Crypto Weekly 5/17/26
The CLARITY Act Clears the Senate Banking Committee, Kevin Warsh Is Confirmed as Fed Chair, and Bitcoin Dips Below $79K on Inflation Fears
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($2.69T): -5% / -12%
- BTC ($78,128): -4% / -11%
- ETH ($2,186): -8% / -26%
- SOL ($87): -10% / -31%
- UNI ($3.56): -11% / -37%
- OP ($0.13): -20% / -51%
- COIN ($195): -3% / -14%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($190B): 0% / +1%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($77B): -1% / +1%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 58% / 10%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Bitcoin fell below $79,000 as concerns over inflation and high oil prices hit risk assets. Link.
- The Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act, a landmark crypto bill that has faced significant delays due to opposition from the banking lobby over the treatment of stablecoin rewards. Lawmakers backed a compromise that would prohibit returns on idle balances -- a concession to banks worried about deposit flight -- while still allowing certain activity-based rewards. Link. Link.
- The Senate voted to confirm the pro-crypto Kevin Warsh as the new Federal Reserve Chair, replacing current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Link. Link.
- Ethereum and Solana are both processing roughly $45 billion in monthly DEX volume. Overall volumes DeFi activity is down from a 12-month peak of $260B in October. Link.
- 0.1% of accounts on decentralized prediction marketplace Polymarket take home 67% of the profits. Link.
- Ethereum developers proposed a fix to blind signing, the act of signing transactions without easily understandable language on what will happen. Link. Link. Blog Post.
- North Korea-linked hackers were responsible for 60% of all crypto theft losses in 2025, totaling $2 billion. Link.
- Wall Street clearing firm DTCC will use Chainlink to enable 24/7, real-time collateral management for its Collateral AppChain launching Q4 2026. Link.
- Decentralized perps platform Hyperliquid is sunsetting its native dollar-backed stablecoin USDH and replacing it with USDC, in a deal that includes a revenue share with Circle and Coinbase. Link.
- US spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $630 million in net outflows on May 13, the larget daily exit in three months. Link.
- JPMorgan plans to launch its second tokenized money market fund, the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund, on the Ethereum blockchain. Link.
- Shares of Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, jumped 14% amid the CLARITY Act advancing in the Senate and optimism around the company’s own Arc blockchain. Link.
- The SEC is working on clarifying how its longstanding regulatory framework applies to software applications of onchain financial markets. Link.
- Two Hyperliquid ETFs, one from 21Shares and one from Bitwise, began trading on the NYSE. Hyperliquid is the top onchain perps exchange, and is the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market cap at $10.5 billion. Link.
- The CFTC issued a no-action letter that relieves prediction market platforms from reporting and recording swap data on their platforms. Link.
- Brokerage Charles Schwab has officially rolled out bitcoin and ethereum cryptocurrency trading to a select group of retail clients, on a platform called “Schwab Crypto”. Link.
- Crypto exchange Gemini reported Q1 2026 revenue of $50.3 million, up 42% year-over-year, and a $100 million strategic investment from Winklevoss Capital Fund. Shares spiked 16% on the news. Link.
- Coinbase suffered a 7-hour outage of its trading platform due to overheating at an AWS data center in Northern Virginia. Link.
- Dapper Labs, the firm behind digital sports collectible platform NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, will no longer create new NFTs for its licensed NFL platform. It plans to announce a new licensing agreement with the NFL ahead of next season. Link.
- The UK’s central bank is treating stablecoins as “a new form of money”, and is gearing up to accept applications from stablecoin issuers in the UK. Link.
- Crypto exchange Binance said its AI-powered security systems prevented approximately $10.53 billion in potential user losses from scammers between Q1 2025 an Q1 2026. Link. Blog Post.