The Weekly Wrap: Clarity Act Back on the Table, HIP-4 Live on Mainnet & New Podcast Episode

Listen to the Weekly Wrap on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It is a summary with the help of AI-voices. 

This Week’s Top Stories

“Odds for Clarity Act Passage in 2026 surge to 71 percent.” – This week 

• According to the executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, the White House is targeting July 4 for House passage of the Clarity Act.
• The administration's timeline calls for Senate Banking Committee markup this month, followed by a Senate floor vote in June and House passage before the July 4 deadline.
• Representatives of Coinbase also communicated that lawmakers seem to have reached a deal on the stablecoin yield provision that has held up the Clarity Act for months. Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal said he is very confident the Clarity Act will pass before summer ends, urging banking trade associations to accept the deal.

“Morgan Stanley rolled out crypto spot trading on its E*Trade platform.” – Wednesday, 6 May 2026 

• Morgan Stanley began a pilot rollout of spot cryptocurrency trading on its ETrade platform, with a 50-basis-point transaction fee. This rollout comes only weeks after Morgan Stanley launched its first Bitcoin spot ETF.

“New Uncut Gems Podcast episode with Kinetiq, Hyperliquid’s multi-vertical DeFi powerhouse.” – Thursday, 7 May 2026 

• Yesterday, we published a new Uncut Gems episode. Dominic Weibel and I sat down with Omnia, co-founder of Kinetiq, the largest HYPE liquid staking protocol and a leading DeFi project in the Hyperliquid ecosystem. In the episode, we highlight Kinetiq’s journey from an LST protocol to a multi-vertical DeFi powerhouse, with a span of different products, capitalizing on HIP-3 and the recently launched HIP-4 on Hyperliquid. Watch the episode here.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq with new ATHs, BTC briefly above $80K 

While the US stock market continues to trade at new all-time highs every week, crypto also traded higher this week, with Bitcoin briefly trading above $80K for the first time since January. Toncoin and Zcash are among the biggest winners this week, with TON up more than 100 percent this week and Zcash increasing by more than 60 percent. 

Bitcoin dominance has been facing some resistance for the first time since the end of March, while Ethereum dominance has been trending to the downside as well, giving some breathing room to smaller-cap altcoins. 

Gold is up this week but remains inside its trading range of the previous couple of weeks since the beginning of April, while copper reached a new multi-month high, trading at the highest level since January.

Total onchain holdings of BTC spot ETFs crosses 1.7M 

The Bitcoin spot ETFs are currently holding more than 1.7 million Bitcoin onchain, with BlackRock’s IBIT approaching the magic 1 million mark, currently holding more than 900’000 BTC on behalf of its clients. Year-to-date, clients of BlackRock have accumulated more than 120’000 BTC. Fidelity is following in second place with 204’000 BTC. Interestingly, its clients have only bought around 2’000 BTC since the start of the year, painting a clear picture: BlackRock’s clients are on a buying spree. The Bitcoin spot ETFs had a good start to this week again, with more than $500 million flowing in on Monday alone, followed by $450 million on Tuesday.

HIP-4 is Live & Polymarket Fees Hit Record High 

Last Saturday, Hyperliquid launched HIP-4 on mainnet. HIP-4 enables outcome contracts, essentially bringing prediction market capabilities onchain. On its first trading day, the contract recorded a notional volume of 6.05 million contracts, capturing roughly 0.7% of the day’s total prediction market share. By comparison, Kalshi recorded 546 million contracts and Polymarket reached 190 million contracts on the same day. 

While Hyperliquid launched HIP-4, Polymarket’s monthly fees reached $43 million in April, a record high, more than doubling month-over-month following the implementation of the new fee structure. Notably, Polymarket accounted for over 97% of total fees in the on-chain prediction market sector.

$117M of Inflows, as Friday Saved Last Week’s Flows 

Last week, digital asset investment products saw net inflows of $117 million, the fifth consecutive positive week. Interestingly, the week started with rather large outflows, but Friday managed to save the week, with more than $600 million flowing into the US-listed Bitcoin spot ETFs alone. Ethereum saw net outflows last week, after three weeks with more than $190 million in net inflows each. 

As mentioned earlier, this week started on a more positive note, with the Bitcoin spot ETFs attracting more than $1 billion in net inflows in the first three days alone. Yesterday was accompanied by net outflows, and it remains to be seen how today’s session will unfold.

Crypto back in Fear, While the Stock Market is Greedy 

The crypto market is back in fearful territory this week and diverging from US stock market sentiment. The divergence makes sense, of course, as the US stock indices are making new all-time highs on a weekly basis, and most cryptocurrencies are still well below their highs. AAII members continue to stay rather divided, with 38 percent feeling bullish, 29 percent taking a neutral stance, and 33 percent having a bearish view on the market for the coming six months, with all three stances around historical averages.

• Kraken parent Payward Inc. has agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million. – Link
• Coinbase Q1 2026 paradox: record 8.6% trading market share meets a $394M net loss. – Link
• a16z Crypto raises $2.2B for crypto Fund V to back next-gen projects. – Link
• KelpDAO migrates rsETH to Chainlink CCIP after LayerZero exploit. – Link

Bear market rally or beginning of a new bull? 

Bitcoin is trading just below $80’000 at the time of writing, and many market participants are starting to wonder whether this recent price action is the start of a new bull market or just a bear market rally. In our recent Market Barometer, a client-exclusive report, we highlight the importance of $85’000 on the upside, with $82’000 being another key level to watch; on the downside, there is a relevant liquidation cluster around $75’000. 

The situation in Iran is still not solved and could escalate again any day, but currently, the market, at least the US stock market, seems to be of the opinion that a peace deal is around the corner. Next week, the US will release its inflation figures, and this will likely be key to watch because the recent oil price action hints at higher inflation. A downside surprise could add further fuel to the rally, while hotter-than-expected inflation could likely put an end to it, at least temporarily. 

Below, you can find some of the key data releases and events to watch out for next week. 

Monday, 11 May 2026 

China – CPI 

USA – Existing Home Sales 

Tuesday, 12 May 2026 

Switzerland – PPI 

USA – CPI and Core CPI 

Wednesday, 13 May 2026 

USA – PPI and Core PPI 

USA – Crude Oil Inventories 

Thursday, 14 May 2026 

Switzerland – Ascension Day 

USA – Retail Sales 

Friday, 15 May 2026 

Switzerland – CPI 

Eurozone – GDP, Employment numbers