TRON Accumulation Phase Detected—Major Price Surge Coming

Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley took aim at Bitcoin during an event organized by Social Security Works, an American political advocacy group. 

The prominent politician, who recently ran for chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2025, suggested that Bitcoin might be a Ponzi scheme when advocating for social security.

"It's not a Ponzi scheme. Bitcoin might be, but not social security," O'Malley said.

The comments made by O'Malley show that crypto remains largely a partisan issue in the U.S. after many industry leaders chose to fully align themselves with the Republican Party. 

Democrats sour on stablecoin legislation 

Meanwhile, a bipartisan effort to pass a major stablecoin appears to be failing.

As reported by U.Today, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the leading progressive voices within the Democratic Party, recently drew criticism from crypto advocates for opposing key stablecoin legislation. Crypto-friendly Democrats are now reportedly reconsidering their support for the bill that the crypto industry has persistently lobbied for. 

Earlier today, Politico reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune was open to amending the stablecoin bill to secure enough votes from wary Democrats.

Bitcoin Core developers have decided to remove a limit on transaction data in the next network upgrade, enabling more data to be included in a more efficient way.

“Bitcoin Core’s next release will, by default, relay and mine transactions whose OP_RETURN outputs exceed 80 bytes and allow any number of these outputs,” read the announcement on GitHub by Bitcoin developer Greg Sanders on May 5.

The long-standing limit was originally a “gentle signal that block space should be used sparingly for non-payment proof of publication data,” has outlived its utility, he added.

The proposal (PR 32359) was created by Bitcoin pioneer Peter Todd at the request of Chaincode Labs.

OP_RETURN is a special type of Bitcoin transaction output that allows storing small amounts of data on the blockchain, popularized during the ordinals inscriptions craze in early 2024.

Unlike regular transaction outputs, OP_RETURN outputs are not spendable and don’t bloat unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs).

The original limit is no longer effective as people found ways around it, such as using fake output addresses, which are actually worse for the network, while some mining services were already ignoring the limit, said Sanders.

Benefits of removing the limit include a cleaner UTXO set, or database of spendable outputs, more consistent behavior across the network, and better alignment with how Bitcoin is actually being used, he added.

Three possible paths were considered: keeping the cap, raising the cap and removing the cap, which was ultimately decided upon after earning “broad, though not perhaps unanimous, support.”

A controversial change to Bitcoin

“Many users find this to be an undesirable change for a number of reasons,” said Bitcoiner Samson Mow on X on May 5. He added that users “can refuse to upgrade and stay on 29.0 or run another implementation” of the network.

Critics said that the proposal was introduced without a proper consensus process.

“I think one thing is pretty clear, there is no consensus at the moment on this OP_RETURN issue,” said Ten31 Fund managing partner Marty Bent.

Some also expressed concerns about deprioritizing Bitcoin’s financial utility and raised questions about undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius, has blasted the government's 20-year “venom-laced” sentence request, declaring it a “death-in-prison sentence.”

The US Department of Justice requested Mashinsky receive at least 20 years behind bars in the May 8 sentencing for his role in misleading Celsius users and profiting from the price manipulation of Celsius (CEL), which would make the 59-year-old 79 if he serves the whole sentence.

Lawyers acting for Mashinsky argued in a May 5 reply memorandum filed in a New York district court that he should receive no more than 366 days, because the DOJ hasn't taken into account his status as a nonviolent first-time offender with a previously unblemished 30-year history in business.

“The government's venom-laced submission recasts this case as one involving a predator with an intent to target victims, harm them, and steal their money,” they said.

“It concludes by recommending that a first time, nonviolent offender who pled guilty and accepts responsibility receive a death-in-prison sentence.”

The Israel-based eToro Group says it’s looking for a valuation of up to $4 billion with its initial public offering in the US, as the stock and crypto trading platform forges ahead with listing on the Nasdaq.

The company and existing stockholders are aiming to raise $500 million through offering a total of 10 million shares priced between $46 to $50 apiece, eToro said on May 5.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows eToro is offering 5 million shares, with a further 5 million being put up by the likes of the company’s co-founder and CEO, Yoni Assia; his brother and executive director, Ronen Assia; along with venture firms Spark Capital, BRM Group and Andalusian Private Capital, among others.

The company offers stock and crypto trading targeting retail and plans to list on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker “ETOR.”

It's slated to compete with Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD), which saw crypto trading dip in the first quarter but whose shares have climbed by nearly 30% so far this year, according to Google Finance.

In the filing, eToro said some BlackRock funds and accounts indicated interest in buying up to $100 million worth of shares at IPO. eToro has also put aside 500,000 shares to sell through a directed share program, typically targeted at employees.

The company reported that its revenue from crypto in 2024 was $12.1 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 2023. It expected crypto to account for 37% of its commission from trading activity in the first quarter of 2025, down from 43% in the year-ago quarter.

Bitcoin and crypto markets could face headwinds preventing new peaks if certain scenarios play out, wrote Bitcoin researcher and author Timothy Peterson.

The economist provided the analysis to counter hisbullish predictionthat BTC could reach $135,000 in the next three months or so. Continued poor or declining sentiment could impact crypto markets should things not improve soon.

The UMich consumer sentiment survey is bad, trending worse, while the AAII investor sentiment is 20% bullish, 60% bearish, “a huge gap and also trending worse,” he observed.

Meanwhile, the NAAIM Equity Exposure index is a respectable 60% allocation to equity, “but still well below the 80% associated with bull markets,” he said.

Three things that could prevent a new Bitcoin ATH.

Thing 1: Continued poor or declining sentiment. UMich consumer sentiment survey is bad trending worse; AAII investor sentiment is 20% bullish, 60% bearish, a huge gap, and also trending worse. NAAIM Equity Exposure index is a… https://t.co/T3jdA3khyn pic.twitter.com/AOVOra1jBb

— Timothy Peterson (@nsquaredvalue) May 3, 2025

The Fed and Event Risk

The Federal Reserve could also impact Bitcoin prices since markets have already priced in approximately three rate cuts for the remainder of 2025.

“Risk assets have rallied on the expectation that looser monetary policy will return, boosting liquidity and supporting higher multiples,” he said before adding Bitcoin’s recent strength reflects this forward-looking optimism.

However, if the Fed fails to deliver these cuts, the market narrative will shift, choking these speculative flows.

“For Bitcoin, which thrives on liquidity and risk appetite, the absence of rate cuts could stall momentum or even trigger a drawdown.”

The Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged at itsmeetingon Wednesday, May 7.

Finally, event risk, or unforeseen macro-level shocks that cannot be predicted in timing or magnitude, can cause severe disruption to financial markets.

“For Bitcoin, these risks bypass conventional forecasting tools and risk models, creating sharp breaks from trend behavior.”

Peterson cited examples that included nuclear accidents, large-scale terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure, cyberattacks on financial systems, another pandemic, or massive natural disasters.

Bitcoin behaves like a “high-beta asset” under these conditions, “subject to indiscriminate selling, access limitations, and temporary narrative collapse,” he said, concluding the analysis on May 5.BTC Price Outlook

Doom and gloom aside, Bitcoin was still trading within its rangebound channel, where it has been for the past fortnight.

The asset has swung frombelow $93,750in late trading on Monday to retap $95,000 during Tuesday morning trading in Asia.

BTC had retreated slightly at the time of writing when it was changing hands for $94,380, according to CoinGecko.

Kenya's High Court has ordered the World Foundation, formerly known as Worldcoin and co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to delete the biometric data of local users, ruling that its collection violated the right to privacy.

Justice Aburili Roselyne ruled on Monday that the project must permanently delete users' biometric data, including facial images and iris scans, within seven days under the supervision of the data protection officer, according to Katiba Institute, which, together with ICJ Kenya, brought the case against World.

The judge also issued an order prohibiting World from collecting or processing any further biometric data in Kenya. Additionally, the court issued an order of Certiorari nullifying the decision by World and its agents to collect or process biometric data without conducting an adequate data protection impact assessment.

"The judgment rightly underscores that even in the digital age, constitutional rights especially the right to privacy under Article 31 of the Constitution must be upheld," said ICJ Kenya.

Kenya was once one of the largest markets for sign-ups to World, with hundreds of thousands of users registering before the project was suspended by local authorities in August 2023. However, in June 2024, the project announced plans to resume operations after local police dropped their investigation.

World did not immediately respond to The Block's request for comment.

World’s launches in other countries have frequently sparked concerns over data privacy and protection. On Sunday, Indonesia's digital ministry suspended the operating permit of World for alleged violations of electronic system operation regulations.

However, the project announced last week that it is expanding in the U.S., initially launching in six cities — Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco.

The price of WLD fell 6.99% in the past 24 hours to trade at $0.89 at press time, according to The Block's price page. It has a market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

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