8 May 2026: What's New in DeFi?
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1) Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, said during its Q1 2026 earnings call on May 5th that it may begin selectively selling BTC to fund dividends tied to STRC, its high-yield perpetual preferred stock that has raised $8.5B since launch.
The firm currently holds 818,334 BTC (~3.9% of total supply) valued at ~$66.5B.
Michael Saylor stated, “We’ll probably sell some bitcoin to fund the dividend, just to inoculate the market, just to send the message that we did it.”
He added that BTC would only need to appreciate at a 2.3% annual rate for existing holdings to indefinitely support STRC dividend obligations without further equity issuance.
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2) CME Group, the world's largest derivatives exchange, plans to launch cash-settled Bitcoin volatility futures on June 1 (pending regulatory approval), enabling traders to gain exposure to BTC volatility without taking directional exposure to Bitcoin’s price.
The contracts, expected to trade under the ticker BVI, will settle against the CME CF Bitcoin Volatility Index (BVX), a real-time 30-day implied volatility benchmark derived from CME’s regulated Bitcoin options order books and updated every second during trading hours.
Each futures contract will use a multiplier of $500 × the BVX index value, expanding CME’s crypto derivatives suite with a regulated volatility product designed for hedging, volatility trading, and institutional risk management.
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3) CME has launched futures contracts for Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI), further expanding its regulated crypto derivatives suite beyond BTC and ETH.
The new listings include both standard and micro contracts, giving institutional and professional traders more flexible exposure to two additional Layer 1 assets through CME’s regulated marketplace.
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4) State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Digital have launched the State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund, or SWEEP, a tokenised private liquidity fund designed to support 24/7 on-chain cash management.
The fund allows eligible stablecoin holders to sweep their assets into a yield-bearing product, subject to portfolio availability.
SWEEP launches on Solana, with additional integrations planned for Stellar and Ethereum.
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5) SoFi Technologies is set to bring its stablecoin, SoFiUSD, to Solana after initially launching it on Ethereum, citing the network’s speed, low transaction costs, and high throughput as key advantages.
The announcement was made on Tuesday, following the bank’s initial launch of SoFiUSD in December 2025.
The stablecoin, issued by SoFi Bank, is fully reserved and pegged to the U.S. dollar.
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6) Western Union has launched USDPT, a U.S. dollar-denominated payment stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and built on Solana.
USDPT is designed to serve as an always-on settlement asset within Western Union’s global network, combining blockchain-based settlement with the company’s compliance, risk management and distribution capabilities.
For Western Union, the stablecoin creates a more efficient settlement layer for partners, agents and future consumer use cases.
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7) Ondo has been selected to join DTCC’s Industry Working Group on tokenization, placing the firm alongside major traditional finance and digital asset institutions involved in shaping the next phase of U.S. market infrastructure.
DTCC’s tokenization initiative is aimed at bringing core capital markets processes on-chain, with a focus on improving liquidity, transparency and operational efficiency.
Ondo’s inclusion is notable given its positioning in tokenized stocks, ETFs and U.S. Treasuries, reinforcing the growing role of specialist tokenization platforms in institutional market design.
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8) The US SEC has delayed approval of over two dozen proposed prediction-market ETFs from issuers including Bitwise, Roundhill, and GraniteShares, requesting additional clarity on fund structure, pricing mechanisms, and investor risk disclosures.
These ETFs are designed to give retail investors exposure to prediction markets by wrapping event-based contracts (e.g. elections, recessions, commodity prices) into exchange-traded funds that can be bought and sold like stocks.
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9) MARA Holdings, a publicly traded Bitcoin mining company, has agreed to acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power for $1.5B, adding a 505MW gas plant and 1,600-acre site to support its expansion into energy-backed digital infrastructure.
The deal includes assuming ~$785M in debt with the remainder financed via cash and a backed bridge loan, and is expected to generate ~$144M in annualised EBITDA based on recent performance.
MARA plans to develop the site into a large-scale data centre and AI campus with over 1GW potential capacity, marking a strategic shift from pure BTC mining toward vertically integrated power and compute infrastructure.
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10) Ethereum-based digital asset treasury, Bitmine, has staked an additional 162,088 ETH (~$366M), according to on-chain data, bringing total staked holdings to 4,194,029 ETH (~$9.48B), 82.59% of its total ETH portfolio.
11) South Korea’s Shinhan Card, one of the country’s largest credit card companies, has partnered with the Solana Foundation to test real-world stablecoin payments on the Solana blockchain.
The partnership will involve a proof-of-concept project focused on payment scenarios between customers and merchants using Solana’s testnet.
The project will explore hybrid finance models that combine traditional financial services with DeFi infrastructure, including the use of oracles to connect real-world transaction data with blockchain networks.
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12) RealOpen, a platform that enables crypto holders to buy real estate using digital assets, has verified $9.4M in USDT on the TRON blockchain during a U.S. campaign promoting crypto-enabled real estate purchases, according to their announcement on the website.
The initiative, which ran from November 2025 to February 2026, attracted 343 sign-ups, 27 completed KYC verifications, and onboarded 69 real estate agents through the related TRON Real Estate Challenge.
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13) Meta has started offering eligible creators the option to receive payouts in USDC stablecoins through crypto wallets on the Solana and Polygon blockchains.
Creators can connect a supported wallet to Meta’s payout system and receive funds owed to them in USDC, with Stripe acting as the payments provider.
Meta said creators may also receive crypto-related reporting from Stripe and should keep both Meta and Stripe records for tax purposes.
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14) Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot has reached a $7B annualised run rate, after the payments giant expanded the programme to support nine blockchains.
The latest expansion adds Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo to Visa’s settlement infrastructure, joining existing support for Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar.
Visa said the broader rollout is designed to standardise stablecoin settlement across multiple blockchain networks while giving partners access to a single payments infrastructure layer.
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The Latest Listings – BILL
Billions Network is a verification platform for humans and AI agents. It allows users to prove that they are real, unique individuals while keeping their underlying personal information private.
The same verification framework is also extended to AI agents, giving them an identifiable profile linked to a creator, organisation or reputation history.
This becomes more relevant as AI agents begin to interact with users, applications and on-chain systems, where legitimacy, accountability and trust become increasingly important.
The platform is built around portable, privacy-preserving verification.
Rather than requiring users to verify separately with each application, Billions aims to let users complete verification once and reuse that proof across different products, communities and campaigns.
Its zero-knowledge design allows an application to confirm that a user meets a required condition – such as being a verified human or eligible participant – without exposing unnecessary personal data.
This makes the platform relevant for crypto-native use cases such as airdrop eligibility, sybil resistance, token launches, gated communities, loyalty programmes, reputation systems and AI-agent marketplaces.
What makes Billions distinct is that it does not stop at proof-of-personhood.
While many identity projects focus on verifying human users, Billions also addresses the question of how AI agents should be verified and trusted.
If agents are used to trade, automate workflows, communicate with users or interact with decentralised applications, they need some form of recognised identity and reputation.
Billions is positioning itself as infrastructure for that verification layer, enabling both people and agents to carry reusable credentials across the digital economy.
BILL is an ERC-20 token associated with the Billions Network ecosystem, with liquidity expanding across ecosystems, including BNB Chain and Mantle.
The Mantle integration adds a DeFi venue through Fluxion Network, giving BILL on-chain liquidity alongside centralised exchange access.
This broadens the token’s market structure: CEX listings support accessibility and trading volume, while DeFi pools allow holders to provide liquidity, earn fees or incentives, and support on-chain price discovery.
Bybit listed BILL on the Spot trading platform on May 4, 2026.
Since its spot listing, BILL has risen almost 1800%!
DISCLAIMER:
This article is provided for general information and reflects the author’s views only. It does not constitute investment advice, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instruments or digital assets. Your ability to access or use any products or services mentioned may be subject to the laws and regulatory requirements of your jurisdiction.