Crypto
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Solana soars on CME futures announcement

Derivative marketplace CME Group, which already offers futures on bitcoin and ethereum, said that it will add Solana to its roster, spiking the cryptocurrency up 4% immediately after the announcement at 9 a.m. ET to $145.

Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, said in the press release that the move is in response “to increasing client demand for a broader set of regulated products to manage cryptocurrency price risk.”

“The launch of SOL futures is a significant milestone in the ongoing maturation of the cryptocurrency market,” Teddy Fusaro, president of Bitwise Asset Management Inc., said in the press release.

Solana, which is also the blockchain underpinning many meme coins like $TRUMP and dogwifhat, also is likely benefiting from the SEC’s new guidance released yesterday that meme coins are not securities as they do not pass the Howey test. The long-awaited guidance clarifies the regulatory environment for traders, who will “not need to register their transactions” in meme coins per the guidance, which likens the coins to collectibles.

A smaller win for solana came from popular wallet MetaMask, which announced it will add support for solana in May, followed by bitcoin in the third quarter.

The one-two-three punch is a nice win for solana, which has seen huge growth in the past year largely due to the explosion of meme coins. Next, it hopes to join the list of crypto ETFs.

Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, said in the press release that the move is in response “to increasing client demand for a broader set of regulated products to manage cryptocurrency price risk.”

“The launch of SOL futures is a significant milestone in the ongoing maturation of the cryptocurrency market,” Teddy Fusaro, president of Bitwise Asset Management Inc., said in the press release.

Solana, which is also the blockchain underpinning many meme coins like $TRUMP and dogwifhat, also is likely benefiting from the SEC’s new guidance released yesterday that meme coins are not securities as they do not pass the Howey test. The long-awaited guidance clarifies the regulatory environment for traders, who will “not need to register their transactions” in meme coins per the guidance, which likens the coins to collectibles.

A smaller win for solana came from popular wallet MetaMask, which announced it will add support for solana in May, followed by bitcoin in the third quarter.

The one-two-three punch is a nice win for solana, which has seen huge growth in the past year largely due to the explosion of meme coins. Next, it hopes to join the list of crypto ETFs.

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Ethereum gives up its 2026 gains

As the overall market goes risk-off amid geopolitical tensions, ethereum has decreased 7% in the last 24 hours and is basically flat for 2026.

The cryptocurrency is hovering just below $3,000, a more than 10% pullback from this year’s high of around $3,350. The recent drawdown is the sharpest in the last 24 hours among its peers. Over the same period, bitcoin is down 3.6%, XRP dipped 5.2%, solana slumped 5.6%, and dogecoin tumbled 4%. 

Meanwhile, leading ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies, which recently announced a $200 million investment into Beast Industries, acquired an additional 35,268 ethereum tokens worth $108 million last week, bringing its total to 4.2 million tokens worth nearly $12.7 billion at current prices. 

The firm also allocated 581,920 tokens for staking, ethereum’s security mechanism. Participation has been on the rise, and the entry queue to start staking is multiple times longer than the exit line.

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Ethereum parent chain sets new record in daily transactions

On Wednesday, the ethereum parent chain logged its highest-ever transaction count at over 2.5 million transactions, a roughly 34% increase from 1.9 million transactions on the first day of the new year, data from blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows. 

Artemis research analyst Alex Weseley told Sherwood News the largest drivers of the network’s transaction growth stems from Circle and Tether’s stablecoins, USDC and USDT, as usage of both are up over 200% year over year. 

“It has also been interesting to see that the average transaction fee has remained low at < $0.20 per transaction, compared to the $52 average transaction fee paid when transaction counts peaked in 2021,” Weseley added.

The all-time high follows the activation of Pectra and Fusaka last year, two network upgrades aimed at enhancing the scalability of ethereum. “The changes ethereum is making to scale the L1 are starting to pay off, though we are still in the early innings,” Weseley said.

The price of ethereum has increased ~7% in the past seven days, outpacing its peers bitcoin, XRP, solana, and dogecoin. Meanwhile, spot ethereum ETFs trading in the US have seen almost $415.9 million in total inflows during the year so far, with $175 million from Wednesday alone, per SoSoValue. 

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When will bitcoin break $100,000 again?

Bitcoin is having a strong start to 2026 that could see it catch up with precious metals’ rally. Bitcoin ETFs are also rallying, and saw their second consecutive day of massive inflows, recording $843.6 million on Wednesday, according to SoSoValue, bringing the total for the week to $1.7 billion.

Jake Kennis, research analyst at Nansen, told Sherwood News that a combination of easing inflation fears, geopolitical safe haven demand, stronger ETF inflows, and a technical breakout above $94,000 to $96,000 resistance are all converging to push BTC toward $100,000.

“The rally has solid institutional and onchain backing, but elevated leverage in futures markets and profit-taking by top traders near the $97K–$100K psychological resistance could trigger volatility,” Kennis said.

While bitcoin has retreated after nearing key resistance levels, Timot Lamarre, director of market research at Unchained, said that despite the asset having been well off all-time highs, it is set up for a sustainable run above $100,000.

“Institutions continue to open up bitcoin buying opportunities to new pools of capital, the macro environment continues to move toward significant monetary easing, and governments, companies, and individuals continue to increase their bitcoin stockpiles,” he said.

The analytics team at B2BINPAY echoed the sentiment, saying that the market structure remains bullish, “with potential to reach $100–105K in the coming weeks, potentially reaching the $120K–140K range later in 2026 if demand stays in place.” 

A failure would likely mean a pullback to the $88,000 to $90,000 range, where liquidity is already concentrated, they said.

“Another crucial marker is leverage. Funding rates and open interest are far from extreme, with total OI at around $65B. That’s high. Yet, it’s still below the prior record/near-record zone seen in 2025, around $72B–$75B. So the market isn’t stretched,” the analysts said.

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.