Weekly Alpha Recap #181 | 18 May – 24 May

Last Week News

Macro & Institutions

• Harvard endowment cuts IBIT stake by 43%

• Japan’s SBI and Rakuten preparing in-house crypto investment trusts for BTC and ETH

• Intesa Sanpaolo raises crypto exposure to $235 million in Q1

• Standard Chartered to acquire remainder of Zodia Custody

• Strategy buys another 24,869 BTC (~$2B), pushing holdings above ~4% of supply

• Company plans to repurchase $1.5 billion of 2029 convertible bonds using cash or Bitcoin sales

• Bitcoin slides below $77K as liquidations top hundreds of millions amid bond sell-off

• The three risks that could overwhelm Bitcoin’s regulatory tailwind

• Bitcoin spot ETFs see $70.47M net outflow

• For Bitcoin ETF holders, market recovery can be a reason to sell — Bloomberg analysis

• Grayscale and VanEck update BNB ETF filings amid active SEC review

• Truth Social withdraws Bitcoin ETF application from SEC

• South Carolina law bans CBDC and backs crypto rights

• Proposed ARMA bill would create a strategic Bitcoin reserve

• Trump orders review of crypto firms’ access to payment rails and Fed master accounts

• Federal Reserve proposes limited master accounts for crypto firms

• CLARITY Act advances in Washington as stablecoin and market structure talks heat up

• SEC preparing framework for tokenized stock trading

• UK regulators prepare tokenized wholesale market consultations

• Standard Chartered projects $4T in tokenized assets by 2028

• Bank of England outlines tokenization and stablecoin vision

• JPMorgan says tokenized money market funds unlikely to exceed 15% of stablecoin market

• Ethereum leads institutional RWA tokenization flows in the ~$65B race

• Securitize posts record Q1 revenue with $3.4B tokenized AUM

• Institutional adoption of tokenized RWAs still constrained more by infrastructure than regulation

Stablecoins & Hyperliquid

• Hyperliquid rejects market-integrity concerns amid oil futures volatility

• Hyperliquid dominates weekly blockchain fee revenue with ~43% share

• Hyperliquid ETFs drive HYPE inflows (~$25.5M) and renewed momentum

• Suspected Grayscale-linked wallet accumulates >$10M in HYPE

• Hyperliquid valuation reportedly surpasses Solana

• GBP trading pair launches on Hyperliquid via HIP‑3

• Bitwise says HYPE is undervalued and will allocate BHYP fees to HYPE purchases

• TradeXYZ buys SPCX HIP‑3 ticker ahead of SpaceX pre‑IPO perpetual launch

• Binance launches SpaceX pre‑IPO perpetual futures pair (SPCXUSDT)

• Asia now generates nearly two‑thirds of global stablecoin payments volume

• Stablecoin supply tops $300B as Tether gains share

• Japan’s FSA to recognize foreign-issued stablecoins as legal electronic payment methods from June 1

• Pan‑European stablecoin consortium expands to 37 lenders

• Tether files trademark applications in South Korea, including Tether Gold

• Tether International acquires SoftBank’s stake in Twenty One Capital

• Checker raises $8M for stablecoin infrastructure

• Kik founder’s Flipcash becomes first app to use Coinbase stablecoin-as-a-service

Prediction Markets

• Polymarket launches private-company prediction markets in partnership with Nasdaq

• CFTC sues Minnesota over state prediction market ban

• Polymarket lists parlays as SEC reviews prediction market ETFs

• Polymarket UMA CTF adapter exploited on Polygon for ~$520K

• NHL agrees to share data with CFTC to support prediction market integrity

• Polymarket pushes into Japan with regional expansion plans

Wallets & UX

• Tether and Gnosis co-lead $4.4M seed round for mobile wallet Sorted Wallet

• Sorted Wallet confirms $4.4M seed raise

• MoonPay acquires Decent and launches MoonPay Trade

• Kraken secures VARA license to expand into Dubai

• IG expands crypto trading across Europe through Bitpanda integration

• MoneyGram partners with Tempo as remittance validator and settlement partner

Token Launches & Claims

• Solstice announces token generation event for May 21

• Solstice postpones TGE to May 25

• Zest Protocol token generation event and airdrop go live

• NexusLabs opens airdrop claims

• nadoHQ boosts Maker points rewards up to 4x for RWA markets

• CLEAR token collapses after Everclear announces shutdown

Protocol & DeFi Updates

• Jump Crypto’s Firedancer rollout continues at a measured pace

• Lombard Finance drops LayerZero in favor of Chainlink for $1B in BTC assets

• Aave restores WETH LTVs after rsETH recovery efforts

• Ethereum lending TVL declines after KelpDAO-related exploit fallout

• Ongoing exploit drains $11.6M from Verus–Ethereum bridge

• Verus exploiter later returns 4,052 ETH while keeping a $2.8M bounty

• EchoProtocol exploited targeting eBTC/Monad market (~$800K)

• Wintermute launches DeFi vault product Armitage on Morpho

• Variational raises $50M Series A

• Trepa launches Flash Pools on Solana

• Bankr disables transactions after wallet compromises

• BarterDeFi teases fixed-rate lending roadmap

• Hyperlend launches Aviya

• ZERØ Network winds down its gasless L2 rollup

• Railgun leads privacy protocols with ~$4.7M annualized fees

Infra, Dev & Culture

• Agentic finance discourse grows as AI agents enter trading and finance workflows

• AEON raises $8M to build settlement rails for AI agents

• Crypto security teams face AI-driven compliance and monitoring challenges

• Deloitte hires Blocknative team as Blocknative sunsets APIs and gas network

• OpenAI launches ‘OpenAI for Singapore’ with major government-backed AI initiatives

• OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy joins Anthropic

• OpenAI reportedly preparing IPO

• Google DeepMind launches Asia-Pacific accelerator focused on environmental risks

• GitHub reports unauthorized access incident and ongoing remediation

• Intuit cuts ~17% of workforce to sharpen AI focus

• Coinbase to launch perpetual-style thematic equity index futures on June 8

• Nockchain unveils compute markets

Drama & Shenanigans

• China, US and UAE coordinate crackdown on crypto romance scams in Dubai

• President Trump discloses trades in Coinbase, Robinhood and mining stocks

• Bitcoin Depot files Chapter 11 to wind down operations

• Forsage co-founder extradited and pleads not guilty in alleged $340M Ponzi case

• Hormuz Safe aims to build a $10B bitcoin-settled insurance platform

• Elizabeth Warren slams crypto bank charter approvals for Coinbase and Ripple

• Fantasy Top shuts down — turns out crypto trading cards weren’t exactly sticky PvE

• Sinaloa cartel-linked crypto laundering network sanctioned by U.S. Treasury

• Missouri AG sues CoinFlip over crypto ATM fraud

• Sandbox co-founder’s wife targeted in kidnapping attempt in France

• SpaceX files for IPO under ticker SPCX and discloses 18,712 BTC holdings

• F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang joins SpaceX’s two-year Mars mission

• Mark Cuban reportedly sold most of his Bitcoin

• Scaramucci’s crypto fund posts second straight quarterly loss

Projects Highlights

Proof

• Twitter: https://x.com/lo0pio

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/lo0pio

• Moni Score: 793

Moni's Review/Opinion:

proof.trade is a prediction markets platform focused on pricing future events. The account currently has no recent tweets; the website link is the main public asset and there are no signs of a launched token or active product updates in the timeline.

Pitch [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/flood_markets

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/flood_markets

• Moni Score: 147

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Pitch is a GameFi/NFT project on Base that sells randomized World Cup country packs and enables trading via bonding curves. Recently it launched the Pitch World Cup pack sale: 48,000 packs priced at 1 $PITCH each, live on Base; users open packs to receive a random country and will be able to trade that country on Uniswap V4 bonding curves once the round ends. Launched Pitch World Cup pack sale: 48,000 packs at 1 $PITCH each, live on Base. Packs deliver random country NFTs that will be tradable on bonding curves on Uniswap V4 after the round ends.

DEX ScreenerPITCH / ETH on DEX ScreenerPrice $4.59 · -25.35% 24h · Liquidity $1,918,035.43 · Market cap 4.33Mhttps://dexscreener.com/base/0xacd168b06cfb4ed3a7701d64752e7667f1e6063e05144cec1883b5b5fd91633a

yippee [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/tbh_solana

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/tbh_solana

• Moni Score: 62

Moni's Review/Opinion:

This is a Solana meme token project whose account currently serves as a simple on‑chain address/broadcast for the token. The account recently posted a single pinned announcement stating "we r live" and displaying the token address; there are no other recent tweets or activity in the feed. Solana meme token account; pinned tweet shows token address and 'we r live'. No further tweets or documented updates; token is listed on a DEX link provided.

DEX Screenertbh / SOL on DEX ScreenerPrice $0.001544 · 7.80% 24h · Liquidity $103,308.48 · Market cap 1.54Mhttps://dexscreener.com/solana/aus1bkxzuxupptaskoxsj2jucpvsst7rnvjvh1bgmhar

Packet

• Twitter: https://x.com/packetchat

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/packetchat

• Moni Score: 63

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Packet is an infrastructure project for human and agent interactions, focused on AI agents and data on Solana. Recent activity is sparse on the account; the public website is the main source and describes the Packet product for humans and agents but there are no recent tweets or token launches to report. Project is AI agents + infra/data tooling built for Solana (site: xpkt.dev). No recent tweets; token not launched and no DEX links provided.

Topaz Dex [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/topazdex

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/topazdex

• Moni Score: 53

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Topaz DEX is a ve(3,3) liquidity coordination layer and decentralized exchange built on BNB Chain that uses TOPAZ token, locks, gauges and voting to direct emissions. Recently it went live on mainnet (token contract published), listed on VFAT for pool/gauge tracking, announced emissions timing and weekly AMAs, promoted ecosystem token integrations, and pointed users to app and docs for buying and participation.

Mainnet launch announced; TOPAZ token contract and buy link published. Listed on VFAT, scheduled emissions, weekly AMAs, and ecosystem token integrations.

Project Lobster

• Twitter: https://x.com/lobsternft_lol

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/lobsternft_lol

• Moni Score: 52

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Project Lobster is an NFT project building on-chain, AI-driven digital pet companions. Recently the team deployed a Sepolia testnet 'Lobster Pet' atlas, released a desktop app preview (Mac imminent, Windows forthcoming), opened a waitlist and meme site, and teased an upcoming AI NFT collection and mint. Sepolia testnet deployment of the Lobster Pet atlas is live for gas-free testing with testnet ETH.

Desktop app preview released; Mac installer promised tomorrow and Windows version coming soon.

Gitbank [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/gitbank_io

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/gitbank_io

• Moni Score: 117

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Gitbank is a Base L2-native smart contract platform that links GitHub identities to on-chain vaults for repository funding, issue bounties, autonomous payouts, and treasury management. Recently it launched on Base with a live $GITBANK token and CoinGecko listing, deployed a GitHub App and bot that lets users deploy GitVaults and execute on-chain transfers from issue comments, and published tooling like a CLI walkthrough and upcoming AutoGit features.

Quill LLM [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/quillcomputer

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/quillcomputer

• Moni Score: 80

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Quill LLM is an onchain language model whose weights live in a smart contract on Base and whose inference is executed on the EVM. Recently the account has been emphasizing that generation is callable as an eth_call (free to try), inscribing outputs on-chain requires a QUILL payment, and the project has published that QUILL is a fixed, burnable token with no admin keys and open Solidity engine/factory.

Weights stored in a Base contract, every generated character computed by the EVM. generate() usable as a free eth_call; inscribing results costs QUILL and pays creators (70%) with 30% burn.

DEX ScreenerQUILL / ETH on DEX ScreenerPrice $0.001389 · 180.00% 24h · Liquidity $507,725.56 · Market cap 1.39Mhttps://dexscreener.com/base/0xcbdc5128889aa8477cb9267d735029bc02087aeef3dd3c3e0be458bce741c6c0

tacit

• Twitter: https://x.com/tacitfi

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/tacitfi

• Moni Score: 74

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Tacit is a self-custodial protocol that brings confidential, privacy-preserving DeFi primitives to Bitcoin. Recently it airdropped $TAC to the z_fi_ DAO, highlighted shielded transfers and initial wallet distribution, and promoted its protocol spec and wallet-first infrastructure with links to tacit.finance. Airdropped $TAC to the @z_fi_ DAO and emphasized shielded (private) transfers. Published protocol spec and promoted quick wallet creation at tacit.finance.

basefun.app [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/basefundotapp

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/basefundotapp

• Moni Score: 52

Moni's Review/Opinion:

BASEFUN is a bonding-curve launchpad on Base that pairs each launched token with a real Avantis perpetual position. Recently the team migrated the app to basefun.tech, published full protocol documentation, announced the protocol is live with $FUN as its token, and performed multiple on-chain burns removing ~5%+ of $FUN supply while reporting bug fixes and stable operations.

Amplifi

• Twitter: https://x.com/useamplifi

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/useamplifi

• Moni Score: 75

Moni's Review/Opinion:

Amplifi is a permissionless prime brokerage that provides margin and cross-venue collateralization for prediction markets, currently focused on Polymarket on Polygon. Recently the team has been promoting its margin product and waitlist, explaining how Amplifi increases capital efficiency for POLY farming, contrasting its lending/TEE-based approach with centralized prime brokers, and emphasizing solutions to jump risk, binary payoffs, and liquidity issues.

Promoting margin access on Polymarket and a waitlist for users to join. Explained product advantages: capital efficiency, handling jump risk and binary payoffs.

npc [launched]

• Twitter: https://x.com/npconchain

• Moni Discover: https://discover.getmoni.io/npconchain

• Moni Score: 69

Moni's Review/Opinion:

This account represents an NFT project that puts 10,000 NPCs on-chain. Recently it has been sharing the project website and short teaser-style messages like “non playable” and “press E to interact,” pointing people to npconchain.xyz for more information. Project is an on-chain NFT collection of 10,000 NPCs.

OpenSeaNon Playable Character 0.028 ETH - Collection | OpenSea10,000 npcs on-chain.https://opensea.io/collection/npc-on-chain

Probably sheet

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