Kagi News - Cryptocurrency

UK bank Standard Chartered keeps $40,000 ether target

Thu, 28 May 2026 15:46:40 +0000

Standard Chartered reaffirmed price targets for ether of $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030, with Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, comparing Ethereum’s current market setup to Amazon after the 2001 dot-com bust. Kendrick said ether’s price has lagged Ethereum’s network metrics, including transaction activity and total value locked measured in ETH terms. The bank tied its forecast to Ethereum’s role in decentralized finance, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, and said policy clarity could help close the gap between price and network usage. Cointelegraph reported that ether traded below $2,000 at the time of writing, down about 57% from an August 2025 peak above $4,800, while fund flows had turned negative.

Highlights:

Relative valuation: Kendrick’s target implies the ETH/BTC ratio would return to its 2021 highs around 0.08.
ETF outflows: Cointelegraph noted that persistent outflows from ether ETFs have accompanied the negative fund flows, adding to bearish sentiment despite strong on-chain activity.
Market debate: Crypto.news said critics point to Standard Chartered’s uneven record on crypto forecasts while the bank continues to cite Ethereum’s position as a base layer for real-world assets.

Does not reflect continuing improvements in Ethereum’s network fundamentals. - Geoffrey Kendrick

Sources:

Ethereum falls below $2,000 as ETF outflows grow

Thu, 28 May 2026 08:56:31 +0000

Ethereum traded below $2,000 after falling to levels last seen in March, with Sherwood News citing a 4% 24-hour decline to as low as $1,967 on Thursday morning. Crypto.news reported that Ethereum exchange withdrawals fell to about 16.05 million ETH, their lowest level since June 2024, while separate CryptoQuant-linked data cited by Crypto.news and Bitcoinist pointed to rising failed transactions and a slight increase in exchange inflows. Market data showed a split between retail traders and larger holders. Cointelegraph and CryptoPotato cited Santiment data showing a surge in social-media “buy the dip” calls after ETH lost the psychological $2,000 level, while Cointelegraph reported that Bankless co-founder David Hoffman disclosed that he sold his ETH holdings. U.S. spot Ether ETFs recorded a 12-day outflow streak, including nearly $67.2 million in outflows on Wednesday. Technical analysts cited by Cointelegraph, FXEmpire and Barchart pointed to possible downside targets below current prices, including $1,750 if the breakdown holds and, in Barchart’s Elliott Wave analysis, a potential move toward the $1,300 support area. Crypto.news said Ethereum’s relative strength index was near 29.69, close to oversold territory, while sellers still controlled momentum.

Highlights:

Exchange withdrawals: Binance led Ethereum withdrawals with about 7.00 million ETH, followed by OKX at about 1.43 million ETH and Coinbase Prime at about 1.12 million ETH.
U.S. demand: Sherwood News cited CryptoQuant’s Julio Moreno saying U.S. spot demand weakened as the Coinbase price premium approached highly negative levels last seen near February.
Leverage unwind: FXEmpire said Ethereum posted the second-highest daily spike in long liquidations in the past 90 days.

This way, you will be buying while there is true blood in the streets. - Santiment

Perspectives:

Santiment: Santiment said rising “buy the dip” calls after ETH lost $2,000 can precede further downside because crowd optimism often peaks before prices stabilize. (Cointelegraph)
Julio Moreno, CryptoQuant head of research: Moreno told Sherwood News that traders were actively opening short positions and that U.S. spot demand had weakened, citing an extremely negative Coinbase price premium near February levels. (Sherwood News via Google News)
Kelly Ye, Coinbridge co-founder and CIO: Ye said the drop below $2,000 reflected a deterioration in near-term crypto risk sentiment rather than a collapse in Ethereum fundamentals, and linked the move to volatility, geopolitical tensions and broader de-risking. (Sherwood News via Google News)
CryptoQuant analyst cited by Bitcoinist: The analyst linked rising failed transactions with increasing exchange inflows, saying the combination may describe a near-term supply dynamic that price charts were only beginning to reflect. (Bitcoinist)

Sources:

Ethereum price slips as outflows hit 2024 low: What next? - crypto.news
Ethereum Network Activity Reveals Structural Weakness Beneath The Surface – Analyst Explains - bitcoinist.com
Ethereum under $2K: ETH whales sell as retail remains bullish - cointelegraph.com
Ethereum Price Falls Below $2,000 as Tom Lee’s ‘Supercycle’ Call Faces Scrutiny - CCN.com - google.com
Buy the Dip on ETH, or Is More Downside Ahead? These Metrics Give Hints - cryptopotato.com

VanEck launches first U.S. spot BNB ETF

Thu, 28 May 2026 14:43:17 +0000

VanEck launched the first U.S. exchange-traded fund offering spot exposure to BNB, and the VanEck BNB ETF began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker VBNB on May 28. The fund charges a 0.39% sponsor or management fee, and its shares are backed by BNB held in cold storage with Anchorage Digital Bank. The product lets investors obtain BNB exposure through traditional brokerage accounts without directly buying or storing the token. BNB traded near $631 at publication, down more than 3% over 24 hours and more than 26% since the start of the year.

Highlights:

Filing history: VanEck filed for a BNB ETF in May 2025 and submitted its latest amendment earlier in May 2026, while Grayscale also updated a proposed spot BNB ETF filing.
Product lineup: VanEck already offered crypto investment products tied to bitcoin, ethereum, solana and avalanche before adding BNB exposure.

Just launched: VanEck BNB ETF $VBNB - VanEck

Perspectives:

VanEck: Patrick Bush, a senior investment analyst at VanEck, said BNB Chain processes roughly 14 million transactions a day and serves more than 2.5 million daily active users. (crypto.news)
Grayscale: Grayscale is seeking approval for its own spot BNB ETF and filed an updated registration statement earlier in May alongside VanEck's amended paperwork. (The Block)
VanEck fund structure: VanEck removed staking from its BNB ETF proposal last November. The fund excludes staking at launch while retaining conditional staking language. (The Block)

Sources:

VanEck launches first U.S. BNB ETF as Binance Coin retreats - crypto.news
VanEck launches first U.S. spot BNB ETF on Nasdaq - coindesk.com
VanEck debuts first US spot BNB ETF in latest crypto investment product expansion - theblock.co
VanEck Launches First U.S. Spot BNB ETF on Nasdaq, Opening Binance Coin to Brokerage Investors - thecurrencyanalytics.com
First U.S. Spot BNB ETF Goes Live as VanEck Launches VBNB - coingape.com

Anonymous plaintiff seeks ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets

Thu, 28 May 2026 14:10:08 +0000

A pseudonymous claimant, “Noah Doe,” and two Wyoming LLCs filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court seeking recognition of their ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses, including addresses linked in the filing to Satoshi Nakamoto and the Mt. Gox hack. The addresses reportedly contain roughly 3.7 million to 3.8 million BTC, with cited estimates ranging from about $286 billion to $293 billion. The complaint invokes New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B, a lost-property statute that Bitcoin Magazine said was written for tangible objects and has not previously been applied to cryptocurrency. The filing argues that dormant Bitcoin addresses qualify as abandoned or lost property, that address data delivered on USB drives to the NYPD 17th Precinct satisfied the law’s deposit requirement, and that title vested in the plaintiffs on three dates: Dec. 26, 2025, March 31, 2026, and April 14, 2026. Crypto industry figures David Schwartz and Charles Hoskinson criticized the case publicly, with Schwartz pointing to jurisdictional and other legal problems and Hoskinson arguing that inactivity should not amount to abandonment in self-custody. The case was filed March 11, 2026, and amended May 1, 2026, under Index No. 153119/2026.

Highlights:

Named wallets: The 901-page declaration includes Satoshi-linked wallets and the “1Feex” address linked to the Mt. Gox hack, according to Coingape’s description of the filing.
Police filing: The plaintiffs said they reported the dormant addresses to the New York Police Department for handling as unclaimed bank accounts or lost property.
No key control: Bitcoin Magazine reported that the plaintiff never held the private keys to the addresses targeted in the lawsuit.

Perspectives:

Noah Doe and two Wyoming LLCs: The plaintiffs claim they discovered a flaw that made the wallets inaccessible to their original owners. They argue that this renders the coins abandoned property under New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B and that delivering address data on USB drives to the NYPD satisfied the law's deposit requirement. (Bitcoin Magazine)
David Schwartz: Schwartz criticized the case’s legal footing and, in Coingape’s account, said it would face major jurisdictional problems even if a court could treat the wallets as abandoned. (crypto.news)
Charles Hoskinson: Hoskinson criticized the lawsuit and argued that a wallet’s inactivity should not be treated as abandonment in a self-custody system. (crypto.news)
Bloomberg Crypto: Bloomberg described the case as an attempt by anonymous actors to use a novel legal approach to challenge ownership of long-dormant Bitcoin. (Bloomberg)

Sources:

CME expands Bitcoin futures trading to 24/7

Thu, 28 May 2026 13:52:26 +0000

CME Group is moving Bitcoin futures and options on its Globex platform to round-the-clock trading starting Friday, May 29, bringing its regulated crypto derivatives closer to spot cryptocurrency markets, which trade continuously. The change ends the long-running weekend closure that created Bitcoin’s “CME gap,” a price difference between Friday’s futures close and the next Sunday open while spot Bitcoin continued trading. Several older gaps remain on Bitcoin futures charts, including levels near $80,000, around $78,500 and below $70,000, with Cointelegraph citing a lower open gap near $67,000.

Highlights:

Maintenance window: Coingape and CryptoPotato reported that the expanded schedule still leaves a 60-minute Globex maintenance period each Sunday from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. UTC.

Perspectives:

CME Group: CME Group said Bitcoin futures and options would trade 24/7 on Globex starting Friday, with only a 60-minute weekly maintenance break. (CryptoPotato)
Institutional traders: Coingape said the expanded schedule lets institutional traders continuously hedge their Bitcoin exposure instead of waiting through the weekend closure. (Coingape)
Technical traders: Cointelegraph described the remaining CME gaps as potential Bitcoin price targets, including one near $67,000. (Cointelegraph)

Sources:

Bitcoin bids farewell to CME futures gaps with $67K still on the radar - cointelegraph.com
CME ends Bitcoin weekend gap era with 24/7 futures trading - crypto.news
Breaking: CME Group To Launch 24/7 Trading For Bitcoin Futures & Options - coingape.com
CME ends bitcoin weekend gaps with launch of 24/7 futures trading from Friday - CoinDesk - google.com
Bitcoin’s Famous CME Gaps to Disappear Forever as CME Group Launches 24/7 Futures Trading - cryptopotato.com

Sui blockchain resumes after nearly six-hour outage

Thu, 28 May 2026 20:09:41 +0000

Sui Network resumed mainnet operations after a 5-hour-and-55-minute outage on Thursday that it attributed to a crash bug in gas charging logic introduced by its 1.72 release. The layer-1 blockchain had earlier said it was experiencing a “network stall” and warned that transactions could be paused while engineers worked on a fix. The incident halted block production and transaction finality across the network, with block explorers showing no new activity for extended periods during the disruption. It was Sui’s second major outage in 2026 after a January disruption that lasted more than six hours, and another validator-related incident occurred in November 2024. SUI fell during the outage, with crypto.news reporting a roughly 8% drop and Cointelegraph citing CoinGecko data showing a 6.6% decline to a low of 90 cents before a partial recovery to about 93 cents early Friday. Sui said a full incident review would be shared in the coming days, while its status indicator still listed mainnet validators as having “degraded performance” after activity resumed.

Highlights:

DeFi footprint: Sui ranked as the 13th-largest blockchain by total value locked, with $542 million across 137 protocols, according to DefiLlama data cited by Cointelegraph.
Earlier disruptions: The January outage was traced to a validator consensus bug, while the November 2024 incident left validators stuck in a crash loop for about two and a half hours.
Operational status: Protos reported that Sui’s status page showed an ongoing “mainnet settlement” incident and that Mysten Labs’ GitHub activity appeared to show work on an emergency fix.
Market history: Protos said the Cetus exchange hack last year exceeded $200 million and wiped $1 billion off SUI’s market capitalization.

Sui Mainnet is currently experiencing a network stall. The Sui Core team is actively working on a solution. Be aware that transactions may be paused at this time. Updates will be shared as soon as they are available. - Sui

Perspectives:

Sui Core team: The team said it had identified the issue within roughly 20 minutes and began deploying a fix while warning users that transactions could be paused. (crypto.news)

Sources:

Sui Network Goes Down for Hours, Just Months After the Last Downtime - decrypt.co
Sui blockchain stalls again, SUI sinks 8% - crypto.news
SUI: Stops Unexpectedly and Intermittently - Protos | Informed crypto news - google.com
Sui blockchain suffers another network outage as transactions grind to a halt - coindesk.com
Sui blockchain experiences second ‘stall’ in five months - theblock.co
Sui Network back online after ‘crash bug’ causes 6 hour outage - cointelegraph.com
The SUI blockchain has been offline due to a major outage for almost an hour. - reddit.com
Sui Network Hit by Fresh Outage Months After Previous Six-Hour Downtime Incident - cryptopotato.com

Bitcoin drops below $73,000 after U.S.-Iran escalation

Thu, 28 May 2026 10:39:44 +0000

Bitcoin fell below $73,000 on May 28, touching intraday lows between $72,604 and $72,792 before recovering to the low-$73,000s in several market snapshots. Market reports linked the move to renewed U.S. military strikes on Iranian targets, a jump in energy prices, withdrawals from spot Bitcoin ETFs and a broad reduction in exposure to risk assets. Crypto derivatives data showed forced selling across leveraged positions, with liquidation estimates near or above $900 million over 24 hours and long positions accounting for 93% of the losses in a CoinDesk report carried by Google News. The selloff also hit Ether, XRP and other major tokens, while CryptoSlate said Ether fell roughly 5% below $2,000 and Hyperliquid’s HYPE dropped more than 9% after a rally to an all-time high above $64. CoinDesk later reported that U.S. stocks, bonds and oil rose on potential U.S.-Iran deal news, while crypto markets remained under heavy pressure.

Highlights:

ETF pressure: Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded eight consecutive days of net outflows, and CoinJournal said total outflows exceeded $2 billion during the streak.
IBIT sale: CryptoPotato cited a $1.3 billion block sale of 29 million BlackRock IBIT shares as the largest single-day sale in that product’s history.
Technical levels: CoinJournal identified $72,650 as a key support level and put Bitcoin’s RSI near oversold territory at 34.82.
Equity link: Seeking Alpha reported that Bitcoin’s break below $73,000 dragged crypto-related stocks lower.

Perspectives:

U.S. defense officials cited by The Wall Street Journal: The officials said the U.S. action followed reports that Iranian forces had launched unmanned aerial vehicles targeting commercial vessels and U.S. assets in the region. (CryptoSlate)
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: The IRGC said it retaliated by striking a U.S. airbase in Kuwait and warned that aggression would draw a response. (CryptoSlate)
Benjamin Cowen: Cowen said Bitcoin’s move above the 20-week SMA near $74,000 and the 21-week EMA lacked the follow-through seen in true trend reversals, and he described the structure as similar to previous midterm-year fakeouts. (Benzinga via Google News)
Cointelegraph market analysis: Cointelegraph described active distribution as rising, but said lower realized losses and weak spot volumes pointed to easing sell pressure rather than a full panic-driven exit. (Cointelegraph)

Sources:

Bitcoin Slips Under $73K as Crypto Liquidations Near $1B - decrypt.co
Bitcoin’s drop toward $72,000 shows how US-Iran tensions are again hitting ETFs, leverage, and flows - cryptoslate.com
Bitcoin pinned below $73,000 despite potential U.S.-Iran deal news - coindesk.com
Bitcoin breaks below $73K, dragging crypto stocks lower (BTC-USD:Cryptocurrency) - Seeking Alpha - google.com
Bitcoin Slides Under $75K as Holders Push More Coins Into the Market - thecurrencyanalytics.com
Bitcoin drops to $73K amid renewed US strikes on Iran and ETF outflows - coinjournal.net
Bitcoin drops below $73,000 as U.S. strikes on Iran spark $1 billion liquidations - reddit.com
Bitcoin Crashes to $73,000 While Stellar (XLM) Defies Downturn With a 19% Surge: Market Watch - cryptopotato.com
Bitcoin enters cooldown phase under $75K as ‘active distribution’ rises - cointelegraph.com
Bitcoin jeopolitik riskler ve fon çıkışlarıyla 73 bin dolar seviyesine geriledi - dunya.com