Ethereum posted a new on-chain activity record over the past 30 days, with daily transactions topping 3.62M at the end of April. Lower fees after the Glamsterdam upgrade—down 78%, with simple transfers as low as $0.004—appear to be enabling a surge in address-poisoning and dusting activity that puts user wallets at higher risk.

RAIL, Railgun’s native token, climbed above $4.51 to mark a new 2026 high before pulling back to $4.05 amid higher volatility. Trading volume reached $7.5M—about 10 times typical levels—and the token is up more than 128% year to date. The move coincided with renewed attention on crypto privacy and expectations that wallet integrations could broaden Railgun usage.

HYPE, Hyperliquid's native token, surged to a new all-time high of $61.68 during U.S. trading hours as volumes reached a three-month peak. The move came alongside rising interest from whales and wallets associated with Grayscale and Bitwise, while derivatives activity expanded with open interest pushing above $2.1B.

Y Combinator has introduced a set of "crypto deals" that bundles partner tools for startups in its new application batch, as well as for selected hackathon and meetup participants. The package covers items such as wallets, node and API access, gas credits, fiat on-ramps and swap features, plus on-chain data, analytics, and audit services, with separate tiers that include $10K in network-expense support over two years and additional discounts for funded teams.

Wintermute said ETH has been under heavier pressure amid rising inflation and broader macro uncertainty, arguing it is not ideally positioned for a more chaotic crypto cycle. Over the past week, ETH fell about 10% and hovered near the $2,100 area after sustained selling, while derivatives positioning weakened. Sentiment indicators also deteriorated, with open interest down by $1B to $12.4B and Binance metrics pointing to a more fearful market tone.

The Ethereum Foundation recorded six departures or extended leaves across April and May, including long-time contributors Carl Beek and Julian Ma. The moves coincided with a team reshuffle aimed at reducing the Foundation's direct influence, while data still showed 169 core developers and ETH trading around $2,117.02.

HYPE moved above $48 on May 19, reaching $48.34 and marking a three-month high as trading interest shifted toward stock perpetual futures. Hyperliquid has become a key venue for pricing SpaceX pre-IPO tokens (SPCX), with multiple on-chain and off-chain perps citing valuations above $2.0T. Some market participants also expect tokenized stocks to benefit if US SEC innovation exemptions expand access to on-chain share trading.

On March 6, HIP-3 on Hyperliquid reached $2.2B in trading volume, accounting for 30.1% of activity on the platform, while the XYZ:CL crude oil contract saw a 140% daily volume spike to $242M. Crude oil, trading above $90 and briefly over $92, has become the fifth most traded HIP-3 asset as whales rotate into tokenized real-world futures and one trader manages a $3.3M short on CL alongside another wallet holding $315M in BTC and ETH longs.

In January 2026, Base became the most active Layer 2 network for stablecoin transfers, with USDC supply on the chain hitting a record level. Over 90% of Base's stablecoin balance is held in USDC, and the network now carries $4.81B in stablecoins, outpacing Arbitrum and Hyperliquid. More than 30% of on-chain activity on Base is linked to DeFi and other financial operations, supported by lending protocols such as Morpho and Aave.