Crypto markets slumped on Monday morning, with seven of the top ten cryptocurrencies in the red, including bitcoin. Market Dip Drags Bitcoin Under $94K While Equities Hold Steady Bitcoin (BTC) fell to $94K on Monday morning as crypto markets tumbled 1.06% to a market capitalization of $2.93 trillion, according to data from Coinmarketcap. Stocks traded […]

Bitcoin Retreats to $94K as Crypto Markets Dip and Stocks Trade Flat

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has abandoned plans to become a for-profit company and 
reaffirmed commitment to its nonprofit status.
In a May 5 blog post, OpenAI confirmed plans to convert its for-profit 
business unit into a so-called Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), which would 
remain under the nonprofit&#8217;s control. PBCs are for-profit companies that are 
legally obligated to prioritize a social mission alongside the interests of 
shareholders.
The plans mark a reversal for OpenAI, which had previously floated a for- 
profit conversion involving spinning out the nonprofit entity.
&#8220;OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit, and is today overseen and controlled by 
that nonprofit. Going forward, it will continue to be overseen and controlled 
by that nonprofit,&#8221; the ChatGPT-maker said.
This can be done without compromising OpenAI&#8217;s ability to raise funds for AI 
development, which &#8220;currently requires hundreds of billions of dollars and may 
eventually require trillions of dollars,&#8221; OpenAI&#8217;s CEO, Sam Altman, said in a 
letter to employees announcing the decision.
In 2024, OpenAI took a starkly different view, asserting that the for-profit 
entity was &#8220;necessary&#8221; for raising capital to amass the &#8220;vast quantities of 
compute&#8221; needed to run AI models.
_OpenAI &#8216;s May 5 governance announcement. Source: __OpenAI_
 _**Related:**__**OpenAI expects to 3X revenue in 2025 but Chinese AI firms 
are heating up**_
## **Controversial Plans **
OpenAI was originally founded as a nonprofit in 2015, and in 2019 it created a 
for-profit entity purportedly to help AI developers raise funds. The for- 
profit unit has remained under the nonprofit&#8217;s control since then.
In 2024, Tesla CEO Elon Musk &#8212; one of OpenAI&#8217;s cofounders &#8212; sued Altman for 
allegedly &#8220;violating terms of Musk&#8217;s foundational contributions to the 
charity,&#8221; according to a November court filing.
In the lawsuit, Musk alleges Altman &#8220;assiduously manipulated Musk into co- 
founding their spurious nonprofit venture, OpenAI,&#8221; while secretly planning to 
convert OpenAI to a for-profit entity.
Musk has since launched xAI, the developer of AI chatbot Grok, which he said 
has fallen victim to OpenAI&#8217;s allegedly anti-competitive practices.
OpenAI&#8217;s leadership expects its revenue to hit $29.4 billion by 2026, 
Bloomberg reported in March. It forecasts earning revenues of $12.7 billion in 
2025.
In March, OpenAI raised $40 billion from Softbank at a $300 billion valuation.
_**Magazine: **__**Bitcoin to $1M &#8216;by 2029,&#8217; CIA tips its hat to Bitcoin: 
Hodler&#8217;s Digest, April 27 &#8211; May 3**_

OpenAI to stay nonprofit, scrap proposed overhaul

DeFi Development Corp. (Nasdaq: DFDV), a real-estate software firm and Solana- 
focused treasury company, announced Monday it has agreed to acquire a Solana 
validator business with an average delegated stake of 500,000 SOL ($75.5 
million) for $3.5 million. $3.5M Deal: DeFi Development Corp. Bolsters Solana 
Treasury Strategy The deal, according to the release published on Monday, […]

DeFi Development Corp. Acquires Solana Validator Business for $3.5M

In his latest video, the market commentator known as CryptoInsightUK laid out 
a multi-step argument for why XRP could “very realistically go to $10 plus 
this cycle — and potentially into the $20-to-$30 range.” The analyst combined 
macro-asset rotation, historical dominance patterns and a series of back-of- 
envelope calculations to contend that most investors are still underestimating 
the token’s upside. Why $10 Per XRP Is The Start The crypto pundit began with 
a brief look at Bitcoin liquidity, predicting that a build-up of short 
positions could generate “a very likely squeeze up to $103,000” before any 
near-term correction. But he quickly pivoted to the long-form case for 
altcoins — and XRP in particular — arguing that the broader environment of 
currency debasement has already lifted traditional hedges such as gold and 
equities well beyond their 2017 levels. “Gold was at $1,200 an ounce and is 
now at $3,200 […] the S&amp;P was at 233 and is now at 566,” he said, emphasising 
that both assets “trend in the same direction, at least against the dollar.” 
Related Reading: Crypto Pundit Debunks $100,000 XRP ‘Dark Pool’ Theory That 
inflation in nominal asset values, he suggested, sets the stage for a capital 
rotation into crypto. “17% of twenty-two trillion,” he calculated — a 
hypothetical pullback in the gold market — “could easily add on to the crypto 
market cap […] and that would push Bitcoin up to $180,000 to 220,000.” The 
linchpin of his XRP thesis is the historical relationship between Bitcoin’s 
share of total crypto capitalisation (“Bitcoin dominance”) and XRP price 
performance. Displaying overlaid charts, he noted that in 2017 a 47% fall in 
dominance coincided with an “11x” rise in XRP, and that in 2021 a 46% fall 
aligned with a 600 percent gain despite the overhang of the Ripple vs. US 
Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit. “XRP is one of the major gainers 
when Bitcoin dominance is falling,” he asserted, adding that a fresh 40% draw- 
down — merely a return to the lower boundary of the long-term range — would, 
on past ratios, imply an XRP move to roughly $16. A deeper slide toward 25% 
dominance would, by the same arithmetic, yield “that $36-to-$37 target.” 
Related Reading: XRP Poised For Final Flush Before Breakout, Predicts Crypto 
Analyst He repeatedly cautioned that his figures were illustrative rather than 
“definitively correct&#8221;, yet, he pushed back against objections that such price 
projections would require an impossibly large market capitalisation. Citing 
the tripling of gold’s market value since 2017 and a surge in US sovereign 
debt to $36 trillion, he argued that absolute numbers should not deter 
analysis: “Market cap shouldn’t stop you from making what a lot of people are 
calling outrageous claims to price.” CryptoInsightUK framed this stance as 
technical rather than narrative driven. His overlay of XRP dominance on 
Bitcoin dominance highlighted what he called a “very correlated inversely” 
pattern in which XRP rallies compress into short, explosive windows once 
Bitcoin’s share begins to ebb. “XRP does its moves really quickly,” he warned, 
urging viewers not to let “emotional bias” or dislike of the asset blind them 
to historical precedent. At press time, XRP traded at $2.13. Featured image 
created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Crypto Pundit Says XRP To $10 Is Just The Start

The Securities and Exchange Commission&#8217;s (SEC) enforcement approach on crypto 
firms has left a lasting &#8220;regulatory overhang&#8221; within the industry, according 
to Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Finzer said that during Biden&#8217;s administration the 
agency unfairly targeted good actors in the crypto space, including OpenSea. 
&#8220;There&#8217;s all sorts of digital assets, you know, you shouldn&#8217;t treat them all 
the same. That&#8217;s obvious. But I think the approach that the prior SEC was 
taking was kind of this, you know, very, very generic.&#8221;
The SEC issued a Wells notice &#8212; a formal notification that is often a 
precursor to enforcement action &#8212; to OpenSea in 2024, alleging that the NFT 
marketplace was operating as an exchange for unregistered securities. At the 
time, Finzer criticized the SEC for taking an approach of &#8220;regulation by 
enforcement&#8221; and said that OpenSea was prepared to &#8220;stand up and fight.&#8221;
With the SEC under new leadership by Chair Paul Atkins, Finzer is hopeful for 
a more balanced regulatory framework. &#8220;Good crypto regulation needs to 
balance, sort of, protecting consumers but also preserving the ability to 
innovate,&#8221; Finzer said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not just a one-size-fits-all problem, right?&#8221;
Under the Trump administration, the SEC has scaled back enforcement actions 
against several crypto firms, marking a policy shift in the US after years of 
enforcement actions led by former Chair Gary Gensler.
For instance, the agency has withdrawn legal challenges against exchanges 
Coinbase and Kraken, NFT companies Yuga Labs and OpenSea, and decentralized 
finance protocol Uniswap &#8212; most of them opened during Gensler&#8217;s term. The SEC 
has even dismissed its years-long case against Ripple.
During the 2024 US election cycle, the crypto industry widely backed then- 
candidate Donald Trump, who promised to make the United States &#8220;the crypto 
capital of the planet.&#8221; Overall, crypto super political action committees, or 
PACs, donated over $119 million into the coffers of pro-crypto candidates, 
helping shape the elections.
_**Related:**__**Crypto &#8216;s debanking problem persists despite new 
regulations**_
## NFTs: Low trading volume, high innovation
The SEC crackdown on crypto firms had weighed on the markets downturn 
following FTX collapse in November 2022, driving investors away from crypto 
products such as nonfungible tokens
Since then, NFT trading volume has plummeted from its 2021 peak, affecting 
protocols and platforms such as OpenSea. In 2023, the company laid off 50% of 
its staff amid the market turmoil.
Finzer says the NFT space is still flourishing, with innovation and new 
applications coming to life &#8212; especially in the gaming industry and art 
collectibles. Despite this, OpenSea has started exploring other areas, seeking 
to diversify its business to become a destination for all onchain trading 
beyond NFTs.
&#8220;I mean, for the first time in the history of the internet, people have the 
ability to own digital stuff, right, in a real way,&#8221; Finzer said. &#8220;[&#8230;] you 
can move them around between different applications and take them with you 
wherever you go on the internet. And that&#8217;s something that&#8217;s really powerful.&#8221;
_**Related:**__**OpenSea denies NFT airdrop rumors, calls website a test 
page**_

Good actors were 'unfairly targeted' by SEC — OpenSea's CEO

US President Donald Trump&#8217;s crypto businesses are drawing increased scrutiny 
on Capitol Hill and beginning to influence the progress of US digital asset 
legislation. As Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives 
unveiled their draft of a digital asset market structure bill on May 5, 
Democrats prepared for a united response to Donald Trump&#8217;s deepening 
connections with the industry.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on May 5, a Democratic staffer with knowledge of the 
matter said that House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine 
Waters planned to lead some members of her party out of a Republican-led 
hearing discussing digital assets. The May 6 hearing, entitled &#8220;American 
Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets&#8221; and led by Committee Chair French 
Hill, could address draft legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers to 
establish a crypto market regulatory structure.
In a May 5 statement, Rep. Hill and three top Republicans unveiled the draft 
bill, which could clarify the treatment of digital assets by the US&#8217;s 
financial regulators: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the 
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Hill and others echoed some of 
Trump&#8217;s talking points on crypto &#8212; e.g, making the US a &#8220;crypto capital of 
the world&#8221; &#8212; suggesting deference to the president&#8217;s previously announced 
policies.
The draft bill included a provision requiring the SEC and CFTC to issue joint 
rules defining digital commodities. According to the text, transactions 
involving digital commodities &#8220;shall be deemed not to be an offer or sale of 
an investment contract&#8221; as long as the purchaser did not have &#8220;an ownership 
interest or other interest in the revenues, profits, or assets.&#8221;
According to the Democratic staffer, rules required all members of the House 
Financial Services Committee to agree to move forward with the digital asset 
hearing, suggesting that Waters intended to block the Republican-controlled 
event and conduct a shadow hearing to explore Trump&#8217;s and his family&#8217;s ties to 
the crypto industry. At least nine Democrats have reportedly considered a 
similar move to oppose a proposed stablecoin bill in the Senate.
## Calls for impeachment, criticism from both sides
Some members of Congress have already called for Trump&#8217;s impeachment after he 
offered the opportunity for some of his top memecoin holders to tour the White 
House and attend a private dinner. In addition to the memecoin, the 
president&#8217;s family has backed the firm World Liberty Financial, which recently 
launched its own stablecoin, and an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm used the 
USD1 stablecoin to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance.
_**Related:**__**US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin 
dinner**_
Waters, according to the staffer, requested that Hill and Republicans amend 
any proposed legislation to explicitly prevent potential conflicts of interest 
in which Trump could personally enrich himself through crypto ventures. 
Cointelegraph reached out to Hill&#8217;s office but did not receive a response at 
the time of publication. The Arkansas lawmaker reportedly said in March that 
the Trump family&#8217;s involvement in the crypto industry makes related 
legislation &#8220;more complicated.&#8221;
Republican lawmakers in the United States currently have control of the House, 
Senate, and presidency. At least two senators supportive of Trump have 
criticized his memecoin dinner, hinting that the president was selling access 
to his office. It&#8217;s unclear at the time of publication who among the memecoin 
holders could attend the May 22 dinner in person.
_**Magazine:**__**Trump &#8216;s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider 
trading questions**_
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it 
becomes available.