The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has pushed back work on a planned exemption meant to clarify how it views tokenized assets, after concerns surfaced around third-party token issuance. SEC staff has been meeting with stock-exchange officials and market participants over the past few days and is weighing feedback, while the agency chair has said the proposal is intended to serve as a sandbox for onchain equities.

After the May 17 exploit of the Verus-Ethereum bridge, the attacker returned $8.5 million to the Verus team while keeping $2.8 million as a white-hat bounty. The project had offered a 1,350 ETH reward if 4,052 ETH was sent back within 24 hours, alongside a pledge to halt investigations if the terms were met.

On Thursday, spot bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of $100.82 million, while ether ETFs recorded a $32.58 million decline for a ninth straight session. In contrast, XRP ETFs brought in $8.88 million led by Canary's XRPC, and Solana ETFs added $3.86 million via Fidelity's FSOL. Trading value totaled $1.58 billion for bitcoin ETFs and $416.16 million for ether ETFs, with net assets ending at $101.06 billion and $12.21 billion, respectively.

The S&P 500 has rebounded more than 17% from its March low, while the VIX remains in the high teens, a backdrop that has reduced the price of put-option protection. The piece argues that with implied volatility lower, investors can use short-dated, 30-delta puts to help protect recent gains, including an example of June 26 weekly SPY $730 strike puts priced around $7.40 (~1%).

On May 22, XRP traded at $1.3539 and slipped below the rising daily trendline that had held since the late-March lows. Open interest climbed to 433.77M (+0.12%) while the NVT Ratio rose to 218.12 (+26.81%), a mix some analysts associate with higher long-squeeze risk if price fails to reclaim nearby moving-average resistance around $1.396–$1.398.

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) rose 34% in the last 24 hours to $2.32, extending its 50% gain over seven days as AI-themed tokens rallied. Trading activity climbed, with 24-hour volume up 190% to $1.15 billion and short liquidations totaling $9.85 million after price pushed above $2.30. Traders are watching resistance at $2.60-$3.0, while a bullish wedge breakout points to $5.75 if that zone is cleared.

The current crypto upswing appears to be a narrative-led rotation rather than a broad bull market, with Bitcoin failing to hold above $80,000 and sliding to $77,000. Since May 19, $62.8 billion in inflows has favored a small set of altcoins while the wider market stayed range-bound. At press time, the Altcoin Season Index was 38, far below the level typically associated with an altcoin season.

IBM shares rose more than 14% since Thursday after the US Commerce Department outlined a $2 billion CHIPS and Science Act push to back US quantum computing manufacturers. The rally added about $26 billion to IBM’s market value, taking it to $237.8 billion, while the stock gained a further 2% on Friday. Under the plan, IBM is set to receive a $1 billion federal grant that it will match with $1 billion of its own capital to build a quantum chip foundry in Albany, New York.