Nick van Eck, CEO of stablecoin issuer Agora, has criticized yield-bearing stablecoins, arguing they miss the point of a stablecoin's core mission. Instead, van Eck suggests firms should focus on utility, liquidity, and transaction means. Yield-bearing stablecoins, like Dai (DAI), Ethena's USDe, and Mountain Protocol's USDM, could be classified as security products in many countries, limiting customer reach. Van Eck also criticized stablecoin issuers' strong ties with cryptocurrency trading firms, describing it as a conflict of interest. Agora plans to launch its digital dollar (AUSD) on Ethereum next month, focusing on utility, liquidity, and transaction means.

Solana's native token, SOL, saw a 5% increase in value on May 27, trading up from $161 to $171. This rise has sparked investor optimism, especially as SOL had reached $188.90 just days earlier. A key factor in this upward trend is a proposal aimed at boosting yields for validators rather than burning tokens. On May 27, Solana's validators approved the SIMD-0096 proposal, which eliminates the 50% burn rate on priority transactions. However, some analysts believe SOL's recent price adjustment is a reaction to a decline caused by the approval of an Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. Despite these developments, Solana's network activity remains sluggish compared to Ethereum and its layer-2 solutions.

Sphere Labs, a blockchain developer, is set to launch a new fiat on-ramp and off-ramp within the Telegram app. This bank-to-wallet extension will enable users to transfer funds directly from their bank to their wallet and vice versa. The service, which will charge an introductory fee of 0.1% per transaction, is expected to be available to early users from the week of May 27. A full launch is anticipated later this year. Users from non-sanctioned countries can use this extension, but they must link it to a USD or Euro bank account. This move is part of Telegram's ongoing efforts to foster a robust blockchain ecosystem.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen is backing a memecoin project called Pajamas (PAJAMAS), inspired by the first cat video uploaded to the platform in 2005. Chen, who has a net worth of over $1 billion, has been dedicating up to 100 hours a week to the project, available on the Solana blockchain. The project is just one of many tech initiatives Chen is involved in, including an AI-based exchange-traded fund and investing in Taiwanese startups. Launched in March, Pajamas has a market capitalization of over $20 million and was trading at approximately $0.02 at the time of publication.

Ether (ETH) is edging closer to the $4,000 mark, with a 3.5% gain on May 27. The altcoin has risen 27% from a low of $3,048 on May 20, reaching a 10-week high of $3,964 on May 27. Crypto analysts suggest that the price increase is largely due to the anticipated approval of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. Despite a lackluster performance post-approval, the move towards $4,000 is seen as significant. The ETH balance on exchanges has also been decreasing over the past year, indicating traders' confidence in the long-term potential of Ether.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) filings from eight firms, including VanEck, BlackRock, and Fidelity. However, unlike Bitcoin ETFs, spot Ether ETFs may take weeks or months to debut on exchanges.

In other news, Hong Kong's privacy commissioner has ordered Worldcoin to halt operations in the city, citing violations of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

Meanwhile, Binance.US has successfully appealed the suspension of its money-services business license in Florida, with the state's First District Court of Appeal ruling the suspension lacked legal justification.

Lastly, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, which aims to restrict the use of central bank digital currency for monetary policy, has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but still awaits a Senate vote.

Solana community members have voted to give network validators 100% of priority fees, a move that passed with 77% support. Previously, these fees were split between validators and the network's token-burning mechanism. Despite Solana's strong price performance, reaching a high of $210 in March 2024, the network has faced congestion issues and multiple crashes. These outages, often due to high traffic, have led to network downtime on four separate occasions. Despite these challenges, Solana remains the fastest blockchain network, reaching a record 1,504 transactions per second in April 2024.

The Libertarian Party in the U.S. has nominated Chase Oliver as its presidential candidate for the 2024 elections. The nomination followed speeches by Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the party's convention. Oliver, a 38-year-old, enters the race as the third-largest political party's face, with most U.S. citizens likely to vote for either Biden or Trump. The Libertarian Party has shown support for cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Oliver's running mate, Mike ter Maat, opposes the Federal Reserve issuing a central bank digital currency and supports unregulated cryptocurrency.

Ronin network, an Ethereum sidechain hosting Axie Infinity and other games, has seen a resurgence with about 1.4 million daily active users, placing it second across all blockchains. However, it only generated the 13th highest fee revenue of all blockchains in the past 30 days with just $200,000. This growth is a significant turnaround from last October when Ronin had less than 20,000 daily active users. The revival is largely attributed to the arrival of the farming simulation game Pixels. However, concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of the high user count, with suggestions of widespread bot activities.

Bitcoin has broken the $70,000 mark after a three-day struggle, indicating that the bulls are still in control. However, some analysts predict a sideways movement for a few more weeks. Meanwhile, the approval of spot Ether exchange-traded funds has shifted focus to Ether, with several analysts expecting a rally. Altcoins are also predicted to catch up after the Bitcoin and Ether rally. The S&P 500 Index and the U.S. Dollar Index are holding steady, while Bitcoin, Ether, BNB, Solana, XRP, Toncoin, Dogecoin, and Cardano all show signs of bullish behavior.

South Korean crypto exchange Gopax, majority-owned by Binance, reportedly sold its users' deposit claims for half their value in August 2023. The exchange owes users $51.4 million due to exposure to the collapsed crypto lending firm Genesis Global. Gopax has paid out 50% to users, but the remaining unpaid digital assets have allegedly increased in value to $69,000 per Bitcoin. Gopax is said to be in a "state of complete capital impairment" due to rising debt liabilities. Meanwhile, a lawsuit against Binance by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has stalled its acquisition of Gopax, prompting a review by South Korea's Financial Service Committee.

The team behind the newly launched memecoin, CAT, has been linked to the recent hacking of a crypto influencer's account. The Sol team allegedly manipulated their own coin launch to control over 63% of the CAT supply, selling over $5 million worth of the memecoin. The profits were divided among multiple wallets, with some funds deposited into Hyperliquid for trading. The hackers used the influencer's account to post about certain tokens, manipulating their prices. While the first attempt netted approximately $34,000, the second attempt resulted in a loss. The breach was reportedly caused by a SIM swapping attack.

A victim who lost 1,807 liquid staked Ether (ETH), worth $6.91 million, to a phishing scam on May 26 has reportedly recovered 80% of the stolen funds. The phishing group, Inferno Drainer, allegedly returned the funds, keeping a 20% bounty. The victim's wallet was compromised in a permit phishing attack, where a malicious actor generates an off-chain authorization signature to transfer tokens from a wallet they don't own. Blockchain analytics firm SlowMist recommends using authorization tools like RevokeCash and Scam Sniffer's Permit2 to identify and revoke any abnormal authorizations to prevent such attacks.

A shrewd trader known as wallet "0x303" has made a whopping $2.7 million profit in just three days on the Donald Trump-themed MAGA (TRUMP) meme token. The trader spent over $535,000 to buy six billion MAGA tokens on May 25, and then sold 1.5 billion MAGA for 744K USDT, making a 505-fold return on his initial investment. The MAGA token has seen significant surges following pro-crypto comments by Donald Trump. However, this massive profit has sparked allegations of insider trading, with some suggesting the transactions may be a result of maximal extractable value (MEV) bot activity.

A memecoin trader lost over $1 million following a smart contract exploit in the Normie (NORMIE) memecoin. The trader had bought 11.23 million NORMIE memecoins, but the value of his investment plummeted by over 99% to just $150. The exploit wiped over $41.7 million from the token's market cap in just three hours. The Normie team has reportedly agreed to the hacker's offer to return 90% of the stolen NORMIE tokens, contingent on the launch of a new token to reimburse NORMIE holders. Despite the incident, memecoin traders remain active, with the frog-themed memecoin Pepe (PEPE) reaching a new all-time high.

Bitget, a top-ranking cryptocurrency exchange, has appointed Gracy Chen as its new CEO, making her the only female CEO among leading crypto exchanges. Chen aims to focus on compliance, long-term growth in emerging markets, and women-focused initiatives. She has already launched a $10 million project, #Blockchain4Her, to empower women in the blockchain space. Chen also plans to launch an incubation program for female entrepreneurs. Bitget, with 25 million users, is a top five futures trading platform and a top 10 spot trading platform, operating in over 100 countries.

Ether's price could surge to $4,500 before the first spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) get official approval, according to Arthur Cheong, CEO of DeFiance Capital. The prediction follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of 19b-4 filings for eight spot Ether ETF issuers, including VanEck, BlackRock, and Fidelity. While this is a positive sign, ETF issuers still need approval for their S-1 filings, which could take months. Despite resistance at the $4,000 and $4,100 mark, a rally to $4,500 is feasible, and the ETF approval could drive Ether's price to $10,000, says Andrey Stoychev, head of prime brokerage at Nexo.

Polygon co-founder Brendan Farmer has revealed plans for the Polygon Aggregate Layer (AggLayer), a decentralized protocol designed to ensure safety for low-latency, cross-chain transactions. The AggLayer aims to solve the fragmentation issue in Ethereum layer 2s by allowing chains to safely use a shared bridge without transacting on a layer 1 blockchain. The Chain Development Kit (CDK) will serve as the building blocks for this ecosystem, enabling anyone to spin up a chain. Farmer anticipates the AggLayer will be implemented sometime in Q3.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light to Ether (ETH) ETF applicants, including heavyweights like VanEck, BlackRock, and Fidelity. Experts predict a scenario similar to the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, but with less volume. Despite this, traders could make interesting moves, such as shorting the ETF and buying ETH for staking. The approval could also spark a global trend, with other countries considering launching their own crypto-based ETFs. However, the SEC's stance on ETH as a commodity remains unclear, with some experts calling for more transparency.

Elon Musk's AI venture, xAI, has secured a whopping $6 billion in a series B funding round, boosting its valuation to $24 billion. This milestone comes less than a year after the company's launch. The funds will be used to further the development of its AI systems and launch its first product. Despite being a newcomer, xAI has big plans, with Musk hinting at the possibility of it becoming a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT by the end of the year. The company's first AI chatbot, Grok-1, was released last November, with an updated version, Grok-1.5, introduced in April.