U.S. stocks opened mixed on Friday, with the S&amp;P 500 looking to clock a fifth consecutive day of gains. As markets opened for the final trading session of the week, Wall Street saw the S&amp;P 500 rise 0.1% to hover…

S&P 500 opens higher as bulls target 5-day winning streak

At least one partner at Sequoia Capital was reportedly impacted by the recent 
data breach among Coinbase users, suggesting that data from others at the 
venture capital firm may also have been compromised.
According to a May 16 Bloomberg report, Sequoia Capital Managing Partner 
Roelof Botha&#8217;s personal information available through his Coinbase account was 
stolen after a group of cybercriminals bribed the exchange&#8217;s support agents 
for access to user data. Though Botha had not publicly disclosed his net 
worth, estimates suggested he had hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.
Coinbase disclosed the data breach in a May 15 blog post, saying that some of 
its users had been targeted with social engineering attacks after the 
criminals had access to their personal account information. The company said 
the group attempted to extort $20 million in exchange for not disclosing the 
breach, which Coinbase rebuffed.
Though the extent of the breach was still unknown, another Bloomberg report 
suggested that the same type of attacks targeted users at Kraken and Binance. 
Cointelegraph reached out to representatives from both exchanges but had not 
received any response at the time of publication.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it 
becomes available.

Sequoia Capital exec also a victim in Coinbase data breach — Report

Eric Trump, speaking at the Consensus 2025 conference in Toronto on May 15, 
painted a picture of a world scrambling for Bitcoin. He said he hears the same 
thing everywhere he goes—on planes, in boardrooms, even from big state funds. 
His comments came as he joined Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot on a panel about where 
Bitcoin is headed next. Related Reading: XRP Frenzy Builds: Over $1 Billion in 
Open Interest Signals Breakout Tension Global Bitcoin Hunt According to Eric 
Trump, “Everybody in the world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now.” He added 
that sovereign wealth funds and the wealthiest families are all in on the 
rush. He even mentioned hearing the buzz from some of the world’s largest 
companies. His point: Bitcoin isn’t just a niche play anymore. It has moved 
into heavy‑duty territory where major players compete for every last coin. 
Major Mining Merger Based on reports, American Bitcoin—a unit co‑founded by 
Eric Trump and his brother and owned by Hut 8—struck a deal on May 12 to merge 
with Gryphon Digital Mining. The structure is an all‑stock exchange, meaning 
shareholders of both firms will wake up next year with shares in the same new 
company. The partners say that this combined group will list on Nasdaq in Q3 
2025, opening the doors for regulated markets to tap into mining profits 
without holding Bitcoin directly. Shares Jump After Deal Investors reacted 
fast. Gryphon’s stock jumped over 200% after news of the merger hit, and Hut 8 
also saw gains. That kind of move tells you how hungry Wall Street is for 
anything tied to the next Bitcoin halving cycle. Mining companies tend to gear 
up for halving‑driven scarcity. By merging, these two hope to share resources, 
boost hash power, and raise their profiles before the reward cut in 2024 
pushes prices up. Related Reading: Analysis: Crypto Heats Up As $35 Billion 
Enters Market In Under A Month Political Pushback Grows Not everyone is on 
board. A group of House Democrats walked out of a digital assets hearing 
earlier this month, upset that questions about ethics slipped by. On May 13, 
Senate Democrats sent a letter urging US President Donald Trump to unload all 
cryptocurrency stakes, including stablecoins tied to hard assets. They’re 
worried about conflicts of interest if the White House can tweak rules that 
affect family ventures. One watchdog group, State Democracy Defenders Action, 
says crypto holdings make up about 40% of the Trump family’s worth, which is 
close to $3 billion. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin Panic Buying? Eric Trump Says The World Is Stockpiling BTC

Steak &#8216;n Shake&#8217;s Bitcoin adoption may accelerate crypto integration in 
mainstream commerce, appealing to tech-savvy consumers and boosting 
innovation.
The post Fast-food giant Steak &#8216;n Shake debuts Bitcoin payments via Lightning 
Network appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Fast-food giant Steak ‘n Shake debuts Bitcoin payments via Lightning Network

Solv Protocol has launched a yield-bearing Bitcoin token on the Avalanche 
blockchain, giving institutional investors more exposure to yield 
opportunities backed by real-world assets, or RWAs.
On May 16, the protocol unveiled SolvBTC.AVAX, a token that connects Bitcoin 
(BTC) to real-world assets like US Treasurys and private credit offered by 
BlackRock and Hamilton Lane.
The new token was developed through a seven-way partnership involving Solv, 
Avalanche, Balancer, Elixir, Euler, Re7 Labs, and LFJ, the company said.
Solv Protocol founder Ryan Chow said the token is a way to link Bitcoin to 
&#8220;real-world economic cycles&#8221; in uncorrelated assets such as US government 
bonds and private credit, as opposed to BTC&#8217;s typical boom-and-bust four-year 
cycle.
The token uses a multi-protocol strategy to generate yield involving Elixir&#8217;s 
deUSD stablecoin, Treasurys provided by BlackRock and Hamilton Lane via 
Elixir, and incorporated on the lending platform Euler to increase RWA 
exposure.
&#8220;The yield is received in BTC format,&#8221; a Solv Protocol spokesperson told 
Cointelegraph 
 _Elixir deUSD is a synthetic dollar with nearly $220 million in market 
capitalization. Source:__RWA.xyz_
Solv is a Bitcoin-centric staking platform that offers yield strategies across 
various blockchains and decentralized finance applications. The protocol 
commands more than $2.3 billion in total value locked, according to industry 
data.
_Solv Protocol &#8216;s TVL. Source: __DefiLlama_
 _**Related:**__**Bitcoin supply crunch boosts confidence in $200K target for 
2025 &#8212; Bitwise CIO**_
## The race to offer Bitcoin yield intensifies
Demand for Bitcoin yield solutions has grown amid the recent wave of 
institutional adoption of digital assets.
Earlier this month, crypto exchange Coinbase launched the Bitcoin Yield Fund, 
which aims to offer annual returns of between 4% and 8% on BTC holdings.
The yield will be earned through a cash-and-carry strategy, which involves 
purchasing BTC in the spot market and selling a corresponding futures 
contract, Coinbase said.
CoinShares analyst Satish Patel predicted the growing interest in Bitcoin 
yield in December, noting that more investors now see BTC &#8220;not only as a store 
of value but also as a means to generate yields.&#8221;
While there are many ways to generate Bitcoin yield, such as leveraging 
derivatives or yield farming, Michael Saylor&#8217;s Strategy introduced its own 
&#8220;BTC Yield&#8221; metric to measure the performance of its investment strategy.
Strategy&#8217;s BTC Yield, which measures how much additional Bitcoin it&#8217;s 
acquiring relative to its outstanding shares, is currently 15.5% year-to-date, 
according to the company.
_**Magazine:**__**Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is &#8216;best case,&#8217; SOL, HYPE 
tipped for gains: Trade Secrets**_

Solv brings RWA-backed Bitcoin yield to Avalanche blockchain

In recent weeks, a wave of publicly listed companies disclosed new bitcoin 
purchases intended for their balance sheets, and two more enterprises have now 
declared similar intentions. One is a craft distilling company based in the 
United States, while the other operates in Singapore’s medical services 
sector—both announcing plans to add BTC to their corporate […]