Here's a quick recap of the crypto landscape for Friday (May 29) as of 12 noon UTC.
Get the latest insights on Bitcoin, Ether and altcoins, along with a round-up of key cryptocurrencymarket news
Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$73,359.90, trading flat over the past 24 hours.
Chart via TradingView
Bitcoin price performance, May 29, 2026.
Demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs has sharply dropped as institutional investors pull billions of dollars out of the market.
Recent data revealed Bitcoin ETFs suffered a record-breaking nine-day streak of consecutive outflows totaling US$2.8 billion starting May 15. The bleeding peaked on Wednesday (May 27) with a single-day net loss of US$733.43 million, driven largely by a US$527.84 million capital flight from BlackRock’s IBIT.
Analysts noted that Wednesday's (May 27) rout was the fifth-worst day in ETF history and effectively dragged total year-to-date inflows into negative territory. Stripped of institutional liquidity, Bitcoin abandoned its breakout attempt near US$82,000 and tumbled below US$74,000, hitting a fresh six-week low.
Ether (ETH) was priced at US$2,004.14, trading flat over the last 24 hours.
Altcoin price update
- XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.31, trading flat in 24 hours.
- Solana (SOL) was trading at US$81.60, trading flat over the past 24 hours.
Today's crypto news to know
Paxos secures SEC registration to operate as clearing agency
Paxos Securities Settlement Company has secured official registration from the SEC to operate as a clearing agency under Section 17A of the Securities Exchange Act.
The regulatory greenlight makes the Paxos subsidiary the only blockchain-native firm authorized to act as a central securities depository in the US. Granted as a temporary registration, the order allows the company to provide clearing and settlement services while continuously meeting strict federal compliance guidelines.
According to CEO Charles Cascarilla, the approval concludes a seven-year regulatory effort that began with a 2019 No-Action Letter and a subsequent settlement pilot program. That operational pilot has handled daily US equity clearing since February 2020 alongside major financial institutions, including a 2022 partnership with State Street that successfully achieved "T+0" same-day stock settlement.
Legacy infrastructure providers have recently entered the tokenization market, with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation recently unveiling its own Wall Street-backed tokenization plans.
The regulatory win follows a turbulent period for Paxos, which accidentally minted and burned 300 trillion PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) PYUSD tokens during an internal technical error in October 2025 before later securing conditional approval to convert into an OCC national trust bank.
Tether’s stablecoin explodes with 500 percent monthly growth
Tether's US-focused stablecoin, USAT, saw its circulating supply explode by more than 500 percent month-over-month throughout April.
A reserve report from accounting firm Deloitte confirmed that the digital dollar’s supply reached US$140.8 million on April 30, up 540 percent from US$22 million at the end of March.
The company stated that the rapid expansion stems from increased adoption across institutional treasury operations, corporate settlement flows, and regulated liquidity management.
Launched in January of this year, USAT is issued directly by Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered cryptocurrency bank, and maintains a strict one-to-one peg to the US dollar.
Tether’s primary flagship token, USDT, remains the largest dollar-backed cryptocurrency in the world with a US$189 billion market cap, while Circle Internet Group’s rival USDC token firmly holds the second-place spot at roughly US$76 billion.
FalconX joins Wall Street with confidential IPO filing
Crypto trading powerhouse FalconX has submitted a confidential initial public offering filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The California-based firm is targeting a public market debut toward the end of this year, with the exact timing dependent on broader digital asset market conditions.
The company was last valued at US$8 billion in the private markets, making its filing a highly anticipated move for Wall Street.
However, while institutional analysts expected a massive wave of crypto listings this year following the 2025 public debuts of Gemini (NASDAQ:GEMI) and Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), worsening market conditions have abruptly frozen the IPO pipeline.
Major industry players including Kraken, Consensys, Ledger, and Grayscale have all officially postponed their public listing plans while waiting for the digital asset market to recover.
This ongoing macro slowdown has forced alternative crypto firms to entirely abandon the traditional IPO route, turning instead to special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to secure public listings.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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