Ethereum’s supply on centralized exchanges has dropped to its lowest level in over 10 years, as large holders and institutions continue to accumulate the asset. According to a May 19 update by Santiment, less than 4.9% of Ethereum&#8217;s (ETH) total…

Ethereum exchange supply drops to 10-year low amid strong whale accumulation — is $3000 ETH price incoming?

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Bitcoin developer Ben Allen has received a $100,000 grant from investment firm 
Maelstrom to support the development of Payjoin, a privacy-focused tool aimed 
at improving Bitcoin&#8217;s scalability and privacy.
According to a May 20 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Maelstrom will 
finance Allen&#8217;s work on his Payjoin devkit alongside Dan Gould. The system 
allows Bitcoin (BTC) senders and receivers to use batched transactions, with 
positive implications for scalability and privacy.
_Payjoin Developer Kit &#8216;s website. Source: __Payjoin Dev Kit_
Payjoin was first proposed by Nicolas Dorier in 2019 in Bitcoin improvement 
proposal (BIP) 78. The core principle behind the system is that both senders 
and receivers may contribute inputs to a transaction.
&#8220;Namely that privacy is enhanced and improved consolidation of transaction 
outputs is achieved, benefiting scalability,&#8221; the Maelstrom announcement 
states.
A Maelstrom representative told Cointelegraph that grantees are paid monthly 
for a total of $100,000 per year in Bitcoin and Allen&#8217;s grant will last one 
year. There are no concrete milestones and the grant is managed on a hands-off 
approach:
&gt; &#8220;We believe grantees may work better with freedom to work on what they wish, 
&gt; rather than being tightly controlled by those who provide the funding.&#8221;
_**Related:**__**Bitcoin privacy will survive despite CoinJoin closure &#8212; 
zkSNACKs CEO**_
## Payjoin: Soon in wallets near you?
Allen will be working on improving Payjoin implementations, with the clear 
objective of making it possible for the feature to be added to more wallets. 
He explained that the funding will enable him to work on the project full 
time.
The announcement points out that the system presents challenges, with the 
receiver needing to be online and the payment communication flow being more 
complex than normal non-interactive Bitcoin transactions. Maelstrom&#8217;s chief 
investment officer and BitMEX crypto exchange co-founder and former CEO Arthur 
Hayes said that &#8220;improving financial privacy in Bitcoin is extremely 
important.&#8221; He added:
&gt; &#8220;The great thing about Payjoin is that if only a small amount of adoption is 
&gt; achieved, it breaks a key assumption used by financial surveillance 
&gt; companies. The assumption they have is that if a Bitcoin transaction has 
&gt; multiple inputs, all the inputs must all belong to the same entity.&#8221;
A Maelstrom representative explained to Cointelegraph that the firm &#8220;is keen 
to support more grantees in the privacy area.&#8221; The company is actively seeking 
candidates with strong track records in Bitcoin privacy projects.
_**Related:**__**What are privacy coins and how do they differ from 
Bitcoin?**_
## Enjoy the benefits whether you use it or not
Hayes noted that &#8220;Payjoin adoption improves the privacy of even the people who 
don&#8217;t use it.&#8221; Allen said he believes privacy is important for Bitcoin users 
to enjoy a better experience and control their financial data when using it 
daily.
Allen told Cointelegraph he is &#8220;building out benchmarks to help downstream 
developers implement Payjoin in individual wallet software as well as 
expanding test coverage to ensure consistent and reproducible code.&#8221; He 
explained that encouraging its adoption &#8220;is the biggest step we can take for 
simplifying the experience and encouraging Payjoin adoption by moving the 
complexities mostly away from the user.&#8221;
The Maelstrom representative told Cointelegraph that &#8220;a key metric for Payjoin 
success would be adoption by popular open source Bitcoin wallets.&#8221; &#8220;In 
particular if the BitcoinCore wallet ever adopts it, that would be a huge 
signal of success,&#8221; they added.
_**Magazine:**__**Big Questions: What did Satoshi Nakamoto think about ZK- 
proofs?**_

Bitcoin privacy tool Payjoin receives $100K grant from Maelstrom

The founder of the Ugandan blockchain and crypto education institution 
Mitroplus Labs was abducted by armed criminals posing as law enforcement. The 
criminals demanded $500,000 and access to the founder&#8217;s cryptocurrency 
wallets. Crypto Abduction Threat Spreads to Africa On May 17, Festo Ivaibi, 
founder of the Ugandan blockchain and crypto education institution Mitroplus 
Labs, became […]

Crypto Abduction Threat Spreads to Africa; Ugandan Founder Targeted

Solana (SOL) has reclaimed crucial levels amid its price rally, recording its 
highest range in months. However, as the market’s recovery takes a pause, the 
cryptocurrency has hit a key level that could propel or delay its surge to new 
highs. Related Reading: Chainlink Struggles At Key Resistance Level – $10 
Support Back In Focus Solana Rally Faces Key Barrier Solana’s price has 
significantly surged over the past several weeks, recovering from April’s 
pullback and breaking out of its downtrend. After its January all-time high 
(ATH), SOL retraced up to 63%, hitting a 14-month low of $95 last month. 
However, Solana climbed above some crucial ranges during the late April market 
recovery, reclaiming the $140 resistance as support for the first time in two 
months. Since then, the cryptocurrency rallied nearly 30% to the $180 mark, 
recording a three-month high of $183 last week before retracing to the $170 
support. Crypto Trader Mercury noted that Solana reached a “very HTF infection 
point,” which could send the cryptocurrency’s price to new ATHs again if 
reclaimed. However, the market slowdown has stalled SOL’s rally, with its 
price falling to the $165-$170 range over the weekend. After its recent 
performance, the trader added that SOL was rejected from the key inflection 
point “just enough to allow for a retest of the same trend that got us here in 
the first place.” Based on this, he considers that reclaiming the $180 mark 
and eventual breakout to news ATHs is on the horizon, “as long as that 4H 
200MAs trend holds.” Meanwhile, analyst Cas Abbé pointed out that Solana’s 
multi-year trend remains intact despite the recent pullbacks. As he explained, 
the cryptocurrency is over 50% up from its multi-year ascending trendline 
retest, seemingly marking the bottom for Solana. The analyst considers that 
SOL January ATH could not be the top, and another record-breaking rally could 
come this year. Similarly, trader Coinvo highlighted the ascending trendline, 
“If SOL continues to hold this trendline, it’s going much higher!” SOL eyes 
$200 Breakout Over the weekend, analyst Rekt Capital asserted that Solana has 
broken into its Post-Halving Re-Accumulation Range on the monthly timeframe, 
successfully retesting the $120-$135 range as support over the past couple of 
months. This key higher timeframe retest propelled the cryptocurrency to 
revisit the $165-$175 range’s high. However, he explained that Solana must 
break above the upper boundary to confirm a breakout and continue ascending, 
which it failed to do during last week’s close. SOL also must break and retest 
the upper boundary as a new support with a Weekly Close above this mark to 
exit the key range. Additionally, the analyst pointed out that previous 
performance suggests a price breakout could happen. Related Reading: Dogecoin 
On The Edge: Major Breakout Or Breakdown Imminent? According to its Q4 2024 
price action, if Solana builds a base around the Range high’s resistance, 
there’s a high chance for the price to rally. The analyst added that a 
successful breakout from this zone could send SOL’s price to the $200-$210 
mark. “SOL simply needs stability here at the Range High resistance, as that 
would telegraph that this is an area that is becoming support,” Rekt capital 
concluded. As of this writing, Solana trades at $165, a 3.1% decline in the 
daily timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Solana Rejected From Key ‘Inflection Point’, But Multi-Year Trend Suggests New Highs

**Key takeaways** :
 * Bitcoin is nearing a golden cross that led to 45-60% price rallies in the recent past.
 * Fundamentals like rising M2 supply and easing trade tensions support a bullish outlook.
 * Bearish divergence and overbought conditions show there&#8217;s still a risk of BTC falling below $100,000.
Bitcoin (BTC) will likely confirm a &#8220;golden cross&#8221; on its daily chart by the 
end of May, a technical pattern whose occurrences in recent years often 
preceded rallies.
_Source:__Benjamin Cowen_
## Previous golden crosses led to 45-60% BTC price rallies
As of May 20, Bitcoin&#8217;s 50-day simple moving average (50-day SMA; the red 
wave) was eyeing a close above its 200-day SMA (the blue wave) for the first 
time since October 2024, forming a golden cross.
_BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView_
Previously, BTC price had gained over 60%, with the reelection of Donald Trump 
as the US president playing a key role.
In October 2023, the golden cross was followed by a 45% BTC price rally, 
helped by Bitcoin ETF euphoria. September 2021 saw 50% gains in BTC price 
after painting a similar SMA crossover.
## Bitcoin&#8217;s golden crosses can fail
Using indicators that worked in the past is not a guaranteed strategy.
Traders learned that in February 2020, when Bitcoin&#8217;s golden cross preceded a 
62% price crash, primarily due to the global market rout led by the COVID-19 
lockdowns.
_BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView_
That episode underscores the importance of using golden crosses with broader 
technical and macro indicators while factoring in the possibility of 
unexpected events.
As of now, Bitcoin&#8217;s upcoming golden cross aligns with mostly supportive 
fundamentals, placing the signal on the bullish side of the ledger.
Increasing M2 money supply and easing US-China trade tensions, for instance, 
have propelled bets on a new record high for Bitcoin.
_Source:__Micha el van de Poppe_
What&#8217;s notable this time is that BTC is signaling a correction after its 
relative strength index (RSI) crossed above the overbought threshold of 70 
earlier in May.
_**Related:**__**Bitcoin trading in six-figure territory shows BTC is ready to 
carry gold &#8216;s &#8216;baton&#8217; &#8212; Fidelity exec**_
So, instead of an immediate rally after the cross, Bitcoin may initially pull 
back toward its SMA supports, sitting around the $92,400-95,000 range as of 
May 20.
_BTC/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView_
A growing bearish divergence between the rising Bitcoin price and falling RSI 
furthers the chances of short-term downside. Nonetheless, some technical 
indicators see the BTC price rallying toward $150,000 in the coming months.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and 
should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and 
opinions expressed here are the author&#8217;s alone and do not necessarily reflect 
or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.