Gate Research Institute: The stablecoin "GENIUS Act" has been voted through｜Bitcoin breaks $110,000 to set a new historical high

Summary

1. BTC ETF inflows are strong, BTC breaks $110,000, setting a new historical high.
2. ETH is mainly in a volatile market, and the ETH/BTC exchange rate has not shown a significant reversal.
3. The stablecoin "GENIUS Act" has been voted through.
4. Solana Mobile announced the trustless architecture of the Seeker device and the native token SKR.
5. Worldcoin completed a $135 million OTC token financing on May 21, with participation from a16z.
6. Gate Launchpool launches Giza, with a total prize pool of 500,000 GIZA.

Market Interpretation

Market Commentary

BTC Quote – BTC topped $110,000 for the first time on May 22, hitting a new all-time high for the first time in March. BTC has basically shown a unilateral upward trend in the past month and a half, and from the daily level of the Bollinger Bands, BTC is currently in the upper and middle range. $103,000 becomes a strong support point for the short-term market, and 111,500 is a short-term resistance point for the market.

• ETH Market —— In the past 7 days, ETH has primarily experienced narrow fluctuations. After briefly rising to around $2,700 on May 13, ETH dropped to around $2,300 earlier this week, despite BTC reaching new highs. ETH has not broken through $2,700 again. After the ETH/BTC exchange rate rebounded above 0.026, it has fallen for several consecutive days, currently reported at 0.0235. ETH's market share also surged and then retreated. The fundamental aspects of ETH's projects have not shown significant improvement.
• Altcoins —— In the past 7 days, the altcoin market has performed relatively average, with Meme and AI Agent still being the best-performing sectors in the market. However, despite BTC reaching new highs, the overall altcoin market has not significantly followed suit. In terms of market sentiment, the Fear and Greed Index remains in the greed zone.
• Futures Market —— In the past 7 days, the buying and selling ratio of Bitcoin has been overall positive, indicating a short-term bullish outlook on Bitcoin's price trend. In the past week, nearly $1.5 billion flowed into BTC ETFs, showing that institutional investors are optimistic about Bitcoin's future market.
• Macroeconomic Data — There has been almost no impact on the market from macro policies or data releases in the past week, and the U.S. stock market has fallen for two consecutive days.
• Stablecoin —— The total market capitalization of stablecoins has surged by 2.7% to $249.15 billion, with additional off-exchange funds flowing in.
• Gas Fee - With the overall market recovery, trading activity on the Ethereum chain has become significantly more active in recent days. As of May 22, the average gas fee for that day was 1.01 Gwei.

Popular Concepts

The price of bitcoin hit another all-time high this week, with altcoins mixed and no significant collective gains. According to Coingecko data, three sectors, including Meme, AI Agent, and Solana Ecosystem, rose better than the market average this week, rising by about 6.86%, 6.52%, and 4.55% respectively in seven days. The commonality of the above three sectors is that the development of technology or narrative has a high degree of popularity, and all of them belong to the recent hot track.

Meme

Memes are not only an entertainment tool in the cryptocurrency space, but also a sentiment indicator. They reflect the sentiment, consensus, and trends of market participants, often fueling bull markets and triggering the FOMO effect. Popular meme coins spread fast and have great influence, often driving short-term spikes in the price of related tokens, becoming an important catalyst for market fluctuations. ——The sector has risen significantly in the past 7 days, with the overall increase of 6.86% in the sector, among which MOONPIG, HOUSE, and KENKU have risen prominently.

AI Agent

AI Agents are playing an increasingly important role in the cryptocurrency market. It can analyze large amounts of data in real time, identify transaction patterns, and assist in decision-making, improving investment efficiency and accuracy. In a highly volatile market, AI Agent can quickly respond to price changes, capture arbitrage opportunities, and reduce human emotional interference, becoming a key tool to deal with market complexity. The altcoin market is still relatively sluggish, and as the most important narrative of combining crypto with the mainstream world, AI Agent is expected to continue the market that has led the market over the past two years. ——IN THE PAST 7 DAYS, THE SECTOR HAS RISEN BY 6.52%, AMONG WHICH SENTAI, COOKIE, FARTCOIN AND OTHERS HAVE OUTPERFORMED.

Solana ecosystem

The Solana ecosystem has become a key engine for the growth of the crypto market due to its high performance and low cost. Its strong scalability has attracted a large number of DApps, DeFi and meme projects to emerge, driving capital and user activity. The popularity of the Solana chain often indicates a change in market sentiment and has a significant impact on the overall market trend, which is an important weather vane that cannot be ignored. ——In the past 7 days, the sector has risen by 4.55%, among which, ZBCN, GRASS, SPX, etc. have risen prominently.

This Week's Focus

The stablecoin "GENIUS Act" has passed the motion for voting and is entering the amendment process.

On May 20, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed a motion to debate the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) by a vote of 69 in favor and 31 against. The GENIUS Act requires stablecoin issuers, such as Circle's USDC, to hold highly liquid assets such as U.S. dollars or Treasuries and to disclose audit reports on a regular basis. This provides a clear compliance path for stablecoin projects and reduces legal risks. The bill clarifying the non-security or commodity nature of payment stablecoins will reduce the regulatory overlap between the CFTC and the SEC for issuers and simplify the compliance process.

The successful passage of the bill provides a clearer compliance prospect for stablecoin projects, which is conducive to the market expansion of leading issuers such as USDC, which will promote CEX listings and on-chain trading volume growth in the short term. The revision phase of the bill (from May 22) will be key, and the final design of the provisions will have a direct impact on the compliance costs and innovation space of the project. Follow-up will need to focus on the progress of the Senate vote (expected June-August) and the details of the terms to adjust the strategy in response to regulatory changes. USDC's compliance advantages and the potential passage of the bill will create growth opportunities for payment-related agreements, but small and medium-sized projects need to be wary of compliance pressures and market concentration risks.

Solana Mobile announced the Seeker device with a trustless architecture and native token SKR.

Solana Mobile, a Solana Labs subsidiary, has unveiled the next steps for its upcoming Seeker devices, including a new trustless architecture, a native token, and a shipping date. The Seeker is Solana Mobile's second-generation device and is scheduled to begin shipping on August 4. The device has already reached 150,000 units in pre-sales, with an estimated total revenue of at least $67.5 million. The new architecture, called TEEPIN (Trusted Execution Environment Platform Infrastructure Network), aims to provide a trustless engagement environment. In addition, Solana Mobile will launch the ecosystem's native asset token "SKR"

As Solana Mobile's second-generation Web3 smartphone, Seeker is expected to continue the success of Saga (released in April 2023), compared to Saga, which sold out by the end of 2023 due to the memecoin craze, Seeker emphasizes non-"memecoin phones", integrating hardware Seed Vault, Seeker ID, and an optimized Solana dApp store to improve the on-chain interactive experience (such as one-click signing).

At the same time, SKR, as the native token of the Solana Mobile ecosystem, aims to transform traditional mobile business models through economic incentives and ownership distribution. It is expected that SKR will shift users, developers, and hardware manufacturers from "passive consumers" to "community owners." In the medium to long term, the launch of Seeker will be beneficial for promoting the continuous development of the Solana ecosystem.

The Hong Kong legislature will pass the "Stablecoin Ordinance Draft", and institutions are expected to apply for compliance to issue stablecoins by the end of the year.

According to Hong Kong Legislative Council member Wu Jietzhuang (@Johnny_nkc), on May 21, 2025, he posted on the X platform that the Hong Kong Legislative Council has passed the "Stablecoin Ordinance Bill" (hereinafter referred to as the "Bill") in three readings. It is expected that by the end of 2025, institutions will be able to apply to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for a compliant stablecoin issuance license. The Bill requires that any fiat-backed stablecoin (with fiat currency as reserve assets, such as US dollars or Hong Kong dollars) or stablecoin claiming to peg the value to the Hong Kong dollar must obtain a license from the HKMA.

This provides a compliance path for global stablecoin issuers (such as Circle, Tether), and Wu Jiezhuang's article emphasizes that Hong Kong welcomes global institutions to apply for licenses, attract global issuers and promote the development of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins, as well as the application of stablecoins in Asian payment and DeFi scenarios, USDC's compliance advantages will accelerate its adoption in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong dollar stablecoins need to break through market limitations.

Highlight Data

Tether has once again issued 2 billion USDT on the Tron network.

According to Onchain Lens, Tether recently issued 2 billion USDT on the Tron network. The additional issuance provides the Tron network with sufficient inventory to meet transaction demand and on-chain swaps (such as asset transfers from Ethereum to Tron). Thanks to the advantages of low cost and fast confirmation, Tron's USDT circulation has recently surpassed Ethereum, accounting for 37.9% of the stablecoin market share, leading by about 30%. According to statistics, Tether has issued a total of 18 billion USDT on the Tron network this year.

!

This additional issuance will effectively increase the trading activity of the Tron network, and at the same time, Tether's inventory management supports the memecoin boom (such as SUNDOG and TBULL rose by more than 30%), which may push up the price of TRX in the short term. In the medium and long term, it will further consolidate Tron's dominance as a stablecoin, with USDT in circulation expected to exceed 80 billion, consolidating Tron's leading position in cross-border payments and DeFi applications.

BlackRock IBIT has accumulated inflows of 8.9 billion USD this year, ranking among the top five in ETF fund inflows.

The BlackRock IBIT Bitcoin ETF has accumulated annual net inflows of $8.9 billion and is currently ranked fifth among global ETFs in terms of year-to-date flows. In the past month, the fund has absorbed $6.5 billion in inflows and has reached $66.9 billion in assets under management, ranking fourth behind VOO, VTI and SPLG. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen a total of $7.6 billion in net inflows in 2025, including $7.4 billion in the past month.

IBIT's huge net inflows show a surge in investment demand for Bitcoin in the market. The monthly inflow of $6.5 billion accounted for 88% of the industry's total, indicating that funds were concentrated in top products, reflecting investors' trust in the brand of global asset management giant BlackRock. At the same time, Bitcoin's impressive gains since 2024, including a recent record high of $110,000, have been greatly affected by ETF inflows, and the strong performance of IBIT has formed a positive feedback with the rise in Bitcoin prices, attracting more traditional investors to the crypto market and driving the price of Bitcoin to new highs.

Polymarket's market prediction this month is that ETH will reach 3,000 USD with a 30% probability.

According to data from Polymarket's official website, the market predicts a 30% probability that the price of Ethereum (ETH) will hit $3,000 in May 2025, and only a 3% chance of hitting $3,500, with a total market turnover of about $10.29 million (about 4,000 ETH). Polymarket, as a decentralized prediction marketplace based on the Polygon network, uses USDC for trading, and the data transparency can be verified by Polygonscan.

!

Polymarket's prediction data provides investors with real-time market sentiment indicators for ETH prices. A 30% probability of $3,000 indicates that the market has limited confidence in a breakout above the current price, while a 3% probability of $3,500 reflects a pessimistic outlook for a significant increase. This aligns with the recent sideways movement of ETH prices (between $2,600 and $2,700), indicating that the market is in a wait-and-see state.

The fundamentals of the ETH project have not seen significant progress. Although the Pectra upgrade optimizes Layer-2, fragmentation (incompatibility between Optimism and Arbitrum) increases the complexity of user experience. There has been no noticeable inflow of funds into Ethereum ETFs, and institutional investors are taking a wait-and-see approach, making ETH less attractive compared to Bitcoin ETFs. However, thanks to solid fundamentals, ETH has long-term investment value.

Market Opportunities

Gate New Listing

The new project to watch this week is: Giza.

Giza Protocol is a blockchain-based decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) platform that aims to simplify the complexities of decentralized finance (DeFi) through autonomous proxies, transcending the limits of human cognition. Giza optimizes DeFi operations such as yield strategies, cross-protocol interactions, and market analysis through its flagship agent, ARMA, and a semantic abstraction layer. Giza provides a trustless protocol that supports AI model inference through zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and empowers the open-source AI economy. Here's how to participate:

Preparation

• Gate Account: Register and complete user authentication;
• Recharge Assets: Ensure that there is sufficient ETH or BTC in the account, this Launchpool only supports ETH and BTC.

Participate in Staking

• Time window: May 20, 2025 21:00 - May 27, 2025 23:59 (UTC+8)
• Steps: First, log in to Gate and enter the [Launchpool] page; Second, select the Giza project and click [Join Now]. Finally, enter the pledge amount, and you can participate after confirmation.
• Total airdrop amount: 500,000 GIZA
• Individual participation limit: 10 BTC / 300 ETH

Financing Weekly Report

This week, several projects successfully completed financing, involving a wide range of applications in areas such as infrastructure and developer platforms. According to RootData, from May 16 to May 22, a total of 9 projects announced they had secured financing. Here are some highlights from popular projects:

Worldcoin

Closed a $135 million OTC token funding round on May 21 with participation from a16z, Bain Capital, Mirana Ventures, and others. The WLD token is up nearly 60% in the last 30 days and is trading at $1.9 billion today, ranking 53rd in the market.

World (originally named Worldcoin) is a project aimed at building a globally universal digital identity and financial infrastructure, co-founded by OpenAI founder Sam Altman. Through core products such as World ID, World App, and World Chain, World utilizes biometric and privacy protection technologies to verify real human identities and promote the concept of "proof of humanity." The project's vision is to achieve inclusive finance and identity autonomy, enhancing accessibility for fair participation in the digital age globally.

The participation of top institutions marks the high recognition of Worldcoin's vision of "Global Digital Identity + Financial Inclusion" by mainstream capital. At the same time, this also boosts the market's confidence in the AI identity track, indicating that institutions will further promote the integration of Web2 and Web3 identity applications.

Catena Labs

Completed a $18 million seed round financing on May 20, led by a16z. Catena Labs is a fintech company founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville, dedicated to building the world's first "AI-native" compliant financial institution, specifically designed for AI Agents.

Catena Labs' vision is to provide a dedicated financial infrastructure for the growing AI economy, enabling AI agents to securely conduct identity verification and financial transactions. To achieve this, Catena Labs has launched the Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), an open-source toolset that supports the identification and payment capabilities of AI agents. By building a financial system that adapts to the needs of AI agents, Catena Labs aims to drive collaboration between humans and AI agents, ushering in a new era of the intelligent economy.

True Markets

Closed a $11 million Series A funding round led by Accomplice on May 20. True Markets is a fintech company focused on stablecoin-native DeFi trading, founded in 2024 by Vishal Gupta and Patrick McCreary. True Markets has launched the True Markets App, a mobile trading app based on the Solana blockchain, offering a non-custodial, stablecoin-settled on-chain trading experience. The platform supports Solana-native asset trading and adopts a non-custodial architecture, where user assets are managed by an external custodian to ensure the safety of funds.

True Markets aims to provide a faster and safer trading experience through a native settlement method using stablecoins, reducing transaction costs and enhancing transparency. Its vision is to build a global, always-on DeFi trading platform that offers users a fair and transparent trading environment, promoting the popularization and development of crypto finance.

Focus Next Week

Token Unlock

According to Tokenomist data, the market will see significant unlocking of some important tokens in the next 7 days (2025.5.23-2025.5.29). The top 3 unlocks are as follows:

• SOL will unlock approximately $80 million worth of tokens in a linear fashion over the next 7 days, accounting for 0.09% of the circulating supply; currently, approximately 6,654 SOL are unlocked daily, with a market value of around $11 million. TRUMP will unlock approximately $49.22 million worth of tokens in the next 7 antenna shapes, representing 1.73% of the circulating supply; Currently, TRUMP unlocks about 493,000 per day, with a market value of about $7.03 million; TRUMP currently has a circulating supply of 26% and a total token supply of around 1 billion.
• WLD will unlock approximately $43.87 million worth of tokens in the next 7 antennas, representing 2.49% of the circulating supply; Currently, about 5.32 million WLDs are unlocked every day, with a market value of about $6.26 million; WLD currently has a circulating supply of 32.77% and a total token supply of around 10 billion.

**Reference Source** - Cointelegraph, https://cn.cointelegraph.com/news/us-senate-moves-forward-genius-stablecoin-bill - Theblock, https://www.theblock.co/post/355227/blackrock-ibit-enters-top-5-etfs-by-flows - X, https://x.com/Johnny_nkc/status/1925109853753917609 - X, https://x.com/OnchainLens/status/1925156975165497814 - X，https://x.com/StoryProtocol/status/1924823865840267668 - Foresight News, https://foresightnews.pro/news/detail/73369 - Polymarket，https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-bitcoin-hit-in-may/will-bitcoin-reach-200k-in-may?tid=1747883009423 - Gate, https://www.gate.io/zh/launchpool/GIZA?pid=300
[Gate Academy](https://www.gate.io/learn/category/research) is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that provides readers with in-depth content, including technical analysis, hot insights, market reviews, industry research, trend forecasting, and macroeconomic policy analysis.

Disclaimer *Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves a high level of risk, users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products purchased before making any investment decisions. Gate shall not be liable for any loss or damage resulting from such investment decisions. *