Bitcoin’s $250K Moon Shot, Coinbase Hack Drama, and Ripple-SEC Showdown—Crypto Never Sleeps

Crypto’s wild week served up a triple espresso of chaos. Bitcoin maximalists popped champagne over a fresh $250K price prediction—just ignore the 90% volatility haircut on the way there.

Coinbase users got a rude awakening after a cyberattack drained wallets faster than a Lehman Brothers liquidation. Meanwhile, Ripple and the SEC continue their courtroom tango—because nothing says ’regulatory clarity’ like a 3-year lawsuit with no endgame.

Bonus cynicism: Wall Street still can’t decide if crypto is a ’hedge against inflation’ or just a hedge fund liquidity vacuum. Place your bets.

Top Stories This Week

1. Analyst Predicts Bitcoin Could Hit $250K by 2025 End

In a recent interview, crypto analyst and the host of The Wolf of All Streets podcast, Scott Melker has predicted that Bitcoin could hit $250,000 by the end of 2025. He believes that this flabbergasting Bitcoin run could be driven by macro tailwinds like U.S. inflation cooling to 2.3% (below the expected 2.4%) and private credit expansion. 

Although Bitcoin’s rally past $105K earlier this week reflected a strong accumulation and led to market sentiment turning bullish, the U.S. PPI data and debt ceiling talks could severely impact market liquidity. 

2. Coinbase Faces $180M-$400M Cyber Attack Fallout

Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, disclosed a major cyberattack where hackers bribed overseas support agents to access customer data. The breach—potentially costing $180M to $140M—affected a small user subset, exposed their names, addresses, and emails but. Luckily, it did not reveal any credentials which could have worsened the situation. The exchange has currently offered a $20M reward for attacker information.

Ahead of Coinbase’s S&P 500 inclusion, this breach has raised serious security concerns, which could dent investor trust in centralized crypto platforms.

3. SEC-Ripple Settlement Stalls: Judge Rejects Motion

On May 15, the U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres denied a joint SEC-Ripple motion for an indicative ruling to dissolve an August 2024 injunction. The motion also included reducing Ripple’s $125 million penalty to $50 million, citing procedural errors. The decision has delayed an escrow release of $75 million in XRP, with its price dropping over 12% from the weekly high. 

While the move doesn’t imply Ripple’s legal wins—including XRP’s non-security status, it has left Ripple community speechless amid ongoing market uncertainty and 11 pending XRP ETF applications. 

4. Trump’s Crypto Ventures Spark Conflict-of-Interest Concerns

The Trump-family backed DeFi project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), has faced scrutiny from Senator Richard Blumenthal over potential conflicts. Beside this, Donald Trump’s TRUMP memecoin dinner plan for top holders has raised pay-to-play concerns. Moreover, Trump’s Tether ties are also buzzing the market. 

5. Binance Alpha Dominates Swap Market

Binance Wallet’s swap market share soared to staggering 93% from 3.4% in January, largely fueled by its Binance Alpha token launchpad. This has raised the argument that its 0.05% developer fee enables rug pulls while undermining decentralized exchange principles.

In addition, Binance’s edge over OKX and MetaMask fuels centralization fears, as community-driven airdrops lose ground to centralized platforms.

News You May Have Missed

• MoonPay-Mastercard Pushes Stablecoin Payments: MoonPay and Mastercard partnered to enable stablecoin transactions, advancing crypto for mainstream payments.

• Monero Surpasses DAI, PEPE in Market Cap: Privacy coin Monero (XMR) overtook PEPE and DAI, reaching a $6.43B market cap and ranking 23rd, with its price surging over 54% in the past 30 days. 

Weekly Gainers & Losers

Also read: Bitcoin, Ethereum, xrp price Prediction: Weekend Rally On Cards?