$38M Seized From eXch Crypto Exchange

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ German Authorities seize $38M from eXch crypto exchange; operators suspected of providing money laundering services for Bybit hack, multisig vulnerabilities, & more.

• US President Trump reportedly upset with lobbyist firm behind message saying that $XRP, Solana $SOL, & Cardano $ADA should be included in a crypto strategic reserve.

• US Vice President JD Vance to speak at the Bitcoin $BTC 2025 Conference; scheduled for May 27th to 29th in Las Vegas.

• ⭐️ GENIUS Act fails to pass US Senate vote; bill would have established a legal framework for issuing stablecoins $USDC $USDT in the US.

• BlackRock $BLK meets with US SEC Crypto Task Force; sought guidance on staking, tokenization, ETF approval standards, and options on ETFs.

• US SEC announces settlement with Ripple $XRP; Ripple to pay $50M of the original $125M penalty with the rest being returned to them.

• Celsius Founder Alex Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years in prison; pled guilty to securities and commodities fraud charges in December 2024.

Alpha

• Ethereum $ETH R1 launches donation page; Ethereum R1 is a stage 2 rollup aiming to raise 1000 ETH.

• $USDT0 launches on Hyperliquid $HYPE: accessible directly via the Spot exchange.

• ⭐️ Camp launches K2 public testnet & Summit Series campaign; complete quests to earn Matchsticks points.

• Rumble $RUM Wallet to launch in Q3; partnered with Tether for a non-custodial Bitcoin $BTC and stablecoin $USDT wallet.

• Espresso whitelists all Caffeinated Creators applicants for Phase 2 of the upcoming Composables NFT mint; starts at the end of May.

Airdrops

• Weekly Airdrop Recap by Earndrop.

• ⭐️ Resolv launches $RESOLV airdrop registration; closes on May 16th.

• Space and Time launches $SXT airdrop claim; testnet users, Community NFT holders, & more are eligible.

• Doodles launches $DOOD airdrop; Doodle collectible holders and several Solana-based communities are eligible.

• ICYMI Solana Name Service launches $SNS airdrop eligibility & allocation checker; .sol domain holders and several Solana-based communities are eligible; claim on May 13th.

Finance News

• ⭐️ US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to meet with China for first official trade discussion this weekend; US President Trump recently stated “80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B.”

• US President Trump administration plans to initiate trade talks with ~20 countries; US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to meet with China this weekend.

• US President Trump's announces trade deal with the UK; deal maintains a 10% baseline tariff.

• Coinbase $COIN reports Q1 2025 earnings; reports $527M in adjusted net income, $2B in total revenue, below $2.12B estimates, and down from $2.3B in Q4 2024.

• Coinbase $COIN acquires crypto options platform Deribit for ~$2.9B; deal requires regulatory approval and expected to close by year-end.

• Defi Dev Corp $DFDV closes $24M private placement; to use proceeds to buy more Solana $SOL; currently holds 400,091 SOL worth ~$69M.

• Meta $META in talks with crypto firms to introduce stablecoins for payouts; Meta previously abandoned and sold its crypto project Diem in 2022.

Security and Exploits

• ZachXBT: Former Yuga Labs security researcher mistakenly linked to a $1.1M phishing theft; ZachXBT investigates where the stolen funds went and who’s actually responsible.

• Lockbit ransomware group hacked; attacker breached their website, took over the management panel, and leaked a packaged file containing a database.

Token Unlocks

• Solayer $LAYER / ~$34M / MAY 11th
• Aptos $APT / ~$63M / MAY 12th
• Starknet $STRK / ~$22M / MAY 15th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• T-Rex raises $17M in Pre-Seed funding from several investors.

• Sonic $S raises $10M in Strategic funding from Galaxy.

• Securitize raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Jump Crypto.

• BTCPay Server Foundation receives $100K Grant from Tether.

The Degen Farmer