SpendNode Podcast: Crypto News & Analysis

Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum will fold privacy into the base layer through three upgrades targeting censorship resistance, transaction linking, and wallet reads. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ethereum-privacy-native-upgrades-vitalik-may-2026/

Unsealed filings claim Jane Street tapped a private Telegram channel for Terraform insider tips, dumped $192M UST near par, and made $134M shorting the token. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/jane-street-terraform-bryces-secret-telegram-ust-may-2026/

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the agency's most consistent pro-crypto voice, will join Regent University School of Law as an associate professor in November. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/hester-peirce-sec-departure-regent-law-may-2026/

The Federal Reserve is sketching out narrower master accounts for crypto and fintech firms, days after Trump ordered a review of access rules. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/fed-skinny-master-accounts-crypto-fintech-may-2026/

Trump signed an executive order directing the Fed to revisit crypto firms' access to master accounts, putting Kraken, Ripple, Coinbase, and Circle in line. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/trump-executive-order-fed-master-accounts-crypto-may-2026/

Bernstein says Bitcoin miners have signed over $90B in AI infrastructure partnerships and control 27 GW of planned power capacity, reshaping the sector. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bitcoin-miners-90b-ai-infrastructure-27gw-bernstein-may-2026/

South Carolina enacts a sweeping pro-crypto law banning state taxes on crypto payments, protecting self-custody, and barring CBDC use by state agencies. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/south-carolina-pro-crypto-law-cbdc-ban-may-2026/

Bitfinex traders added size into Bitcoin's five-day drop, pushing aggregate long positions to their highest level since late 2023. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bitfinex-longs-2-5-year-high-btc-slide-may-2026/

AllUnity, the BaFin-licensed DWS-Galaxy-Flow Traders venture behind EURAU, plans a Swedish krona stablecoin and an AI agentic payments stack. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/allunity-swedish-krona-stablecoin-agentic-ai-payments-may-2026/

Stablecoin circulating supply crossed $323 billion for the first time, even as BTC sits flat at $77K and the Fear & Greed index reads Neutral at 40. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/stablecoin-supply-323b-all-time-high-may-2026/

Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to the OCC arguing nine national trust bank charter approvals for crypto firms breach the National Bank Act. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/warren-occ-national-trust-bank-charters-crypto-may-2026/

Value investor Duan Yongping, the founder behind BBK and Vivo, has opened his first equity position in USDC issuer Circle, signaling deeper traditional capital interest in stablecoin rails. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/duan-yongping-opens-circle-position-may-2026/

The CFTC asked a federal court to stop Minnesota from enforcing a new state law that bans prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket from operating. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/cftc-sues-minnesota-prediction-markets-ban-may-2026/

Polymarket and Nasdaq Private Market launch contracts tied to private unicorn valuations and IPO timing, opening a $5 trillion pool to retail traders. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/polymarket-nasdaq-private-company-prediction-markets-may-2026/

Trump Media's Truth Social has withdrawn its spot Bitcoin ETF application from the SEC, removing one of the brand-name issuers from the pending queue. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/truth-social-withdraws-bitcoin-etf-filing-may-2026/

GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to its internal repositories. CZ told developers to rotate API keys in code, including private repos. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/github-internal-repos-breach-cz-api-key-warning-may-2026/

Senator Cynthia Lummis outlined the procedural next steps for the CLARITY Act, including a plan to combine Senate Banking and Agriculture committee texts. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/lummis-clarity-act-senate-committee-combine-may-2026/

Echo Protocol says it has regained control of the compromised admin key and burned the attacker's remaining 955 eBTC after a major cross-chain exploit. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/echo-protocol-burns-955-ebtc-key-recovery-may-2026/

House Republicans are attaching a permanent CBDC ban to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, with Majority Whip Tom Emmer leading the surveillance-state framing. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/republican-cbdc-ban-housing-bill-may-2026/

The Bank of England and FCA want UK wholesale settlement infrastructure running near 24/7 to support tokenized finance. Here is what changes. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/boe-fca-24-7-settlement-tokenized-finance-may-2026/

Anthropic says tokenized representations of its private stock are void after on-chain valuations swung past $1B, exposing a tokenization legal gap. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/anthropic-voids-tokenized-private-shares-may-2026/

Echo Protocol froze cross-chain transactions and ECHO token fell double digits after a suspected exploit hit the Bitcoin restaking project on May 19. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/echo-protocol-exploit-token-crash-may-2026/

SEC under Chair Paul Atkins prepares a tokenized stock innovation exemption that would let crypto-native platforms list onchain equities with lighter rules. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/sec-tokenized-stocks-innovation-exemption-may-2026/

AI Financial, the public treasury vehicle holding World Liberty Financial's WLFI token, flagged substantial doubt about going concern in a fresh SEC filing. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ai-financial-wlfi-treasury-going-concern-may-2026/

The White House is reviewing whether to kill a decades-old SEC rule requiring brokers to deliver the best available stock prices, per Bloomberg. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/white-house-reviews-sec-best-execution-rule-may-2026/