Bitcoin traded lower through the week after breaking $80,000 and ended Friday just under $77,000, as spot demand and ETF inflows softened and overhead resistance remained heavy. Ethereum largely moved sideways while staking rose to 31% even with ETH down 26% year-to-date, alongside leadership and organizational shakeups around the Ethereum Foundation and Bankless. Hyperliquid's HYPE outperformed, climbing about 50% as the protocol posted roughly $11M in fees and attracted early ETF attention.

On May 21, Asia-Pacific equities climbed after Nvidia’s record quarterly results lifted regional tech shares, with Japan and South Korea leading while China and India lagged. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed at 61,684.14 (+3.14%) and South Korea’s Kospi finished at 7,815.59 (+8.42%), as SoftBank rose nearly 20% and Samsung gained 8.5% following a labor dispute resolution.

Galaxy Digital has obtained a New York BitLicense and a Money Transmission License, enabling it to broaden regulated digital-asset trading and custody services in New York. The authorization applies to its institutional subsidiary GalaxyOne Prime NY and is intended to deepen access to New York-based institutional clients. Galaxy said it oversees nearly $9 billion in client assets across its digital-asset operations.

Bank of America disclosed in its Q1 13F filing that it has about $53 million in cryptocurrency ETF exposure, with BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as the largest position. The filing shows its IBIT stake rose to about $37 million, roughly 70% of the bank's crypto-related holdings, while it also kept allocations to other spot Bitcoin products.

Intesa Sanpaolo reported $235 million in crypto assets as of March 31, 2026, rising from $100 million at end-2025, while several European peers rolled out trading, custody, and stablecoin initiatives. BBVA enabled 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in its Spanish app, BPCE opened crypto access via Hexarq with a stated reach of 12 million clients, and a 12-bank group formed Qivalis to pursue a euro-denominated stablecoin.

EURR, the euro-pegged stablecoin from StablR, dropped about 20%, after which USDR no longer traded in its usual relationship with EURR. The move followed claims of a suspected smart-contract exploit, with on-chain investigator ZachXBT flagging an incident estimated at $3 million. The divergence highlights stress in liquidity and redemption confidence that typically keep stablecoins near their pegs.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT said two contracts tied to European stablecoin issuer StablR may have been drained in a live exploit worth about ~$10M, pushing EURR and USDR more than 20% below their pegs. He identified the main wallet address and listed seven additional addresses he linked to the incident. Roughly two hours after his first alert, he said he helped freeze a six-figure amount while the exploit was still ongoing.

Heightened geopolitical tension and a more defensive risk tone have weighed on crypto, with Bitcoin down about 5.6% over the past week and altcoins broadly softer. Liquidations totaled nearly $941.76 million in 24 hours, led by roughly $871.44 million in long wipes versus about $70.31 million on shorts. The backdrop also included Brent crude climbing toward the $103–105 region and weekly ETF outflows of nearly $1.26 billion for Bitcoin and roughly $215 million for Ethereum.