Bitcoin attempted a recovery but is facing selling at higher levels, indicating that bears continue to sell on rallies.
Crypto treasury companies and blockchain technology are creating alternative pathways to fund early-stage scientific and medical research.
AI systems drive crypto fraud while the industry relies on outdated postmortems. Real-time transaction defense must become infrastructure.
Stablecoin settlement times vary wildly depending on their blockchain. Purpose-built payment chains must remain open, or they will repeat TradFi fragmentation.
Bitcoin’s fluctuating correlation with US equities is raising questions about its role as a global safe-haven asset during periods of financial stress.Bitcoin (BTC) exhibited a strong negative correlation with the US stock market when analyzing the short-term, seven-day trailing correlation, according to new research from blockchain data provider RedStone Oracles, shared exclusively with Cointelegraph.Bitcoin, S&P 500, 7-day rolling correlation. Source: Redstone OraclesHowever, RedStone said that the 30-day indicator signals a “variable correlation” between Bitcoin price and the S&P 500 index, with the correlation coefficient ranging from -0.2 to 0.4.This fluctuating correlation suggests that Bitcoin “doesn’t consistently function as a true hedge for equities” due to its lack of a strong negative correlation below -0.3, which is needed for “reliable counter movement during market stress,” the report states.Bitcoin, S&P 500, 30-day rolling correlation, 1-year chart. Source: Redstone OraclesRelated: $1B Bitcoin exits Coinbase in a day as analysts warn of supply shockThe research suggests that while Bitcoin may not be a dependable hedge against stock market declines, it still offers value as a portfolio diversifier.This fluctuating dynamic signals that Bitcoin often moves independently from other assets, potentially offering additional returns while other assets are struggling. Still, Bitcoin has yet to mirror the safe-haven dynamics of gold and government bonds, RedStone suggests.Related: Nasdaq-listed GDC plans to buy Bitcoin and TRUMP memecoin for $300MBitcoin needs to “mature” before decoupling from stock marketWhile Bitcoin is poised to grow into a safe-haven asset in the future, the world’s first cryptocurrency still needs to “mature” as a global asset, according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer at RedStone.“Bitcoin still needs to mature before decoupling from stock markets,” Kazmierczak told Cointelegraph, adding:“Increased institutional adoption will absolutely help — we’re already seeing this effect with corporate treasury investments reducing Bitcoin’s 30-day volatility and with BlackRock repetitively praising BTC as an asset in a portfolio.”Meanwhile, Bitcoin will see growing recognition as a portfolio diversified, with an annualized return of over 230% for the past five years, which “significantly outperformed” both stocks and traditional safe-haven assets, Kazmierczak said, adding that “even a small 1–5% Bitcoin allocation can meaningfully enhance a portfolio’s risk-adjusted returns.”Source: Vetle LundeMeanwhile, Bitcoin’s falling volatility supports BTC’s apparent growing maturity as a global financial asset. Bitcoin’s weekly volatility hit a 563-day low on April 30, a development that may signal more stable price action.Bitcoin’s price volatility fell below the realized volatility of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, signaling that investors are increasingly treating Bitcoin as a long-term investment vehicle, Cointelegraph reported on May 13.Magazine: Uni students crypto ‘grooming’ scandal, 67K scammed by fake women: Asia Express
GD Culture Group (GDC), a Nasdaq-listed holding company focused on livestreaming, e-commerce and artificial intelligence-powered digital human technology, plans to raise up to $300 million for a cryptocurrency treasury reserve.In a May 12 statement, GDC and its subsidiary, AI Catalysis Corp., announced entering into a common stock purchase agreement with a British Virgin Islands limited liability company to sell up to $300 million of its common stock.The proceeds from the stock sale will be used to fund the firm’s crypto treasury, which will include purchases of Bitcoin (BTC) and the Official Trump (TRUMP) token.“Under this initiative, and subject to certain limitations, GDC intends to allocate a significant portion of the proceeds from any share sales under the facility to the acquisition, long-term holding, and integration of crypto assets into its core treasury operations,” the company said in the announcement. GDC described the strategy as a move to align with the broader “decentralization transformation.”GDC stock price, 1-year chart. Source: NasdaqFounded in 2016, GDC is a micro-cap company with a current $34 million market capitalization, according to Nasdaq data.Related: Multi-wallet usage up 16%, but AI may address crypto fragmentation gapGDC’s chairman and CEO, Xiaojian Wang, said the initiative builds on the company’s strengths in digital technologies and positions it for a blockchain-powered industrial shift.“GDC’s adoption of crypto assets as treasury reserve holdings is a deliberate strategy that reflects both current industry trends and our unique strengths in digital technologies and the livestreaming e-commerce ecosystem,” Wang said.The stock offering was announced over a month after the firm received a noncompliance warning from Nasdaq related to its stockholders’ equity. The notice indicated that the firm reported stockholders’ equity of only $2,643, well below the minimum requirement of $2.5 million.The firm was given until May 4 to submit a plan to comply with the listing requirements. If accepted by the Nasdaq, the compliance plan will allow the firm up to 180 days from the notification period to comply with the requirements.The Nevada-based company joins a small but growing group of public firms that are allocating part of their balance sheets to crypto assets. Related: Crypto speculation dominates $600B cross-border payments: BIS reportTrump token dinner planned for top holdersGDC’s announcement coincides with an upcoming high-profile event tied to the Trump token project. The 25 largest holders of TRUMP tokens are set to attend a private dinner at the White House on May 22.However, the TRUMP memecoin project said in a May 12 X post that it has stopped considering additional purchases for the dinner and that the attendees had been notified to apply for background checks.According to data provided on the project’s leaderboard, the top 220 wallets held more than 13.7 million tokens as of May 12, worth roughly $174 million at the time of publication.Top 10 TRUMP memecoin holders as of May 12. Source: TRUMP memecoin projectSome US lawmakers have criticized the dinner. Senator Cynthia Lummis reportedly said that the idea of the US President offering exclusive access for people willing to pay for it “gives [her] pause.”Crypto regulation experts also fear that the Trump family’s crypto endeavors may trigger more regulatory scrutiny by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as politically affiliated memecoins introduce a new challenge for crypto legislation.Magazine: Uni students crypto ‘grooming’ scandal, 67K scammed by fake women: Asia Express
The lawyer for a group of Caitlyn Jenner memecoin buyers said they will continue their legal fight against the ex-Olympian after a judge threw out the case for failing to adequately support the securities and fraud claims it brought.Jenner had escaped a class-action lawsuit from buyers of her self-titled memecoin, Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) after California District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. said in a motion filed on May 9 that it was “sufficient to conclude that all nine causes of action are deficient” and sided with Jenner in dismissing the suit in its entirety for failure to state a claim.He allowed the class group to amend its suit, which must be filed by May 23, but warned it had “to be more focused and judiciously pleaded” than the original.A lawyer for the class group, Fitzgerald Monroe Flynn PC partner Jack Fitzgerald, told Cointelegraph it was “pleased the Court recognized we may be able to state some claims against the defendants, and intend to amend and press forward with the case.”Jenner and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, were sued in November by a group that bought the JENNER token and accused them of having “fraudulently solicited financially unsophisticated investors” to the token, which they alleged was an unregistered security.Lee Greenfield, a UK citizen, was added as the lead plaintiff in January and claimed he lost over $40,000 buying JENNER. But the court found, for a start, that claims of securities law violations couldn’t stand as it wasn’t alleged that his JENNER buys took place in the US, as the law requires, and gave “scant details” about the purchases.The court didn’t allow the class to swap its lead for a US-based member, adding it must report by May 16 on how the suit will proceed (highlights added for emphasis). Source: PACERCourt dismisses all claims by JENNER tokenholdersIn all, Judge Blumenfeld dismissed a further eight claims the class group brought in an amended complaint filed in February, which included accusations that Jenner and Hutchins either made misleading statements, sold unregistered securities, or committed various fraud.Judge Blumenfeld said the suit failed to allege that Jenner sold the token through a prospectus that contained an untrue statement, as “Greenfield admits that the $JENNER tokens were not sold through a prospectus.”The court also tossed a common-law fraud accusation, saying the complaint alleged omitted information and noted various X posts by Jenner “stating that she would continue to support the tokens,” but it did not identify which of the statements related to the fraud claim.The group also accused Hutchins of aiding and abetting Jenner’s allegedly fraudulent conduct, but Judge Blumenfeld said that claim failed as the complaint “does not adequately allege any viable fraud claim.”In a footnote, Judge Blumenfeld said Jenner and the class group disputed whether the JENNER token was a security, but he was not going to decide at this stage as the “securities claims fail on other grounds.”Related: Top TRUMP whales hold $174M in tokens ahead of dinner with US president “Because the determination of whether the tokens are securities is fact-dependent and may be affected by an amended pleading, the Court declines to resolve that issue at this stage and instead assumes without deciding that the tokens are securities subject to the federal securities laws,” he wrote.JENNER first launched in May 2024 via Pump.fun on the Solana blockchain but was soon embroiled in controversy after Jenner and other memecoin launching celebrities claimed collaborator Sahil Arora scammed them. Jenner relaunched the token on Ethereum, which the class group claimed tanked the value of the original Solana token, but gave Jenner the benefit of collecting a 3% fee on every transaction.JENNER has lost essentially all its value since launch. CoinGecko shows its market value has crashed to around $58,775 from a June 3 peak of nearly $7.5 million. The token has seen just $61.10 worth of trading volume over the last day.Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge
