The Weekly Wrap: U.S.-Iran Conflict, CME 24/7 Crypto Futures & Crypto Sentiment in Extreme Fear

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This Week’s Top Stories

“Iran, US reach deal to extend ceasefire, pending Trump's approval.” – Thursday, 28 May 2026 

• The United States and Iran reached an agreement on Thursday to extend their ceasefire and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, sources told Reuters, though U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to approve it and Iranian state media said it had not been finalized.
• If approved by leadership in Washington and Tehran, it would amount to the biggest step toward peace since the conflict began on February 28.
• Trump has not yet approved the deal, the sources said. Iran has yet to comment on news of the proposed deal, which was first reported by Axios.
• In recent weeks, the Trump administration has said several times that a deal to end the fighting was close, only to have Iran dispute or downplay the claims, so it remains to be seen how this current discussion turns out.

“The Digital Chamber ramps up pressure on Congress with call to action to pass Clarity Act.” – This week 

• On Thursday, the Digital Chamber unveiled its latest call to action, which CEO Cody Carbone said is part of a broader push to help pass the Clarity Act into law this year.
• A version of the bill passed the House last year, but over the past several months, it has been caught up in the Senate following disagreements on how stablecoin rewards should be treated.
• The latest push comes as the midterm election season is swiftly taking shape.

“CME Launching 24/7 Bitcoin Futures, Options Trading on Friday.” – Thursday, 28 May 2026 

• CME Group announced that it will officially enter the around-the-clock crypto market. Starting this Friday, CME Bitcoin futures and options will trade 24/7 on the Globex electronic trading platform, with only a 60-minute maintenance pause each Sunday from 18:00 to 19:00 UTC+8. The shift means the long-standing “CME gap” caused by weekend market closures will disappear.

Bitcoin, Ethereum & Crypto Trading Lower & U.S. Stock Indices at ATHs 

The crypto total market capitalization is down around 3.5 percent this week, with the majority of crypto assets trading in the red over the past week. There are, however, a few outliers. Stellar (XLM) is up more than 40 percent, Midnight (NIGHT) is up 15 percent, and Hyperliquid (HYPE) is up 7 percent. Meanwhile, Zcash (ZEC) is down almost 20 percent, and Sui (SUI) corrected 16 percent after the blockchain experienced a multi-hour halt yesterday, the second one in recent months. 

This week was accompanied by large outflows from the U.S. Ethereum and Bitcoin spot ETFs, with IBIT, the BlackRock Bitcoin spot ETF, experiencing its largest outflow day since launch, with almost $530 million leaving the product. 

The U.S. stock market did not flinch in the meantime, as the S&P 500 reached yet another new all-time high this week. Oil is trading lower, likely due to the recent headline surrounding the renewed ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran.

Bitcoin and Crypto correcting, while U.S. Stocks reach new ATHs 

Bitcoin is trading back at the same level as in February this year when compared to the S&P 500, down more than 12 percent since the beginning of the month. Over the same period, Bitcoin also corrected almost 10 percent compared to gold and continues to underperform most asset classes. The chart below shows the downward trend of Bitcoin vs. the S&P 500, which started last summer, and it remains to be seen whether BTC manages to put in a higher low in the coming days and weeks or whether this downward trend continues for a while longer.

Vitalik on the EF, Hyperliquid & more

Vitalik Buterin shared his perspective on the Ethereum Foundation’s new direction, describing the EF as “a smaller ship than in previous years, a more opinionated one.” According to Vitalik, the Foundation is moving toward a more focused structure centered on Ethereum’s core trust properties: censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security, collectively referred to as CROPS. While scaling remains an important priority, he emphasized that Ethereum should not be optimized purely for speed or transactions per second. Vitalik also noted that the Ethereum Foundation holds only around 0.16% of all ETH, meaning it must prioritize longevity and focus its limited resources on the most critical work. 

Separately, Hyperliquid announced the launch of canonical prediction markets based on offchain events. These markets will be published by automated newsfeed software run by validators as part of their regular node operations, with validators voting on deployment and settlement based on rule clarity, correctness, and the overall quality of each market. 

In other news, Strategy has purchased 171’238 BTC year-to-date in 2026, representing approximately 2.6 times the 65’700 BTC mined over the same period. The visualization below shows the scale of Strategy’s Bitcoin accumulation relative to Bitcoin’s new natural supply, underscoring how institutional demand from a single major buyer is outpacing newly issued BTC.

IBIT’s Largest Outflow Day 

Digital asset investment products saw $1.47 billion in outflows last week, marking the third-largest weekly outflow of 2026. Bitcoin accounted for the bulk of the withdrawals, with $1.315 billion leaving BTC products, the largest weekly Bitcoin outflow of the year. Ethereum also saw $223 million in outflows. The selling pressure was not limited to the U.S., with outflows also extending to Switzerland, Canada, and Hong Kong. 

The Hyperliquid spot ETFs are, on a market-cap-adjusted basis, so far playing in their own league compared to the Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana spot ETFs during their first ten trading days. The HYPE spot ETFs have already absorbed more than 1% of HYPE's market cap in their first ten trading days. 

We argued before the launch of the spot ETFs that they could materially spice up the HYPE setup. With treasury vehicles already absorbing supply, legacy sellers had a visible route to distribute before passive products arrived, reducing the risk that new ETF demand would simply meet old selling pressure. 

This made HYPE one of the cleaner ETF demand candidates. Incremental flows are hitting a tighter float, a still-early institutional ownership base, and an existing treasury bid, a combination that translated directly into price support. Hence the recent HYPE price action. 

In the DAT world, SharpLink, the second-largest Ethereum treasury company, and Forward Industries, the Solana treasury company, are both set to be added to the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes on June 29. 

In other news, Grayscale has reportedly paused its IPO plans due to unfavorable market conditions and is unlikely to resume preparations before the fourth quarter.

Extreme Fear in Crypto vs Greed in Stocks 

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is back in extreme fear territory at 23 and is clearly diverging from sentiment in the broader market, as the CNN Stock Market Fear and Greed Index is in greed territory at 60. Interestingly, AAII members are still feeling bearish on the stock market over the next six months, with 42 percent of members feeling bearish, compared to 35.6 percent feeling bullish. That’s particularly interesting, as stock market indices are trading at all-time highs.

• Saylor: This week we bought bonds, not Bitcoin. – Link
• Cash App lets users send USDC stablecoins on chains like Solana and Ethereum. – Link
• Spain blocks Polymarket, Kalshi for operating without licenses. – Link
• Nathan Allman, founder and CEO of Ondo Finance, dies unexpectedly. – Link
• BIS says tokenization can improve wholesale cross-border payments. – Link

Bitcoin at $73.7K, Ether at $2K & Total Mcap down 3 Percent 

While the U.S. stock market indices are looking back on another positive week, crypto market participants are not feeling as happy in comparison. More than half of the top 100 crypto assets are down on the week, and only a handful are showing significant gains. 

Hyperliquid is one of the very few crypto assets that is able to keep up with the U.S. indices, as it is also trading at fresh ATHs, up more than 200 percent since January. For most other crypto holders, the situation is not looking as good, with many coins still down around 50 percent from their ATHs. 

The price action during the next few days and weeks will be watched very closely by many market participants. Either Bitcoin manages to put in a higher low anywhere above $65'000, or the trend would likely shift toward prices closer to the $50'000 region. Right now, Bitcoin is trading around the April 2024 high, and a bottom around this level would likely be interpreted as a positive sign by many traders. 

It’s worth keeping a close eye on crypto spot ETF flows over the coming weeks, as continued selling pressure could be a sign of lower prices, while a shift in sentiment from the ETFs could indicate a bottom. 

It will also be interesting to see how the situation in Iran evolves, as a renewed ceasefire deal and a potential freedom deal could be around the corner in the coming days. 

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

Monday, 1 June 2026 

Switzerland – GDP 

Tuesday, 2 June 2026 

Eurozone – CPI, Core CPI 

Wednesday, 3 June 2026 

Eurozone – PPI 

Thursday, 4 June 2026 

Switzerland – CPI, Unemployment Rate 

U.S. – Initial Jobless Claims 

Friday, 5 June 2026 

Eurozone – GDP, Employment Change 

U.S. – Nonfarm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate