Plus: Gary Gensler’s secret side leaks

GM. If today’s charts were a fruit salad, it’s giving spice. Let’s spoon through the mix together.

🤔 How are the majors doing?

🤑 The rich are choosing crypto.

🍋 News drops: crypto exec's family almost gets kidnapped, Gary Gensler's true (?) colors get revealed + more

🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Crypto Market Cap: $3.37T 1.05% (24H)
Name		Price	24H	7D
	Bitcoin BTC	$103,124.35	0.16%	6.83%
	Ethereum ETH	$2,578.11	1.67%	42.19%
	XRP XRP	$2.56	2.15%	21.17%
	BNB BNB	$653.39	0.53%	8.77%
	Solana SOL	$176.94	2.47%	21.54%

Crypto’s been treating us well lately - and I gotta say, I didn't realize how much I missed giving you positive market updates 🥹

The rally’s still riding on the US and China agreeing to cut tariffs, which pumped fresh energy into risk assets across the board.

Combine that with the economy showing signs of resilience, increasing liquidity, and interest rates holding steady - and you've got yourself a setup that isn't perfect, but good enough to keep investors optimistic.

That’s the big picture. But now, let’s zoom in on what’s going on coin by coin:

1/ Bitcoin

BTC broke above $100K last week and hasn’t looked back.

And more importantly, it looks real, not just hype. According to Glassnode analysts, this increase came from consistent spot buying - aka actually buying Bitcoin directly, not leverage or speculation:

• Companies are buying Bitcoin 3.3x faster than it’s being mined;

• Bitcoin ETFs had $1.9B in inflows just this month.

Oh, and on top of that, Arizona and New Hampshire passed Bitcoin reserve bills 🫢

With all this going on, trader Sykodelic thinks we might see new all-time highs before the next Fed meeting on June 18.

2/ Ethereum

ETH has been disappointing for a while - last month it was still down 60% from its December peak above $4K.

But things changed last week. The Pectra upgrade improved Ethereum's scalability and usability, and gave stakers more flexibility.

At the same time, trade tensions eased - and just like that, Ethereum reclaimed $2K, then sprinted to $2.5K.

Santiment says there’s likely to be some short-term volatility because everyone’s watching ETH again. But if Bitcoin hits $110K, ETH could cross $3K soon after.

3/ XRP

XRP passed Tether to reclaim its spot as the third-largest crypto by market cap. It’s up 55% since hitting a local bottom at $1.61 in April.

Some bullish signals from CryptoQuant’s BorisVest:

• Open Interest in XRP futures (aka the total value of all open futures contracts) is rising again = speculation is returning;

• More traders are shorting XRP, and if the price keeps holding or rising, they could get forced to buy back in, which would trigger a short squeeze and push the price up;

• Sellers are active, but the price is holding steady = buyers are absorbing the pressure.

If this keeps up, a breakout might not be far off.

4/ Solana

Solana had a strong start to May - it jumped nearly 25% between May 6 and 10. Since then, the rally has slowed down a bit, but the price still holds around $180.

The long term looks good for SOL:

• Institutional interest is rising;

• ETF rumors are still swirling around;

• The Firedancer upgrade promises major performance gains.

Short-term signs are also looking decent:

• Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) - aka the total amount of crypto deposited in Solana-based DeFi apps - is back to mid-February levels = renewed trust;

• Solana's DeFi apps have seen huge activity growth;

• Network fees and revenue have risen for four straight weeks = real user demand.

The technical level to watch now is $185. If SOL can break above it with strong volume, $200 could be next. But if it gets rejected again, we might see the price drop back down to safer support levels, maybe somewhere in the $160-$170 range.

5/ BNB

CryptoQuant author Joao Wedson pointed out that while many altcoins suffered 90%+ drops from their all-time highs, BNB has held up surprisingly well.

Why? Utility, mostly. Binance built an empire, and BNB sits right at the center of it - it's used for fees, smart contracts, DeFi, you name it.

Plus, VanEck filed for the first US BNB ETF. If approved (especially with staking), demand could go nuts.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. BNB is stuck under $660, the same wall it hit back in 2021. Technical indicators are mixed, and we could see a dip toward $440 before another push higher.

Overall, the macro setup is looking sweet, and the major cryptos are either going higher or prepping to go higher.

Unless Trump wakes up and chooses market destruction today... 🤠

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Tokens that are doing backflips today: 🤸

Data as of 08:30 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

🧃 Sip of knowledge

Agent, your next assignment has arrived.

Codename: "Introducing KuCoin's Newcomer Bonus Program" Mission

Objective: Infiltrate KuCoin, complete tasks, and extract maximum rewards.

Intel confirms:

🪙 Up to 11,000 USDT in bonuses

🎯 1,100 Bits secured on Mission completion

This isn’t a drill. Gear up, log in, and execute.

Failure to participate will be unfortunate... for your wallet.

✨ Good vibes only today

I already gave you a WHOLE section of hopium in Market Flavor - and you’re still not satisfied?? Still hungry for some positivity?? You’re INSATIABLE LIKE THAT??

Ay, no worries 🥰 I gotchu 🥰 Here’s some more 🥰

Amy Lo, who helps manage money for Asia’s ultra-rich at UBS (a big Swiss bank), says her clients are shifting away from the US dollar.

Where are they heading? Into gold, China, and - wait for it - crypto.

The US-China trade tensions are pushing investors to spread their money around into other currencies, alternative assets, and yes, crypto, so that their eggs aren't in one (very American) basket.

And now, what does that tell us?

1/ The rich are taking crypto more seriously

If wealthy investors with teams of financial advisors are adding crypto to their portfolios, it reinforces the idea that crypto isn’t just hype.

It’s a growing part of long-term wealth planning.

2/ Political tension can be good for crypto.

When countries like the US and China are on bad terms, people worry about the economy. That makes them look for investments that aren’t tied to any single country.

Ugh, if only there were something global and independent of one government... 😣

Hint: starts with "c", ends with "o", and rhymes with "tiptoe". You already know.

3/ Diversification is cool

These investors aren’t going all-in on crypto - but they are adding it to the mix alongside gold and commodities.

This shows that crypto is starting to be seen as part of a smart, balanced investment strategy.

So yeah. There’s your extra serving of good vibes. Don’t say I never spoil you 💅

🍋 News drops

👨‍🦲 CryptoPunks got a new owner - NODE took over the rights from Yuga Labs. Pretty big deal, since CryptoPunks is the most valuable NFT collection out there.

🚐 The daughter and grandson of a crypto exec almost got kidnapped in Paris. Three men tried to force them into a van, but the woman and her partner fought back and stopped it.

🤨 Ex-SEC Chair Gary Gensler might not have been that anti-crypto after all… Former Congressman Patrick McHenry said that Gensler actually spoke pretty positively about blockchain and digital assets in one-on-one conversations.

🍌 Juicy memes