Crypto Vesting

American fast food outlet Steak ‘n Shake has announced it will begin accepting Bitcoin as payment at all locations starting on May 16.

The firm said on X on May 9 that it was making the cryptocurrency available to more than 100 million customers, adding that “the movement is just beginning,” before signing off as “Steaktoshi.” 

The fast food chain initially hinted at accepting Bitcoin (BTC) in March when it posted “Should Steak ‘n Shake accept Bitcoin?” on social media. 

The tweet drew the attention of the crypto community and Bitcoin proponents such as Jack Dorsey, who rapidly replied with a “yes.” 

The firm has built momentum since then with Bitcoin-themed marketing, Tesla promotions, and visual hints on its social media feeds.

“The future is bright,” said the firm in April. Source: Stake n’ Shake

Related:

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Fresh off its most recent Bitcoin purchase, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet is raising more funds through another bond issue to expand its growing crypto treasury.

Through a $21.25 million issue of “0% Ordinary Bonds,” all the “funds raised will be allocated to the purchase of Bitcoin,” the firm said in a May 9 statement.

Zero-coupon bonds don’t offer any interest to the holder. Most of the time, they are issued at a steep discount from their normal value, and when they mature, the holder receives the full value.

After its most recent May 9 board of directors meeting, the firm said it will issue a 14th Stock Acquisition Rights to EVO Fund, an investment management firm in the Cayman Islands, with a redemption date of Nov. 7.

Source: Metaplanet

At current prices, Metaplanet could buy 206 Bitcoin (<a

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Ether surged 20% in the past 24 hours following the launch of the Pectra upgrade, with some crypto traders suggesting the growing number of ETH long positions could mark a “turning point” for the asset that has faced uncertain sentiment throughout most of 2025.

At the time of publication, Ether (ETH) is trading at $2,230, up 19.6% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. Pseudonymous crypto trader Daan Crypto Trades said it was a “pretty insane candle.” Over the same 24 hours, Ether Open Interest (OI) spiked 21%. 

Ether price pump caught traders offside

The surge followed the long-awaited Pectra Upgrade, which went live on May 7, introducing new wallet features, increased staking limits and scalability improvements to Ethereum.

Popular crypto trader Alex Kruger said on

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AI decentralized apps (DApps) have seen a spike in user activity and could soon challenge gaming and DeFi for the top spot in the DApp ecosystem, according to blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.

Gaming and DeFi are both sitting on 21% dominance in April, judged by percentage of unique active wallets, while AI has climbed to 16%, up from the 11% recorded in the February report, data in DappRadar’s April industry report shows.

“As user interest in artificial intelligence tools grows across industries, AI-powered DApps are steadily carving out their place in the decentralized ecosystem,” DappRadar analyst Sara Gherghelas said. 

“If this trend continues, AI could soon challenge the traditional dominance of DeFi and Gaming, signaling a new era in the DApp landscape.”

AI DApps have seen a jump in market dominance this month, while market leaders have declined slightly. Source: DappRadar

At the same time,

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Apple is reportedly working on its own microchips across multiple product categories, including smart glasses and artificial intelligence — a hint at what’s next for the massive Silicon Valley-based tech giant.

A May 8 report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said the company is working on new processors to power its future devices, including its first smart glasses to rival Meta’s Ray-Bans, more powerful Macs, and artificial intelligence servers.

The smart glasses — a first for Apple — would rely on a specialized chip codenamed N401. The processor is based on Apple Watch chips but is further optimized for power efficiency and designed to control multiple cameras planned for the glasses, the sources said. 

Apple’s smart glasses will initially be non-augmented reality versions that will include cameras, microphones and integrated AI, much like <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/meta-smart-glasses-orion-connect-event" rel="null" target="null"

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The 22-year-old developer of Zerebro, who apparently committed suicide during a livestream on May 4, is actually alive, according to a San Francisco news outlet that claims they spoke to Yu outside his family home. 

The San Francisco Standard reporter George Kelly claimed on May 8 that he briefly spoke with Yu outside of his family’s two-story home, where the crypto influencer refused to discuss the suicide allegations and whether he had financially benefited from it. 

Instead, Yu reportedly said: “You can see the PTSD in my eyes, right?” before asking the reporter to leave.

He was reportedly wearing a T-shirt, shorts, flip-flops and wire-rimmed glasses, possibly similar to the ones he had on while appearing to shoot himself to death during the livestream.

Jeffy Yu speaking about the future of crypto AI agents in a January 2025 podcast on Bankless. Source: Bankless

The SFS

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A man from the US state of Virginia will spend over three decades behind bars after being convicted of sending crypto to the terrorist organization commonly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Federal Judge David Novak sentenced Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa to 30 years and four months in prison on May 7 for sending over $185,000 to the Islamic State, the Department of Justice said on May 8.

Prosecutors said that from around October 2019 until October 2022, the 35-year-old Chhipa collected and sent money to female Islamic State members in Syria, which helped them escape prison camps and funded fighting.

The Justice Department said Chhipa would raise funds for the United Nations-designated terror organization through social media — receiving money online, or traveling hundreds of miles to accept donations in person. 

He’d convert the money into <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/crypto-travel-rule" rel="null" target="null"

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Rumble’s pro-crypto founder and CEO has confirmed that the firm will launch its Bitcoin and stablecoin wallet in the third quarter of this year, aimed at giving the Coinbase Wallet a run for its money. 

The Rumble Wallet will be launched in partnership with stablecoin issuer Tether and compete directly with Coinbase, Chris Pavlovski said in a May 9 X post.

“Our goal is to become the most prominent non-custodial Bitcoin and stablecoin wallet, powering the creator economy,” he added. 

He continued to state that the Rumble Wallet will be the “vehicle to help monetize creators better than most advertisers, especially in international markets,” though he did not provide further details other than it may support Tether Gold (XAUT) as well. 

Rumble Wallet. Source: Chris Pavlovski

The video streaming platform, founded in late 2013 as a YouTube alternative for small

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Bitcoin mining firm MARA Holdings (MARA) nearly tripled its Bitcoin holdings over 12 months, according to its newly released Q1 results.

However, its Bitcoin production fell, and total earnings slightly missed Wall Street estimates in Q1.

MARA, formerly Marathon Digital, saw its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings increase to 47,531 BTC, up 175% from the 17,320 BTC the firm was holding at the end of Q1 2024.

MARA holdings inch closer to $5B after Bitcoin pump

MARA holds the second-largest amount of Bitcoin among all publicly traded companies, according to CoinGecko data. Strategy (MSTR) holds the number one spot with 555,450 Bitcoin.

The holdings represent a total value of approximately $4.9 billion, based on Bitcoin’s current price of $102,660 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin’s price spiked

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Ripple has made a slew of acquisitions to control key transaction rails and route them through XRP and its stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), drawing comparisons to Japanese investment firm SoftBank. 

The $1.25-billion acquisition of Hidden Road on April 8 allows Ripple to use RLUSD as collateral in the firm’s prime brokerage products. Hidden Road will also migrate its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger, the blockchain that underpins cryptocurrency XRP (XRP) and several of Ripple’s institutional services.

Omni Network co-founder Austin King knows Ripple’s strategy firsthand. He sold his startup, Strata Labs, to Ripple in 2019 and describes the approach as a “SoftBank-type” acquisition strategy.

Instead of in-house development like Google or Meta (formerly Facebook), SoftBank built its empire through aggressive investments, joint ventures and acquisitions. Ripple seems to be following a similar playbook, but not everyone’s convinced

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