“Ethereum spot ETFs speculation generates investor momentum, Chips race heats up between Nvidia and AMD, Wayze raises Series C for AI driverless systems.”
TradFi & Global Market News
Global Market: S&P 500 & NASDAQ
The S&P has risen since dropping below 5000 in mid-April because of technology stocks, particularly with the ongoing chip race between industry giants Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. As of Monday, the NASDAQ has observed a similar climb, closing out the day at 16828.67, a 3% increase from the previous month. The Purchasing Manager’s Index was weak, indicating underperforming economic trends in the manufacturing and services sector. Investors interpret the low growth in these sectors for a second consecutive month as a sign of weak economic activity. Conversely, traders predict an increased likelihood that the Fed will cut interest rates by September, which could revitalise the markets.
Global Market: FTSE100
In the UK, the FTSE100 opened on Tuesday in the red, with a 0.4% drop from Monday’s closing as slow manufacturing spilt over into Europe while oil prices continued to drag. These downward forces were partially made up by a positive swing across retail sales sectors and the food sector, which have plagued the UK for the past year. With the elections just around the corner, the UK’s economic situation remains uncertain following inconsistent budget expenditure in the past year under the Conservatives.
Semiconductors News: Nvidia
The chips race is revitalised as Nvidia announces its latest chip design, Rubin, and specific processors for 2026 just three months after unveiling the Blackwell that was set to roll out to buyers later this year. Despite being a faux-monopolist on AI chips in recent months, the move is likely a response to increased competition for the next generation of chips. Over the past Monday, Taiwan’s AMD announced its MI325X, targeted to support AI chips to capture some of Nvidia’s existing 80% market share for AI semiconductors. Nvidia’s dominance is reflected in the markets as it reached its highest stock price at 1150, a 25% increase from the past month.
Demands for alternative solutions are among chips and across the AI supply chain. At the same conference, Intel’s CEO spoke about their prowess in processors as a core piece of the AI ecosystem that traditional processor manufacturers have evolved to resolve. Additionally, Aramco’s Prosperity7 Ventures invested about $400million last week into one of China’s big four GenAI start-ups, Zhipu AI. Previously, China’s GenAI startups relied on domestic funding, but the injection of foreign investments reflects an international desire to break up the US stronghold for all things AI.
DeFi & Digital Assets News
Cryptocurrency Market: Bitcoin & Ethereum
Bitcoin and Ethereum have hovered steadily around the 54000 and 3750 valuation marks, respectively, over the past two weeks. Meme coins have received positive spillover effects from the GME rally, but the attention of institutional investors is on the momentum for cryptocurrency in ETF markets as inflows into cryptocurrency funds amount to $2billion over the month of May. Cryptocurrency offerings are dominating the portfolios of the largest global asset managers. The IBIT has made up 26% of Blackrock’s and 53% of Fidelity’s inflows since the start of the year, allowing Blackrock to overtake Grayscale as the largest Bitcoin AUM portfolio.
Ethereum News: Spot ETFs
These trends have shifted momentum towards Ethereum as the SEC approved spot ETFs for the cryptocurrency with more than $33.5 million in inflows. Following the Dencun update, investment sentiment was not particularly high, in fact, in the weeks prior to the SEC approval, Ethereum had seen more than $200 million in outflows. Analysts expect ETF issuers to buy and hold large amounts of Ethereum in anticipation of the first ETFs to reach the market, and since the approval, more than $3 billion in Ethereum has left exchanges, creating huge supply shocks and driving up valuations. This act serves as a reinforcement of cryptocurrency fundamentals as a genuine investment tool rather than a gimmick. If Bitcoin was the spark, Ethereum’s approval in the ETF market may become as blaze as XRP’s CEO declared that the XRP ETF is imminent, a claim backed by Standard Chartered’s predictions. Some investors are even hoping this will spark off the “altseason” for smaller tokens on the market.
With the legitimisation of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin hashrates are at an all-time high, and Ethereum mining activity is expected to garner more users than before. Innovations appear to be heading in the right direction as efficiency achieves a “win-win” outcome for investors due to cheaper mining costs and, therefore, the environment. The question is whether these mask the increased emissions generated from the increased number of applications built on the networks.
Payments News: BitPanda
Financial innovations within the payments space look just as bright, from previously discussed institutional investors to commercial transactors. In April, crypto broker BitPanda partnered with Germany’s largest state-backed lender, LBBW, to provide crypto custody services. This week, they have partnered with Deutsche Bank, a progressive entity familiar with crypto-based innovations as they provide tokenised SME loans through Taurus. This partnership allows BitPanda to access German international bank account numbers to facilitate fiat transactions seamlessly from crypto. Enabling real-time cash settlements for crypto merchants reinforces banks’ role in legitimising cryptocurrency use cases, even for the everyday consumer.
In Other News…
Short Updates:
EU AI Act – The EU AI Act will be applied in 2026 and provides a global standard for regulating AI, especially concerning transparency obligations on high-risk AI systems like biometric surveillance and bans on certain acts like untargeted scraping of facial data or social scoring.
Wayze – The end-to-end AI mapless autonomous driving system company that develops fleet learning models, received $1.05billion in Series C funding, the largest for a UK AI company, from Microsoft, SoftBank, and Nvidia to build embodied AI products.
Opportunity Spotlight
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