Top Crypto Moves in May 2026

The month began with a major structural shockwave when Coinbase, the largest publicly listed digital asset exchange in the United States, announced a sweeping 14% reduction in its global workforce. The cuts affected approximately 693 employees and are expected to generate up to $60 million in restructuring and severance costs.

Rather than presenting the layoffs purely as a reaction to continued weakness in crypto markets, CEO Brian Armstrong framed the move as part of a broader transition toward an AI-driven operating model.

Key Elements of Coinbase’s Strategy

• AI-Centric Development: Coinbase disclosed an internal target of having 50% of its core programming code generated by AI tools, while institutionalising the use of platforms such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor. According to Armstrong, engineers using AI are now able to complete projects in days that previously required weeks of work from entire teams. 
• Corporate Simplification: In an effort to reduce organisational friction, Coinbase removed several management layers and redesigned its structure to maintain no more than five operational layers below the CEO and COO.
• Market Response: Investors reacted positively to the stronger focus on efficiency and cost discipline. COIN shares rose more than 4% in pre-market trading immediately following the announcement.

On the regulatory front, the United States took one of its most significant steps toward formalising crypto regulation in years. The CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633) successfully advanced through a key Senate committee markup vote, breaking months of political deadlock surrounding stablecoin yield structures and receiving strong support from crypto advocates such as Senator Cynthia Lummis.

With the US appearing increasingly ready to move beyond its long-criticised “regulation by enforcement” approach, market participants immediately began assessing how the emerging American framework compares with more mature international regulatory regimes.

While the advancing CLARITY Act may finally resolve the long-running jurisdictional conflict between the SEC and the CFTC, comparative analyses published throughout the month highlighted that the United States is still playing catch-up in several critical areas of crypto regulation. Jurisdictions such as the European Union (through MiCA), Singapore (MAS), and Dubai (VARA) already operate under fully implemented exchange licensing regimes and strict local stablecoin reserve frameworks that the US is only now beginning to formalise.

The realities of navigating a difficult public listing environment caught up with Kraken in mid-May. Reports published on 15 May indicated that the major crypto exchange had postponed its highly anticipated US IPO until 2027.

The delay came only four weeks after co-CEO Arjun Sethi publicly stated at the Semafor World Economy event in Washington that the company’s confidential S-1 filing remained fully on schedule. The reversal highlights the growing disconnect between strong operational performance and increasingly cautious public equity markets.

Key Factors Behind the Delay

• Strong Internal Performance: Kraken’s core business remains financially strong. The company generated $2.2 billion in revenue and $530.6 million in adjusted EBITDA during 2025, while continuing to expand through acquisitions such as Bitnomial and tokenisation-focused platforms like Backed Finance. 
• Weak Listing Environment: Despite solid fundamentals, mixed post-listing performance among crypto peers, combined with industry-wide job cuts exceeding 5,000 positions this year, created a less favourable environment for a public offering.
• Cost Optimisation: Reflecting broader trends across the technology sector, Kraken also reduced approximately 150 jobs while expanding the use of internal AI-driven tools and automation systems.

The most dramatic casualty of the changing crypto landscape emerged during the weekend of 17 May, when Bitcoin Depot Inc. officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

In an immediate liquidation move, the company shut down its entire network of more than 9,000 crypto ATMs worldwide. The announcement triggered a collapse in Bitcoin Depot’s stock price (NASDAQ: BTM), which fell by 72.8% in pre-market trading on Monday, 18 May.

CEO Alex Holmes directly blamed what he described as an unsustainable operating model caused by increasingly restrictive local regulation. Over the past year, several US states imposed tighter transaction limits, expanded compliance obligations, increased consumer remediation requirements, and in some cases introduced outright restrictions on cash-to-crypto services.

Restructuring specialists noted that Bitcoin Depot’s collapse may serve as a warning sign for the broader crypto ATM industry, where rising compliance costs and expensive cash logistics have severely compressed operating margins.

Toward the end of the month, Kraken demonstrated that the industry’s restructuring trend is not only about reducing costs, but also about identifying more scalable and capital-efficient revenue streams. On 27 May, following its acquisition of crypto-native prop trading firm Breakout, Kraken officially launched Kraken Prop, becoming the first major cryptocurrency exchange to directly operate an evaluation-based proprietary trading program.

The move introduces the increasingly popular funded-trading model to the retail crypto market, shifting the focus from capital ownership to trading performance.

Core Features of Kraken Prop