Grayscale Associated Address Buys Over 510,000 HYPE Tokens and Stakes Approximately $24.95 Million

May 21: Morgan Stanley’s Global Head of Technology M&A, Wally Cheng, said that as companies scramble to fill critical tech gaps in areas like semiconductors, power, networking, and infrastructure, artificial intelligence-focused mergers and acquisitions are spanning all deal sizes and expanding into a wide range of industries. Cheng noted, “I anticipate deal activity will cover the full spectrum, including both private and public companies.” While semiconductors—the chips that power AI computing—are highly valued as cutting-edge technological marvels, the broader ecosystem around these chips also holds massive potential, covering areas such as networking, storage, power, and real estate. Valuing the AI sector remains extremely challenging, he added, as it requires balancing hype-driven unicorns with seemingly boundless prospects against real-world implementation risks. Tammy Kiely, Senior Managing Director of Evercore’s Technology Investment Banking division, echoed this view. Sh

On May 21, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman announced in a post on the X platform that he has sold all of his Ethereum (ETH) holdings. In a related statement, fellow Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams outlined his future role with the community platform: he remains bullish on both ETH and Bankless. As Bankless enters its second era, Adams plans to step back from his core leadership duties—he will still host the weekly podcast, but will take a less prominent leading role in shaping content direction and handling guest interviews. Hoffman, meanwhile, will take full charge as the primary lead for these key areas moving forward.

NEW YORK, May 21 (Bloomberg) — Kalshi Inc. has received an additional $200 million in funding from two new investors, expanding the size of its ongoing financing round, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The new backers are Layer Global, led by Anton Levy, and Baillie Gifford, both making their first investments in the prediction market platform, the source said on condition of anonymity due to the private nature of the negotiations. Earlier this month, Kalshi announced on May 7 that it had closed a $1 billion funding round led by Coatue Management, which valued the company at $22 billion post-investment.

May 21: SoftBank Group’s stock price surged nearly 20% in early Tokyo trading, driven by news that OpenAI plans to submit an initial public offering (IPO) application. On the same day, SB Energy—SoftBank’s second portfolio company, which develops energy infrastructure for data centers—announced it will confidentially file a registration statement for a U.S. IPO. SoftBank has a close financial partnership with OpenAI: it holds an approximate 13% stake in the AI firm, with cumulative investments totaling around $64.6 billion through its Vision Fund. Insiders revealed that OpenAI expects to submit its IPO application in the coming weeks, targeting a public listing this fall.

South Korea’s stock market rallied sharply on May 21 after Samsung Electronics – the world’s largest memory chip maker – reached a preliminary deal with its labor union, eliminating the imminent strike threat it had faced. The benchmark KOSPI index surged as much as 6.4% on Thursday, with Samsung’s share price climbing nearly 7%. Its competitor SK Hynix jumped by up to 8.4%. A South Korean trading platform temporarily paused program trading for the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes following sharp gains in stock futures. Chip-related stocks also got a lift from NVIDIA’s better-than-expected earnings results. “The preliminary labor-management agreement is seen as a positive development because it reduces uncertainty,” Ha SeokKeun, chief investment officer at Eugene Asset Management, said. “What’s more, NVIDIA’s recent earnings call once again underlined exceptionally strong demand for AI-driven memory – particularly high-bandwidth memory and advanced DRAM.”

May 21 – The Federal Reserve proposed a new, more limited-payment account this Wednesday that would allow fintech firms and other companies to move funds through the Fed’s payment system, though without all the safeguards traditional banks get. In a release, the Fed noted this proposed account won’t have access to daylight credit or the Fed’s discount window, and reserves held at the Fed here won’t earn interest. The proposal grows out of the Fed’s earlier work on a stripped-down account. Right now, the central bank is aiming to strike a balance: opening up its payments infrastructure to more firms while avoiding unnecessary risks to the U.S. financial system.