Bitcoin Breaks $80,000 as Iran Tensions Ease and Oil Falls

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 📈 Bitcoin reclaims $80,000 for the first time since January as the Iran trade unwinds and a short squeeze kicks in

• 🏛️ Senators release CLARITY Act stablecoin yield compromise text; White House adviser calls it “go time” 

• ⚖️ U.S. court freezes $71 million in Kelp DAO ETH after North Korea terrorism creditors file claim 

• 🏦 Trump's crypto project raised $550 million, but early investors can't sell and the token just hit an all-time low

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Bitcoin Breaks $80,000 for First Time in Three Months as Iran Fears Ease

Bitcoin surged past $80,000 late Sunday for the first time since January 31, climbing 2.6% to $80,150 as falling oil prices and easing geopolitical tensions lifted risk appetite across markets. The rally triggered more than $114 million in short liquidations in 24 hours, with analysts at LVRG Research and Zeus Research calling it a technical short squeeze through a "major" psychological resistance zone.

The move followed President Trump's announcement of "Project Freedom," a U.S. military operation to guide stranded neutral cargo ships out of the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday. Brent crude fell as much as 2.4% at the open to around $108, while WTI dipped near $102. Trump also said his representatives were having "very positive discussions" with Iran.

Spot bitcoin ETFs posted a fifth straight week of inflows, totaling $153.87 million last week. Ether gained 3.6% to $2,382, and XRP added 2% to $1.41.

White House Signals ‘Go Time’ on CLARITY Act After Stablecoin Yield Compromise Drops

Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks released compromise text Friday on the last major sticking point in the CLARITY Act: stablecoin yield. The language bars crypto firms from paying yield on stablecoin balances that is "functionally or economically equivalent" to a bank deposit but allows reward programs tied to actual usage, a distinction the industry had been pushing for since January.

White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt called it "go time." Senator Cynthia Lummis has committed to a May markup in the Senate Banking Committee, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted simply: "Mark it up." The Digital Chamber, Circle, and the Crypto Council for Innovation all backed the deal within hours.

The bill still faces a tight calendar. Polymarket traders give it roughly 48% odds of becoming law in 2026, and the Senate has fewer than 10 working weeks before midterm campaigning takes over.

North Korea Terrorism Creditors Move to Seize $71 Million in Arbitrum-Frozen Kelp DAO ETH

A U.S. federal court has frozen $71 million in ETH held by the Arbitrum DAO, blocking the funds from flowing into the DeFi United recovery effort that was assembling to compensate victims of the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit. The Southern District of New York issued the order on May 1.

The plaintiffs are not hack victims. They are families holding unpaid terrorism judgments against North Korea totaling more than $877 million. Their lawyers argue the frozen 30,766 ETH constitutes North Korean state property because LayerZero attributed the April 18 hack to Pyongyang's Lazarus Group. The claim rests on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

The freeze stalls a coalition led by Aave, Lido, Mantle, and EtherFi that had pooled resources to restore rsETH backing. A Snapshot vote showing 99% support for the release now runs headlong into a federal restraining order.

Bloomberg: Trump Family Crypto Project Quietly Sold Billions in Tokens While Holders Stayed Locked

World Liberty Financial raised more than $550 million from investors, then quietly sold an additional 5.9 billion WLFI tokens to private buyers in deals worth hundreds of millions, according to a Bloomberg report. Under the project's disclosures, DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity affiliated with Donald Trump and his family, is entitled to 75% of token sale proceeds after deductions.

Early investors who bought at $0.05 remain locked out of 80% of their holdings with no published unlock schedule. WLFI traded below $0.06 this week, hitting all-time lows. Justin Sun, the project's highest-profile backer, sued WLFI in April in federal court, alleging his $45 million stake was frozen and his governance rights stripped.

The project has also deposited 5 billion WLFI into lending protocol Dolomite, whose co-founder is a WLFI advisor, and borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins against them.

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• 📈 Strategy paused bitcoin buys ahead of Tuesday earnings, only the second pause this year for the company that holds 818,334 bitcoin worth roughly $64 billion. CEO Michael Saylor said the buying resumes next week, with the pause landing as analysts expect an $18.98 per share loss for Q1 2026.

• ⚖️ New York Attorney General secured $5 million from Uphold in the first enforcement action against a crypto yield product promoter, targeting the platform's marketing of CredEarn, which collapsed in 2020. The settlement requires Uphold to register as a broker and strengthen due diligence policies for third-party investment products.

• 🏦 BlackRock urged the OCC to drop the proposed 20% cap on tokenized reserve assets in GENIUS Act rules, arguing risk should be based on credit quality and liquidity, not distributed ledger usage. The world's largest asset manager's $2.6 billion BUIDL fund backs over 90% of Ethena's USDtb and Jupiter's JupUSD.

• 🔒 Paradigm proposed PACTs (Provable Address-Control Timestamps) to let dormant bitcoin holders privately prove key control before quantum computers threaten legacy addresses. The proposal would protect Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1.1 million bitcoin, worth $84 billion, without requiring public movement of funds.

• 📊 Ethereum Foundation sold 10,000 ETH worth $23 million to BitMine for the second straight week, while Ethereum ETFs shed $184 million over a four-day negative streak despite ETH price gains. BitMine now holds over 5 million ETH worth $11.7 billion.

• 📉 Kraken parent Payward completed its acquisition of Bitnomial, gaining a fully CFTC-regulated derivatives stack including exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage licenses. The deal enables US-regulated crypto derivatives across the Kraken and NinjaTrader platforms, starting with spot margin.

• 🟡 Dogecoin hit a 2-month high near $0.11 as Shuttle Pharmaceutical Holdings agreed to acquire United Dogecoin in an $11 million PIPE-backed merger. The combined company plans to deploy 3,000 mining rigs targeting 1.5% of global DOGE mining capacity.

• 🤖 ClawBank's AI agent Manfred formed its own corporation autonomously, obtaining an IRS EIN, an FDIC-insured bank account, and a crypto wallet. The AI agent can already transact in over 30 cryptocurrencies and plans to begin active trading by the month's end.

• 🇧🇷 Brazil's central bank banned stablecoin and crypto settlement in cross-border payments through its regulated eFX system, effective October 1. The move targets the back-end infrastructure used by fintechs, while individual crypto ownership remains legal.

• 💸 Global payments company Fun raised $72 million in Series A funding co-led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire. The company processes over $18 billion annually, powering deposits and withdrawals for Polymarket, Lighter, and Aave with 99.999% success rate.

• 💰 SBI Holdings filed a letter of intent to acquire a stake in crypto exchange Bitbank, aiming to make it a consolidated subsidiary. The move would create Japan's largest crypto platform group ahead of potential regulatory changes reclassifying cryptocurrencies as financial instruments.

• 💰 Tether posted $1.04 billion in Q1 profit as its reserve buffer reached a record $8.2 billion. The stablecoin issuer holds approximately $141 billion in US Treasuries, making it the 17th largest holder of American government debt globally.

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