Gate Ventures Weekly Crypto Recap (May 11, 2026)

TL;DR

• The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite surged to all-time highs, driven by strong tech earnings, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged amid weakness in energy stocks.

• April payrolls and ADP data signaled a resilient labor market, but one that remains soft enough to avoid a wage-price spiral.

• The ISM Services Prices Index surged to 70.7, marking a two-year high and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s higher-for-longer interest rate narrative.

• STRC continued trading below par for the third consecutive week, resulting in no ATM issuance and no BTC purchases by Strategy.

• TON surged after Telegram announced it would replace the TON Foundation as the main force behind the ecosystem and become the network’s largest validator.

• SUI gained strongly after institutional staking demand increased and Paga announced its integration with the Sui network for stablecoin and payment use cases.

• South Korea confirmed a 22% crypto gains tax, set to take effect in January 2027.

• Telegram further deepened its role in the TON ecosystem as Pavel Durov stated that the company would become the network’s largest validator.

• Forward Industries and RockawayX backed OnRe to expand tokenized reinsurance on Solana.

Macro Overview

S&P 500 Marked Record High From Tech Earnings, Employment Situation Report And ADP Show Labor Market Resilience, ISM Shows Inflationary Signs

The S&P 500 moved from 7,228.38 to 7,398.93, a 2.36% gain, marking the third consecutive weekly gain and a new all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite rose from 25,112.18 to 26,247.08, a 4.52% weekly advance, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained only 0.39% as energy plummeted 5.55% following the retreat in crude prices. Russell 2000 small caps rose 1.83%, indicating participation beyond mega-cap growth, but the primary engine remains mega-cap AI and tech earnings, pushing the broader market toward record highs despite underlying sector rotations.

The April Employment Situation Report reflects a “low-hire, low-fire” labor market, with nonfarm payrolls rising by a modest 115,000. While job gains in healthcare and retail helped keep the unemployment rate steady at 4.3%, the underlying data reveal growing fragility. A significant surge of 445,000 individuals working part-time for economic reasons suggests a cooling demand for full-time labor. Average hourly earnings growth is moderating to 3.6% year-over-year. Furthermore, the net downward revision of 16,000 for previous months indicates that the post-war recovery lacks genuine acceleration. Complementing this resilience, ADP private payrolls surprised to the upside, adding 109,000 new jobs, significantly outpacing the 84,000 consensus. Combined with historically low initial jobless claims of 200,000, these indicators portray a U.S. economy that is cooling only gradually. The reports provide the Federal Reserve with a signal that employment is resilient enough to avoid an immediate recession, yet soft enough to prevent a wage-price spiral, reinforcing the higher-for-longer policy narrative.

The April macro data reveals a resilient but inflationary services sector, with the ISM Services PMI holding in expansionary territory at 53.6. While the headline figure suggests steady growth, the Prices Index surged to 70.7, the highest level since late 2022, indicating that sticky input-cost pressures remain a primary risk. The combination of firm labor demand and persistent services inflation complicates the case for near-term rate cuts.

Geopolitical risks and energy prices remain the primary drivers of macro volatility following the Iranian peace proposal. Although Brent retreated toward $108 after the US naval blockade held firm, the physical buffer in global oil inventories remains critically low. This supply-side shock is feeding directly into services inflation. While the S&P 500 reached new highs, the persistent price pressure in crude oil complicates the Federal Reserve’s decision.

Looking ahead, CPI will be the central catalyst. If inflation is near or below expectations, risk assets can extend gains, the dollar may remain soft, and yields could drift lower. If CPI or PPI reaccelerates inflation in sectors like services, the market expects a repricing toward fewer Fed cuts, stronger dollar pressure, and renewed volatility in growth equities. (1)

DXY

The US Dollar Index weakened from 98.05 to 97.84, a 0.21% decline for the week, amid stronger equities and higher gold. The trend suggests that investors did not treat the payroll beat as a decisive hawkish repricing event and are balancing resilient growth against the Fed’s complicated situation and geopolitical uncertainty.

DXY direction next week should depend largely on the outcome of CPI and PPI to be released next week. A softer inflation print would likely reinforce dollar weakness and support risk assets, while a heated services or core inflation reading could revive dollar strength. (2)

US 10-Year and 30-Year Bond Yields

The 10-year Treasury yield fell modestly by 3.6 bps, from 4.400% to 4.364%, while the 30-year yield declined from 4.982% to 4.947%. The movement shows that the bond market did not interpret the April payroll report as a major reacceleration shock. Long term yields remain elevated, reflecting inflation risk, fiscal concerns, and energy uncertainty. Investors are currently balancing inflation risks against the expectation that slowing growth will eventually cap further yield advances. (3)

Gold

Gold rose from $4,581.20 to $4,720.40, a 3.04% weekly gain, driven by a favorable macro environment of softening Treasury yields and a weaker dollar. Gold is drawing support from broader geopolitical risks and mounting concerns regarding central bank inflation credibility. As real-rate pressures eased, investors intensified demand for gold as a diversification tool and a hedge against political instability. (4)

Crypto Markets Overview

Main Assets

BTC Price

ETH Price

ETH/BTC Ratio

BTC rose 4.6% last week, while ETH gained 2.1%. Spot BTC ETFs recorded $622.7M in net inflows, marking the fifth consecutive week of inflows, while spot ETH ETFs saw $70.5M in net inflows. (5)

Market sentiment also improved, with the Fear & Greed Index returning to neutral at 48.

Total Market Cap

Crypto Total Marketcap

Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding BTC and ETH

Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding Top 10 Dominance

The total crypto market cap surged 4.8% last week. Excluding BTC and ETH, the market posted an even stronger 6.3% gain, while the altcoin market cap excluding the top 10 assets by market capitalization surged 12.6%, signaling renewed strength across higher-beta altcoins. (6)

STRC Performance

STRC recorded US$919M in trading volume last week, with all trades executed below its US$100 par value. This marked the third consecutive week of trading below par, resulting in no ATM issuance during the week.

Based on its Q1 2026 earnings call, Strategy signaled a more flexible treasury approach, stating that it may sell small portions of its BTC holdings to fund dividends on its STRC preferred shares.

The rationale is that BTC’s long-term appreciation can be partially monetized to meet dividend obligations. Previously, Strategy had mainly relied on issuing or selling MSTR equity to fund these payments, which led critics to argue that the model was overly dependent on continuous stock issuance.

Among Strategy’s financial instruments, STRC accounted for 87% of total trading volume, up from 79% the previous week. The next largest were SATA (Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock) at 4.5% and STRK (Convertible perpetual preferred stock) at 3.8%. (7)

With no ATM issuance and at Strategy’s discretion, no Bitcoin was purchased last week.

Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance

Source: Coinmarketcap and Gate Ventures, as of 11th May 2026

Among the top 30 assets, prices surged 7.8% on average, TON, ZEC, and SUI led the gain.

TON rallied after Pavel Durov announced that Telegram would replace the TON Foundation as the main driving force behind the ecosystem and become Toncoin’s largest validator. Traders viewed Telegram’s direct involvement, new developer tools, lower fees, and upcoming performance upgrades as a major growth catalyst, pushing TON up 72.4%. (8)

ZEC surged 39.3% after Multicoin Capital confirmed a long-term position in Zcash, triggering renewed institutional interest and strong buying across both spot and derivatives markets. (9)

SUI surged 38.5% after a Nasdaq-listed company disclosed a large-scale staking position in SUI, signaling strong institutional confidence in the network. Momentum was further boosted by Nigerian fintech giant Paga’s integration with Sui at the Miami event, positioning the chain for real-world stablecoin accounts, RWA access, and cross-border payment use cases. (10)

The Key Crypto Highlights

Kraken parent Payward seeks OCC trust charter as crypto firms move closer to banking

Kraken’s parent company Payward has applied for a US OCC national trust company charter, which would allow it to establish Payward National Trust Company and provide federally regulated digital asset custody and fiduciary services. The filing follows similar approvals for Coinbase, Ripple, BitGo, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos, highlighting a broader shift where major crypto firms are moving closer to regulated banking infrastructure. The application also builds on Kraken Financial’s Wyoming SPDI status and Federal Reserve master account access, while supporting Kraken’s wider US expansion strategy ahead of a potential IPO by 2027. (11)

South Korea confirms 22% crypto gains tax from January 2027

South Korea’s Finance Ministry has confirmed that its long-delayed crypto gains tax will take effect from January 2027, taxing annual virtual asset profits above 2.5 million won at 22%, including 20% income tax and 2% local tax. The move ends years of postponements and could affect more than 13 million investors, while the National Tax Service is preparing detailed guidance with major exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax. The confirmation comes despite continued industry pushback, especially around tougher AML reporting rules that exchanges warn could sharply increase compliance burdens. (12)

Telegram deepens TON role as Durov says it will become network’s largest validator

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the main driving force behind TON and become the network’s largest validator, marking a shift from product integration toward direct infrastructure involvement. The move is expected to bring lower fees, new developer tools and performance upgrades, while further tightening TON’s connection with Telegram’s user base and Mini App ecosystem. Toncoin rose 33.8% after the announcement, though key details remain unclear, including the TON Foundation’s future role and Telegram’s validator stake. (13)

Key Ventures Deals

Forward Industries and RockawayX back OnRe to expand tokenized reinsurance on Solana

Forward Industries and RockawayX co-led a $5 million Series A investment into OnRe, a Bermuda-regulated onchain reinsurance company building tokenized reinsurance products on Solana. Separately, Forward also plans to deploy up to $25 million into ONyc, OnRe’s yield-bearing reinsurance token, which gives onchain investors exposure to diversified underwriting cash flows while remaining integrated across Solana DeFi venues for lending and collateral use. The move reflects growing institutional interest in tokenized insurance and non-correlated real-world yield strategies, with Forward positioning ONyc as part of its broader Solana treasury strategy focused on expanding beyond native staking into durable USD-denominated RWA income streams. (14)

Elastics raises $2M pre-seed to build AI-native operating system for prediction markets

Elastics raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Frst, with participation from angels linked to ElevenLabs, XBTO, RedStone and a16z Scout Fund participants. The Warsaw-based startup is building an AI-native operating system for prediction markets that allows users to “trade with words” through natural-language interfaces, while AI agents automate research, execution and risk management across platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi. The funding will be used to expand AI and quantitative talent, as prediction markets increasingly evolve into a broader AI-driven financial trading category. (15)

OpenTrade raises $17M to expand institutional stablecoin yield infrastructure

OpenTrade raised $17 million in a strategic funding round led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC and CMCC Global, bringing its total funding to over $30 million. The company is building institutional-grade infrastructure for stablecoin yield products and onchain real-world asset lending, including permissionless vault systems and curated yield strategies spanning money market funds, commercial paper and trade finance assets. The raise comes after OpenTrade surpassed $200 million in TVL and processed more than $250 million in transaction volume in 2025, as fintechs, neobanks and asset issuers increasingly seek compliant stablecoin-based yield infrastructure. (16)

Ventures Market Metrics

The number of deals closed in the previous week was 10, with Infra having 5 deals, Social having 1 deal, and DeFi having 4 deals.

Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 11th May 2026

The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $34.2M, 2 deals in the previous week didn’t announce the raised amount. The top funding came from the DeFi sector with $24M. Most funded deals: OpenTrade ($17M).

Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 11th May 2026

Total weekly fundraising declined to $34.2M for the second week of May-2026, a decrease of 80% compared to the week prior.

About Gate Ventures

Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate.com, is focused on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the world in the Web 3.0 age. Working with industry leaders across the globe, Gate Ventures helps promising teams and startups that possess the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.

Website | Twitter | Medium | LinkedIn

The content herein does not constitute any offer, solicitation, or recommendation. You should always seek independent professional advice before making any investment decisions. Please note that Gate Ventures may restrict or prohibit the use of all or a portion of the services from restricted locations. For more information, please read its applicable user agreement.

Reference:

1. S&P Global Week Ahead Economic Preview:

2. DXY Index, TradingView:

3. US 10 Year Bond Yield, TradingView:

4. Gold Price, TradingView:

5. BTC & ETH ETF Inflow:

6. BTC Greed and Fear Index:

7. Micro Strategy STRC Dashboard:

8. Telegram Takes Over TON Ecosystem:

9. Multicoin Fuels Institutional Interest in ZEC:

10. Institutional Adoption and Paga Integration Boost SUI:

11. Kraken parent Payward seeks OCC trust charter as crypto firms move closer to banking:

12. South Korea confirms 22% crypto gains tax from January 2027:

13. Telegram deepens TON role as Durov says it will become network’s largest validator:

14. Forward Industries and RockawayX back OnRe to expand tokenized reinsurance on Solana:

15. Elastics raises $2M pre-seed to build AI-native operating system for prediction markets:

16. OpenTrade raises $17M to expand institutional stablecoin yield infrastructure: