(18/52) Weekly Market Insight | May Week 3 | Surprise Earnings Surge

Headline News: Surprise Earnings Surge

• Bitcoin advanced 4.6% last week, breaking the $82,000 threshold, tracking broader macroeconomic strength as the S&P 500 secured another all-time high. Equities are being propelled by a robust earnings season, with 84% of companies reporting positive EPS surprises, significantly outpacing the 5-year historical average of 78%. As this week’s earnings slate continues, broader market remains bullish in sentiment, while the Crypto Fear & Greed Index currently consolidates in neutral territory.

Macro-Outlook: Resilient Job Market

• The US and Iran failed to reach an agreement on the latest peace proposal. President Trump stated the response from Iran is “totally unacceptable”. Military skirmishes and the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz continue.
• Kevin Warsh is expected to officially take office as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve this week.
• US trade court ruled against President Trump’s 10% global tariff imposed under Section 122, limiting the administration’s use of emergency powers for broad tariffs. The Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal to the US Court of Appeals.
• US non-farm payrolls added 115K jobs in April, significantly exceeding market expectations of 62K, indicating the labor market remained structurally resilient. The US unemployment rate suggested a similar outlook, held steady at 4.3% in April, matching market expectations.
• US ISM services PMI came in at 53.6 in April, marginally missing market expectations of 53.7.
• US Michigan consumer sentiment dropped to a record low of 48.2 in May, missing market expectations of 49.5.

The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes,

• Tuesday, May 12, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in April
• Wednesday, May 13, 8:30pm: US PPI in April
• Thursday, May 14, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in April

Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: TradFi Is Entering 24/7 Markets

• The US Senate Banking Committee scheduled a vote for May 14 on the CLARITY Act with amendments. The passage would merge with the Agriculture Committee version for a full Senate floor vote on comprehensive crypto market structure rules.
• DTCC convened more than 50 firms through its Industry Working Group to develop DTC’s tokenization service, building directly on the SEC’s No-Action Letter to support responsible digital asset use cases.
• BNY expanded its crypto custody services to Abu Dhabi via local partners Finstreet and ADI Foundation, initially focusing on BTC and ETH custody with plans to add stablecoins and tokenized assets.
• Morgan Stanley launched cryptocurrency trading services on its 8.6 million ETrade users with lower fees than Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab later this year.
• Mastercard completed a landmark interbank settlement pilot with Ondo Finance, Kinexys by JPMorgan, and Ripple, laying groundwork for 24/7 global markets.
• Coinbase integrated its x402 discovery layer and wallet infrastructure into Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, enabling AWS developers to build enterprise-grade AI agents that discover services, execute managed USDC micropayments on Base and Solana with built-in compliance, budget controls, and 200ms settlement.
• CME Group announced that cryptocurrency futures and options would become available 24/7 beginning May 29. The group also introduced Bitcoin Volatility futures based on 30-day forward-looking implied volatility, set to begin trading on June 1.

Layer 1 and Layer 2s

• Solana Foundation partnered with Google Cloud to launch an AI agent payment gateway that enables pay-per-call access and stablecoin payments for Google Cloud services and 50+ third-party APIs via Solana wallets without accounts or subscriptions.
• Solana rolled out Jump Firedancer 1.0, the new high-performance validator client designed to boost network resilience through greater client diversity.
• Base partnered with Succinct Labs to integrate SP1 zero-knowledge proofs as part of its multiproof system (SP1 ZK + TEE) as part of Base Azul upgrade.
• Polygon Labs launched shielded USDC and USDT payments in its wallet via Hinkal’s zero-knowledge shielded pool.
• Tempo activated CADD, Canada’s first Canadian-dollar stablecoin issued by regulated financial institution Tetra Digital Group, enabling 24/7 cross-border settlement, real-time treasury transfers, and programmable payments.
• Upbit signed an MoU with the Optimism Foundation to launch GIWA Chain, the first Ethereum L2 on the OP Stack using the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise.

Dapps

• Circle partnered with Lighter to make USDC the default and preferred stablecoin across Lighter’s spot and perpetual trading, settlement, liquidations, and onboarding flows.
• DeepBook, Sui’s premier decentralized liquidity layer, introduced Predict, its third composable financial primitive for onchain options, binary markets, leveraged products, and structured instruments that integrate directly with spot and margin trading.
• KelpDAO, Solv, Re and several protocols migrated their cross-chain solution from LayerZero to Chainlink’s CCIP, shifting approximately $2B worth of assets to be secured with CCIP’s 16 independent node operators and carries a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation.
• Jito unveiled JTX, a new self-custodial on-chain trading app for Solana built for serious traders with reliable maker limit orders, integrated charts, portfolio management, and execution quality that matches the chain’s 400ms settlement speed.
• Arkham launched full prediction markets analytics, including trader PNL leaderboards, position tracking, live trade tape across politics/sports/crypto categories, and onchain activity.

Governance and Upcoming Alpha

• Starknet is launching its strkBTC, a shielded Bitcoin token redeemable for native BTC, on May 12.
• Ronin is expected to launch as an Ethereum Layer 2 on May 12, introducing RON staking for receiving profits from sequencing, and marketplace fees.
• Telegram announced it would replace the TON Foundation as the blockchain’s driving force and largest validator, shifting focus to tech superiority with new dev tools and performance upgrades scheduled for rollout in 2-3 weeks.

Token Unlock

• BB token unlocks on May 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply.
• KERNEL token unlocks on May 14, representing 4.88% of the token supply.
• CYBER token unlocks on May 15, representing 6.26% of the token supply.
• ZKC token unlocks on May 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply.
• VANA token unlocks on May 16, representing 4.47% of the token supply.
• STBL token unlocks on May 16, representing 83.3% of the token supply.
• SOLV token unlocks on May 17, representing 40.9% of the token supply.
• ERA token unlocks on May 17, representing 4.13% of the token supply.
• BANK token unlocks on May 17, representing 9.58% of the token supply.
• KAT token unlocks on May 18, representing 7.55% of the token supply.
• ZRO token unlocks on May 20, representing 10.2% of the token supply.
• KAITO token unlocks on May 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply.
• PYTH token unlocks on May 20, representing 37% of the token supply.
• PLUME token unlocks on May 21, representing 4.01% of the token supply.