SnapShot 258

Hello SnapShotters,

Between a landmark US Senate vote and a change of guard at the Federal Reserve, it’s been a pivotal week for the financial landscape. Here are the defining moves:

• CLARITY Act Markup: The Senate Banking Committee voted on a landmark crypto framework. It defines firmer rules for DeFi and tokenised securities, but faces debate over a provision that restricts yield-like rewards on idle stablecoin balances.
• BTC Slips Below $80K: Bitcoin briefly surged past US$82,000 this week before slipping from the $80,000 psychological line.
• Warsh Era Begins: Kevin Warsh officially took the helm as Fed Chair on 15 May, inheriting a volatile landscape after April CPI (3.8%) and PPI (6%) data cooled hopes for near-term rate cuts.
• Trump in Beijing: President Trump and Xi Jinping concluded a summit in China. On the agenda: trade, investment, the Middle East conflict, and the energy crisis.

Let’s take a look at the week’s other major headlines.

News Snaps

🏦 Morgan Stanley’s BTC ETF Streak
Since its 8 April debut, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) recorded zero days of net outflows. Launched with a market-low 0.14% fee, MSBT quickly accumulated $193.6 million in net inflows and reached $239.6 million in net assets during its first month of trading.

🇦🇪 Crypto.com Secures UAE Stored Value License
Crypto.com is the first virtual asset provider to receive a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) license from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). The milestone enables residents to pay government fees using digital assets, with settlements processed in dirhams or CBUAE-approved stablecoins.

🤖 AI Agents to Power Agentic Commerce via Crypto
At Consensus Miami, Google and PayPal executives declared that the next era of internet commerce will run on crypto rails. To tackle AI agents’ limitations in opening traditional bank accounts, Google’s new Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2) enables agents to transact globally using programmable assets like PayPal’s PYUSD. 

🛡️ Ethereum Launches 'Clear Signing' to Combat Phishing
The Ethereum Foundation launched the Clear Signing standard (ERC-7730). The effort aims to protect users from wallet-draining phishing attacks, which have caused billions in losses by tricking victims into signing malicious code they can’t understand.

📊 Institutional Fund Momentum
21Shares introduced the world’s first Hyperliquid (HYPE) ETF with $1.8 million in day one volume, while JPMorgan filed for its second tokenised money market fund on Ethereum.

📉 Bitcoin "Crashes" to $0.02 on Revolut

BTC was briefly listed at a low of $0.019 on the Revolut app due to a third-party service disruption. The glitch proved to be short-lived as the platform stabilized pricing back to the $79,000 range.

What’s Ahead

🍕 22 May: Bitcoin Pizza Day

The global crypto community is set to celebrate the 16th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day on 22 May. In 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz famously traded 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas, a stash now valued at over $800 million.

Number of the Week

Source: CoinDesk

Chart of the Week

Crypto Mining Firms Trade Hashrate for AI Contracts

The widening gap between stock prices and current earnings tells of a financial transformation among Bitcoin miners. As Hut 8 (+92%) and TeraWulf (+90%) lead the pack in YTD gains, their bottom lines are temporarily suppressed by aggressive spending on Tier 3 data center upgrades and GPU procurement.

Investors are largely ignoring current EPS losses — such as the -$2.0 reported by Hut 8 — in favour of the high-certainty revenue generated by AI hosting. Unlike the volatility of BTC rewards, these new business models are anchored by fixed-price deals, exemplified by Core Scientific’s $10.2 billion contract with CoreWeave. 

This pivot is quickly turning miners into AI infrastructure plays, leveraging existing power access to secure long-term, institutional-grade cash flows.

As of 8 May 2026

Sources: Google Finance, Crypto.com Research

Research & Insights

Machine-to-Machine Commerce on the Ledger

Solana and Google Cloud launched Pay.sh, allowing AI agents to autonomously purchase cloud power and API access using stablecoins. 

While Circle’s 'Nanopayments' now allow gas-free transfers as tiny as $0.000001, actual usage of the x402 protocol remains muted, averaging just $68,000 in daily volume — a significant drop from its late 2025 peak.

Beyond AI, Telegram took control of The Open Network (TON) to accelerate market adoption, while Ethereum developers committed to the Glamsterdam upgrade to triple execution capacity.

If Ethereum triples its throughput while AI agents take over micro-transactions, will the 'ultrasound money' burn rate survive a world where gas fees are measured in millionths of a cent?

Read the latest DeFi & L1L2 Weekly report here.

Crypto Trivia

When the crypto community labels a developer or an influencer a 'LARPer,' what are they accusing them of?

A) Hacking into a project's source code to change its logic
B) Pretending to be someone they aren’t, such as a millionaire or a dev, to gain credibility
C) Using multiple wallets to artificially inflate a token's trading volume

Find the correct answer at the end of this newsletter.

Byte Sized

Will the speed of quantum breakthroughs catch up to BTC?

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Security Tips

British Olympian Linked to Crypto Fraud Investigation

A crypto fraud investigation involving Olympian sprinter Chijindu Ujah highlights how organized crime groups use impersonation and social engineering to drain digital wallets.

Investigators say the ten suspects, now charged with conspiracy to defraud, posed as police officers or exchange representatives during phone scams. They pressured victims into revealing their wallet seed phrases to 'secure' their accounts.

After obtaining these recovery phrases, the group accessed and drained the victims’ assets. One victim reportedly lost over £300,000 ($410,000) in the scheme.

Tips to Keep Funds Safe:

• Never share seed phrases; legitimate police, exchanges, or support teams will never ask for them
• Cease contact immediately with anyone requesting a seed phrase
• Be cautious of unsolicited calls about cryptocurrency accounts

Source: Cryptopolitan

Crypto Trivia Answer

B) Pretending to be someone they aren’t, such as a millionaire or a dev, to gain credibility ✅

LARP, short for 'Live Action Role Play', is a digital masquerade where individuals create facades of expertise or wealth to manipulate sentiment. Many 'experts' use blockchain’s complexity to hide behind technical jargon or doctored screenshots. 

To combat LARPing, users must DYOR (Do Your Own Research) and view social media analysis with scepticism. Always verify a developer’s history on GitHub, audit 'whale' wallets on-chain to validate holdings, and never mistake a loud voice for a proven track record.

That's it for this week's SnapShot. Want more? Find out what’s trending in the crypto world.