The US Senate Banking Committee is set to hold a markup hearing on May 14 to amend and vote on sweeping cryptocurrency legislation, potentially advancing a first comprehensive federal framework for digital assets. The effort regained traction after lawmakers reached a compromise on stablecoin rewards, though Democrats say ethics provisions and other safeguards remain unresolved.

LayerZero has faced sustained pressure since an April exploit tied to a cross-chain bridge used by Kelp, where $293 million was drained and the wider DeFi gap topped $300 million. After the incident, protocols totaling $2 billion in combined TVL—including KelpDAO ($1.5B), SolvProtocol ($600M), and Re ($200M)—migrated to Chainlink CCIP, while LayerZero bridge volume fell to $91 million.

Grayscale Investments said the CLARITY Act could reshape U.S. crypto regulation by moving oversight away from enforcement-driven actions toward clearer market-structure rules. In research comments dated May 7, Zach Pandl argued the bill would separate "investment contracts" from "digital commodities," assigning the SEC and CFTC different roles, as the Senate Banking Committee prepared a May 14 session on H.R.3633. Grayscale also cited a petition with more than 28,000 signatures and noted Polymarket odds that put the bill's 2026 passage chance at 67%.

Hyperliquid, Pump.fun, and EdgeX distributed about $96.3 million to token holders over the past 30 days. The payouts highlight a market tilt toward protocols that generate measurable revenue and return cash flow to users instead of relying on hype or usage metrics.

A Harrisx national survey released May 7 found 52% of voters supported the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act of 2025 after reading a neutral policy summary, while 11% opposed it. The poll also showed 70% believe the United States should have already enacted clear cryptocurrency legislation, and 60% prefer federal legislation over case-by-case enforcement. Harrisx surveyed 2,008 registered voters May 1–4, 2026, with a 2.2-point margin of error.

BlackRock submitted May 8 paperwork to the SEC seeking to launch two tokenized money market funds, including a blockchain share class for the $6.1 billion BSTBL treasury fund and a new vehicle called BRSRV. The tokenized BSTBL class is slated for Ethereum, while BRSRV is designed for multi-chain deployment and targets short-term US government obligations.

Elastic Security Labs identified TCLBANKER, a Brazilian banking trojan that monitors 59 bank, fintech, and crypto domains and triggers remote control when targets are visited. The malware spreads by taking over victims’ WhatsApp Web sessions and Outlook accounts to message their contacts with phishing lures and the trojanized installer.

Aave moved from crisis containment to coordinated stabilization after the rsETH exploit, including liquidating eight attacker-linked positions on 6 May across Ethereum and Arbitrum. The protocol said recovered rsETH collateral was routed to the Recovery Guardian, while broader DAO actions targeted the release of about 30,766 ETH (nearly $71 million) for affected users. Even with liquidity stabilizing above $15 billion after TVL fell from nearly $26 billion to $14.2 billion, U.S. court restraints and governance steps could continue to weigh on confidence.