The Bitcoin Runes protocol has experienced a decline in activity and fee revenue after its initial surge following the Bitcoin halving. Despite its aim to make transactions cheaper and faster than the Ordinals protocol, Runes has failed to maintain meaningful traction among users. The protocol's momentum has slowed, and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem remains uncertain. Runes' activity has slowed over the past week, indicating a lack of significant traction among users despite a strong start last month.

Su Zhu posted on X platform stating that venture capitalists (VCs) will go from mocking meme coins to arrogantly insulting them within the next two months, ultimately realizing that the era of high FDV/low float is over. Out of the poorly performing tokens in the past month, 95% of them will never be able to return to their original price.

Andrei Grachev, co-founder of DWF Labs, wrote that some "companies" use deceptive language, bribery, paid media, rumors, and other distortions of facts. Enough evidence has been obtained and legal action is being prepared against those behind it. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance's head of monitoring discovered in 2023 that DWF was suspected of market manipulation.

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, proposed a new Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP-7706) aimed at adding an independent gas type for calldata and integrating the three gas types into a coordinated system. Buterin hopes that this proposal will make discussions about the concept of "multi-dimensional gas" more concrete.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase stated that the malfunction has now been completely resolved.

Anonymous cryptocurrency trader Rekt Capital has updated the Bitcoin market cycle chart on X, claiming that the "danger zone" during the asset correction after the halving event has ended. Rekt added that Bitcoin is celebrating a good rebound from the low support level of the re-accumulation range. In the previous market cycle, the "danger zone" period before and after the halving event occurred, during which the asset retreated on both sides of the event.

On May 14th, DeFi researcher @DefiSquared released an analysis on X platform, pointing out that Worldcoin may become the biggest wealth transfer event in this cycle. Unfortunately, this wealth transfer is not in the form of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as it claims, but rather into the pockets of the team and insiders. Although many people mistakenly believe that this project is related to OpenAI, there is actually no direct connection, and the upcoming token unlock may lead to massive sell-offs in the market.

According to @DefiSquared's analysis, the fully diluted valuation of Worldcoin is currently $60 billion, and its daily devaluation of 0.6% is due to the issuance of tokens for distribution and operator claims. In addition, the Worldcoin Foundation announced that it will sell an additional $200 million worth of tokens to trading companies, which is equivalent to 18% of the total circulating supply, and these tokens sold to the so-called "community" actually bring benefits to the foundation.

More importantly, there are only 70 days left before the start of the venture capital and team unlock period, at which time the supply of WLD will inflate by 4% daily due to unlocking and issuance, causing sustained selling pressure of nearly $50 million. @DefiSquared warns that this design is based on predatory token economics from the outset, intending to benefit the team and early investors, and retail investors often do not understand these backgrounds and mistakenly believe that they can counter the system by pushing up prices.

CertiK has tweeted that its security research team has detected a critical vulnerability in Wormhole. This vulnerability allows unauthorized public calls to key functions, which could result in millions of dollars in losses. According to Cointelegraph, CertiK reported the vulnerability to Wormhole after discovering it, and it has now been fixed.

According to reports, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino responded to comments made by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a recent interview about the stablecoin Tether (USDT) on social media. Garlinghouse stated in the interview that the US government is pursuing Tether, which is clear to me. Ardoino said that an uninformed CEO leading a company under SEC investigation launched a competitive stablecoin (cui prodest), spreading fear about USDT. Ardoino emphasized Tether's critical role in providing financial services to unbanked communities in emerging and developing regions, which are often overlooked by traditional financial institutions. He further asserted that Tether adheres to strict transparency and regulatory compliance standards, as evidenced by its compliance with the OFAC/SDN list, its partnership with Chainalysis, and its extensive collaboration with international law enforcement agencies to detect and prevent illegal activities, thereby enhancing the security of its ecosystem.

Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban paid $275.9 million in federal income taxes for the 2023 tax year, expressing pride in contributing to the country despite not expecting all funds to be used wisely. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Roger Ver, also known as "Bitcoin Jesus," has been indicted by the US government for tax evasion, allegedly concealing assets and income on a grand scale over several years. Ver had previously renounced his US citizenship and obtained citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, but there is a discrepancy between the State Department's expatriation date and the date for federal tax purposes. The government claims that Ver caused a loss to the IRS of at least $48 million.