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.

Key Highlights

• HYPE token reached an unprecedented peak of $64.48, maintaining levels above $60 through Monday’s trading session
• Institutional investment vehicles from 21Shares, Bitwise, and Grayscale are channeling significant capital, with $72M entering the market last week
• The platform’s innovative buyback mechanism allocates 97–99% of fee revenue toward HYPE token repurchases
• Perpetual futures Open Interest surged to an all-time high of $2.95 billion, indicating robust market participation
• Market analyst Michaël van de Poppe forecasts HYPE could surpass the $100 threshold

Hyperliquid’s native token (HYPE) continues its remarkable ascent, establishing new price records driven by a confluence of institutional adoption, strategic token economics, and expanding platform utility. The digital asset peaked at $64.48 before stabilizing near the $60 level.

The competitive landscape for HYPE-focused exchange-traded products is rapidly evolving. Bitwise introduced BHYP on the NYSE Arca exchange, while 21Shares debuted THYP on Nasdaq. These investment vehicles collectively attracted $72.38 million in fresh capital during the previous week, representing a dramatic increase from the prior week’s modest $2.52 million.

Grayscale has officially entered the competition. According to Bloomberg’s ETF specialist James Seyffart, Grayscale submitted an updated registration document for a HYPE investment trust, proposing the ticker symbol GHYP. The documentation identifies Anchorage Digital Bank as the custodial partner and Bank of New York Mellon as the administrative entity.

Grayscale’s submission incorporates a staking component. Should regulatory authorities approve, the trust may be rebranded as the Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF, potentially offering investors exposure to both price appreciation and staking income.

Token Repurchase Program Generates Sustained Demand

Hyperliquid employs a distinctive economic model that channels 97% to 99% of platform trading fees toward systematic token repurchases from secondary markets. Approximately 210,000 HYPE tokens were acquired through this mechanism during the past week. The platform’s assistance fund currently maintains 44.52 million tokens, with cumulative repurchases totaling 26.81 million HYPE. The aggregate value of all buyback activity has reached $1.16 billion.

Perpetual futures Open Interest climbed to a record $2.95 billion on Monday, according to CoinGlass data. Hyperliquid commands approximately 70% of the decentralized perpetual futures market and represents roughly 7% of total perpetual contract open interest across all trading venues.

Market participant LSTRADER, sharing analysis on X, observed that previous all-time high projections have already materialized. The trader suggested the current strategy involves trend following while capitalizing on temporary retracements, with additional resistance levels now in focus.

New Platform Features Drive Revenue Growth

Hyperliquid’s recently launched HIP-4 prediction market processed 6.05 million contracts on its inaugural day and equaled Polymarket’s two-week Bitcoin binary contract volume within just 48 hours. Additional product offerings generate increased fee revenue, which directly powers the token buyback system.

From a technical analysis perspective, HYPE maintains strong positioning above its 50, 100, and 200-day exponential moving averages. The Relative Strength Index registers at 75, suggesting overbought territory, while the MACD indicator confirms ongoing bullish momentum. Fibonacci extension analysis identifies critical resistance zones at $70.04 and $83.51.

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe has publicly expressed his conviction that HYPE will exceed $100 in the near term.

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.

Key Takeaways

• The convergence of artificial intelligence with quantum computing is shortening the timeline for potential threats to blockchain encryption systems.
• Adversaries are employing “harvest now, decrypt later” tactics, collecting encrypted blockchain data today for future decryption when quantum technology matures.
• The majority of blockchain platforms, from Bitcoin to Ethereum, depend on elliptic curve cryptography that quantum machines could eventually compromise.
• Machine learning technologies serve dual purposes: attackers leverage them to discover vulnerabilities while defenders deploy them for security audits and verification processes.
• Major blockchain ecosystems including NEAR, Ethereum, Solana, and additional networks are actively developing quantum-resistant migration roadmaps.

Security professionals and blockchain researchers are sounding alarms that machine learning advancements are propelling quantum computing capabilities forward at an unprecedented pace. This technological convergence is compelling cryptocurrency platforms to fundamentally reconsider their approach to safeguarding digital assets and sensitive information.

What once seemed like a distant hypothetical scenario—quantum computers posing genuine risks to blockchain infrastructure—now appears to be approaching faster than the industry anticipated, according to leading researchers.

Understanding the Fundamental Risk

The overwhelming majority of cryptocurrency networks, notably Bitcoin and Ethereum, depend fundamentally on elliptic curve cryptography to maintain wallet security and transaction integrity. A quantum computer with adequate processing capability could potentially reverse-engineer private keys from their corresponding public keys, creating pathways for malicious actors to compromise and empty vulnerable cryptocurrency wallets.

According to Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven—a firm specializing in quantum-resistant blockchain infrastructure—the landscape is transforming rapidly. “Between quantum and AI, we’re going to go into a world where security, you simply cannot count on the way you’ve always done things,” he said.

What was once purely academic speculation has evolved into a concrete concern. Security professionals now highlight a troubling tactic called “harvest now, decrypt later”—where well-resourced adversaries systematically capture encrypted information in the present, banking on future quantum computing breakthroughs to unlock it.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol and former AI researcher at Google, expressed stark concerns about the timeline. “Everything we’re putting on the internet, if you’re identifiable as a person of interest, you can assume will be decrypted in two years,” he said. “It’s most likely happening already.”

The Dual Role of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence isn’t merely hastening quantum threats—it’s actively being deployed in current-day offensive and defensive cybersecurity operations across the cryptocurrency landscape.

From an attack perspective, AI models are demonstrating increasing sophistication in identifying security weaknesses within software systems. Pruden anticipates that machine learning will dramatically increase the frequency of successful exploits within the industry, as these systems grow more adept at discovering cryptographic implementation flaws and potentially compromising weaker security protocols entirely.

Conversely, blockchain developers are harnessing artificial intelligence for protective purposes, including automated code reviews, formal verification processes, and comprehensive testing of quantum-resistant cryptographic systems. These methodologies can identify and neutralize security vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.

Polosukhin, whose AI research work at Google dates back to 2016, emphasizes the accelerating nature of machine learning breakthroughs. “The rate of research is going to accelerate from here, and we have already seen progress that people didn’t expect would come this early,” he said.

He further highlighted a concerning cyclical pattern: artificial intelligence facilitating the development of more sophisticated quantum computers, which could subsequently enable the creation of even more advanced AI architectures.

How Blockchain Platforms Are Responding

Numerous cryptocurrency projects have moved beyond planning stages and are actively implementing countermeasures. NEAR Protocol recently unveiled initiatives to embed post-quantum cryptographic standards directly into its account architecture. This architectural decision would enable users to upgrade their cryptographic protections seamlessly without requiring asset migration to entirely new wallet addresses.

Polosukhin revealed this was an intentional design consideration from inception. “Back in 2018, when we were designing NEAR, we were like: hey, quantum will come, we should have an easy way to do it,” he said.

Ethereum, Zcash, Solana, and Ripple are similarly engaged in researching and deploying their respective post-quantum security frameworks.

The migration pathway presents significant technical challenges. Existing post-quantum cryptographic standards generally require substantially more data storage and computational resources. “The cryptography that’s currently standardized for post-quantum is very big and slow,” Polosukhin said.

Pruden articulated the paradigm shift facing the industry: cryptographic security can no longer operate on decade-long update cycles. Instead, it demands continuous monitoring, assessment, and evolution.

“Nothing is going to be as static as it’s been in the future,” he said.

Artificial intelligence agents settling payments have gone from concept to reality in the last 12 months, with $73 million settled across 176 million transactions from May last year through April 2026, according to crypto investment firm Keyrock.

In a report released Thursday, written in collaboration with crypto exchange Coinbase and the blockchain Tempo, Keyrock researcher Ben Harvey said that “in the past 12 months, machine-to-machine payments have gone from concept to a developed ecosystem.”

“Agents have settled over $73 million across 176 million transactions, and incumbents have deployed more than $8 billion in acquisitions to secure their position in what is emerging as an entirely new payment stack,” Harvey added.

Source: Keyrock

AI agents are becoming increasingly popular among crypto users. Some crypto executives have speculated that AI agents settling transactions could drive adoption and transaction volumes, with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire predicting in January that billions of AI agents will operate with stablecoins on users’ behalf within five years.

Traditional payment rails too slow and expensive

By the end of the first quarter this year, there were more than 104,000 agents registered across 15 or more directories and registries, according to Harvey. The average transaction size was about 31 cents.

“That number tells you almost everything about why traditional payment rails can’t serve this market. A fixed processing fee of roughly 30 cents per transaction makes sub-dollar payments uneconomical. An agent paying three cents for a weather API call can’t route through Visa,” Harvey said.

“Stablecoins won the settlement layer for machine commerce almost by default; they were the only instrument that could handle sub-dollar transactions without the economics collapsing.” 

Related: Exodus launches AI agent-focused stablecoin on Solana  

AI agents are also used to build Web3 applications, launch tokens and interact with services and protocols autonomously, with some platforms exploring AI for trading. Last April, a CoinGecko survey of 2,632 crypto users found that most are comfortable with AI trading on their behalf; 87% said they would let AI agents manage at least 10% of their crypto portfolio.

USDC the leading settlement option

More than 98% of settlements by AI agents were in Circle’s USDC (USDC), according to Harvey, who said this serves as both a “validation and a vulnerability” because the entire ecosystem depends on one company, carrying significant risks.

“This is a lot of dependence on a single stablecoin issuer’s reserve management, regulatory standing, and technical infrastructure. If Circle faces a regulatory challenge, a de-peg event, or even sustained downtime, the agent economy has no fallback,” he added.

“This is a systemic risk that nobody in the space is publicly discussing, and one we believe warrants serious attention as volumes scale.”

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