Morning Report | Circle's Arc completes $222 million token financing; Galaxy and Sharplink launch $125 million on-chain DeFi yield fund; BitMine increased its holdings by 26,790 ETH last week
Overview of Important Market Events on May 11整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Digital Asset is raising $300 million at a $2 billion valuation, led by a16z crypto
- Stablecoin startup Augustus completes $40 million financing, with participation from Circle founders and others
- Circle announces Q1 2026 financial report: Revenue reaches $694 million, USDC on-chain transaction volume increases by 263% year-on-year
- Circle's public chain Arc completes token financing of $222 million, with participation from BlackRock, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, and others
- Galaxy partners with Sharplink to launch a $125 million on-chain DeFi yield fund
- Strategy spent $43 million last week to increase its holdings of 535 bitcoins
- BitMine increased its holdings by 26,790 ETH last week, with a total staking amount exceeding 4.71 million
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
According to ChainCatcher, BitMine increased its holdings by approximately 26,790 Ethereum last week, as reported by PR Newswire. As of May 10, 2026, its total Ethereum holdings reached 5,206,790, accounting for about 4.31% of the total Ethereum supply.
Currently, the total value of the cryptocurrencies, cash, and other investment assets held by BitMine is approximately $13.4 billion, which includes $775 million in cash, 201 bitcoins, $200 million in equity assets from Beast Industries, and an investment of $88 million in Eightco Holdings (ORBS).
In addition, the amount of Ethereum staked is 4,712,917 (over 90% of total holdings), valued at approximately $11.1 billion, with an annualized staking yield of about $319 million.
Strategy spent $43 million last week to increase its holdings of 535 bitcoins
According to ChainCatcher, Michael Saylor stated that Strategy purchased an additional 535 bitcoins before May 10, with a total value of approximately $43 million and an average purchase price of about $80,340.
Saylor noted that Strategy's BTC yield has reached 9.4% year-to-date in 2026. As of May 10, 2026, Strategy holds a total of 818,869 BTC, with a total purchase cost of approximately $6.186 billion and an average holding cost of about $75,540.
According to ChainCatcher, Tether has launched a developer grant program that will reward developers with USDT or Bitcoin for building localized AI and payment infrastructure. There is no total grant cap, and rewards will be issued based on technical tasks and deliverables, with current individual bonuses ranging from $1,500 to $4,000.
The grant focuses on Tether's open-source technology stack, including wallet infrastructure, browser extensions, e-commerce integration, and particularly supports its local AI platform QVAC. Tether stated that QVAC can run AI inference directly on devices without relying on cloud servers, reducing latency, costs, and data exposure risks.
Additionally, Tether will promote the development of its Wallet Development Kit (WDK) ecosystem. This tool allows developers to embed self-custody wallets directly within applications, enabling local key generation, transaction signing, and asset transfers without relying on custodial services or third-party APIs.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that much of the existing infrastructure still forces developers to rely on centralized platforms and data business models, and Tether hopes to fund systems that can "run locally, hold value directly, and require no external dependencies" to enter the market.
Galaxy partners with Sharplink to launch a $125 million on-chain DeFi yield fund
According to ChainCatcher, Forbes reported that Galaxy, under Novogratz, has partnered with Ethereum treasury company Sharplink to launch the "Galaxy Sharplink Onchain Yield Fund," with a total scale of $125 million, expected to officially launch in the coming weeks.
Of this, $100 million comes from Sharplink's Ethereum treasury, and $25 million is injected by Galaxy's own funds. Galaxy will serve as the exclusive manager of the fund, responsible for protocol selection, position management, and risk control. The fund will primarily focus on active DeFi strategies such as lending and liquidity provision, targeting an annualized yield of over 10%.
According to ChainCatcher, CNBC exclusively reported that Circle Internet Group raised $222 million through the presale of its native token for the new blockchain Arc, achieving a fully diluted network valuation of $3 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with $75 million, with participation from over ten institutions including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Standard Chartered Ventures, ARK Invest, and Bullish.
Arc is a public chain designed for institutional finance. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the company is transforming from a stablecoin issuer to a broader internet platform company, entering the operating system and application business. In terms of token distribution, Circle holds 25% of the initial supply of 10 billion tokens, with 60% allocated to network builders and participants, and 15% for long-term reserves. Circle also released a set of tools to help developers build AI agents, supporting transactions and payments using USDC. This is the first publicly listed company to conduct a token presale, and Allaire stated that all companies will achieve tokenization in the future.
SlowMist: TRON users should beware of phishing activities from fake TronLink Chrome extensions
According to ChainCatcher, SlowMist issued a security warning stating that a high-risk phishing activity targeting TRON wallet users has been discovered. Attackers created a fake Chrome extension for the TronLink wallet, disguising the brand name using Unicode bidirectional control characters and Cyrillic homographs. Once installed, the extension loads a complete phishing page through a remote iframe, forming a "shell-core separation" credential theft chain.
The malicious extension name uses homographs to disguise itself, and its Chrome store page inherits the high user numbers and positive reviews of the real extension, lowering the review threshold. The local code is minimal, only loading remote pages, making static analysis nearly impossible to detect malicious behavior. The remote phishing page perfectly replicates the official TronLink web wallet interface, stealing mnemonic phrases, private keys, Keystore files, and passwords, and relaying them in real-time via a Telegram Bot.
Built-in anti-analysis features disable right-click, developer tools, drag-and-drop, and printing, and redirect based on the geographic and language settings of Russian users to evade detection. SlowMist recommends immediately uninstalling suspicious extensions, clearing local storage, and checking for abnormal traffic. If credentials have been entered, users should immediately create a new wallet and transfer assets.
According to ChainCatcher, Moomoo, Futu's overseas brand, has obtained a prediction market compliance license issued by U.S. regulators, becoming one of the first online brokerages to provide event contract trading services to retail users in the U.S. According to disclosures, Moomoo plans to launch related services for U.S. users soon, covering sports events, economics, politics, and culture.
Event contracts are financial derivatives designed around the outcomes of specific events, allowing users to trade on whether an event "will happen" and settle after the results are determined. Moomoo stated that the related products will comply with the regulatory framework of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Japanese stablecoin project JPYC warns users to beware of counterfeit JPYC tokens
According to ChainCatcher, JPYC Corporation officially stated that when searching for "JPYC" in wallets or DEX, counterfeit tokens with similar names, logos, or symbols may appear.
The official reminder is that when verifying the authenticity of tokens, users should not rely solely on names or icons; they must strictly check whether the token contract address matches exactly with what is listed in the official FAQ. Even a single character difference means a different token, and users are advised not to send, exchange, authorize, or sign any operations with unknown tokens.
According to ChainCatcher, Circle announced its financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026. The data shows that as of the end of the first quarter, the circulating supply of USDC reached $77 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28%; the on-chain transaction volume of USDC in the first quarter reached $21.5 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 263%. The financial report indicates that Circle's total revenue and reserve income for the first quarter was $694 million, a year-on-year increase of 20%; adjusted EBITDA was $151 million, a year-on-year increase of 24%; and net profit was $55 million, a year-on-year decrease of 15%.
In addition, Circle disclosed that its ARC Token presale financing reached $222 million, with a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion, and investors include a16z crypto, BlackRock, ARK Invest, and other institutions. The company also announced the launch of the "Agent Stack" infrastructure for AI agent scenarios, including Agent Wallets, Agent Marketplace, and other products to support USDC-based AI agent payments and business activities.
Digital Asset is raising $300 million at a $2 billion valuation, led by a16z crypto
According to ChainCatcher, citing sources from Bloomberg, Digital Asset Holdings LLC, the developer of the Canton Network, is raising approximately $300 million at a valuation of about $2 billion, with a16z crypto leading this round of financing, expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
The Canton Network is a public chain that allows users to keep some information private and is positioned as suitable for mainstream financial transactions. Digital Asset previously completed $135 million in financing in June 2025, led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets; in December of the same year, it raised another $50 million from institutions including BNY Mellon, Nasdaq, and S&P Global.
According to ChainCatcher, The Block reported that Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) had no days of net outflows in its first month of listing, accumulating net inflows of $193.6 million, with net assets reaching $239.6 million as of May 7.
The fund was launched on April 8, with a net inflow of $30.6 million on its first day and a trading volume of approximately $34 million, described by Morgan Stanley's head of digital asset strategy as the most successful ETF launch in the bank's history. During the first month of trading, MSBT's daily net inflows gradually decreased from tens of millions to millions but never turned negative, while the overall market for spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $663.9 million on April 17, followed by two consecutive days of net outflows of $277.5 million and $145.7 million on May 7 and 8, respectively. MSBT has a management fee of 0.14%, the lowest among U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. Almost all funds in the first month came from self-directed trading clients, with no sales through Morgan Stanley's wealth management platform.
Strategy CEO: Software business Q1 revenue grows 12%, creating synergies with Bitcoin treasury
According to ChainCatcher, Strategy CEO Phong Le stated on the X platform that the company's software business achieved its strongest quarterly performance in nearly a decade in Q1 2026, with revenue growth of 12%, including a 59% increase in cloud business revenue and a 27% increase in controllable profits. The company has 1,500 employees, serving over 3,000 clients and more than 500,000 active users, including nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies.
Le stated that the combination of the Bitcoin treasury company and the software business has unique synergies: the world-class engineering, security, enterprise sales, and compliance experience of the software business provides institutional-level expertise for the Bitcoin business; conversely, the Bitcoin mission inspires employees, attracts talent, and accelerates software business innovation. The company recently built an AI data platform called Mosaic, integrating large language models, massive-scale computing, and data warehousing. Le expects to use multiple AI models to reconstruct internal processes and systems over the next year, achieving workflow automation and system autonomy.
According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reported that on the eve of the Senate Banking Committee's upcoming review of the digital asset bill, banking industry groups are proposing last-minute amendments to the compromise plan on stablecoin yields, aiming to completely prohibit stablecoin issuers from offering any form of rewards, rather than the previously allowed model of "users can earn rewards when actively using stablecoins."
Six banking lobbying groups, including the American Bankers Association, stated in a letter that the exception clause in the senators' compromise plan would "harm deposits." The crypto industry quickly countered, with Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stating on the X platform that the banking industry's proposal is not a "narrow fix," but rather aims to "stifle competition." Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis, who facilitated the compromise, issued a joint statement disagreeing with the banking industry's position, emphasizing that the compromise plan also allows crypto companies to offer other forms of customer rewards, and most importantly, provides a bipartisan path for passing the CLARITY Act.
Google's parent company Alphabet is about to surpass Nvidia to become the world's largest company
According to ChainCatcher, Cointelegraph reported that Google's parent company Alphabet is about to surpass Nvidia to become the company with the highest market value in the world. Since last October, Alphabet's stock price has risen by 43%, while Nvidia has only risen by 6.3%.
Vitalik proposes ZK payment standards to promote privacy transactions between Ethereum and AI agents
According to ChainCatcher, Vitalik Buterin published a research article on May 10, advocating that crypto payments should move from pseudonymity to default privacy, proposing to replace standard transfers with zero-knowledge proof (ZK) transactions, allowing users to prove the validity of payments without exposing full balances or transaction histories.
Vitalik specifically pointed out that in the era of agents, autonomous AI agents need to pay service fees (such as LLM API fees) without leaving traceable footprints, using recursive SNARKs and ZK APIs for points, and Ethereum Layer 2 can process privacy payments at the same speed and cost as transparent transactions. The proposal also includes selective disclosure and proof of innocence mechanisms, allowing users to provide specific proofs to compliance agencies or tax authorities without disclosing data to the public, in response to anti-money laundering regulatory requirements.
Vitalik believes that the public transparency of blockchain is the main obstacle to crypto payments replacing traditional payments, and the ZK payment standard aims to make privacy a default feature.
Stablecoin startup Augustus completes $40 million financing, with participation from Circle founders and others
According to ChainCatcher, stablecoin bank Augustus has obtained a federal banking license issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), becoming the eighth institution to receive this license since 2010, and simultaneously completed $40 million in financing, with investors including Valar Ventures under Peter Thiel, Creandum, Ramp, Deel, and Circle founders.
According to ChainCatcher, Binance released its latest security report, addressing the current rapid proliferation of AI scams in the industry. The platform has deployed over 24 AI security programs and built an intelligent defense system with more than 100 AI models to combat various types of crypto fraud.
Statistics show that from early 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, Binance has protected over 5.4 million users, intercepting potential fund losses of $10.53 billion. In Q1 2026, the platform successfully intercepted 22.9 million fraud and phishing attacks, protecting user funds of $1.98 billion, with an average of over 9,600 real-time risk alerts pushed daily, and a total of 36,000 malicious on-chain addresses blacklisted.
The report pointed out that deep forgery, voice cloning, phishing bots, and other AI social engineering attacks have become mainstream fraud methods, with the overall scale of crypto fraud reaching $17 billion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 30%. In terms of risk control, Binance's AI system undertakes 57% of fraud detection work, reducing the credit card fraud rate to 60%-70% of the industry average; upgrading AI anti-forgery KYC reviews, with review efficiency improved by up to 100 times.
The AI trading tool Binance Ai Pro adopts an isolated account structure, only opening trading permissions and prohibiting withdrawals, with the platform intercepting 12% of high-risk third-party AI plugins. Additionally, in 2025, Binance assisted in recovering $12.8 million in stolen funds and handled 48,000 cases, cooperating with law enforcement agencies to freeze $131 million in illegal assets.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of May 12 at 09:00,
The top five popular tokens on ETH in the past 24 hours are: HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, mUSD
The top five popular tokens on Solana in the past 24 hours are: TROLL, swarms, PENGUIN, 114514, HANTA
The top five popular tokens on Base in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, B3, BASED, SKYA, IMGA
What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?
Why the NFT market will grow from $2 billion to $60 billion
Most people in the crypto circle believe that NFTs are dead.
Most people in the art world think NFTs are a scam that briefly fooled some Hollywood figures and a cryptocurrency founder from Singapore before disappearing lucky.
Then there is a third group of people—the loudest group—who have been repeating the same three phrases for four years:
It's just a JPEG.
I just right-clicked and saved your million-dollar monkey.
NFTs are a scam. Pump and dump of random animal pictures.
The hit SK Hynix employee in China: Bonuses are less than 5% of those of Koreans
In response to First Financial, SK Hynix confirmed the authenticity of the profit-sharing rule of 10% and emphasized that due to the uncertainty of annual performance for 2026 and next year, the bonus scale cannot be predicted, subtly denying the accuracy of the 6.1 million RMB bonus package.
The high-end year-end bonus prediction may not be true, but there is a significant difference in bonuses between employees in China and Korea.
"We have removed the bonus cap, but the bonuses in China cannot go up," said an SK Hynix employee in China. "Korea settles once a year, while here it is twice a year."
The employee revealed that if they distribute 3 million in bonuses, Chinese employees would get less than 5%, which translates to about 150,000 RMB. "It's not that everyone gets 150,000; it will be adjusted based on KPI ratings. The higher the rating, the higher the bonus. At the highest, I received just over 100,000."
Risk warning
