Regulatory Crossroads and AI Market Shifts (2026-05-18)

Upbit will list the TRAC token on the KRW, BTC, and USDT markets.

On May 18, according to an official announcement, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will list the TRAC token in its KRW, BTC, and USDT markets.

Trading is scheduled to begin at 16:00 local time on April 20.

[PANews]

Tom Lee: The negative correlation between ETH and oil prices has reached a historical high.

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee tweeted, “The reason for the selling pressure on Ethereum is the rise in oil prices. The negative correlation between ETH and oil prices has reached a historical high.”

The long-term core drivers of Ethereum are still tokenization and AI Agent. These structural drivers are already in place. Therefore, I expect the price of ETH to be firmer as we move towards 2026.

[Foresight News]

Bitcoin reignites the “May sell-off” debate, sparking market attention on whether historical bear market patterns are repeating.

Market analysts are clearly divided on whether Bitcoin will repeat the “sell in May” pattern. Some analysts believe that in the US midterm election year, Bitcoin has historically seen significant corrections in May twice: in 2018, it fell from about $10,000.00 to $7,000.00, and in 2022, it fell nearly 30% from around $40,000.00, and then further to the $20,000.00 range. Based on this pattern, some warn that 2026 may enter a similar bear market structure again.

Crypto analyst Merlijn Enkelaar said that the cycle is “highly repetitive,” and if history repeats itself, BTC may even fall back to $33,000.00, even though there are still CLARITY Act advancements, favorable policies, and trade improvement expectations. Alphractal CEO João Wedson pointed out that when the price remains below $78,000.00, the market enters a higher probability of a “surrender phase,” and short selling momentum is increasing.

However, there are also opposing views that the historical decline was actually driven by more specific macro shocks, including liquidity tightening, industry black swan events, and regulatory shocks, rather than purely seasonal patterns. CoinEx Chief Analyst Jeff Ko emphasized that ETF funds, institutional allocation, and corporate holdings have significantly changed the market structure, so it is unlikely to reproduce the extreme declines of 70%-80% in the past.

Currently, the BTC price is around $76,900.00, and the key support level is believed to be in the $76,000.00 area. Once lost, it may open up more room for correction.

[Cointelegraph]

Anthropic will inform global financial regulators about the Mythos model.

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to provide a special briefing to relevant personnel of the Financial Stability Board on its Mythos AI model. This briefing will focus on explaining the security vulnerabilities identified by the model in the global financial system’s cyber defense system.

Two people familiar with the matter said that the communication was proposed by Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, requesting Anthropic to introduce its new Claude・Mythos preview AI model to the Financial Stability Board. The Financial Stability Board is compiling a report on the compliant application of artificial intelligence in the financial industry and plans to release a draft for public comment next month.

Both the Financial Stability Board and Anthropic declined to comment on the recent communication between the two parties.

[Odaily]

NYDIG: Senate crypto market structure bill may fail completely after midterm elections if not passed before August

On May 18, according to Cointelegraph, Greg Cipolaro, NYDIG’s Head of Research, stated that the U.S. Senate’s Crypto Market Structure Bill could fail entirely after the midterm elections if it is not passed before August.

Cipolaro noted that the Senate Banking Committee approved the bill along party lines last week, but a 60-vote threshold is required for passage in the full Senate. Congress will be in recess from late July through early September, followed by the pre-midterm election period—during which Senate leadership is unlikely to schedule a contentious 60-vote vote.

If this window is missed, the most likely path forward would be the post-election “lame-duck” session. However, if Democrats retain control of the Senate after the midterms, the current Republican-backed bill is unlikely to advance in the new Congress convening in January next year.

[PANews]

Nomura significantly raised the target prices of Samsung and SK Hynix, citing exponential growth in AI-driven memory demand.

Nomura published a report stating that AI-driven demand is growing exponentially, while memory supply remains limited, which is expected to trigger a revaluation of memory stocks. The firm significantly raised its target prices for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix: Samsung’s target price was increased sharply from KRW 340,000 to KRW 590,000, and SK Hynix’s target price was raised from KRW 2,340,000 to KRW 4,000,000; both stocks retain a “Buy” rating.

Nomura noted that as AI semiconductor demand shifts from training to inference workloads, memory demand is entering a period of exponential expansion. In contrast, the firm believes industry supply growth over the same period may remain constrained to approximately 5–6x (with a compound annual growth rate of around 30%), raising serious questions about whether this structural supply-demand imbalance can truly be resolved.

The firm pointed out that the industry is currently attempting to narrow this widening supply-demand gap through various software- and architecture-level optimizations. However, Nomura believes these solutions can only slow the pace of growth—not reverse the trend.

[Odaily]

MetaPlanet CEO Meets with Japanese House of Representatives Member Junichi Kanda to Discuss Future Bitcoin Strategy

Simon Gerovich, CEO of Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet, met with Junichi Kanda, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, to exchange views on future Bitcoin strategies in Japan.

[Foresight News]

Bernstein: Figure’s Q1 performance demonstrates the uniqueness of the blockchain marketplace platform

Bernstein analysts said last week that Figure Technology Solutions’ first-quarter financial report showed the company is rapidly becoming a unique presence in the blockchain marketplace platform. Figure’s May 11th earnings release significantly exceeded Wall Street expectations in both revenue and EBITDA, with its core business being the transformation of real-world credit assets into blockchain-native tools that can be traded and financed on-chain.

Analysts believe Figure is building a blockchain-native capital market ecosystem, fundamentally different from traditional balance sheet-model fintech lending platforms, and expect its stock FIGR to become a real-time reflection of blockchain loan volume. Bernstein noted in a May 15th research report that on-chain real-time data shows Figure is about to usher in a record second quarter.

Co-founder Mike Cagney introduced that the company’s Forge platform can convert entire loans into small, single-dollar liquidity participation units, solving the liquidity problem of RWA in DeFi. Bernstein previously estimated that the potential market size of the total annual credit issuance that could be migrated to the chain is $4 trillion, and the current tokenized credit market is approximately $5.14 billion.

[ChainCatcher]

Upbit will list TRAC.

According to the official announcement, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will list TRAC, supporting KRW, Bitcoin, and USDT trading pairs.

[Odaily Planet Daily]

Jupiter Lend’s total market size has surpassed $2 billion.

According to official data, the total market size of Jupiter Lend has exceeded $2 billion.

[Foresight News]

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is reviewing issues related to Hana Bank’s acquisition of Dunamu shares.

According to iNews24, a person in charge of the Virtual Asset Division of the Korea Financial Services Commission stated that the committee is reviewing whether Hana Bank’s acquisition of Dunamu’s equity involves the issue of “separation of finance and virtual assets,” and stated that “currently, it is not a situation where we are directly starting to relax the ‘separation of finance and virtual assets’ regulation.”

The person in charge also stated, “Even if Hana Bank does not directly acquire Dunamu’s equity, but chooses to acquire Kakao Investment’s equity, it is still essentially an investment in Dunamu’s equity, so we are reviewing it using the same standards.”

[Foresight News]

A trader sold SOL after holding it for over two years, incurring a loss of approximately $1.05 million.

According to Lookonchain, a trader sold 21,911 SOL (approximately $1.85 million) after holding them for over two years, incurring a loss of approximately $1.05 million.

Over the past two years, the trader accumulated 20,200 SOL (approximately $2.91 million) at an average price of about $144 per SOL and staked them, earning 1,711 SOL (approximately $145,000) in staking rewards.

[Foresight News]

Remixpoint plans to expand its Bitcoin lending operations to approximately 1,496 BTC.

Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Remixpoint announced on Twitter that, starting today, it will expand its Bitcoin lending operations to approximately 1,496 BTC. This target includes the previously announced 1,411 BTC as well as additional BTC acquired through purchases and loans.

The official statement noted that, by collaborating with reliable partners and implementing appropriate risk management, it will accelerate the construction of a solid financial foundation.

[Foresight News]