Optimism has released its Q1 2024 report, which shows that the number of daily active addresses has reached 89,000 (a 23% increase compared to the previous period), and the daily transaction volume has increased to 470,000 (a 39% increase compared to the previous period). These indicators are slightly lower than the historical high point in Q3 2023.

LocalMonero, a peer-to-peer exchange for trading privacy coin Monero (XMR), has disabled all trades and will be taken down in six months, according to parent company AgoraDesk. The company cited a combination of internal and external factors for the decision, but did not provide specifics. The move follows a trend of P2P crypto trading platforms shutting down due to regulatory challenges, including LocalBitcoins and Paxful. LocalMonero's closure also comes amid pressure from regulatory authorities on privacy coins, with exchanges including Binance and Coinbase delisting tokens like Monero and Zcash.

On May 16th, Morgan Stanley disclosed in its Q1 13F filing with the SEC that it had invested $269.9 million in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to gain exposure to physical bitcoin ETFs. According to Fintel's data, this investment made it one of the largest holders of GBTC, after Susquehanna International Group (which invested $1 billion). Morgan Stanley is also one of many global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) that have disclosed investments in physical bitcoin ETFs, including Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, and UBS Group.

Coinbase is developing a service that will target Australia's self-managed pensions sector, according to the exchange's Asia-Pacific Managing Director John O'Loghlen. The move comes as self-managed funds in Australia have increasingly held crypto, with nearly A$1 billion ($664 million) allocated to crypto as of the latest data from the Australian Taxation Office. O'Loghlen stated that Coinbase's offering will aim to service these clients on a one-off basis and retain their business. The interest in crypto within the self-managed pensions sector may be driven by the recent momentum gained after spot-ETF approvals in the U.S. and the possibility of similar approvals in Australia this year.

On May 15th, according to updated data on the official website of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Huobi HK's application for a virtual asset trading platform license submitted to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission was withdrawn on May 14th.

A government entity responsible for managing trust funds in Wisconsin, USA, disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it holds over 2.4 million shares of BlackRock's iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (IBIT) and over 1 million shares of Grayscale's Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), valued at approximately $100 million and $64 million, respectively. The filing suggests that the Wisconsin Retirement System may be investing in cryptocurrencies through these asset management companies.

LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino stated on social media that up to 100,000 addresses have been identified as witches. Previously reported on May 4th, LayerZero officials stated that all witch users were given a chance to self-report within the next 14 days and those who did would receive an expected distribution of 15%.

On May 14th, the Ethereum Foundation announced that the fifth round of the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) program is officially open for applications, with a deadline of May 26th.

According to a report on stablecoins released on May 7, Deutsche Bank analyzed 334 currencies linked to stablecoins and found that 49% of stablecoins had failed during their median lifespan of about eight to ten years. The analysts concluded that most anchored assets in the cryptocurrency field will experience significant "turbulence" caused by speculative sentiment and ultimately suffer some form of decoupling event. Deutsche Bank analysts also pointed out that Tether's reserve transparency was lacking and described the company's solvency as "doubtful".

The Ethereum developers held their 133rd ACDC conference call. First, they outlined the latest research on Ethereum protocol confirmation rules. Then, they discussed Pectra updates related to EIP-7547 and CFI states, and decided to put them on hold temporarily. They also updated the v1.5.0-alpha.1 specification. Regarding the implementation updates for devnet-0, most teams are making progress, but there are also some unexpected complexities. The goal is to complete devnet within 7-10 days.