb yet another wave of ETF outflows and defend $1,800 without triggering the kind of liquidation cascade that the derivatives data are clearly primed for.

Advertisement

Mark Cuban has dumped most of his Bitcoin, calling it “not the hedge I expected” as the Iran war and dollar volatility exposed what he sees as a failed safe haven narrative.

“I always thought it was a better version of gold than gold,” Cuban said. “But gold just blew up and went to $5,000. Bitcoin dropped.”
“This might get some people upset,” he added. “I think Bitcoin has lost the plot.”

Cuban’s hedge thesis breaks, but the data fights back

According to the Bitcoin (BTC) price page from crypto.news, BTC recently hovered in the mid $70,000s, reinforcing that the asset has recovered sharply from early conflict lows even if it remains below its peak.

Cuban’s own positioning underscores the reversal. Heading into 2026, he said his crypto portfolio was roughly 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum and 10% other tokens, a structure he previously justified by calling BTC “a better store of value asset than gold.”
Now he says he still holds Ethereum for its “utility” while dismissing most altcoins as “junk,” effectively recasting Bitcoin as the disappointment in a portfolio he once described as anchored by BTC.

War, inflation and the safe haven narrative

The clash between Cuban’s experience and the data comes as the broader market reassesses what, exactly, Bitcoin hedges.
As crypto.news has previously reported in its coverage of how Bitcoin outperforms gold by roughly 36% since the Iran war began, BTC has behaved less like a classic “panic bid” asset and more like a high beta macro instrument that still managed to beat traditional havens over the war’s first months.

In its own report on Cuban’s remarks, crypto.news noted that “Bitcoin defenders” argue the billionaire cherry picked the worst window: BTC did sell off on initial Iran headlines, but from the first signs of conflict it has risen more than 16%, while gold has sagged.
Fortune similarly observed that “since the start of the war, the original cryptocurrency is up about 7%, and on Wednesday was trading at around $71,000,” even as gold drifted near $5,240 per ounce.

Cuban’s broader skepticism comes after years of vocal support, including a 2021 podcast appearance where he revealed that 60% of his crypto holdings were in Bitcoin and insisted he would “never sell it for anything” because it was superior to gold as a store of value.
With that stance now reversed, his sale has become a Rorschach test for the market: either a high profile confirmation that the “digital gold” story is broken, or, as some traders suggest and as earlier crypto.news coverage of Bitcoin’s performance during crises implies, an exquisitely mistimed capitulation top in a still evolving hedge narrative.

Other crypto.news reporting on war driven flows into gold tokenization and renewed institutional interest in Ethereum suggests that the safe haven debate is fragmenting across assets rather than converging on a single “digital bunker.”
For now, Cuban’s verdict is blunt: Bitcoin, he says, “lost the plot” – even as the numbers stubbornly refuse to give him the clean failure he thinks he saw in real time.

Bitcoin has clawed back losses to trade near $74,000 after President Donald Trump abruptly announced an end to the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, easing weeks of geopolitical pressure on crypto and oil markets.

In a Truth Social post, US President announced the end of the Hormuz naval blockade, spurring a reaction from crypto and stock markets around the world.

Bitcoin (BTC) erased a multi day slide and reclaimed roughly $74,000 on Friday after Trump declared that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “has ended,” drawing a line under a standoff that had repeatedly whipsawed the world’s largest cryptocurrency since early April.

The move marks a sharp reversal from mid April, when Bitcoin briefly plunged toward $71,000 after Trump first ordered the naval blockade and oil prices spiked on fears that a fifth of global seaborne crude could be choked off.

On Friday, traders treated the end of the blockade as an all clear signal to rotate back into risk, unwinding some of the “war premium” that had built up in both crude and crypto options markets, with Bitcoin spot leading the bounce.

Trump blinks on Hormuz

Trump’s announcement caps weeks of brinkmanship that began when he ordered U.S. forces to “blockade the Strait of Hormuz” after peace talks with Iran collapsed in early April, a decision that immediately knocked Bitcoin from the mid $73,000s toward $71,000 and sent oil above $100 per barrel.

As the standoff dragged on, Washington insisted that “freedom of navigation” for non Iranian vessels would be preserved even as Iranian ships and ports remained under pressure, a nuance that helped Bitcoin bounce back above $72,000 once traders realized the blockade would be partial rather than absolute.

According to one U.S. briefing cited by market commentary, the administration calculated that closing the waterway entirely could cost Iran “about $500 million a day in revenue,” underscoring how much economic leverage was at stake as both sides postured over the channel.

Bitcoin’s geopolitical stress test

The end of the blockade comes after a month in which Bitcoin repeatedly proved resilient to Middle East headlines, refusing to sustain breaks below $70,000 even as Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iranian power plants if Hormuz was not reopened within 48 hours and later rejected Tehran’s “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” counterproposal on a broader peace plan.

In mid April, BTC briefly traded above $74,000 as Iran signaled it would keep the strait open and a tentative ceasefire took hold, with one market note flagging spot led buying and a realized price near $74,000 as evidence that structural demand remained intact despite war risk.

Earlier this month, Bitcoin even whipsawed around $82,000 after Trump rebuffed a new Iranian offer and vowed the blockade would continue “UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” a post that triggered roughly $410 million in short liquidations in 24 hours as BTC first slid, then snapped higher.

Crypto’s latest relief rally now shifts attention back to macro and structural drivers that had been overshadowed by Hormuz: exchange traded fund flows, halvingside supply dynamics and the broader debate over whether Bitcoin is behaving more like digital gold or a high beta proxy on risk assets as it chops between the high $60,000s and mid $80,000s.

In recent weeks, crypto.news has tracked how Bitcoin held near $80,000 after Trump rejected an earlier Iran proposal, as well as how BTC steadied when Iran moved to “fully reopen” Hormuz even while the U.S. blockade on Iranian ships remained in force, and how the token continues to trade each ceasefire headline “by headline.”

With the naval blockade now formally lifted and BTC back around $74,000, the next test for bulls is whether the market can finally escape its war zone range and re focus on domestic U.S. policy battles over initiatives like Trump’s Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the longer term institutional bid underneath the price.

• DEXE rose more than 11% intraday to trade above $19.16, with a 32% weekly gain.
• Daily trading volume climbed about 38% to nearly $40 million, suggesting accumulation.
• Technical support sits at $15, while bulls could target $24 or higher next.

DeXe (DEXE) rallied sharply on Friday, climbing toward the $20 mark as buying pressure intensified across major exchanges.

The spike in volume and a string of weekly gains have drawn renewed attention from traders and analysts, who are assessing whether the asset can extend its advance or if profit-taking will cap further upside.

DeXe price rises 11% amid volume spike

DeXe price jumped more than 11% to trade above $19.16 after a strong intraday advance, propelling DEXE onto CoinMarketCap’s list of top weekly movers.

The token’s 24-hour performance contributed to a one-week rally that saw DeXe gain roughly 32%, placing it among the market’s notable gainers.

Other top performers included Stellar (+42%), Humanity (+23%), and Injective (+21%). DeXe has also climbed more than 58% over the past month.

The latest gains coincided with a notable increase in on-chain and exchange activity, with daily trading volume rising roughly 38% to around $40 million.

The surge in volume suggests growing accumulation, with buyers stepping in at key levels.

The combination of rising prices and stronger trading activity supports the case for continued near-term momentum and positions DEXE to challenge higher resistance zones if bullish sentiment persists.

DEXE price analysis

The technical outlook for DeXe shows the token testing levels last seen in March 2025, marking a return to multi-month highs.

Moving averages continue to support the broader uptrend. The 50-day simple moving average (SMA) is currently acting as a dynamic support level, while the 100-day SMA sits lower and provides a deeper technical cushion for holders.

Key resistance remains near $20, followed by a more significant barrier around $24. These zones could attract profit-taking from short-term traders and may act as hurdles for further upside.

On the downside, initial support is located near $15, a level that aligns with previous consolidation and areas of intraday demand.

Stronger support is positioned near the 50-day SMA around $12.84 and the 100-day SMA near $9.17. A sustained decline toward those levels would signal weakening bullish momentum and could trigger increased selling pressure.

For bulls to maintain control, DEXE would need to close decisively above the $20 resistance area while sustaining elevated trading volume, reducing the risk of a rapid retracement.

However, if the token fails to break above $20 and sellers regain control, the rally could lose momentum quickly.

A rise in sell-side volume would increase the likelihood of a pullback toward the $15 support zone.

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is urging regulators to allow regulated exchanges to offer 24/7 onchain perpetual futures trading, according to ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher.

Speaking at a Bernstein conference on Wednesday, Sprecher said that he was urging regulators to create a “level playing field” for launching 24/7 onchain perps contracts, arguing that regulators are “prohibiting us from doing this when it’s already happening.” 

The CEO said that ICE had multiple exploratory discussions with decentralized exchange Hyperliquid about the synergies between the crypto and traditional finance (TradFi) industries, where ICE sought to “learn” more about onchain perps.

The comments are the latest testament on how more TradFi companies are exploring ways to enable 24/7 trading for stocks and commodities via blockchain rails, following Hyperliquid’s success. 

The remarks come a week after OKX said it will introduce perpetual futures based on ICE’s Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude benchmarks, two of the world’s most widely used oil price indicators, Cointelegraph reported on May 22.

The trading products are the first initiative announced under a broader partnership between  ICE and OKX, after ICE invested in the cryptocurrency exchange at a $25 billion valuation in March.

Earlier in March, the NYSE also partnered with tokenization platform Securitize as part of a broader effort to develop blockchain-based stock trading infrastructure with 24/7 trading and settlement for Wall Street.

Cointelegraph has approached ICE for comment on whether the exchange operator was planning to launch an onchain perps trading platform via Hyperliquid.

Related: UK proposes near-24/7 settlement to prepare markets for tokenization

Hyperliquid is “bigger than Nasdaq,” says ICE CEO

Sprecher praised Hyperliquid’s rapid growth as a trading platform, which facilitated the creation of multiple new billionaires, said the CEO, adding:

“If you haven’t heard about it, it’s bigger than Nasdaq, okay? It’s 11 people.”

Hyperliquid remains far smaller than Nasdaq by conventional trading volume measures, but Sprecher’s comment underscored the pressure that always-on crypto derivatives venues are putting on regulated exchanges.

Hyperliquid is ranked as the 7th largest decentralized exchange on CoinGecko, with a 3.7% market share and $195 million in daily trading volume.

It ranks as the fourth-largest fee-generating protocol in the crypto industry, generating $15.6 million in weekly fees in the past seven days, DefiLlama data shows.

Top decentralized exchanges by trading volume and market share. Source: CoinGecko

Hyperliquid has been expanding its functionalities and recently launched canonical prediction markets for offchain events, Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday.

The platform’s growing functionalities are positioning Hyperliquid as the crypto industry’s next “super-app,” making the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token “one of the most mispriced assets in crypto today,” as investors are still evaluating it as just a perp DEX, said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Bitwise. 

Magazine: Would Bitcoin really be at $200K if not for Jane Street? Trade Secrets

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted their longest outflow streak since launch, extending withdrawals as institutional demand for Bitcoin exposure weakened.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded another $223 million in net outflows on Thursday, marking the record nine-day outflow streak since the funds launched in 2024, according to data from Farside Investors.

The latest streak surpassed the previous record eight-session outflow run recorded in February 2025, though its roughly $2.84 billion in cumulative withdrawals remains below the $3.2 billion lost during the earlier selloff.

US spot Bitcoin ETF outflows in May 2026 versus February 2025. Source: SoSoValue

The outflows suggest institutional demand for Bitcoin exposure is weakening through the ETF channel, and come as major corporate holders such as Strategy face renewed pressure even as some new altcoin products like Hyperliquid (HYPE) ETFs continue attracting investor interest.

BlackRock’s IBIT leads the outflows at $2 billion

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the largest US spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, accounted for a massive share of losses during the nine-session outflow streak.

The fund recorded roughly $2.04 billion in cumulative outflows between May 15 and Thursday. As Cointelegraph reported, a $527.8 million withdrawal on May 27 marked IBIT’s second-largest daily outflow on record, narrowly below the $528.3 million record posted on Jan. 30, 2025.

BTC holdings for all US spot Bitcoin ETFs as of market close on Wednesday. Source: Wallet Pilot

Despite the selling pressure, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF remains the dominant US spot Bitcoin fund by assets under management. IBIT held roughly 792,000 BTC as of market close on Wednesday, representing about 62% of all US spot Bitcoin ETF holdings, according to Wallet Pilot data.

HYPE ETFs buck the broader slowdown

While spot Bitcoin ETFs face sustained selling pressure, newly launched HYPE ETFs have continued attracting fresh capital from investors.

The products recorded steady inflows between May 12 and Thursday, with cumulative net inflows rising above $100 million, according to SoSoValue.

Daily flows in US-listed spot HYPE ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

Other altcoin funds such as spot XRP ETFs also recorded steady gains over the period, totaling roughly $120 million in net additions between May 4 and Thursday.

Related: Bitcoin’s major holders halt buys as demand slows: CryptoQuant

The divergence underscores a shift in crypto fund flows, with investors pulling back from Bitcoin and Ether ETFs while newer products tied to tokens such as Hyperliquid’s HYPE continue to attract inflows.

US spot Ether ETFs have also faced persistent selling pressure, logging 13 consecutive days of outflows between May 11 and Thursday, with cumulative losses of roughly $694 million.

Magazine: Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies?

The global rush to deploy autonomous AI agents across the internet, enterprise networks and consumer applications is creating a catastrophic security debt, according to the chief of blockchain security auditor Certik.

While corporations ambitiously market these tools as productivity miracles, the crude reality is that it can be a very, very risky thing to do. Unisolated, unvetted AI agents are a massive security disaster waiting to happen, Ronghui Gu, the co-founder and CEO of CertiK, told CoinDesk.

Gu warned that users are potentially exposing their most sensitive files, local credentials and money accounts to autonomous systems that can be easily manipulated, hijacked and openly scammed.

“Right now, agents are no longer just answering questions in a chat window,” Gu told CoinDesk on the heels of CertiK’s landmark deep-dive report into widespread agent infrastructure. “They are beginning to call external tools, read local files, trigger workflows, and interact with financial infrastructure. But if you do not isolate the execution environment and scan these tools first, you are handing a compromised identity broad internal access to your entire network.”

The fundamental flaw in the current AI agent boom is a mistaken trust model, according to Gu.

Charles Hoskinson, founder and CEO of Cardano’s Input Output, said that by 2035 they will become more relevant than humans on the internet. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, recently said “very soon there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions” and Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, predicted they “will make one million times more payments than humans.”

Ultimate inside threat

Gu said many popular, open-source AI applications are built under the assumption that because they run locally on a user’s computer or connect via standard chat apps like WhatsApp, they are safe from external threats.

The reality is entirely the opposite, he noted. The moment a user grants an AI agent permission to read local system storage, view execution histories or manage personal email and business database credentials, that agent becomes the ultimate inside threat.

CertiK’s recent analysis of early-state, rapidly growing agent structures uncovered a staggering accumulation of security vulnerabilities, including hundreds of critical security advisories, unpatched common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and other massive exposures of local credentials and session memories resulting from completely inconsistent boundary checks.

More alarming yet is how easily these autonomous systems can be completely redirected at the reasoning layer without a single line of malicious code ever being written, Gu emphasized.

Through basic “prompt injection” attacks, a bad actor can embed hidden natural language instructions inside a benign webpage, a PDF document, or an incoming email, he added.

When the unisolated AI agent reads that file to process a task for the user, it fails to separate trusted system commands from the untrusted external data, Gu explained. The agent then silently overwrites its original rules, obeys the malicious instruction, and can be forced to exfiltrate data or trigger unauthorized fund transfers.

Hyperfast exploits

Gu revealed that CertiK discovered hundreds of malicious skills, fake installers, and lookalike dependency packages sitting directly on open agent utility hubs. Because these malicious plug-ins use standard natural language to subtly influence the agent’s behavior and change its goals, they completely bypass legacy, signature-based antivirus software.

“The scam apps use natural language to influence behavior, making them totally resistant to traditional antivirus scans,” Gu explained. “And right now, it is even easier to scam the machine than it is to scam a human.”

In what Gu describes as a bizarre evolution of financial crime, CertiK’s telemetry has observed an explosion of onchain, automated scams that run for only 10 minutes or a few hours before completely vanishing.

These hyperfast, ephemeral exploits are specifically designed by hackers to target and scam other autonomous AI trading bots and automated agent systems, executing machine-on-machine financial drainage before any human even realizes a compromise has occurred.

Gu states that the software engineering industry must completely abandon its reliance on trust-based interactions and move immediately toward an isolated, “Zero Trust” architecture where every command and dependency is continuously verified.