<h2 id="market-overview">Market Overview 📉</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/3a404f8ad4f341c2abe5063d93406639.png">*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on May 8, 2026.<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin (BTC)</a> showed strength early in the week, but faltered to a weak finish, rising 3.40% this week, while <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Ethereum (ETH)</a> fared much worse, falling 0.18% in the same week. Nevertheless, total crypto market cap still rose 3.5% to $2.66T, up from $2.57T from the previous week.Weekly <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">liquidations</a> started off heavily on the short side as Bitcoin pushed strongly over the $80K level. But as the level failed to hold, liquidations quickly swung to the long side, taking out late longs. <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/FundingRateHeatMap" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Funding rates</a> also paint a strong picture, with majors showing gradual increases in funding rates, indicating increased confidence in the rally.📌 Michael Saylor’s Strategy acquires 3,273 BTC for $2.55M, bringing their total holding to 818,334 BTC. - <a href="https://www.strategy.com/press/strategy-acquires-3273-btc-and-now-holds-818334-btc_04-27-2026" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 CME Group extends trading hours for cryptocurrency futures and options, enabling 24/7 trading for them beginning May 29th. - <a href="https://x.com/i/status/2052104665211252764" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Western Union launches their own stablecoin USDPT on Solana. The stablecoin is issued by Anchorage and is integrated across Western Union’s infrastructure. - <a href="https://x.com/solana/status/2051263551470227705" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?Despite unresolved tensions in the Middle East and a potential epidemic brewing, both the equity and crypto markets performed well this week, with both kicking off the week strong, before giving back some of the gains by the end of the week. Nevertheless, the S&amp;P 500 finished the week strong, closing 1.42% up from the week prior, while the Nasdaq surged an impressive 3.84% in the same period.Notable altcoin outperformers this week included <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/buildon/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BuildOn (B)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/toncoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Toncoin(TON)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tagger/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Tagger (TAG)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/skyai/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SKYAI (SKYAI)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/zcash/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ZCash (ZEC)</a>, and <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/jito/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Jito (JTO)</a>.View <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/gainers-losers/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CMC Gainers &amp; Losers board</a><h2 id="narrative-of-the-week">Narrative of the Week 📰</h2>Hyperliquid continues to ship and reach into new sectors, creeping toward their target as “The Blockchain To House All Finance”.📌 Hyperliquid launches HIP-4 Outcome Markets on mainnet, with the first released market on BTC price. - <a href="https://x.com/hypedexer/status/2050483661091348782" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Trade[XYZ] launches pre-IPO perpetuals, with the first listing being Cerebras (CBRS),&nbsp; which is expected to IPO in May 2026. - <a href="https://x.com/tradexyz/status/2050221965378761045" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Ledger integrates Hyperliquid perpetuals trading into its hardware wallets, supported by Yield.xyz. - <a href="https://x.com/Ledger/status/2052025614018675054" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?Hyperliquid continues to be at the forefront of DeFi, pushing new primitives and expanding their product suite to capture the entirety of the DeFi market.<h2 id="major-project-updates">Major Project Updates 🗓️</h2>📌 World Liberty Financial strikes back against Justin Sun, initiating a lawsuit for defamation against the Tron founder. - <a href="https://x.com/worldlibertyfi/status/2051275004608663721" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Coinbase cuts 14% of their workforce, citing poor market conditions and the use of AI to restructure the company. - <a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2051616759145185723" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Telegram founder, Pavel Durov announces that Telegram is now the largest TON validator and will replace the TON Foundation in driving the development of the TON blockchain. - <a href="https://x.com/durov/status/2051315383466897663" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Base partners with Succinct Labs to bring zero-knowledge proofs to Base Azul, the L2’s latest upgrade. - <a href="https://x.com/SuccinctLabs/status/2051346637767774715" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?The World Liberty Financial and Justin Sun drama carries on, this time with retaliation from the World Liberty Financial team, just two crypto giants duking it out for dominance over the narrative.<h2 id="defi-brief">DeFi Brief 🏦</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/35bbd0627aff404c9881ad4d53bbc1b9.png">*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on May 8, 2026.Source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/</a>📌 Aave files for an emergency motion to vacate a restraining notice served on Arbitrum DAO, which attempts to seize $71M in ETH tokens from the recent KelpDAO exploit, reasoning that the seizure will hinder the timeline to make affected users whole. - <a href="https://x.com/aave/status/2051329772190347560" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 KelpDAO announces plans to migrate their cross-chain infrastructure to Chainlink’s CCIP instead, over LayerZero’s. - <a href="https://x.com/KelpDAO/status/2051755467328913637" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Perpetual DEX, Drift, outlines plans for users affected by their exploit, with users to receive recovery tokens which are claimable from the recovery pool, formed from capital contributions and exchange revenue. - <a href="https://www.drift.trade/updates/recovery-plan-for-affected-users" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Solana liquid staking protocol, Jito, announces plans to develop JTX, a professional trading platform built for serious traders. - <a href="https://x.com/jito_sol/status/2051696304456184293" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?The legal situation between Aave, Arbitrum DAO and the courts is a legal showdown between the power of a code-enforced DAO structure against state-enforced legal action. Depending on the direction this resolves, it could set a core precedent for the DeFi space regarding exploits.<h2 id="fundraises">Fundraises 💰</h2>📌 Global payment rail infrastructure protocol, Fun, raises $72M in a Series A funding round led by Multicoin and SignalFire, with support from Infinity Capital, Pharsalus Capital, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/fun/status/2050202961305874520" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Stablecoin yield infrastructure protocol, OpenTrade, raises $17M in a strategic round led by Mercury Capital and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, Albion VC, and CMCC Global. - <a href="https://x.com/opentrade_io/status/2052024648456458707" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Solana on-chain asset manager, OnRe Finance, raises $5M in a Series A funding round led by RockawayX and Forward Industries. - <a href="https://x.com/onrefinance/status/2051653829482160510" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Solana yield exchange, Exponent, raises $5M in a seed round led by Multicoin, with other investors including RockawayX, L1D, Solana Ventures, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/ExponentFinance/status/2049873471967219791" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a><h2 id="airdrops">Airdrops 🪂</h2>📌 Apyx announces plans to release the APYX token, concluding Season 1 of their points program. The airdrop will distribute 5% of the total token supply to eligible point holders. - <a href="https://x.com/apyx_fi/status/2051693518444441702" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a><h2 id="tweet-of-the-week">Tweet of the Week 📝</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/f26c85043e7a4d14942bb0efdfb9d29f.png">Source: @CL207Remember, no dips.

CMC Market Pulse: The $80K Tug-of-War for Bitcoin

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