Bitcoin clawed back toward $77,000 on Friday after President Donald Trump said a US-Iran peace memorandum was largely negotiated. The recovery ended a short-lived dip that pushed the largest crypto to a one-month low earlier this week. Traders piled back into risk assets, with AI tokens and privacy coins posting some of the biggest gains.
Bitcoin's bounce and the rate hike overhang
Bitcoin fell below $77,000 earlier in the week after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller warned that future rate hikes could not be ruled out if inflation stays high. That sent a chill through the market — traders started pricing in a possible 25 basis point rate hike by October 2026. Bitcoin was down nearly 23% year-to-date as of this publication, so the Trump peace headline came at a welcome moment for bulls.
Still, the macro picture isn't settled. The Fed's next moves remain the big unknown, and the rate-hike chatter hasn't gone away. Friday's bounce looks more like a relief rally than a trend reversal.
AI tokens and privacy coins rally
The recovery wasn't just about bitcoin. Tokens tied to artificial intelligence and privacy — NEAR, Worldcoin, Zcash, ONDO, Morpho, Hyperliquid — all rallied hard as traders rotated back into higher-beta names. The moves suggest risk appetite is returning, at least for now.
Grayscale's CLARITY Act bets
Grayscale published a note arguing that Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network could be among the biggest winners if the CLARITY Act passes. Canton Network is built specifically for regulated financial institutions and has links to heavyweights like DTCC, J.P. Morgan, HSBC, and Visa. That kind of institutional tie-in gives the bill real stakes for the crypto ecosystem.
Separately, SanDisk — not a crypto asset but worth noting — soared 509% between January 1 and May 20, making it the most profitable investable asset of 2026 so far. It puts crypto's year-to-date losses in perspective.
Cardano governance vote hangs in the balance
Cardano is facing a governance vote on a 32.9 million ADA treasury proposal to fund research in post-quantum cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, scalability, and university-linked projects. Charles Hoskinson warned that failure of the proposal could cause Cardano to lose key scientists and research capacity.
But the numbers look grim for the proposal. About 81% of active dRep stake opposed it, far below the 67% approval threshold needed to pass. The vote is ongoing — and if it fails, Cardano's research pipeline could take a real hit.
