BLK News & Events

Crypto exchange Bullish agreed to acquire the U.K.-based transfer agent Equiniti for $4.2B in the day's most consequential deal, while Coinbase announced the elimination of roughly 700 positions citing AI productivity gains and bitcoin squeezed through $81,000 for the first time since January on $532M of spot ETF inflows. Strategy holds center stage after the close, reporting Q1 FY26 results with its bitcoin purchase program on pause. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.BULLISH BUYS EQUINITI:reported that Bullish(BLSH)agreed to acquire U.K.-based issuer-services firm Equiniti in a $4.2B transaction composed of approximately $2.35B in Bullish stock priced at a 30-day VWAP of $38.48 per share and $1.85B of assumed debt, with a targeted close in January 2027.Bloomberg Lawnoted the combined entity is targeting approximately $1.3B in pro-forma adjusted revenue for FY26, and management is billing the result as the first fully integrated blockchain-enabled issuer-services platform.Equiniti operates in the shareholder record-keeping, proxy administration, and dividend disbursement space, providing infrastructure that underpins the equity operations of hundreds of listed companies globally. The acquisition pivots Bullish from pure-play exchange into traditional capital markets plumbing, handing Bullish shareholders direct exposure to a recurring-revenue financial infrastructure business while putting the firm on a collision course with entrenched transfer-agent incumbents.COINBASE WORKFORCE CUTS:reported that Coinbase(COIN)will eliminate approximately 700 positions, roughly 14% of its global workforce, with restructuring charges of $50M-$60M concentrated in Q2 FY26, per anSEC filing. CEO Brian Armstrong announced the reductions via X, attributing the decision to crypto market volatility and AI-driven productivity gains that allow smaller, flatter teams to operate at greater scale. Coinbase shares rose approximately 4% in pre-market trading following the disclosure.The restructuring charge is a near-term earnings headwind ahead of Coinbase's Q1 FY26 report, due May 7 after the close, but the margin trajectory of a leaner, AI-augmented cost structure is the more durable signal for consensus models. The May 7 release will be the first opportunity to test whether Armstrong's productivity thesis maps to measurable operating leverage.STRATEGY EARNINGS TONIGHT:Strategy(MSTR)is due to report Q1 FY26 financial results after market close today, followed by a 5:00 PM ET conference call. The company confirmed that it paused bitcoin purchases this week ahead of the release, temporarily removing the market's most consistent institutional buyer from the spot tape. Strategy holds 818,334 bitcoin at an average acquisition cost of $75,537 per coin, and its STRC preferred shares are currently trading below the $100 par value, a condition that constrains fresh at-the-market capital raises under the existing structure.BITCOIN ETF FLOWS:U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs absorbed net inflows of $532M, led by BlackRock's(BLK)iShares Bitcoin Trust at $335M and Fidelity's FBTC at $184M. Bitcoin simultaneously broke above $81,000 for the first time since January, driven by a short squeeze that forced liquidation of an estimated $180M in bearish perpetual futures positions stacked above $78,785. On-chain analyst 'Murphy', viaLookonchain, noted that approximately 423,000 bitcoin traded in the $78,000 cluster with an unfilled on-chain gap remaining at $81,000 to $82,000 and and institutional wallet activity near $83,000-$84,000 that the analyst characterizes as non-resistant consolidation, with the next meaningful supply cluster above $87,000, a constructive backdrop for miner margins at, a framework with direct margin implications for miners MARA Holdings(MARA), Riot Platforms(RIOT), CleanSpark(CLSK), and Iren(IREN).TOKENIZATION AND STABLECOINS:Figure Technology(FIGR)willwork with OpenWorld to tokenize OpenWorld's equity securities on Figure Technology Solutions' Onchain Public Equity Network ahead of OpenWorld's proposed Nasdaq listing, a real-world asset transaction that places on-chain equity issuance on a direct path to a major U.S. exchange. Global market maker Virtu Financial(VIRT)joined the zerohash liquidity network as a market-making partner,expanding institutional access to crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization services for zerohash's financial institution clients. PayPal(PYPL)alsofiled Q1 FY26 earnings this morning, covering financial performance across consumer and merchant platforms including its PYUSD stablecoin and integrated crypto trading services.MINING AND HARDWARE:Cipher Digital(CIFR)reported Q1 FY26 results before market open today,submitting two filings with the SECcovering bitcoin mining operational and financial results for the period ended March 31, 2026. At the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, ASIC manufacturer BGIN Blockchain(BGIN)unveileda commemorative prototype miner "PortableBTC"alongside its institutional 4nm BT1 chip program.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin(BTC-USD)was trading at$81,270.04, while etherwas trading at$2,377.33,according to price data from TipRanks.

Bitcoin touched $80,000 for the first time since January on a confluence of $630M in spot ETF inflows, Iran-related geopolitical de-escalation, and a bipartisan CLARITY Act stablecoin compromise, while corporate treasury activity dominated the SEC filing calendar: Strategy posted its second zero-buy week since late March, Strive crossed the 15,000 BTC milestone, and BitMine disclosed it now holds 4.29% of all circulating ether with 84% of that stake actively generating validator yield. Western Union launched its first stablecoin on Solana, Hut 8 refinanced its bitcoin-backed credit facility at a 200 basis-point improvement, and on-chain signals offered a mixed read — strong ETF momentum offset by a leveraged short squeeze on Hyperliquid and a dormant whale moving bitcoin to Kraken. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.BITCOIN TESTS $80,000:Bitcoin(BTC-USD)briefly touched $80,393 early Monday, its highest print since January 31st, before pulling back. The move catalyzed by a Truth Social post by the U.S. President Donald Trump suggested geopolitical de-escalation, approximately $630M in Friday spot ETF inflows, and anticipation of Strategy's(MSTR)Q1 2026 earnings report due Tuesday.also cited a banking-and-crypto industry compromise on stablecoin yield provisions in the CLARITY Act as a legislative tailwind, a development with direct implications for Coinbase(COIN)and stablecoin-linked public issuers. Bitcoin futures open interest entered Monday near $57.6B,per CoinGlass data cited by MEXC, an elevated positioning level at a key resistance band that raises liquidation-cascade risk for high-beta names including MARA Holdings(MARA)and Riot Platforms(RIOT).STRATEGY ZERO-BUY WEEK:Strategyconfirmed in its weekly 8-Kzero bitcoin acquired in the April 27-May 3 window, the second zero-purchase week since late March. The company holds 818,334 bitcoin at an aggregate cost basis of $61.81B and an average purchase price of $75,537, while simultaneously raising $82M during the same period by selling 492,210 MSTR shares through its at-the-market equity program.Strive(ASST)crossed 15,000 bitcoin in its corporate treasury as of May 1,per a regulatory filing, up from 14,557 on April 24, with $97.9M cash and $50.4M in Strategy STRC preferred stock also on the balance sheet. The preferred stock position makes Strive a layered proxy on both bitcoin spot price and the Strategy preferred-equity ecosystem, adding structural correlation between the two names.BITMINE'S ETH CONCENTRATION:BitMine Immersion Technologies(BMNR)reported its ether(ETH-USD)treasury reached 5,180,131 ether as of May 3 at $2,336 per coin, representing 4.29% of total circulating ether supply, with 200 bitcoin, $700M cash, and other positions bringing the combined portfolio to $13.1B,per a company press release. A 4.29% concentration of total supply at a single publicly traded entity carries meaningful price-impact and validator-influence implications for the Ethereum network.Cash on the BitMine balance sheet fell to $700M, down from $940M week-over-week, consistent with continued ether accumulation funded from treasury,per the concurrent filing. The filing discloses that approximately 84% of ether holdings, or 4,362,757 ether, have been moved into staking through MAVAN, adding validator yield to the treasury's return profile and deepening the company's operational exposure to the Ethereum staking ecosystem.WESTERN UNION STABLECOIN LAUNCH:Western Union(WU)officially launched USDPT, a U.S. dollar-backed payment stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and built on Solana(SOL-USD), initially targeting the Philippines and Bolivia before expanding to 40-plus countries through 2026,per a company press release. In a concurrent release, Western Unionnamed Fireblocks as its infrastructure partnerfor wallet, settlement, and financial operations underpinning USDPT, illustrating how incumbent remittance operators are opting for third-party institutional custody infrastructure rather than building in-house blockchain capability.MINING AND BLOCKCHAIN INFRA:Hut 8(HUT)replaced its prior bitcoin-backed credit facility with Coinbase Credit with a new $200M, 364-day line from FalconX at a fixed 7.0% rate, a 200 basis-point improvement that simultaneously frees approximately 3,300 bitcoin worth roughly $260M from collateral,as stated by the company.Broadridge Financial Solutions(BR)reported its Distributed Ledger Repo platform processed $368B in average daily volume in April, a 268% year-over-year increase and nearly 4% sequential gain from March,totaling nearly $8T for the month. Separately, BitGo Holdings(BTGO)wasappointed as an additional custodian for the Virtune Stablecoin Index ETPin the EU and EEA under its MiCA license, adding regulated European institutional custody mandates to its footprint.CURRENC FY25 RESULTS:Currenc Group(CURR)reported$37.8M in FY25 revenuewith a net loss narrowed to ($18.5M), as the entity executes a strategic pivot toward Web3 and AI that includes a previously announced reverse merger with Animoca Brands. If the transaction closes, Animoca's blockchain asset portfolio would arrive on the books of a publicly traded U.S.-exchange issuer alongside the newly reported financial profile.WHALE FLOWS AND ON-CHAIN SIGNALS:U.S spot bitcoin ETFs logged $630M in net inflows on May 1,per Ambcrypto, tracking toward the roughly $1.9B to $2.4B monthly pace seen in April, supporting BlackRock's(BLK)bitcoin ETF AUM and custody revenue at Coinbase. On Hyperliquid, a tracked wallet known as 'pension-usdt.eth' held a 1,000 bitcoin short entered near $67,992 at 3x leverage,with unrealized losses expanding past $10M as bitcoin approached $80,000.PRICEE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at$80,224.61, while ether was trading at$2,369.71,according to price data from TipRanks.

Bitcoin climbed to a 12-week high of $79,488 Monday on optimism surrounding the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks,according to Bloomberg, lifting the broader crypto-equity complex as institutional treasury accumulation accelerated across multiple public companies.SoSoValue datashows that CoinShares saw $1.2B in global digital asset product inflows last week, with bitcoin capturing $933M through the U.S.-listed ETF vehicles led by BlackRock(BLK)and Fidelity, suggesting the price move is supported by genuine institutional demand rather than a purely derivatives-driven squeeze. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.CORPORATE TREASURIES EXPAND ACROSS THREE TOKENS:The day's dominant theme was corporate digital asset accumulation at scale across bitcoin(BTC-USD), ether(ETH-USD), and solana(SOL-USD). Bitmine Immersion Technologies(BMNR)disclosed ina regulatory filingthat it holds 5,078,386 ETH, representing 4.21% of total ether supply, with total crypto and cash holdings of $13.3B. Within those holdings, 3,701,589 ETH is actively staked, generating on-chain yield while tightening the effective liquid float. Strategy(MSTR)disclosed ina filingthat it sold 1.451M shares via its at-the-market offering for $255M in net proceeds during the week of April 20-26 and acquired 3,273 BTC at an average of $77,906, bringing aggregate holdings to 818,334 BTC at a total cost basis of $61.81B. Strive(ASST)disclosed ina company press releasethat it purchased approximately 789 additional BTC, lifting its total treasury to roughly 14,557 BTC alongside $90.5M in cash and $50.3M in Strategy preferred stock, and announced a May 21 "True North: Bitcoin for Business" summit in Oregon targeting CFOs and corporate treasury executives.On the solana front, Solana Company(HSDT)entered a definitive agreement to sell 3,076,922 shares at $2.60 per share in a registered direct offering for approximately $8M in gross proceeds, with net proceeds earmarked for solana treasury accumulation and the investor syndicate led by Mirae Asset and Hashkey Capital. DeFi Development(DFDV)separately confirmed ina company press releasethe completion of its April 24 Reddit "Ask Me Anything" with CEO Joseph Onorati engaging institutional and community investors on its solana treasury strategy. Taken together, the HSDT equity raise and DFDV investor outreach suggest the solana treasury model is entering a second wave of institutional onboarding, following the capital-structure template that bitcoin-focused treasury companies established.INFRASTRUCTURE BUILD-OUT AT CORE SCIENTIFIC:Core Scientific(CORZ)announced ina company press releasea multi-tiered strategy to scale its Pecos, Texas campus to approximately 1.5 gigawatts of gross capacity, roughly 1.0 GW leasable, by converting existing bitcoin mining infrastructure into high-density AI and HPC data center space, with initial capacity targeted for early 2027. The plan is a direct substitution trade, with megawatts previously dedicated to proof-of-work mining being retooled for the longer-duration, higher-margin contracts that hyperscale and AI compute tenants command, a strategic pivot that management has telegraphed since CORZ's emergence from bankruptcy and that today's announcement quantifies for the first time at the Pecos site specifically.CLARITY ACT COULD REACH TRUMP'S DESK BY JUNE:Galaxy Digital(GLXY)CEO Mike Novogratz stated that the CLARITY Act will "get done" in May and reach President Trump's desk in June,according to Cryptopolitan, a timeline that would represent the most consequential U.S. crypto market-structure legislation to date and would expand the addressable operating environment for exchanges, custodians, and token issuers across the listed crypto-equity universe.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin(BTC-USD)was trading at $77,475.96, while ether(ETH-USD)was trading at $2,296.80,.

The corporate bitcoin accumulation trade is drawing fresh skepticism from investors even as U.S. spot fund flows stage a meaningful rebound, creating a split tape for equity holders with digital asset exposure. Robinhood scored an international regulatory approval that expands its addressable market well beyond U.S. retail trading, while institutional custody and exchange infrastructure continued to build. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.TREASURY TRADE FACES MOUNTING PUSHBACK:that shareholders including Pantera Capital are pushing a London-listed bitcoin accumulator to wind down its holdings, with the outlet framing the corporate bitcoin-hoarding model popularized by Strategy(MSTR)as a trade that has lost investor favor. The story lands on the same day that Tesla(TSLA)disclosed in itsQ1 earnings reporta $173M after-tax digital asset impairment loss on its unchanged 11,509 bitcoin position, now carrying at $786M, as bitcoin slid from roughly $90K to roughly $68K during the quarter, illustrating the drag that balance-sheet accumulation strategies impose on corporate earnings. Apending filingfor the SPAC merger between ReserveOne Holdings and M3-Brigade Acquisition V(MBAV)shows fresh entrants still advancing a nearly $1B bitcoin and multi-token reserve strategy comprised of an 80% bitcoin, 20% multi-token split, signaling that new treasury vehicles continue to form even as the broader trade faces headwinds.ETF FLOWS REBOUND:According toBitbo flow data, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin funds recorded $322.5M in net inflows on April 22, the largest single-day haul in the current run. BlackRock(BLK)led with $283.3M into its IBIT fund, directly benefiting the firm's AUM fee base and Coinbase(COIN)as custodian. Fidelity's FBTC added $49M and Morgan Stanley(MS)contributed $22.2M through its MSBT vehicle, while Grayscale's GBTC shed $44.4M and ARK's ARKB lost $3.2M, leaving net demand firmly positive.INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND EXCHANGE DEVELOPMENTS:OKXannouncedthat will integrate with BitGo Holdings(BTGO)and its OCC-regulated BitGo Bank and Trust subsidiary, enabling U.S. institutional clients to trade on OKX while keeping assets in BitGo's qualified custody through its Go Network off-exchange settlement solution. Bullish(BLSH)confirmed viaa press releasethat it will report Q1 earnings results on May 14 with an earnings call at 8:30 AM ET. Nasdaq(NDAQ)reported Q1 net revenue of $1.4B, up 14% vs. last year, per a. Its digital asset infrastructure segment spans crypto surveillance, indexing, and marketplace services, providing leveraged exposure to institutional adoption. Applied Digital(APLD)disclosed in a regulatory filing,, a purpose-built AI and blockchain high-performance computing facility currently under construction. Small-cap miner T-REX Acquisition Corp.(TRXA)disclosedan agreementto acquire a 3MW crypto mining data center in Roberta, Georgia, expandable to 4.5MW and projected to boost mining capacity by up to 450%.ROBINHOOD WINS SINGAPORE APPROVAL:Bloomberg reportsthat Singapore's Monetary Authority granted Robinhood(HOOD)in-principle approval to offer securities trading, exchange-traded derivatives, custody services, and collective investment funds in the city-state. The clearance adds a regulated Asian custody and derivatives business line to Robinhood's international growth story, a meaningful diversification for investors assessing the company's long-term revenue expansion beyond U.S. retail trading.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin(BTC-USD)was trading at$78,150.00, while ether(ETH-USD)was trading at$2,332.53,according to price data from TipRanks.