SHELL Buyback Address has once again withdrawn 1 million tokens from Binance, and the buyback progress has reached 81.2%.

**May 9th Market Update** - **U.S. Equities (Bitget Data):** U.S. stocks closed at another record high Friday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit their third all-time highs this week. The U.S. chip index surged 5.5%, with Intel leading semiconductor gains: Intel jumped ~14% on a preliminary chip outsourcing deal with Apple. Other chip movers: Nvidia (+1.75%), AMD (+11.4%), Qualcomm (+8%). **Crypto-related U.S. stocks:** MicroStrategy (MSTR) +4.31%; Coinbase (COIN) +4.25%; Circle (CRCL) +0.37%; BitMine Immersion (BMNR) +0.77%. **U.S. Storage Sector:** Seagate (STX) +2.11%; Western Digital (WDC) +3.47%; SanDisk (SNDK) +16.6%; Micron (MU) +15.49%. - **Crypto Market (HTX Data):** Crypto markets saw a modest uptick. Bitcoin held steady at $80k; Ethereum currently at $2300; Solana (SOL) broke above $90. Total crypto market cap rose 0.9% in 24h to $2.76T. **Top Altcoin Gainers:** ONDO +30.6% → $0.459; SAHARA +22.4% → $0.031; CHIP +21.2% → $0.007; ICP +20.75% →

Local time May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump said at the White House the U.S. could restart the "Freedom Plan"—an effort to de-escalate tensions around stranded vessels in the Strait of Hormuz—and he expected Iran to respond that evening to the U.S.-proposed bilateral agreement. Trump noted he saw the Freedom Plan as a solid concept but emphasized there were alternative ways to resolve the situation. If no progress is made, he added, the U.S. might roll out an **upgraded** version of the plan, which would include extra measures beyond the original framework. Per monitoring by PolyBeats, the prediction market Polymarket currently puts the probability of the Strait of Hormuz remaining navigable by the end of this month at 28%.

On May 9, per Onchain Lens data, the USDT issuer Tether burned 2 billion USDT on the Ethereum network. Since April 18, Tether has minted 5 billion USDT—2 billion of which was burned 5 hours ago.

**US Senator Elizabeth Warren Urges Meta to Disclose Stablecoin Plans** On May 9, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking the company to share its latest stablecoin plans and raising concerns over its recent push to integrate stablecoin payments. Warren called Meta’s stablecoin project transparency “deeply troubling,” especially given its past rollout of the Libra (later rebranded Diem) global stablecoin initiative—an effort that sparked widespread regulatory controversy. She argued Meta’s new payment and financial service moves should face close scrutiny. Warren has requested Meta provide details of its stablecoin pilot program by May 20, including the launch timeline, participating third-party stablecoins, and associated privacy and risk mitigation measures. Meta reportedly tested USDC-based stablecoin payment features with select content creators in the Philippines and Colombia in April. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee—where W

May 9 — CCTV News reports that local officials in Iran’s Hormozgan Province announced on May 8 (local time) that the U.S. military attacked a civilian vessel at the Port of Minab on May 7, setting the ship ablaze. The incident killed one person, injured 10 others, and left four missing. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) notes that no commercial vessels have transited the Strait of Hormuz for three consecutive days.

On May 9, Intel (INTC.O) extended its gains to 15% per Bitget market data, hitting a new all-time high.