CoinW Research Institute Weekly Report (May 4, 2026 - May 10, 2026)

2026-05-18 15:29:27

Collection

Key Points

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies worldwide is $2.79 trillion, up from $2.75 trillion last week, representing an increase of approximately 1.45% this week. As of the time of writing, the cumulative net inflow for the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF is approximately $59.34 billion, with a net inflow of $622 million this week; the cumulative net inflow for the U.S. Ethereum spot ETF is approximately $12.09 billion, with a net inflow of $70.49 million this week.

The total market capitalization of stablecoins is $316 billion, up from $315.7 billion last week, an increase of approximately 0.09%. Among them, the market capitalization of USDT is $189.67 billion, accounting for 60.02% of the total stablecoin market capitalization, up approximately 0.06% from $189.55 billion last week; followed by USDC with a market capitalization of $77.8 billion, accounting for 24.62%, down approximately 0.25% from $78 billion last week; DAI has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion (almost unchanged from last week), accounting for 1.7% of the total stablecoin market capitalization.

According to DeFiLlama data, the total TVL of DeFi this week is $85.889 billion, up from $85.704 billion last week, an increase of approximately 0.22%. By public chain classification, the three public chains with the highest TVL are Ethereum, accounting for 53.57%; BNB Chain, accounting for 6.47%; and Solana, accounting for 6.37%.

This week’s performance of major public chains (Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Ton, Sui, Aptos): In terms of daily trading volume, BNB Chain ($0.504B, -32.44%) and Ton ($0.0012B, -24.43%) decreased, while the other chains grew: Ethereum $0.968B (+43.2%), Solana $1.208B (+49.14%), Aptos $0.052B (+44.45%), and Sui grew more than three times. In terms of transaction fees, Ethereum ($0.02), Sui ($0.00239), and Solana ($0.001) increased by 100%, 298.36%, and 43.65%, respectively, while BNB Chain, Ton, and Aptos saw little change. In terms of daily active addresses on-chain, Ethereum (565,000, +16.12%) and Sui (334,000, +25.64%) increased, while the other chains decreased, with Aptos experiencing the largest drop (-42.42%). In terms of TVL, Ton ($0.092B) and Sui ($0.667B) showed significant growth, at 35.43% and 19.32%, respectively, while the other chains changed little, with Ethereum still leading by a wide margin ($45.69B), followed by Solana ($5.83B) and BNB Chain ($5.67B).

New project focus: 3F is a network for RWA (real-world asset) yield and leverage protocols built within the DeFi ecosystem, with its core positioning as "the global yield network of DeFi." ILITY is a privacy-focused Layer 1 blockchain network centered on zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology, emphasizing "cross-chain data verification and privacy identity systems." RealGo is a chain game project that integrates AR (augmented reality), AI, and Web3, aiming to create an "immersive game world based on geographic location."

Key Points

Market Overview
Cryptocurrency Total Market Cap/Bitcoin Market Cap Proportion
Fear Index
ETF Inflow and Outflow Data
ETH/BTC and ETH/USD Exchange Rates
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
On-chain Data
Stablecoin Market Cap and Issuance
This Week's Hot Money Trends
Top Five VC Coins and Meme Coins by Growth This Week
New Project Insights
Industry News
Major Industry Events This Week
Major Upcoming Events Next Week
Important Investments and Financing from Last Week
Reference Links

1. Market Overview

1. Cryptocurrency Total Market Cap/Bitcoin Market Cap Proportion

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies worldwide is $2.79 trillion, up from $2.75 trillion last week, representing an increase of approximately 1.45%.

Data Source: Bitcoin dominance from cryptorank

Data as of May 10, 2026

As of the time of writing, Bitcoin's market capitalization is $1.63 trillion, accounting for 58.42% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of stablecoins is $316 billion, accounting for 11.33% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Data Source: coingeck

Data as of May 10, 2026

2. Fear Index

The cryptocurrency fear index is 49, indicating a neutral sentiment.

Data Source: coinglass

Data as of May 10, 2026

3. ETF Inflow and Outflow Data

As of the time of writing, the cumulative net inflow for the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF is approximately $59.34 billion, with a net inflow of $622 million this week; the cumulative net inflow for the U.S. Ethereum spot ETF is approximately $12.09 billion, with a net inflow of $70.49 million this week.

Data Source: sosovalue

Data as of May 10, 2026

4. ETH/BTC and ETH/USD Exchange Rates

ETHUSD: Current price $2,357.26, historical highest price $4,946.05, down approximately 52.32% from the highest price.

ETHBTC: Currently at 2,357.26, historical highest at 0.1238.

Data Source: ratiogang

Data as of May 10, 2026

5. Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

According to DeFiLlama data, the total TVL of DeFi this week is $85.889 billion, up from $85.704 billion last week, an increase of approximately 0.22%.

Data Source: defillama

Data as of May 10, 2026

By public chain classification, the three public chains with the highest TVL are Ethereum, accounting for 53.57%; BNB Chain, accounting for 6.47%; and Solana, accounting for 6.37%.

Data Source: CoinW Research Institute, defillama

Data as of May 10, 2026

6. On-chain Data (Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Ton, Sui, Aptos)

Layer 1 related data

Mainly analyzing daily trading volume, daily active addresses, and transaction fees for the current major Layer 1 chains including ETH, SOL, BNB, TON, SUI, and APTOS.

Data Source: CoinW Research Institute, defillama

Data as of May 10, 2026

On-chain Dex daily trading volume and transaction fees: On-chain Dex daily trading volume and transaction fees are core indicators of public chain activity and user experience. This week, only BNB Chain ($0.504B, -32.44%) and Ton ($0.0012B, -24.43%) saw declines in daily trading volume. Sui increased more than three times, while the other chains were Ethereum ($0.968B, +43.20%), Solana ($1.208B, +49.14%), and Aptos ($0.052B, +44.45%). In terms of transaction fees, this week BNB Chain ($0.00001), Ton ($0.0014), and Aptos ($0.000001) remained almost unchanged from last week; Ethereum ($0.02), Sui ($0.00239), and Solana ($0.001) increased by 100%, 298.36%, and 43.65%, respectively.

Daily active addresses and TVL: Daily active addresses reflect the ecological participation and user stickiness of public chains, while TVL reflects user trust in the platform. In terms of daily active addresses, this week only Ethereum (565,000, +16.12%) and Sui (334,000, +25.64%) increased. The other chains all saw declines, with Aptos (453,000, -42.42%), Solana (1.67 million, -13.02%), BNB Chain (2.5 million, -8.76%), and Ton (143,000, -7.57%). In terms of TVL, Ton ($0.092B) and Sui ($0.667B) grew by 35.43% and 19.32%, respectively, while the other chains changed little. Ethereum ($45.69B) still leads all chains; followed by Solana ($5.83B) and BNB Chain ($5.67B).

Layer 2 related data

According to L2Beat data, the total TVL of Ethereum Layer 2 this week is $35.08 billion, up from $34.18 billion last week, an increase of approximately 2.63%.

Data Source: L2Beat

Data as of May 10, 2026

This week, Base and Arbitrum's market shares are 46.93% and 15.99%, ranking first and second.

Data Source: CoinGecko

Data as of May 10, 2026

7. Stablecoin Market Cap and Issuance

According to Coinglass data, the total market capitalization of stablecoins is $316 billion, up from $315.7 billion last week, an increase of approximately 0.09%. Among them, the market capitalization of USDT is $189.67 billion, accounting for 60.02% of the total stablecoin market capitalization, up approximately 0.06% from $189.55 billion last week; followed by USDC with a market capitalization of $77.8 billion, accounting for 24.62%, down approximately 0.25% from $78 billion last week; DAI has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion (almost unchanged from last week), accounting for 1.7% of the total stablecoin market capitalization.

Data Source: CoinW Research Institute, Coinglass

Data as of May 10, 2026

According to Whale Alert data, this week the USDC Treasury issued a total of 2.5 billion USDC, and the Tether Treasury issued a total of 1 billion USDT this week. The total issuance of stablecoins this week is 3.5 billion, an increase of 7.69% from last week's total issuance of 3.25 billion.

Data Source: Whale Alert

Data as of May 10, 2026

2. This Week's Hot Money Trends

1. Top Five VC Coins and Meme Coins by Growth This Week

The top five VC coins by growth in the past week

Data Source: CoinW Research Institute, coinmarketcap

Data as of May 10, 2026

The top five Meme coins by growth in the past week

Data Source: CoinW Research Institute, coinmarketcap

Data as of May 10, 2026

2. New Project Insights

Saturn is a stablecoin and on-chain yield protocol built around "Bitcoin-backed Digital Credit," with the core goal of bringing the Bitcoin Credit market driven by Michael Saylor/Strategy into DeFi. The main products of the project include the stablecoin USDat and the yield-bearing asset sUSDat: USDat is 100% backed by tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, used for on-chain payments and liquidity; sUSDat generates yield by holding Strategy's STRC (digital credit asset), targeting an annual yield of over 11%. Essentially, Saturn is attempting to combine the fixed income market, RWA, and Bitcoin Credit from traditional finance to create a "digital dollar yield layer" on-chain.

Stockcoin.ai is a trading platform for stocks and crypto derivatives that combines AI and on-chain data analysis, aiming to provide intelligent, on-chain-driven quantitative trading and market insight services for retail and institutional investors. The platform's core products include AI Stock Signals, Tokenized Equity, and Pre-IPO investment tools, allowing users to optimize trading strategies for U.S. stocks, crypto assets, and hybrid derivatives through on-chain signals and AI algorithms. Stockcoin.ai's application scenarios cover intelligent trading strategy generation, on-chain asset tokenization investment, and AI-driven market forecasting, providing investors with an efficient, transparent, and verifiable trading experience while exploring new Web3 investment models that integrate "on-chain + traditional finance."

Elastics.ai is a decentralized computing and collaboration platform for AI Agents and large language models (LLM), aimed at providing developers and enterprises with a high-performance, scalable distributed computing network. Its core products include the Elastics Compute Network (ECN) and Agent Marketplace, where users can rent, share, or trade computing resources while deploying intelligent agents for data processing, model training, and inference tasks. Elastics.ai's application scenarios encompass AI model training, inference acceleration, intelligent agent deployment, and cross-organizational collaborative computing, providing decentralized, efficient, and verifiable computing infrastructure for the AI ecosystem, promoting deep integration of AI and Web3.

3. Industry News

1. Major Industry Events This Week

On May 6, 2026, the RWA (real-world asset) infrastructure protocol KAIO officially completed the TGE (Token Generation Event) for the KAIO token and opened for trading. KAIO is a Sovereign AppChain protocol focused on institutional-level RWA Tokenization, with its core business helping traditional asset management products like BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, and Brevan Howard achieve on-chain issuance, circulation, and cross-chain interoperability, supporting compliant institutional funds entering DeFi. In this TGE, the total supply of $KAIO is 10 billion, with 37.5% allocated to community and liquidity incentives, and 12.5% released immediately for liquidity at TGE; the team and early investors' shares are unlocked at 0 at TGE, with a 12-month cliff followed by linear release over 24 months.

On May 4, 2026, the decentralized digital identity protocol Billions Network officially completed its $BILL Token Generation Event (TGE). Billions Network is an AI authentication network that combines DID (decentralized identity) and Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZK), aiming to achieve "trustworthy authentication between humans and AI Agents" in the AI era, allowing users to complete identity verification without exposing private data. The project is built by core team members of Circom (one of the most widely used ZK libraries globally), emphasizing "Human + AI Identity" narrative, competing with Worldcoin but placing greater emphasis on privacy protection and mobile verification. In this TGE, the total supply of $BILL is 10 billion, adopting a zero-inflation model, with community allocation accounting for about 32%, and initial circulation of approximately 788 million at TGE.

On May 8, 2026, the Sharing Economy infrastructure protocol ShareX officially completed the TGE (Token Generation Event) for $SHARE. ShareX is a Web3 Consumer & Financial Layer aimed at real-world shared devices (such as power banks, vending machines, self-service terminals, etc.), with the core goal of putting IRL shared devices, usage data, and cash flow on-chain, building a verifiable revenue-based RWA network. In this TGE, the total supply of $SHARE is 100 million, and multiple rounds of airdrop activities were initiated. The project previously received support from institutions such as OKX Ventures, Folius Ventures, and The Open Platform (TOP), with current key narratives including shared economy RWA, DePIN, IoT on-chain, and Web3 consumer finance.

2. Major Upcoming Events Next Week

The Web3 robot and decentralized robot capital market project XMAQUINA officially announced that its governance token $DEUS will undergo TGE (Token Generation Event) on May 27, 2026. XMAQUINA is a robot investment ecosystem that combines AI, robotics (Humanoid Robotics), and Web3 DAO governance, aiming to allow ordinary users to participate in ecological investment and governance of robot companies like Figure AI, 1X, Apptronik, and Agility Robotics through on-chain DAO and Robotics Capital Markets (RCM) protocol. The total supply of $DEUS is fixed at 1 billion, with no additional issuance, where the DAO Treasury accounts for 30%, Genesis Auctions for 23.24%, and Core Contributors for 12.5%. Approximately 31.5% of the tokens will enter circulation at TGE, with 100% of the Liquidity & Ecosystem Growth and RCM Protocol portions unlocked, while the team and advisor shares will have a 12-month cliff and subsequent linear release mechanism.

On May 8, 2026, the AI inference network project OpenGradient announced that its Titan Launch airdrop has officially started and will continue until next week, with eligible users now able to directly claim $OPG airdrop rewards in their Virtuals Protocol accounts. According to the official announcement from Virtuals Protocol, a total of 500,000 OPG will be distributed on the first day of this round to reward contributors to the Virtuals ecosystem, with allocations weighted based on two types of users: one being long-term active Agent Creators, trading users, and community contributors in the Virtuals ecosystem; the other being early users participating in the OpenGradient AI inference network, node testing, and development ecosystem. OpenGradient is a Web3 AI infrastructure project focused on AI Inference and decentralized agent networks, aiming to provide on-chain inference, model invocation, and verifiable execution environments for AI Agents, while Virtuals Protocol serves as its ecological distribution and Agent market entry.

On May 5, 2026, the stablecoin yield protocol Ethena officially opened the fifth season (Season 5) ENA airdrop claim, distributing 2% of the total supply of ENA as rewards to incentivize long-term participants in USDe, sUSDe, and ENA staking and ecological interactions. Ethena is a synthetic dollar protocol built on a Delta-neutral strategy, with core products including the yield-bearing stablecoin USDe and the staking version sUSDe, which has become one of the largest yield stablecoin protocols in the DeFi market by TVL. The Season 5 airdrop claim window will last until August 3, 2026, and any unclaimed rewards will be redistributed to future ecological incentive programs.

3. Important Investments and Financing from Last Week

The cross-chain privacy trading aggregation protocol Houdini Swap announced its acquisition by Nasdaq-listed company SOL Strategies for approximately $18 million, with the transaction expected to be completed by the end of May 2026. Houdini Swap is a non-custodial cross-chain swap aggregation platform focused on privacy protection, supporting over 100 blockchains and 18+ DEX/Bridge routes, allowing users to conduct anonymous asset exchanges and cross-chain transactions, with core directions including privacy trading, cross-chain liquidity aggregation, and institutional-level DeFi execution. (May 4, 2026)

The stablecoin yield infrastructure protocol OpenTrade announced the completion of a $17 million strategic financing round, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC, CMCC Global, and other institutions, bringing the total financing amount to over $30 million. OpenTrade is a stablecoin yield infrastructure platform aimed at fintech, exchanges, and digital banks, with its core business connecting stablecoin funds like USDC, USDT, EURC to yield vaults supported by real-world assets (RWA) and on-chain strategies, allowing institutions to offer dollar and euro yield products without building their own custody, compliance, and investment systems. (May 6, 2026)

Payward Inc., the parent company of Kraken, announced it will acquire Hong Kong fintech company Reap Technologies for up to $600 million (cash plus stock). Reap is a FinTech platform focused on stablecoin payments, corporate card issuance, and cross-border payment infrastructure, with core businesses including stablecoin corporate payments, global fund management, B2B cross-border settlement, and stablecoin-supported corporate credit card services, aiming to connect traditional finance with digital asset systems. (May 7, 2026)