This momentous TradFi-DeFi mash-up may also have a big twist, or two!

The pro-crypto Trump administration is about to reshape the US stock market!

According to Bloomberg, that SEC announcement may happen 

If so, this would be yet another major regulatory development, and a close follow-up to last week's passage of the CLARITY Act that was 

 of real company shares (like Apple or Tesla) that live on a 

Tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is one of the biggest trends in crypto of late.

RWA proponents say that 24/7 trading and almost-instant settlement can help markets evolve and become more efficient.

innovation exemption for tokenized stocks, 

Third parties could create these digital versions 

without the original company's permission.

This fundamentally shifts control over how a company's shares are represented and traded - away from the company itself.

Also, the exemption would create a new framework for trading tokenized versions of publicly traded company shares on 

Such a framework is part of a broader effort by the administration to loosen rules for crypto markets.

This will be a major test whether a huge chunk of the TradFi world can integrate, operate, and live on crypto infrastructure, without traditional safeguards.

Where might these tokenized stocks trade?

 — the same kind of platforms where you might already trade crypto.

To be clear, TradFi mainstays are certainly moving with the times.

Early developments - what's happened so far?

This week, Bloomberg reported that markets may soon get the formal announcement by the SEC on this eagerly-anticipated plan for tokenized stocks.

Several blockchain networks are already being used as infrastructure for tokenized securities:

Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are expected to play a key role as the 

Demand for stablecoins may potentially rise as tokenized asset creation and redemption scales up.

The regulatory and legal framework for tokenized assets remains unsettled.

Broadly, critics say that the tokenization of shares could introduce uncertainties into financial markets and systems that have already stood the test of time.

Tokenized Stocks: How big could this get?

The tokenized asset market currently stands at $31.4 billion, already up 46% from the start of 2026.

Market forecasts suggest tokenized real-world assets could grow to approximately 

, according to Clear Street Equity Research, driven by increasing regulatory clarity and institutional activity.

This article is provided for general information and reflects the author's views only. It does not constitute investment advice, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instruments or digital assets. Your ability to access or use any products or services mentioned may be subject to the laws and regulatory requirements of your jurisdiction.

Beginner

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SEC may unveil plan for tokenized stocks this week!

200-Day MA Rejected. Yield Warning Triggered. Last Week's Call Was Right.

Opening Snapshot ｜ The Week in One Line

Weekly Price Action (Bybit Platform Data, updated May 18, 0AM UTC):

 BTC touched a low of $76,960 in the early hours of May 18 UTC before rebounding to fight for the $77,000 level, where it remains in a tug-of-war. XAUT declined -3.3%, breaking the prior two weeks' narrative of gold outperforming crypto — the pressure from Treasury yields breaking above 4.5% has now spread to all asset classes.

Last week's three core signals all confirmed this week:

On the CLARITY Act being absorbed by macro:

 The 15-9 bipartisan vote is one of the most important regulatory milestones of this cycle. But BTC briefly surged above $82,000 on the news and immediately reversed. 

Regulatory clarity is a long-term structural positive — but in a high-inflation, high-rate macro environment, it cannot override the pressure from rising yields. That is the most important market lesson of this week.

Signal One: BTC Technical — Fifth Rejection at 200-Day MA, Now Fighting $77k

BTC experienced 4 consecutive failed breakout attempts at the $82,000 resistance zone — a cluster that concentrates the average ETF cost basis, the 200-day moving average, and the CME gap upper boundary. This week BTC formally broke below the CME gap zone ($79,500–$83,500).

$77,000 is now the critical near-term observation level:

Signal Two: U.S. Equity "Long Liquidation Cascade" — Options Expiry Stampede, Extreme Positioning

May 16 (Friday) was an equity options expiry day that produced a textbook long-on-long liquidation event:

A large volume of call options were force-closed before expiry, generating a 

 from market makers that mechanically accelerated the sell-off into the close. Longs caught at the highs were forced to stop out, creating a cascade of involuntary selling.

The deeper structural concern is the crowding: according to the latest 

hedge fund gross positioning in the technology sector is near a five-year high, with long positions sitting at the 99th percentile

. When capital is this concentrated, the slightest  catalyst can trigger systematic deleveraging.

Watch the S&P 500 and Nasdaq key support levels closely going into next week. 

Equity market stability (as a barometer of broader risk sentiment) is a prerequisite for ETF inflows — if equities continue to weaken, crypto ETF outflows will expand further, and BTC's institutional support floor will shift lower.

Signal Three: US10Y Breaks 4.5% — The Warning Line

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to 4.54% on May 15 — its highest level in approximately 10 months. April CPI confirmed inflation running at 3.8% year-over-year — the highest in three years — further pushing back expectations of any 2026 rate cut.

4.5% is a critical technical warning line

 — it corresponds to the downtrend resistance in Treasury yields that has been in place since 2023 (following the lower highs since 4.99% in Oct 2023, then 4.79% in Jan 2025):

Note that spot Bitcoin and 10-year yields have a strong negative correlation of 0.6 over the past 5 years, on a rolling 5-day period.

Signal Four: CME FedWatch — Rate Hike Probability Quietly Climbs to 50%+

Based on the latest CME FedWatch Tool data:

CME FedWatch now prices a 0 chance of rate cut in 2026, but 50% probability of a Fed rate hike by Dec 2026 — a fundamental reversal from the start of the year when markets expected multiple cuts.

This is the most structurally significant development in the macro landscape this week.

 The market is repricing the Fed from "when will they cut" to "will they hike?" For crypto: 2026 rate cut expectations are fully priced out; rising hike probability will continue to create systemic headwinds across all risk assets.

$77,000 is the battleground. Hold = consolidation. Break = deleveraging.

What the $77,000 tug-of-war means technically:

BTC touched $76,709 and bounced. The current price action at $77,000 contains two possible readings:

 Volume confirmation during the Asia and Europe sessions is required.

DVOL Current State: Bounced from Lows to ~41 — Still Historically Extreme

DVOL bounced from the 37–38 absolute floor and is now near 41. The critical framing: 

41 is not "recovered to normal" — it is "slightly off an extreme bottom."

 The vol floor has lifted slightly, but the structural reading remains the same.

No strategy recommendation again this week.

Triggers to reassess strategy (any one of these changes the calculus):

btc price movement.png

Bybit Options Weekly Review: May 12–May 18

CLARITY Act advances in US Senate. Check out more recent crypto/web3 wins.

Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY ACT on 14 May

, marking a further step toward a more unified federal framework for US digital asset markets.

The proposal seeks to clarify the division of oversight between the SEC and CFTC across crypto trading venues and market infrastructure, while also addressing stablecoin and DeFi-related provisions.

However, the bill has not yet become law and must still pass the full Senate and be reconciled with the House version. 

Even if enacted, the framework would require extensive SEC-CFTC rulemaking before becoming fully operational.

 to support dividends tied to its STRC preferred stock program, but stressed that Strategy intends to remain a net 

“In these periods, even if we were to sell one bitcoin, we’d be buying 10 to 20 more bitcoin,” Saylor said.

He added: “When I said ‘never sell your bitcoin,’ I mean make sure if you were to spend it on something, you replenish in the time you spend it,” following comments during last week’s earnings call where executives said Strategy could use its bitcoin treasury to fund STRC dividend obligations.

 core developers and client teams met for a week-long interoperability event focused on preparing the network’s upcoming 

Teams aligned around a target 200M gas limit floor, stabilised ePBS infrastructure — a proposer-builder separation system designed to improve block production efficiency and reduce centralisation risks — and finalised EIP-8037 repricing changes.

The repricing adjusts Ethereum’s state storage costs to better reflect network resource usage and support higher throughput.

 a New York-based stablecoin infrastructure startup, has 

 in pre-seed funding led by Galaxy Ventures to 

, a stablecoin protocol designed for institutional users with on-chain reserve verification and compliance-focused onboarding.

The company said USBD is targeting the growing $300B+ stablecoin market by offering continuous on-chain auditability, institutional-only access through KYC/KYB-gated onboarding, and infrastructure aimed at treasury management with regulated wrappers.

, a new all-in-one CLI for building AI agents and smart contracts on the 

Built around Tolk, Acton brings the full smart contract workflow into one unified toolchain, including project creation, native testing, debugging, dApp integration, deployment and verification.

The move brings equity-linked assets into HyperEVM’s DeFi ecosystem, giving traders access to spot positions that can support more advanced strategies, including basis trades and delta-neutral hedging.

the Layer 1 blockchain developed by Mysten Labs, has seen its native token 

 after Nasdaq-listed SUI Group Holdings staked its entire treasury of over 108M SUI tokens, worth approximately $143M.

Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun said the network will soon introduce zero-fee stablecoin transfers and private transaction functionality.

The team is positioning Sui as low-cost infrastructure for payments, liquidity movement, and AI-driven on-chain transactions amid growing market interest in privacy-focused crypto systems.

 miner, reported Q1 2026 revenue of $174.6M, down 18% year-on-year, while net losses widened to $1.26B primarily due to a $1.0B mark-to-market loss on its bitcoin holdings following BTC’s 22% quarterly decline.

The company mined 2,247 BTC during the quarter and ended March with 35,303 BTC worth roughly $2.4B, including 9,995 BTC that were loaned or pledged as collateral.

Energised hashrate rose 33% year-on-year to a record 72.2 EH/s, and fleet efficiency improved to 17.6 J/TH.

, a liquidity provider and market maker integrated with 

, a decentralised exchange aggregation protocol, has suffered an ongoing exploit targeting its 

-based resolver contract, with losses initially estimated at $6.7M.

According to Blockaid, a blockchain security and transaction monitoring firm, the attacker exploited a vulnerability in a TrustedVolumes-controlled custom RFQ (request-for-quote) swap proxy.

Drained assets include 1,291 WETH, 206K USDT, 16.9 WBTC, and 1.26M USDC.

 a cross-chain interoperability and messaging protocol, issued a 

 over its handling of the April 18 exploit that drained roughly $292M in rsETH from Kelp DAO’s bridge.

The firm admitted it “made a mistake” by allowing its DVN verifier network to operate in a vulnerable 1-of-1 configuration for high-value transactions.

LayerZero said the protocol itself was not compromised, but that internal RPC infrastructure used by the LayerZero Labs DVN was allegedly poisoned by the Lazarus Group while external RPC providers were simultaneously hit by DDoS attacks.

The incident impacted a single application representing around 0.14% of LayerZero apps and 0.36% of bridged asset value.

, enabling AI agents to autonomously pay for APIs, web content, MCP servers, and other agent services using stablecoin micropayments executed inside the agent workflow itself.

AgentCore integrates Coinbase’s x402 protocol and wallet infrastructure alongside Stripe-owned Privy wallets, allowing developers to set spending limits, manage authentication, and execute machine-to-machine payments in real time when an agent encounters a paid endpoint returning an HTTP 402 “Payment Required” response.

Transactions are settled through stablecoin payment rails.

, the native utility token of the Canton Network.

The new fund, the 21Shares Canton Network ETF, began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker TCAN.

According to 21Shares, institutional interest in Canton has been driven by its focus on privacy-preserving infrastructure for capital markets.

 mining and treasury company co-founded by 

, reported an $81.8M net loss in Q1, primarily driven by a $117.2M mark-to-market loss on digital assets as BTC declined 22% during the quarter.

Despite lower mining revenue ($62.1M vs. $78.3M in Q4), the firm achieved record production of 817 BTC and acquired an additional 803 BTC for treasury reserves.

Total holdings rose to 7,021 BTC while mining costs improved by 23% to $36,200 per BTC.

, a tokenisation platform for real-world assets, alongside Kinexys by 

, completed a pilot transaction linking the 

 Ledger with traditional interbank settlement infrastructure to process cross-border settlement of tokenised US Treasuries.

The workflow involved redemption of Ripple-held OUSG (Ondo Short-Term US Government Treasuries Fund) on the XRP Ledger.

Settlement instructions were routed through Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network, with final USD settlement via Kinexys by J.P. Morgan into Ripple’s Singapore banking account.

 through new partnerships with Finstreet and ADI Foundation.

The bank said the collaboration will focus on delivering institutional-grade crypto custody services within the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

The initial offering will support custody for 

BNY, Finstreet and ADI Foundation also plan to explore further integration with ADI Foundation’s blockchain infrastructure.

 Inc. is a publicly traded US-based cloud infrastructure company focused on high-performance computing for artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual effects, rendering, and other GPU-intensive workloads. 

This new TradFi perpetual contract provides market participants with exposure to CoreWeave as a listed AI infrastructure company. 

Rather than operating as a broad general-purpose cloud provider, CoreWeave has built its platform around specialised GPU infrastructure, high-speed networking, orchestration, storage, and workload management designed for customers that need scalable compute capacity for advanced AI and accelerated computing applications.

CoreWeave is purpose-built for accelerated computing rather than traditional enterprise cloud workloads.

what is bitcoin defi .png

15 May 2026: What's New in DeFi?

The US Senate is set to make an important vote on crypto on Thursday, May 14.

UPDATE (May 14): The CLARITY Act has advanced through the US Senate.

The 15-9 vote by the Senate Banking Committee marks a notable win for the crypto industry - but major obstacles still lie ahead.

Below is our PREVIEW of this event, as published on Wednesday, May 13th - on the eve of the Senate "markup".

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (H.R. 3633), (the CLARITY Act) marks the 

most comprehensive US crypto market-structure bill 

It passed the House by 294 votes to 134 on July 17, 2025, and has spent the last four months under consideration by the Senate.

As of May 6, 2026, a bipartisan compromise on stablecoin yield (struck between Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)) has cleared the last major hurdle and the Senate Banking Committee is set to hold a “markup”.

DECODE: A “markup” is a legislative process where the Senate committee members debate and vote on amendments to the bill to refine, edit, and ultimately decide whether a bill should advance to the full Senate for a vote.

This highly-anticipated Senate “markup” on the CLARITY Act is set for Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 10:30 am ET.

, the two main US financial regulators, to decide which is in charge of regulating each type of cryptoasset. 

Second, it sets up a federal rulebook for the exchanges, brokers, and dealers that trade it:

The Senate Banking Committee is made up of 24 members in the current Congress, with 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats. 

For the CLARITY Act to pass the markup and be reported out of committee, it would need a simple majority (

 in the case that every member participates). 

Since Republicans hold 13 seats on the committee, they could technically advance the bill without Democratic support; however, unanimous Republican support has not been formally confirmed.

The markup is led by Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), who controls the committee agenda and manages the bill through the session, while Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leads the Democratic side of the committee’s response.

There are four main potential sources of contention at this week’s markup, based on public criticism and commentary from senators on the CLARITY Act:

— Banks are likely to keep pushing back because the bill bans stablecoin “interest or yield” that is “economically or functionally equivalent” to bank-deposit interest, but still allows “rewards or incentives based on bona fide activities or bona fide transactions.”

— Senator Warren and aligned Democrats are likely to argue the bill needs stronger anti-money-laundering rules, because the bill only targets “non-decentralized finance trading protocols” where someone can “control or materially alter” the protocol or “restrict, censor, or prohibit” its use.

— Democrats may object if they think the bill shifts too much oversight away from the SEC, while Republicans and crypto firms tend to argue the CFTC needs a clearer role over digital commodities.

4) The “Trump amendment” / ethics rules

 — Warren’s side is likely to push for language restricting officials and their families from profiting from crypto, while the White House is resisting politician-specific language.

The latest compromise on the CLARITY Act is defined in “SEC. 404. PROHIBITING INTEREST AND YIELD ON PAYMENT”, which:

However, the bank lobby is still not satisfied.

 in July 2025, which created a framework for payment stablecoins and barred issuers from paying interest on digital dollars, the American Bankers Association (ABA) argues that the CLARITY Act still leaves a major loophole. 

Their concern is that even if stablecoin issuers cannot pay interest directly, other crypto companies, such as exchanges, could still offer interest-like rewards, potentially drawing deposits away from banks and increasing risks for consumers who may not understand that stablecoin wallets are not insured bank accounts.

“Urge your lawmakers to tighten restrictions on paying interest, yield or rewards that function like interest on payment stablecoins to cover all market participants” — American Bankers Association (ABA)

Lummis, Tillis and Alsobrooks have collectively described the stablecoin language as final. 

Tillis has pushed back on the bank lobby’s objections, saying they “respectfully agree to disagree,” and signaling that the negotiation is closed.

May 14th “markup”: Potential scenarios

The possible outcomes are that the committee: 

If the Senate rewrite is limited to amendments that have already been negotiated, it could be handled during the markup itself.

But if senators need to reopen major disputes, the committee could delay the vote and postpone the markup, needing to circulate revised text before moving ahead.

This has happened previously with the CLARITY Act when the Senate Banking Committee postponed a January markup after industry support weakened and disputes over stablecoin yield intensified. 

If the bill is reported favorably by the committee, it advances for potential consideration by the full Senate.

The White House and several senators have floated July 4, 2026 as a target for signing the CLARITY Act into law, but that appears to be the most optimistic scenario.

"We're targeting July 4th. I think that would be a tremendous birthday present for America, celebrating our 250th." — Patrick Witt, Executive Director, President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, Consensus Miami

Based on the timelines for previous bills becoming law, an August–September target appears more realistic, assuming the bill moves through each stage without major objections or procedural delays:

The biggest risk in the realistic schedule is the August recess. 

If the bill is not on the President's desk by mid-September, midterm campaigning may take precedence and make a politically charged crypto vote harder to secure the necessary support. 

Polymarket bets are pricing in the likelihood of "CLARITY Act signed into law in 2026?" as more likely than not, after the odds repriced from roughly 46% to 64% in the 24 hours after the stablecoin yield compromise release on May 1, 2026. It has since fluctuated between highs of 80% and lows of 60% in anticipation of the markup.

Bloomberg Intelligence also sees a greater-than-even (60%) chance that the CLARITY Act is passed within 2026.

DISCLAIMER:This article is provided for general information and reflects the author’s views only. It does not constitute investment advice, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instruments or digital assets. Your ability to access or use any products or services mentioned may be subject to the laws and regulatory requirements of your jurisdiction.

Advanced

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CLARITY Act "markup": Here's what you need to know

BTC grinded sideways above $80k all week, posting a modest +0.5% gain that obscured the significance of Consensus Miami's regulatory signals. XAUT surprised to the upside with +2.1%, breaking the simple "risk-on = gold off" narrative.

Weekly Price Action (Bybit Platform Data, updated May 11):

 Bybit data shows XAUT rose +2.1% this week, not the decline previously estimated. XAUT benefits from a sharp increase in trading volume and sustained institutional inflows, demonstrating a unique advantage combining both safe-haven and yield-generating attributes, with effective support at the $4,500 level. BTC and gold rising in tandem suggests institutions may be simultaneously building crypto exposure and gold hedges — not a simple risk-on rotation. Since the Iran war began, gold has been moving largely in tandem with riskier assets (e.g. cryptos, FX, etc.) in light of inflation risks (i.e. higher oil prices --> greater inflation risks --> higher central bank rates --> less appeal for gold)

Last Week's Long Strangle — Honest Post-Mortem:

 Near-the-money strangles have almost zero tolerance for range-bound action. BTC's ~3% intraweek range without breaking either breakeven level is the near-the-money strangle's worst-case scenario. The thesis on vol being underpriced was correct; the strike selection and structure were not.

III. Deep Dive ｜ Three Signals, One Conclusion

This week the market delivered three signals that, individually, are each inconclusive. Together, they demand serious attention.

Analysts have flagged a rising wedge formation on BTC's chart — price advancing within a narrowing ascending channel, with both the highs and lows rising but the two boundaries converging. This is a classic momentum exhaustion pattern: price continues higher but each successive advance requires more energy from a thinning pool of buyers, and the structure typically resolves with a downside break. If triggered by a macro catalyst — particularly a hotter-than-expected inflation print or a Fed statement pushing rate cuts further out — BTC could technically decline toward $70,000. This is not a fringe tail risk; it is a structurally grounded downside scenario with a clear macro catalyst.

The key implication of the rising wedge: 

every dollar BTC gains above $80k is being bought with progressively thinner volume support against a narrowing ceiling.

Signal Two: Flow — Funding Persistently Negative, Spot Demand Weak

Bitcoin's open interest has expanded to levels exceeding those recorded during BTC's 2025 all-time high formation — but this leverage buildup occurred with funding rates remaining broadly negative for weeks (per CoinDesk). The leverage accumulation was not a crowd of aggressive longs paying premiums.

What persistently negative funding rates actually tell us:

Signal Three: Volatility — DVOL 37–41, a Historically Extreme Reading

What DVOL at 38 means in BTC's historical context:

The combined conclusion of all three signals:

CLARITY Act — The Week's Most Important Regulatory Development

On May 10, the Senate Banking Committee officially set a markup date for the CLARITY Act. This market structure bill is viewed as the "final boss" of crypto regulation, aimed at providing the definitive legal certainty needed to fully integrate digital assets into U.S. financial infrastructure. Market reaction was positive, with analysts treating $80,000 as the new institutional support floor.

The CLARITY Act passed the House 294-134 last summer but has been stalled in the Senate Banking Committee. Polymarket gives the bill 47% odds of being signed into law this year. XRP is the asset with the most to gain from the bill — analysts project XRP ETF inflows could scale to $3–5B by year-end if it passes.

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