Crypto News Highlights This Week: Coinbase, Metaplanet & More

The week ending May 18th, 2025, was marked with major developments in the crypto news. Undoubtedly, Coinbase’s entry into the S&P 500 was a milestone. Other significant developments include an inflation surprise in the US, Robinhood’s acquisition of WonderFi, among others.

Here’s all that was important to crypto during May 11th and May 18th. This week was indeed big for crypto news in the American market. Galaxy Digital finally got listed on Nasdaq, with Novogratz highlighting a painful listing process.

Galaxy had been listed in a major Canadian market way back in 2020. Undoubtedly, this week might have been a milestone week for Crypto in the US, marking a regulatory shift.

Coinbase Enters S&P 500, Later, Reports Data Theft

US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase got listed on the S&P 500, the hottest index of stocks in the US. The exchange is the first cryptocurrency company to make the highly sought-after index.

The S&P 500 is a weighted index of the top stocks in the United States. Weighted means that bigger stocks – those with bigger market capitalization – influence the index more than those with smaller market capitalizations.

Brian Armstrong, the CEO and founder of the exchange, noted in an X post that crypto would soon be part of Americans’ 401K plans.

However, the high from the big development did not last long. On Thursday, Coinbase reported that a malicious actor had bribed the exchange’s officials to gain customer identity data and account details.

The bad actors threatened to release the stolen identity data into the pubic domain. Instead of caving in to the bad actors’ $20 million ransom demand, the exchange bravely started a $20 million fund (bounty) for information that would lead to the arrest of the bad actors.

The breach highlights a major challenge that crypto companies are tussling with. Malicious actors not only exploit technical and technological loopholes, but they also regularly employ social engineering to conduct such attacks.

Galaxy Digital also made news during the week after getting listed on the Nasdaq. The crypto company aims to tokenize its shares in the US Market. Speaking to CNBC, Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy, noted that the process of getting listed on Nasdaq “felt un-American, unfair, infuriating”. eToro, an Israeli crypto trading firm, also made its debut on Nasdaq this week.

Trump: Fed Chair Jay Powell Must Cut Fed Rate

Even though the US is gaining ground rapidly in the crypto sector, Trump’s impact on the traditional economy is a different ballgame, at least for now. Traditional economic institutions like international trade and monetary institutions like central banks are bracing for the impact of Trump 2.0’s economic decisions.

After the US government reported a CPI inflation rate of 2.3% for April, President Donald Trump called for a cut in the Federal Reserve’s policy rate. The Federal Reserve, or ‘the Fed’, the central bank of the US, changes the rate based on its assessment of the inflation rate, among other economic indicators.

In the Fed’s May meeting, Powell did not give any indication that the central bank was going to cut its policy rate. He made it clear that the central bank was going to wait and watch because there was uncertainty and volatility.

Moreover, he had emphasized that the Trump administration’s tariff policy has yet to impact prices at scale to change the inflation rate. The administration is still pursuing new trade deals with many trade partners.

Therefore, prices of several goods are likely to increase shortly. Thus, there’s no way the inflation rate in the next print will be lower than the April level.

Robinhood inked a $250 million deal to buy the parent organization that runs Canada’s two largest crypto marketplaces. The deal is likely to be completed by the end of the year, as per BNN Bloomberg.

“WonderFi operates two of the longest running crypto marketplaces here in Canada, and they also are a member of CIRO (Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization) and they have an investment dealer license which is really important for us,” Johann Kerbrat, SVP at Robinhood, told BNN Bloomberg.

Robinhood aims to expand and gain ground in Canada with this deal. Meanwhile, Metaplanet, a Japanese publicly traded company, crossed El Salvador in BTC holdings as of May 12th.

On May 12th, Metaplanet announced the acquisition of 1241 BTC at around $101,843 per BTC. The company now holds 6796 Bitcoins, which is worth around $700 million.

The South American country of El Salvador now holds around 6714 BTC, worth around $642 million. The country has been steadfast in its policy to gradually acquire BTC as a strategic reserve asset.