Iranian Foreign Minister: U.S. Demands Excessive, Position Contradictory, Hindering Negotiation Process

On May 23, HTX market data shows GMT saw a short-term surge, breaking above $0.0139 and logging a nearly 30% gain over just two hours. According to Coinglass data, GMT futures open interest has surged 131% in the past four hours — a development that typically signals continued significant price volatility. Current open interest for the contracts stands at $31.22 million.

On May 23, the European Central Bank (ECB) nixed a proposal to ease rules on Euro-denominated stablecoins, warning such changes would pose too big a risk to financial stability and monetary policy transmission. At an informal meeting of EU finance ministers in Nicosia, Cyprus, the think tank Bruegel suggested slashing liquidity requirements for stablecoin issuers and letting them tap ECB funding when needed—moves aimed at curbing the dominance of U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins and staving off "digital dollarization." But officials including ECB President Christine Lagarde pushed back hard, arguing stablecoins would erode bank deposits, drive up banks’ funding costs, reduce their lending capacity, and derail interest rate control. While some finance ministers leaned ambivalent on the plan, several central bank officials raised red flags about the ECB acting as a "lender of last resort" for stablecoin issuers. Right now, the EU enforces strict stablecoin regulations under the MiCAR frame

May 23: Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine—Ethereum’s largest treasury—expressed excitement that BitMine (ticker: BMNR) has been named to the preliminary candidate list for the Russell 1000 Index. BMNR’s market capitalization has surpassed the $5.7 billion minimum threshold required for inclusion in this large-cap benchmark. Notably, many active fund managers restrict their investments exclusively to Russell 1000 components, and an estimated 20 to 25 percent of the total market cap of these index constituents is held by passive index funds or ETFs.

May 23: Crypto analytics platform Santiment reported that the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF has logged a roughly $1.26 billion net outflow over the past six trading days—a move Santiment says could paradoxically serve as a "reverse buy signal" for Bitcoin. The firm notes that ETF fund flows here track retail investor sentiment more closely than shifts in positions held by "smart money" players. In May, some retail investors grew frustrated after Bitcoin couldn’t hold above the $80,000 threshold; currently, BTC trades around $75,400, down from its May 16 peak of about $79,000. Santiment adds that historically, sustained ETF outflows often correspond to a phase "well-suited for patient accumulation" rather than widespread market panic. This view clashes with the mainstream market narrative, though. Most analysts contend that continuous outflows from U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs typically point to weakening sentiment and potential further price downside. On another front, Bloomberg ETF analyst

May 23 – Israeli officials have confirmed to Israel’s Channel 12 News that the country has struck a deal with the United States to prevent Iran from retaining uranium enrichment capabilities. Concurrently, Israeli security agencies are bracing for the possibility that U.S. President Donald Trump could decide to launch military action against Iran in the coming days. The outlet reports that the Israeli military has been placed on high alert to avoid a further escalation of tensions with Iran. Right now, U.S.-Iran negotiations and the broader Middle East situation remain highly fraught; global markets are closely monitoring the Strait of Hormuz, energy supplies, and whether the U.S. will intervene directly in the conflict.

May 23 – Digital asset trading platform BitradeX hosted its first-anniversary summit in Bangkok, Thailand, from May 9 to 12, 2026. The event brought together over 1,500 global ecosystem partners, industry builders, technical teams, quantitative experts, and capital representatives to celebrate the platform’s first-year milestones and preview its upcoming ecosystem roadmap. One of the summit’s most anticipated highlights was BitradeX’s on-site Porsche 911 award, given to the winner of the event’s pinnacle invitational race. This high-profile prize underscored BitradeX’s longstanding commitment to supporting its core community members and ecosystem contributors. During the gathering, BitradeX announced its global registered user base has surpassed 2 million. The platform also climbed to the No. 64 spot on CoinMarketCap, demonstrating its market influence and rapid growth rate. For the first time, BitradeX revealed its three-year future ecosystem strategy, with AI and real-world ass