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Crypto exchange Binance has asked a US federal judge to send all members of a class-action lawsuit alleging it sold securities to arbitration, arguing that the group waived their ability to form a class action under the company’s terms.

The exchange said in a May 16 filing to a New York federal court that its terms of service, which it claimed the class group agreed to, has a clause that users agree to arbitrate all claims, along with a clause preventing users from launching class actions against the crypto exchange.

“The Court should hold that Plaintiffs are required to arbitrate claims that accrued after Feb. 20, 2019, even if the Court adheres to its initial decision as to claims that accrued before then and that the class-action waiver in the 2019 Terms of Use is enforceable for all of Plaintiffs’ claims,” Binance said.

In March, Judge Andrew Carter denied Binance’s request to have all of the class action’s claims sent to arbitration for users who bought tokens on the exchange between April 1, 2017, and Feb. 20, 2019, and partially denied the motion for users who bought tokens after 2019 until a decision could be made to what extend the arbitration clause would apply.  

Binance said in its latest filings that it updated its terms in February 2019 to include the arbitration clause and argued that an earlier version of the terms of service included a clause that informed users that Binance could amend the terms as needed without any individual notice.. 

Binance case was previously dismissed 

Judge Carter had sided with Binance and dismissed the suit in March 2022. Binance had argued that it isn’t beholden to US securities laws because it doesn’t have a physical headquarters in the country.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned that decision in March 2024, and the Supreme Court later declined to hear Binance’s appeal in January of that year.

Related: US judge transfers Binance lawsuit to Florida, citing first-to-file rule

Binance’s legal entanglements in the US have escalated since mid-2023, when the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company for selling unregistered securities, which was settled for $4.3 billion in November 2023.

Binance was also slapped with a class action in Canada in April 2024 for allegedly violating securities laws after it announced its departure from the country in May 2023.

Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins’ powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest, May 11 – 17

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, said his bank will soon allow its clients to buy Bitcoin, but it won’t custody the cryptocurrency.

“We are going to allow you to buy it,” Dimon said at JPMorgan’s annual investor day on May 19. “We’re not going to custody it. We’re going to put it in statements for clients.”

CNBC reported that Dimon also remarked on his long-held skepticism about crypto assets, pointing to their use in money laundering, sex trafficking and terrorism.

“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke. I defend your right to buy Bitcoin,” he said.

JPMorgan will offer clients access to Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), CNBC reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Until now, the firm has limited its crypto exposure primarily to futures-based products, not direct ownership of digital assets.

Related: Morgan Stanley advisers can officially pitch Bitcoin ETFs

JPMorgan rival Morgan Stanley has also moved to offer spot Bitcoin ETFs to qualifying clients. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US have seen significant adoption, with almost $42 billion in total aggregate inflows since they launched in January 2024. 

Dimon’s Bitcoin bashing history

Dimon has long been skeptical of Bitcoin, labeling it a scam that he had no interest in buying in 2018 and calling it “worthless” during the 2021 crypto bull market.

“I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, Bitcoin, etc.,” he said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in 2023. “The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance.”

“If I were the government, I’d close it down,” he said.

At the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dimon said Bitcoin “does nothing. I call it the pet rock,” which came after the asset topped $100,000 for the first time.  

Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins ‘powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest

The US Senate has voted to advance a key stablecoin-regulating bill after Democrat Senators blocked an attempt to move the bill forward earlier in May over concerns about President Donald Trump’s sprawling crypto empire.

A key procedural vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed in a 66-32 vote on May 20.

Several Democrats changed their votes to pass the motion to invoke cloture, which will now set the bill up for debate on the Senate floor.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill’s key backers, said on May 15 that she thinks it’s a “fair target” to have the GENIUS Act passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.

The GENIUS Act was introduced on Feb. 4 by US Senator Bill Hagerty and seeks to regulate the nearly $250 billion stablecoin market — currently dominated by Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC).

The bill requires stablecoins be fully backed, have regular security audits and approval from federal or state regulators. Only licensed entities can issue stablecoins, while algorithmic stablecoins are restricted.

Several Democratic senators withdrew support for the bill on May 8, blocking a motion to move it forward, citing concerns over potential conflicts of interest involving Trump’s crypto ventures and anti-money laundering provisions.

Related: Circle plans IPO but talks with Ripple, Coinbase could lead to sale: Report

The bill was revised soon after to receive enough bipartisan support to proceed to a vote.

Hagerty’s stablecoin bill builds on the discussion draft he submitted for former Representative Patrick McHenry’s Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act in October.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Anza, a Solana blockchain infrastructure firm spun out of Solana Labs, has proposed a new proof-of-stake consensus called Alpenglow that it claims would be “the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol” and compete with current internet infrastructure.

“We believe that the release of Alpenglow will be a turning point for Solana. Alpenglow is not only a new consensus protocol, but the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol since, well, ever,” Anza’s Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski and Roger Wattenhofer said on May 19.

Alpenglow consists of Votor, which processes voting transactions and block finalization logic, and Rotor, a data dissemination protocol that would replace Solana’s proof-of-history timestamping system and aim to reduce the time it takes for all nodes to agree on the network state.

Anza researchers claimed that “Alpenglow will shatter both these latency bounds” and the project expects it to reach actual finality in about 150 milliseconds, rivaling internet infrastructure.

“A median latency of 150 [milliseconds] does not just mean that Solana is fast — it means Solana can compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness, potentially making blockchain technology viable for entirely new categories of applications that demand real-time performance.”

Votor — which would replace TowerBFT — would aim to finalize blocks in a single round if 80% of the stake is participating, and in two rounds if only 60% of the stake is responsive.

Related: DeFi lender Aave reaches $40B in value locked onchain

These two voting modes are integrated and run concurrently, with finalization taking place as soon as the faster of the two paths terminates.

Anza’s researchers claimed this model would result in “unprecedented finalization latency” while enabling it to operate more effectively under “harsh network conditions.”

Alpenglow won’t fix Solana’s network outages

The project’s white paper noted that switching to Alpenglow wouldn’t completely shield Solana from the network outages that it has experienced in the past.

Solana currently only has one production-ready client, Agave, meaning any security vulnerability in Agave can disrupt the entire Solana network.

However, a new independent validator client called Firedancer is set to launch on Solana’s mainnet sometime this year, which will provide client diversification for the network.

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Key takeaways:

• Bitcoin’s Sharpe ratio converges with gold’s, indicating similar risk-adjusted returns, supporting its store-of-value role.

• Gold outperformed Bitcoin in Q1 2025 with a 30.33% price gain versus Bitcoin’s 3.84%, driven by economic uncertainty.

• Bitcoin ETF inflows are recovering, and analysts predict BTC could reach $110,000–$444,000 in 2025.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is holding above $100,000, leading Fidelity Director of Global Macro, Jurrien Timmer to say the crypto asset could reclaim its position as a leading store-of-value contender. 

Timmer’s recent analysis highlights a convergence in the Sharpe ratios of Bitcoin and gold, suggesting that the two assets are increasingly comparable in risk-adjusted returns. The Sharpe ratio measures the rate of return an investment provides for the risk taken, by comparing its performance to a risk-free benchmark relative to its volatility.

The chart below, tracking weekly data between 2018 and May 2025, shows Bitcoin’s returns (1x) catching up to gold’s (4x), with gold at $22.48 and Bitcoin at $15.95 in relative performance terms. 

From an allocation standpoint, Timmer recommended a 4:1 gold-to-Bitcoin ratio for a store-of-value hedge, highlighting an intriguing observation. Timmer said, 

“I continue to be fascinated by the fact that the most negatively correlated asset to Bitcoin is gold. For two players on the same store-of-value team, it’s not what I would expect to see. Bitcoin’s risk-reward ratio has continued to impress. There is no other asset quite like it!”

While Bitcoin’s SoV credential improves above $100,000, Ecoinometrics, a Bitcoin-focused macroeconomic newsletter, pointed out that it was not smooth sailing in Q1 2025. 

In 2024, Bitcoin spot exchange-traded traded-funds (ETFs) saw a staggering $35 billion net inflows, purchasing 500,000 BTC and driving a 120% return. However, 2025 started on a different note. The first four months saw Bitcoin ETF flows drop to less than a third compared to 2024, while gold ETFs attracted more capital.

The newsletter noted that this shift could be attributed to Q1 uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve policy, trade policy, and the US economy. Ecoinometrics stated,

“Between two hard assets, gold and Bitcoin, it’s easy to see why capital went to the one seen as a haven.” 

Gold, with a 30.33% price gain in 2025 compared to Bitcoin’s 3.84%, benefited from its stability during economic unease. Additionally, the analysis added that Bitcoin performed better as a “high-beta growth asset,” thriving in rising liquidity and fiat debasement environments. 

Recent developments signal a shift: US trade policy clarity, a softer Federal Reserve stance, and easing financial conditions have spurred steady inflows into Bitcoin ETFs.

Related: Bitcoin bull flag and standard profit taking hint at eventual rally to new BTC price highs

Bitcoin is on track for new highs in 2025

A higher Sharpe ratio is a positive metric for Bitcoin, significantly increasing the probability of reaching new all-time highs above $110,000 in May. According to Bitcoin Suisse, a crypto custody firm, BTC’s high Sharpe ratio has allowed the asset to thrive in risk-on and risk-off environments since the US presidential election. 

With more than 88% of its supply in profit, BTC currently behaves as a high-conviction bet, where the likelihood of an “acceleration phase” moving forward. Bitcoin Suisse head of research Dominic Weibei said, 

“In this environment, Bitcoin has emerged as the Swiss army knife asset. Whether equities rally or bonds crumble, BTC trades on its supply-demand fundamentals, delivering a win-win profile that traditional assets simply can’t offer.”

Similarly, Cointelegraph reported that Bitcoin has a “decent chance” of reaching $250,000 or more in 2025, driven by its interplay with gold, according to a gold-based forecast. The report uses a scenario-based framework rooted in its gold model to project Bitcoin’s potential revaluation as a non-sovereign hard asset. 

If Bitcoin’s network value, measured in gold, follows a power curve, and gold maintains its current value, analysts suggest it could hit $444,000 in 2025. However, a more conservative estimate by Bitcoin analyst Apsk32 points to a “reasonable” target of $220,000 for the year. 

Related: Altcoins are on the verge of ‘most powerful rally’ since 2017 — Analyst

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.