Crypto Industry News & Market Trends

Block Shares Surge 8% After Q1 Earnings Beat, Bitcoin Loss

Block (formerly Square), Jack Dorseys payments firm, saw its shares climb 8% in after-hours trading on Thursday following a surprising Q1 earnings beat. The company reported earnings of 85 cents per share, significantly surpassing the Zacks consensus estimate of 68 cents per share — a 25.68% surprise. Shares closed at $75.70 in after-hours trading, reflecting investor confidence despite Block posting its first quarterly net loss in three years.　　The $309 million net loss for Q1 2026 was largely attributed to a $172.8 million revaluation loss on the company‘s Bitcoin holdings. Block held 8,883 BTC as of March 31. The loss aligns with Bitcoin’s 23.8% price drop over the quarter, as BTC slid from $106,712 at the start of January to $81,309 by the end of March. Revenue from Bitcoin-related services, including Cash App, fell to $1.8 billion, down from $2.33 billion in Q1 2025.　　However, Block‘s gross profit grew 27% year-over-year to $2.9 billion, driven by strong performance across its payment services. Bitcoin transactions contributed $63 million to the gross profit, with Cash App remaining a key growth driver. Dorsey’s vision of integrating Bitcoin into mainstream payments continues to reshape the company‘s offerings. As of late April, over 800,000 U.S. merchants have

05-09Industry

Stop Waiting For Your Wins: Discover The Best Online Casino Instant Payout in 2026 Before It Is Too Late

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05-09Industry

Iran closes Strait of Hormuz, impacting global oil supply amid tensions

Tech　　Iran closes Strait of Hormuz, impacting global oil supply amid tensions　　Bitcoin Ethereum News　　## Market Snapshot　　WTI Crude Oil prediction markets show YES pricing at 0.7% for the week of May 4, with a notable decline from 48% seven days ago. The market for WTI reaching $150 in May currently displays a 3.5% YES likelihood, down from 6% a week ago.　　## Key Takeaways　　– Market pricing suggests participants view recent geopolitical tensions as consistent with potential oil price increases. – The closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran appears to impact global oil supply, reflected in current market trends. – Ongoing US-Israel military actions against Iran may indicate heightened risks for further supply disruptions.　　## Article Body　　The NYMEX WTI June crude futures closed at $95.42 per barrel, marking a rise of 61 cents amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran has been a significant factor in this price movement, as the strait is a crucial chokepoint for global oil trade. The International Energy Agency has reported disruptions in oil supply due to the closure, which comes amidst ongoing US-Israel military actions against Iran. Compounding the situation, Russias oil export capacity has decreased

05-09Industry

NATO allies question US leadership after Iran war

NATO allies are openly questioning whether the US should still lead the alliance following Trumps decision to launch strikes on Iran without consulting them.European leaders are seriously considering a future in which the US no longer leads NATO, following disputes over the Iran war.Trump left NATO in the dark before launching strikes on Iran and then demanded alliance support to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.Analysts say Germany, France, the UK, and Poland are the most likely bloc to assume collective NATO leadership if the US retreats.　　NATO allies are questioning US leadership after Trump launched strikes on Iran without consulting the alliance, with fresh disputes over the Middle East conflict pushing European leaders to consider a future in which the US no longer runs the alliance.　　Former US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder told NPR that “something fundamental has broken,” arguing that Trump does not believe America‘s security depends on European security, a break from decades of foreign policy logic dating back to NATO’s founding.　　The tensions have been simmering since Trump began threatening to seize control of NATO-linked Greenland and annex Canada, but the Iran war has sharpened the dispute into a concrete institutional question.　　Trump launched strikes on Iran in late February

05-09Industry

Solv Protocol and Re Switch to Chainlink CCIP, Moving Nearly $1B Away From Layerzero

Tech　　Solv Protocol and Re Switch to Chainlink CCIP, Moving Nearly $1B Away From Layerzero　　Solv Protocol announced this week that it is migrating its entire tokenized portfolio, including SolvBTC and xSolvBTC, from Layerzero to Chainlink CCIP. The move covers roughly $700 million in assets and affects bridge deployments on Corn, Berachain, Rootstock, and TAC networks. Layerzero support on those chains is being deprecated as the migration proceeds in phases.　　“After an extensive security review, Solv is deprecating its Layerzero bridges and migrating to the most secure cross-chain solution in the industry, with SolvBTC and xSolvBTC now officially powered by Chainlink CCIP across all supported chains,” the team wrote.　　more independent operators, native rate-limit circuit breakers, and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance as the deciding factors. Protocol TVL stands above $475 million.　　Both decisions follow an April 18, 2026, exploit that drained approximately 116,500 rsETH, worth roughly $292 million at the time, from a Layerzero-powered bridge used by KelpDAO. Attackers reportedly used the stolen assets as collateral on Aave v3. KelpDAO attributed the breach to a 1-of-1 verifier configuration within Layerzeros infrastructure, which created a single point of failure.　　Layerzero disputed that framing. The company said KelpDAO had manually selected a non-recommended single-verifier model against Layerzero‘s

05-09Industry

Banking Industry Says Clarity Act Stablecoin Proposal Would Enable Evasion

In briefTop banking groups say the new Clarity Act language leaves loopholes regarding stablecoin yield.The compromise would ban direct yield on stablecoins but still allow some rewards tied to account balances.The banks statement comes as senators prepare for a long-delayed committee vote on the Clarity Act.　　A coalition of the nations top banking trade groups, representing Wall Street giants and community banks alike, issued a statement Friday expressing concern that new language in a major crypto bill would benefit digital assets companies and disrupt the traditional banking industry.　　For months, the banking industry and the crypto lobby have battled over key language in the Clarity Act, a bill that would formally legalize most crypto activity in the United States.　　Banks want to add language to the legislation banning crypto companies from offering yield on stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. The banks say such programs could make traditional, low-yield savings accounts less attractive; crypto companies, including Coinbase, have argued they should be able to compete with traditional finance.　　For nearly four months, the skirmish over stablecoin yield has kept the Clarity Act from advancing in the Senate. Last week, two key lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee finally revealed a

05-09Industry

Why FLOKI Traders Are Eyeing $WADZ Before the May 27 Ethereum Fair Launch

FLOKI traders are eyeing a calendar more carefully than usual right now, and the date pinned to it is May 27, 2026. That is the day Wadoozie — an Ethereum-native, narrative-driven memecoin trading under the $WADZ ticker — is scheduled to fair-launch with a CertiK audit, a renounced contract, and 75% of supply locked into a DAO-governed liquidity pool. With the launch days away, traders who came up through Flokis cross-chain era are doing the work they always do before a window like this: reading the contract, checking the audit, and deciding which launches are worth at least watching from the sidelines. This one keeps showing up on the radar.　　What FLOKI traders are seeing in the May 27 window　　The pre-launch surface is unusually concrete for a memecoin. Wadoozie has already published its $WADZ contract on Etherscan, listed on CoinMarketCap, and locked in two third-party audits — a CertiK Skynet audit and a separate Coinsult audit. The trading tax is fixed at 0/0 with no buy-side or sell-side fee, the team allocation is locked for twelve months, and three quarters of total supply is committed to a DAO-governed locked LP at launch. Floki traders who routinely scan a launchs on-chain surface

05-09Ethereum

TeraWulf generates $21M in HPC lease revenue as AI infrastructure pivot accelerates

Tech　　TeraWulf generates $21M in HPC lease revenue as AI infrastructure pivot accelerates　　Bitcoin Ethereum News　　TeraWulf reported its Q1 results earlier today, showing early signs that its shift from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure is beginning to produce results.　　The company generated $21 million in HPC lease revenue during the quarter, helping lift total revenue to $34 million as its Lake Mariner campus began producing recurring compute revenue through 60 megawatts of energized critical IT capacity for Core42.　　The results highlight TeraWulfs move away from the volatility of Bitcoin mining toward contracted, long duration compute infrastructure. The company said it continues to repurpose parts of its legacy mining footprint for higher value HPC workloads.　　TeraWulf said construction at Lake Mariner remains on track, with CB-3 nearing completion and energization aligned with customer hardware deployment. CB-4 and CB-5 remain scheduled for delivery and rent commencement in 2026.　　The company also ended the quarter with about $3.1 billion in cash and restricted cash, giving it liquidity to fund its development pipeline. TeraWulf said its capital structure is designed to align long term financing with contracted cash flows as recurring revenue becomes a larger part of the business.　　TeraWulf is expanding beyond Lake Mariner as it builds out a national

05-09Industry

AMD and Intel hit ATHs as agentic AI demand lifts chip stocks

Tech　　AMD and Intel hit ATHs as agentic AI demand lifts chip stocks　　AMD and Intel shares climbed to new all time highs Friday as Wall Street continued to reward chipmakers tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure and rising demand for central processing units.　　AMD rose about 9% to roughly $443, lifting its market capitalization to about $720 billion, while Intel gained about 14% to around $124, pushing its market value near $627 billion at press time.　　The rally followed AMDs stronger than expected first quarter results earlier this week. The company reported revenue of $10.3 billion, up 38% from a year earlier, while data center revenue jumped 57% to $5.8 billion, driven by demand for AMD EPYC processors and the continued ramp of AMD Instinct GPU shipments.　　Wall Street analysts have turned increasingly bullish on AMD after the report, with Reuters noting that at least 20 brokerages raised their price targets following the companys forecast and its expanding exposure to AI infrastructure demand.　　AMD CEO Lisa Su told CNBC this week that agentic AI is accelerating demand across the compute market. “Agents are really driving tremendous demand in the overall AI adoption cycle, and we‘re very excited to be in the middle of it,” Su said

05-09Industry

Largest Swiss Bank Loads Up on Strategy (MSTR)

Tech　　Largest Swiss Bank Loads Up on Strategy (MSTR)A billion-dollar betXRP exposure　　UBS Group, the largest bank in Switzerland with $6.6 trillion in assets, has significantly increased its bet on the digital asset ecosystem. According to the latest disclosures, the banking titan has solidified its position as a major institutional holder of MicroStrategy (MSTR), often viewed as a corporate proxy for Bitcoin.　　A billion-dollar bet　　The Swiss giant recently disclosed the purchase of an additional 551,121 shares of MicroStrategy, a move valued at approximately $98 million.　　This latest acquisition brings UBSs total holdings to 6.31 million shares, representing a massive $1.12 billion position in the Bitcoin treasury company.　　Largest Swiss Bank Loads Up on Strategy (MSTR)　　Ethereum (ETH) Could Hit $12K This Year, Lee Predicts　　The banks accumulation of MSTR has been aggressive throughout 2026:　　UBS held 2.52 million shares valued at $415 million as of January. In February, the bank nearly doubled its stake, adding 3.23 million shares to reach a total of 5.76 million shares ($805 million). In May, total holdings surged to 6.31 million shares ($1.12 billion).　　XRP exposure　　The move into MicroStrategy is part of a broader institutional pivot toward digital assets for UBS.　　Newly surfaced SEC Form 13F filings reveal that the bank has also officially disclosed

05-09Industry