JPMorgan Chase’s prime brokerage business just posted all-time high client balances, a clear signal that institutional traders are leaning into the current market chaos rather than running from it.

The record, confirmed on May 12, caps a stretch where the bank’s broader markets division has been printing money. JPMorgan’s market business revenue hit $11.6 billion in the first quarter of 2026, a 20% jump compared to the same period last year.

What prime brokerage actually means (and why it matters)

Prime brokerage is essentially the concierge service Wall Street banks offer to hedge funds and large institutional investors. Think of it as a one-stop shop: securities lending, trade execution, leverage, custody, and cash management all bundled together. When prime brokerage balances rise, it means more money is flowing through these accounts, either because clients are trading more, borrowing more, or both.

The volatility driving this activity has several roots. US corporate earnings season brought the usual mix of beats and misses, creating dislocations across equity markets. Commodities have been whipsawing as well. And geopolitical risk, particularly tensions surrounding Iran, has added another layer of uncertainty that traders have been positioning around.

The numbers behind the surge

After geopolitical tensions around the Iran conflict began to subside, many clients reduced their hedging positions, freeing up capital to make more directional bets. That redeployment of capital drove a surge in trading activity across both equities and commodities.

JPMorgan’s stock currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.38x. The bank also carries a GF Score of 83 out of 100, a composite metric that suggests strong potential for long-term returns based on growth, profitability, and financial strength factors.

One data point worth flagging: insiders have sold $102.6 million in JPMorgan shares over the last three months.

What this means for investors

For crypto-native investors, the absence of any digital asset component in this particular surge is notable. JPMorgan’s record prime brokerage activity appears entirely driven by traditional equities and commodities trading.

TLDR:

Ethereum’s Clear Signing standard now displays transactions in plain language instead of unreadable hex data. 
Blind signing has contributed to billions in ecosystem losses, prompting this open standard’s coordinated launch. 
ERC-7730 and ERC-8176 are the two core frameworks introduced to support human-readable transaction signing. 
Contributors include Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, Fireblocks, and WalletConnect, coordinated by the Ethereum Foundation.

Ethereum has officially launched the Clear Signing open standard, marking a major step forward in transaction security.

The initiative converts unreadable hexadecimal data into plain, human-readable text during transaction approvals. The Ethereum Foundation coordinated the effort alongside key industry contributors.

Together, they aim to address one of the most persistent security vulnerabilities in the Ethereum ecosystem. Blind signing has cost the industry billions of dollars over the years.

What the Clear Signing Standard Brings to Ethereum

The Ethereum Foundation announced the launch via its official X account on May 12, 2026. The post stated that clear signing is now live as an open standard to end blind signing.

It described the development as a major upgrade to both user experience and transaction security on Ethereum.

Until now, signing a transaction often meant approving a string of unreadable hex data. This practice, known as blind signing, has contributed to billions in losses across the ecosystem. Users had no way to verify what they were actually approving before confirming transactions.

The new standard changes that by displaying transaction details in plain language. Instead of raw technical data, users now see clear descriptions of what each transaction does. This gives people better control and awareness before they confirm any on-chain action.

The Ethereum Foundation noted the effort builds on existing clear signing work already present in the ecosystem. In particular, it acknowledged the approach pioneered by Ledger as a foundation for this broader, unified standard.

Key Components and Contributors Behind the Initiative

Several prominent names in the crypto industry contributed to the Clear Signing initiative. Wallet and hardware contributors include Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, WalletConnect, and ZKnox. On the security side, Cyfrin participated, while Fireblocks and Zama represented infrastructure. Sourcify and Argot contributed tooling support.

The standard introduces ERC-7730, which provides an open framework for human-readable transaction descriptions.

Alongside it comes a neutral, mirrorable descriptor registry for broader accessibility. An attestation framework under ERC-8176 allows auditors to verify the integrity of transaction descriptors.

Open developer tooling has also been released for wallets, protocols, and auditors to use. These tools make it easier for developers to integrate the standard across different platforms. The goal is to drive adoption and expand coverage across the Ethereum ecosystem consistently.

The Ethereum Foundation confirmed the work is ongoing and not a one-time release. Contributors will continue expanding coverage, refining tooling, and pushing for wider adoption.

As more wallets and protocols integrate the standard, blind signing risks are expected to decrease steadily across the network.

Surge in Operating Costs

Digital infrastructure company Marathon Holdings attributed a decline in revenue in the first quarter of 2026 to a decrease in the U.S. dollar value of bitcoin during the period. According to a letter to shareholders released May 11, revenue in the quarter reached $174.6 million, a $39.3 million decline from the $213.9 million recorded in the first quarter of 2025.

The letter revealed that an 18% decrease in the average price of bitcoin accounted for $33.1 million of the decline, while $2.5 million was attributed to a reduction in bitcoin production. The remaining $3.7 million was attributed to a drop in other revenue. The losses occurred despite a 33% increase in the hashrate, which rose from 54.3 EH/s in the first quarter of 2025 to 72.2 EH/s.

Reduced revenue, coupled with a surge in operating costs, led Marathon to register a $1.3 billion net loss during the quarter. During the same period last year, the firm recorded a net loss of $533.4 million, or $1.55 per diluted share, meaning overheads increased by $729 million in the first three months of 2026.

“The $729.0 million increase in net loss was primarily driven by a $520.4 million increase in operating loss, largely due to unfavorable bitcoin mark-to-market adjustments of ($1.0 billion) and restructuring costs of $45.9 million during the quarter,” the letter stated.

Marathon’s latest loss-making quarter comes at a pivotal moment for the company as it seeks to reposition itself beyond cryptocurrency mining and into the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure market. The shift reflects a broader trend among Bitcoin miners facing tighter margins, higher operating costs, and increasing uncertainty in the post-halving environment.

Meanwhile, besides directing more resources toward AI-supporting data centers, Marathon used its bitcoin holdings to fund the retirement of 30% of its outstanding convertible debt at a discount. The move reportedly reduced leverage, lowered potential future dilution, and improved Marathon’s “ability to allocate capital toward higher-return strategic opportunities.”

“During the quarter, we sold approximately $1.5 billion of bitcoin. These funds were used to repurchase, at a discount, over $1 billion of the face value of our 2030 and 2031 notes, and reduce our line of credit by $200 million,” the letter explained.

Additionally, Marathon refinanced $150 million of its line of credit at a 7% interest rate, down from the 10.5% it previously paid.

Despite diversifying from bitcoin mining, Marathon said reducing its debt by monetizing bitcoin reflects its confidence in the cryptocurrency as an important reserve asset. Consequently, at the end of the quarter, Marathon held 35,303 bitcoin, including 9,995 bitcoin loaned or pledged as collateral. During the first quarter of 2026, it mined 2,247 BTC, bringing the value of its bitcoin holdings to approximately $2.4 billion based on a spot price of $68,222 per bitcoin.

Elliptic to Advance AI Compliance Following $120M Series D

The infusion of capital brings Elliptic’s total valuation to $670 million. This milestone comes at a time when the lines between decentralized finance and legacy banking continue to blur. Elliptic now screens a larger portion of the global onchain economy than any other private sector provider in the industry.

The New York-based company intends to use the funds to accelerate its delivery of enterprise-grade analytics for banks, fintechs, and government agencies. With stablecoins processing a staggering $33 trillion in transactions during 2025, the demand for real-time risk management has reached a fever pitch.

On Tuesday, Elliptic detailed that it has spent over a decade building a proprietary dataset that spans more than 65 blockchains. This data foundation allows the firm to offer AI-native compliance tools that automate the triage of suspicious activities. By resolving alerts in minutes rather than hours, the platform reduces the overhead costs for global exchanges.

The participation of Nasdaq and Deutsche Bank suggests that institutional-grade infrastructure is no longer optional for the broader market. These entities oversee trillions in daily activity and require robust frameworks to manage the inherent risks of distributed ledger technology.

“As digital assets become more embedded in the global financial system, institutions need trusted infrastructure to manage compliance and risk at scale,” stated Gary Offner, Senior Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Ventures.

The British Business Bank’s involvement highlights the UK government’s interest in fostering technology scale-ups through the British Growth Partnership. This initiative aims to unlock long-term value for pension funds by supporting high-growth sectors like blockchain analytics.

Currently, two-thirds of global crypto volume moves through exchanges that utilize Elliptic’s compliance backbone, the company claims. The platform now supports over 700 customers across 30 different countries, screening more than 1 billion transactions every week, according to the firm’s stats.

As tokenized assets move from the periphery to the core of financial innovation, real-time monitoring is becoming an operational necessity. Elliptic’s platform is designed to catch risks before they crystallize, allowing human investigators to focus on high-priority cases.

“The sustainable growth of digital assets depends on strong, institutional-grade risk and compliance foundations,” noted Sabih Behzad, Global Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation at Deutsche Bank.

The Series D also saw continued support from previous backers, including AlbionVC, Evolution Equity Partners, and JPMorgan. This suggests a consensus among early and late-stage investors regarding Elliptic’s dominance in the field.

CEO Simone Maini believes the financial system is being fundamentally rebuilt onchain. She noted that the company was built for this specific moment where scale and sophistication are paramount for the world’s largest financial players.

As the industry moves forward, the focus remains on scaling compliance without a linear increase in costs. With $120 million in fresh capital, Elliptic is positioned to remain at the center of the ongoing transition to a digital, onchain economy. Chainalysis is a primary competitor of Elliptic in the blockchain surveillance and digital asset compliance sector.

DIU names Concordium official AI partner for 2026 IIHF event.
Concordium launches blockchain fan ID pilot with Danish hockey.
Partnership fee settled fully in Concordium CCD tokens.

Danmarks Ishockey Union (DIU), the governing body for ice hockey in Denmark, has named Concordium as the Official AI Partner of the Danish National Ice Hockey Team in a partnership centered on blockchain-based digital identity and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The collaboration will officially launch during the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Switzerland and will include multiple technology-focused initiatives aimed at enhancing fan engagement through AI-powered systems and on-chain identity verification.

Concordium, which describes itself as a regulatory-grade AI infrastructure platform powered by blockchain technology, said the partnership will serve as a real-world demonstration of how verified digital identities and AI agents can operate at scale in consumer-facing environments.

Verified fan program to debut at IIHF Championship

The partnership between DIU and Concordium will initially focus on two core initiatives built on Concordium’s infrastructure.

The first is a Verified Fan Programme designed to pilot a privacy-preserving fan experience using zero-knowledge proof technology.

The system is intended to allow users to verify identity-related credentials while limiting exposure of personal information.

The second initiative is an Agentic Commerce pilot, which aims to demonstrate how verified AI agents can operate autonomously while interacting with fans and digital commerce systems.

The project builds on Concordium’s previous work involving the x402 agentic payments protocol, which is focused on enabling secure and verifiable machine-driven transactions.

“Agents transacting at scale need a verified identity they can carry and settlement rails they can trust,” said Varun Kabra, Chief Growth Officer at Concordium.

“The infrastructure for that already exists. What it has lacked is legibility, a place where mainstream audiences can see it working. We are very excited to partner with the Danish Ice Hockey team to build together a solution where AI can deliver a much superior fan experience.”

DIU said the partnership was structured around long-term technology collaboration rather than traditional sponsorship branding alone.

“We approached this the way we approach every serious collaboration, starting with what we could build together, not what would go on the jersey,” said Michael Dupont, CEO of Danmarks Ishockey Union. “Concordium is a Swiss-built and regulatory-grade AI infrastructure. The programmes planned over the course of the partnership are the kind of work that fits how Danish hockey wants to be seen.”

Partnership settled entirely in CCD tokens

As part of the agreement, Concordium branding will appear on the Danish national team’s helmets and jerseys, alongside category exclusivity across digital assets during the term of the partnership.

The organizations also said the full partnership fee was settled entirely in CCD, Concordium’s native blockchain token.

According to the announcement, the agreement represents the first national-team partnership fully paid and locked in a native protocol token.

The transaction was settled on-chain at signing, while a 12-month lock-up period was enforced directly at the protocol level.

DIU will maintain full self-custody of the digital assets under the arrangement.

Global tournament exposure supports partnership visibility

The partnership launches ahead of the 2026 IIHF World Championship, where Denmark’s national team is expected to receive broad international television exposure.

Games involving the Danish team are broadcast across Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States through networks including Viaplay, ZDF, ARD, TSN, and ESPN.

According to the organizations, the 2025 IIHF World Championship generated a cumulative live television audience of 215 million viewers and 25.6 billion event impressions across 155 territories.

DIU noted that Denmark has become an established host nation for international hockey tournaments, hosting four IIHF World Championships within eight years, including the men’s tournaments in 2018 and 2025, and women’s tournaments in 2022 and 2026.

Shares in Solana treasury company Upexi fell 8.16% on Tuesday after reporting a widened net loss of $109 million in its fiscal third quarter, driven by a fall in the value of its crypto holdings. 

The company reported $92.3 million in unrealized losses on digital assets, according to a filing on Tuesday. This was despite total revenue rising 46% to $4.6 million compared with the same period last year, driven by crypto staking revenue.

Upexi CEO Allan Marshall said during the earnings call that Upexi faced a challenging environment, along with the rest of the industry, but it has focused on initiatives to improve the company’s fundamentals through share buybacks and a convertible note offering to raise additional capital.

“Our fiscal third quarter was characterized by a challenging environment, most notably a continued decline in both the price of Solana and industry multiples. Both had a direct impact on our stock and were the result of a general bear market in crypto,” he said.

Source: Upexi

“While we, like any treasury company, are heavily impacted by token prices and valuation multiples, we are not simply waiting around for the environment to improve but rather are taking a proactive approach with several efforts afoot,” Marshall added.

Solana holdings increased by 9% during the quarter 

Upexi had 2.5 million Solana tokens, worth more than $238 million, in its holdings as of March 31, its results show, making it the second-largest corporate Solana treasury after Forward Industries, which holds more than 7 million tokens, according to CoinGecko.

Related: Strategy CEO Phong Le says company will sell BTC only in specific cases

Previously, its business centered on consumer products and e-commerce before publicly announcing a pivot to becoming a Solana treasury company in late April 2025.

Marshall said that, in the long term, the company expects Solana to be viewed independently of Bitcoin as investor knowledge increases and to be judged on its own underlying fundamentals.

“While we believe the biggest determinant of the price of Solana will be the price of Bitcoin over the near term, we see this changing over the next few years,” he said.

“This is primarily because Bitcoin and Solana are two completely different constructs, with the former a store of value or digital gold, and the latter a new type of computer, and one that is upgrading our antiquated financial infrastructure.”

Forward Industries, the largest Solana treasury company, has scheduled its next earnings call for Thursday. In its previous results, released in February, its revenue increased from $4.6 million to $21.4 million. The company said the increase was largely driven by staking revenue.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026 

Decentralized finance mobile “superapp” Legend has announced it is winding down after about two years of operation, adding to a string of crypto apps deciding to shut down this year. 

Legend was a DeFi aggregator that aimed to bring DeFi to its users rather than forcing them to sign into multiple different wallets or applications to use their crypto. 

“We believed the right interface could put DeFi’s most powerful primitives in front of mainstream users.” Legend co-founder Jayson Hobby said on Tuesday. 

However, despite the product finding an audience, it didn’t “grow to the scale the company needed to be sustainable long-term,” said Hobby. “Closing is the right call for our team and our investors.”

Over 20 DeFi, NFT and GameFi protocols have announced they are shutting down this year, including ZeroLend, which said in February that it planned to shut down after three years of operations, citing an unsustainable business model.

Closure notice on the Legend website. Source: Legend.xyz

Solana DeFi aggregator Step Finance said it was closing down in February after a $40 million treasury wallet breach in January, and DeFi derivatives protocol Polynomial also ceased operations in February. 

Balancer Labs, the team behind the DeFi protocol Balancer, shuttered in March after mounting financial pressure following a $116 million hack in November.

Meanwhile, Seamless Protocol, a DeFi lending protocol on Base, said it was winding down in April, blaming volatile market conditions.

Users don’t care whether product is onchain or not

Legend is a non-custodial, mobile-first DeFi aggregator launched around late 2024 by former Compound Finance executives, including CEO Hobby. It is used for earning, trading, borrowing and swapping assets like stablecoins and Ether via integrations with other DeFi protocols such as Aave, Compound and Uniswap. 

It aimed to bring DeFi to its users rather than forcing them to sign into multiple different wallets or applications to use their crypto. 

It announced its first funding round, raising $15 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures, in February 2025. 

Related: Kelp DAO eyes unpausing withdrawals after attackers’ rsETH on Arbitrum is burned

However, Hobby said that mainstream users don’t care if a product is onchain or not. “They want outcomes,” he said. “Better yield, faster payments, more control over their money.”

“The product that wins isn’t the one that explains crypto better, it’s the one that hides it completely. The benefits are felt, not explained.”

Legend has not disclosed active user counts or total value locked figures, as it operates as an aggregator, but the TVL for the broader DeFi ecosystem has tanked 50% since October in the wider crypto bear market. 

The Legend app will keep running normally for the next 60 days and will go offline on July 12, said Hobby.

Magazine: DeFi’s billion-dollar secret: The insiders responsible for hacks 

SEC and CFTC Advance Crypto Policy Alignment Efforts

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael S. Selig said on May 12 that the agency is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on regulatory oversight, rulemaking, and enforcement alignment across increasingly connected financial markets. Speaking at the FINRA 2026 Annual Conference in Washington, Selig also highlighted participation in the SEC’s Project Crypto and work on a crypto asset taxonomy aimed at improving regulatory clarity.

As securities and derivatives activity increasingly intersect, regulators face pressure to reduce gaps between their rulebooks. Selig noted the CFTC and SEC have taken several steps toward more unified oversight where their jurisdictions meet. Those efforts include a memorandum of understanding, a joint harmonization initiative, and expected joint requests for comment tied to portfolio margining and swap data reporting.

Regulators are also working to better align CFTC swap reporting requirements with SEC Regulation SBSR, the framework governing security-based swap reporting. Much of the coordination effort spans broader securities and derivatives oversight, although crypto policy initiatives featured prominently in the discussion. Selig detailed:

“In recent months, we’ve entered into a memorandum of understanding, launched a joint harmonization initiative, joined the SEC’s Project Crypto, and advanced a common-sense crypto asset taxonomy to deliver clarity to our nation’s builders and innovators.”

Broader coordination between the agencies also extends to enforcement activity. Selig stated that parallel actions and information sharing have reduced the risk of duplicative or inconsistent outcomes tied to the same underlying conduct. Staff collaboration between the agencies, he added, can streamline compliance efforts and improve regulatory effectiveness across overlapping jurisdictions.

FINRA and NFA Face Growing Cross-Market Oversight Demands

Self-regulatory organizations also need closer alignment as market activity cuts across securities and commodity derivatives, Selig explained. FINRA and the National Futures Association (NFA) increasingly operate in overlapping territory, leaving firms subject to both regulatory structures in ways older frameworks did not always anticipate.

Coordinated examinations, stronger recordkeeping alignment, and shared surveillance practices could help regulators and market participants manage those overlapping obligations more efficiently. Selig framed the effort as cooperation rather than consolidation. He noted that alignment should preserve each organization’s specialization while improving consistency where coordination adds value. Selig described the opportunity, stating:

“We have a real opportunity here for greater collaboration. Not to merge identities or flatten important differences, but to align the organizations in ways that help regulators and market participants.”

Legal and compliance teams could benefit from clearer coordination across agencies and self-regulatory organizations, Selig said. He added that more consistent oversight standards may help firms reduce interpretive risk, lower compliance costs, and allocate resources more effectively in fast-moving financial markets.

Hyperliquid ETF Debut Puts THYP in Focus

Asset management firm 21shares announced on May 12 the launch of the 21shares Hyperliquid ETF (Nasdaq: THYP), offering U.S. investors spot exposure to HYPE and integrated staking rewards. The issuer also introduced the 21shares 2x Long HYPE ETF (Nasdaq: TXXH) on the same day as a leveraged companion product.

First-day trading details posted on X by 21shares US showed THYP recorded $1.8 million in trading volume and about $1.2 million in net inflows. The post also listed a 0.3% management fee and described THYP as having the lowest management fee for a Hyperliquid ETF as of May 12. THYP trades on Nasdaq with the ISIN US90137V1089 and a May 4 inception date. TXXH was introduced alongside THYP and carries a separate 1.89% management fee, with an April 30 inception date.

The company stated:

“The funds are the first U.S. ETFs designed to provide investors with exposure to HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid, a next-generation decentralized exchange ( DEX) that has emerged as a significant liquidity hub for 24/7 on-chain trading infrastructure.”

Distribution schedules released for THYP show expected quarterly staking reward payments beginning June 30. Additional payable dates are listed for Sept. 30 and Dec. 30. THYP is structured as a 33-Act spot exchange-traded product and does not carry the same investor protections as registered funds. TXXH operates as a 40-Act exchange-traded fund with additional oversight requirements.

Staking Rewards and Risk Disclosures Define THYP

Product materials said THYP may stake part of its holdings to generate rewards. That structure introduces risks tied to lock-up periods, unbonding periods and possible slashing penalties if a validator fails to perform or engages in misconduct. Staking rewards are paid to the trust and are not guaranteed. THYP shares trade at market prices instead of net asset value and are not individually redeemable directly with the fund.

Hyperliquid processes roughly $8 billion in daily volume and commands more than 50% of decentralized exchange perpetual open interest, based on data cited by 21shares. The issuer also cited more than $56 million in monthly trading fees and said more than 95% goes toward daily open-market HYPE buybacks. More than 76% of tokens are allocated to the community, while team tokens are locked until 2028.

Andres Valencia, EVP, Investment Management at 21shares, said:

“Having pioneered the first Hyperliquid exchange-traded product in Europe, we have seen the protocol evolve into a de facto global liquidity hub for decentralized derivatives.”