Forbes: Iran Holds Around $7.7 Billion Worth of Digital Assets

May 21: Per Goldman Sachs data cited by Bloomberg, hedge funds are taking profits from semiconductor stocks after a sharp AI-driven rally. U.S. chip stocks have emerged as the most sold-off sector over the past month, with investors primarily cutting their long positions rather than placing short bets on the industry. Even amid this pullback, funds remain heavily invested in AI-related equities, with overall exposure holding near historical highs. Analysts attribute the sell-off to profit-taking and risk management, not a loss of confidence in the AI boom.

On May 21, crypto finance infrastructure firm Cycles announced it has closed a $6.4 million seed financing round. The round is led by Blockchange Ventures, with participation from backers including Coinbase Ventures, Compound VC, Primitive Ventures, and other investors. This brings Cycles’ total raised funding to $8.7 million to date. The new capital will support scaling efforts for Cycles Prime and Cycles Pay, while Lynq and FalconX will join as key strategic partners for the initiative. Founded by Ethan Buchman after spinning out from Informal Systems, Cycles was built to address two core pain points in the digital asset space: liquidity bottlenecks and settlement risks. The platform leverages zero-knowledge proofs and a trusted execution environment to facilitate multi-party netting settlements, cutting counterparty risks and easing liquidity constraints.

On May 21, Bitcoin hardware wallet firm Foundation announced it has closed a $6.4 million funding round led by Fulgur Ventures, with Arche Capital also participating. This brings the company’s total funding to $16.5 million. The new capital will be used to accelerate business expansion, moving beyond its core Bitcoin self-custody wallet to areas including identity authentication, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and AI smart agent authorization. Source: The Block

On May 21, Anthropic announced it is in talks with Microsoft to lease computing power using Microsoft’s proprietary AI server chips to meet the growing demands of its AI model training and inference tasks. According to sources familiar with the matter, the discussions involve provisioning server-based computing resources built on Microsoft’s in-house chips via Microsoft’s data centers, which would become a key option for Anthropic to expand its computational resources. If the deal is finalized, it would serve as a major milestone in Microsoft’s AI chip commercialization efforts, as reported by The Information.

Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service provider, quietly filed for a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) on May 21.

May 21st — Former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Christopher Giancarlo, widely known as "Crypto Dad" for his early advocacy of digital assets, has joined Jefferies Financial Group Inc. as a senior advisor focused on investment banking, per Bloomberg. During his time at the CFTC, he oversaw the launch of the first Bitcoin futures contracts by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and CME Group Inc., and advanced self-regulation for Bitcoin derivatives.