On May 26, OpenZeppelin co-founder and former CTO Manuel Aráoz said he views all DeFi as unsafe and urged friends and family to exit positions including Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound. The remarks spread quickly on X and drew immediate rebuttals, including claims that most recent DeFi losses were tied to operational failures rather than smart-contract bugs. Data cited in the debate includes more than $1.1 billion in DeFi hack losses over the last 365 days and a TVL decline from about $172B in January to $148B in May 2026.

More than 1,400 liquidity pools linked to legacy DxSale contracts on BNB Chain were emptied in a $7.3 million exploit flagged on May 29. Investigators said some proceeds, including 2,958 BNB worth $1.87 million, were funneled across wallets and routed through services such as AnySwap before reaching Binance deposit addresses. DxSale had not issued a public statement at the time of reporting.

Gravity Bridge, an Ethereum–Cosmos cross-chain bridge, lost about $5.4 million on May 30, 2026 in an incident on-chain analysts tied to a possible bridge contract key compromise. The attacker took mostly USDC alongside ETH, USDT, and PAYG, and later swapped much of the stolen assets into native ETH. Parts of the funds were reported to have moved through ChangeNow and Binance, while a large balance was still held in ETH at the time of reporting.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said banks will oppose the CLARITY Act, after the bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee on May 14, 2026. He argued the current draft would let crypto platforms offer deposit-like yields on stablecoin balances without bank-equivalent capital, liquidity, and AML/KYC obligations. Dimon also criticized Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's lobbying push, while Coinbase said banks are seeking regulatory capture to protect net interest margins.

Christian Menefee, a pro-crypto Democrat, defeated longtime Rep. Al Green in Texas' 18th Congressional District Democratic primary runoff after receiving major support from crypto-linked political action committees. The contest underscored the industry's rising role in U.S. elections, with Menefee campaigning on blockchain innovation while Green opposed key crypto bills and warned of risks tied to digital assets.

On May 29, 2026, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a policy statement describing how it expects perpetual contracts to be listed and reviewed. It said perpetuals tied to asset classes not contemplated in its approval of KalshiEX LLC's BTCPERP contract should be voluntarily submitted for Commission review and approval under Regulation 40.3, rather than relying solely on self-certification.

France's AMF says 90 crypto firms operating in the country must secure full MiCA authorization by June 30, 2026, or leave the market. The regulator says only fully authorized CASPs will be allowed to serve clients from July 1, 2026, while firms without a license must plan an orderly wind-down to protect users' assets.

A Hyperliquid vault called “Long HYPE & BTC, Short Garbage” recorded a 638% APY over the past month while holding about $3.03 million in total value locked. The strategy runs 70% HYPE and 30% BTC on the long side and shorts a basket of at least 10 high-FDV, high-emission coins, with shorts representing roughly 60% of notional exposure. The article notes the approach is an aggressive leveraged long-short trade and not a low-risk yield product.