Zerohash Eyes $1.5B+ Valuation, Warren Targets OCC Charters, CFTC Sues Minnesota Over Prediction Market Ban

CoinOtagMay 193 min readSingle source

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Crypto News Crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash is pursuing a fresh funding round at a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion, after Mastercard scrapped earlier plans to take a strategic stake.
The payments giant walked away from the Chicago-based firm following its $1.8 billion acquisition of UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK in March.
Bitcoin miner Hut 8 has committed $16 million to expand water infrastructure in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, supporting development of its River Bend AI data center campus.
Zerohash itself reached unicorn status in September 2025 after a $104 million Series D-2 round led by Interactive Brokers, with Morgan Stanley, Apollo and SoFi joining.
The Warren letter lands as Payward separately seeks a national trust charter, filed May 8, which would allow it to provide fiduciary custody for digital assets through a Payward National Trust Company.

$1.5B$1.5 billion$1.8 billion$16 million$4.2 billion$104 million

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Crypto News Crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash is pursuing a fresh funding round at a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion, after Mastercard scrapped earlier plans to take a strategic stake. The payments giant walked away from the Chicago-based firm following its $1.8 billion acquisition of UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK in March. Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides APIs and embeddable tools that let banks and fintechs deliver crypto, stablecoin and tokenization products, serving more than five million users across 190 countries. Its client roster includes Morgan Stanley, Interactive Brokers, Stripe, BlackRock's BUIDL fund, Franklin Templeton and DraftKings, signaling deepening institutional appetite for regulated on-chain rails. Senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Office of the Comptroller of the Currency chief Jonathan Gould of violating the National Bank Act by approving at least nine national trust charters for cryptocurrency firms. In a Monday letter, the Massachusetts Democrat demanded full application files for companies cleared since December 2025, including Coinbase, Ripple, Stripe, BitGo, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets, Protego Holdings, Paxos and Crypto.com's parent. Warren argued the approvals enable regulatory arbitrage, calling the firms "effectively crypto banks" seeking to bypass standard safeguards. She also sought communications between the OCC and the Trump White House regarding the controversial World Liberty Financial application. Bitcoin miner Hut 8 has committed $16 million to expand water infrastructure in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, supporting development of its River Bend AI data center campus. The investment funds a new water well, roughly eight miles of water main and broader system upgrades, with assets to be transferred to the parish at no taxpayer cost upon completion in the second half of 2026. Phase 1 of River Bend represents a multibillion-dollar capital outlay expected to support 1,000 construction jobs at peak. Hut 8 shares have surged about 93% year-to-date as investors reprice the firm's AI blockchain-adjacent power leasing business. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice sued Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz and several state officials on Tuesday over a newly enacted omnibus bill that bans prediction markets statewide. Filed less than 24 hours after Walz signed SF 4760 into law, the complaint describes the measure as the first outright prohibition of prediction markets in the United States. Regulators argue Minnesota is unlawfully encroaching on the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction over federally regulated swaps. The statute, due to take effect August 1, also exposes exchanges, payment processors, media partners and sports leagues including MLB and the NHL to potential criminal liability. The Zerohash round arrives against a backdrop of accelerating consolidation across digital asset infrastructure. Kraken's parent Payward has agreed to acquire derivatives platform Bitnomial, while Bullish announced a $4.2 billion deal for Equiniti aimed at fusing transfer-agency services with tokenization rails. Zerohash itself reached unicorn status in September 2025 after a $104 million Series D-2 round led by Interactive Brokers, with Morgan Stanley, Apollo and SoFi joining. Analysts expect dealmaking to intensify as exchanges, custodians and fintechs compete for custody, settlement and stablecoin capabilities amid a deepening institutional rotation into on-chain finance. The Warren letter lands as Payward separately seeks a national trust charter, filed May 8, which would allow it to provide fiduciary custody for digital assets through a Payward National Trust Company. Trust charters permit fiduciary and custodial services without deposit-taking or commercial lending, sidestepping much of the regulatory perimeter that constrains traditional banks. Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, previously pushed amendments to the CLARITY Act market-structure bill in committee markup, while urging Gould to delay World Liberty Financial's January application. The standoff underscores deepening Washington divisions over how to integrate DeFi-adjacent firms into the federal banking system. The dominant thread running through these stories is jurisdictional contest. Capital is flowing toward firms like Zerohash and Hut 8 that bridge crypto with traditional finance and AI compute, while regulators and lawmakers wrestle over who gets to write the rulebook. Warren's challenge to the OCC, the CFTC's preemption suit against Minnesota and the broader M&A wave reflect a market maturing faster than its legal scaffolding. The era of unilateral state-level bans is colliding with federal frameworks for Bitcoin, custody and event contracts, even as institutional infrastructure capital signals long-term conviction in regulated on-chain rails and tokenized markets.

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Bitcoin stabilizes near $63,000, but reclaiming $64,000 is the real test Bitcoin is stabilizing near $63,100 after buyers defended the lower part of its recent range. That is constructive, but it is not yet a confirmed recovery. BTC must first overcome resistance near $63,175-$63,270, while reclaiming and holding $64,000-$64,095 remains the more important test. Key takeaways for Bitcoin traders and investors Current position: BTC is holding above the previous month’s lower value boundary near $62,380. Immediate resistance: Buyers need to clear $63,130-$63,175, followed by $63,247-$63,270. Main recovery test: A sustained reclaim of $64,000-$64,095 would carry much more weight than a temporary bounce near $63,000. Major support: The broader $62,380-$62,535 region remains the most important defended zone. Bullish confirmation: Repeated closes, consolidation or a successful retest above $64,095 would show that Bitcoin is beginning to establish higher accepted value. Data note: The latest daily, four-hour and one-hour candles were incomplete when this analysis was prepared. Exchange-specific Bitcoin prices may also differ slightly. I'm also closely monitoring the digital asset space after , putting immediate pressure on lower order-flow shelves as bulls fight to defend structural trendlines. Regulatory headwinds also resurfaced as the , injecting fresh institutional hesitation into active trading books. Meanwhile, broader risk sentiment showed divergence across asset classes as , underscoring rotational breadth away from mega-cap tech into small-cap momentum. Macro headwinds and geopolitical posturing remain front and center following headline chatter that , all while monetary policy uncertainty lingers after amidst baseline model variances. Why Bitcoin’s stabilization is constructive but incomplete Bitcoin recently fell to approximately $62,535, where the decline attracted meaningful buying. Price subsequently recovered toward $63,100, strengthening the case that buyers are willing to defend the lower part of the previous month’s trading range. What stands out to me, however, is how little upward progress followed that buying. Several periods showed positive buying pressure, but BTC remained concentrated around $63,050 and repeatedly struggled to extend beyond $63,150-$63,175. In simple terms, buyers have shown that they can slow the decline, but they have not yet shown that they can move Bitcoin into a clearly higher trading range. This is the difference between stabilization and recovery: Stabilization means sellers are no longer pushing price lower with the same ease. Recovery means buyers are lifting price, holding above resistance and shifting the market’s most active trading area higher. Bitcoin has shown the first condition. The second still needs confirmation. Why $62,380 and $64,095 matter The previous month’s value area provides a useful map of where most Bitcoin trading took place: Value Area Low near $62,380: The lower boundary of the previous month’s heavily traded range. Point of Control near $64,095: The price that attracted the most trading activity during the month. Value Area High near $65,050: The upper boundary of the previous month’s accepted range. BTC is currently about $720 above the monthly Value Area Low, but almost $1,000 below the monthly Point of Control. Holding above $62,380 tells us that demand inside the previous month’s range has not completely failed. Remaining below $64,095 tells us that buyers have not regained control of the broader value structure. This is also why $64,095 may be more important than $64,000 itself. The round number attracts attention, but $64,095 represents the previous month’s busiest price area. A brief move above $64,000 could still become another failed breakout. Holding above $64,095 would provide stronger evidence that the market is accepting higher prices again. As discussed in our previous analysis, Bitcoin’s created technical repair work for buyers. That repair is not complete simply because BTC has bounced from $62,535. Bitcoin support and resistance levels to watch What would strengthen the bullish Bitcoin scenario? Swing traders should have 3 key price levels: The Value Area Low (VAL), Point of Control (POC) and Value Area High (VAH) of the previous month. Together, these levels map the previous month’s main area of accepted trading: the VAL marks its lower boundary, the VAH its upper boundary, and the POC the price where the most volume traded. Traders watch them because holding inside the area suggests continued acceptance, while a sustained break outside it may signal that the market is searching for a new value zone. The first constructive step would be sustained trade above $63,175. Buyers would then need to clear and hold above $63,247-$63,270. That would improve the probability of a move toward $63,350 and, eventually, the much larger $64,000-$64,095 test. A more convincing recovery would include: Bitcoin reclaiming $64,000. Price moving above the monthly point of control near $64,095. A pullback successfully defending the reclaimed area. Trading activity beginning to concentrate above $64,095 rather than immediately slipping back below it. If that sequence develops, approximately $65,050 becomes the next major value-area objective. What this means: Acceptance is more than touching a level. It means price spends time above it, survives pullbacks and begins treating the higher area as support. What would weaken the stabilization attempt? Failure to hold $62,920-$62,800 would weaken the current short-term base and increase the probability of another test of $62,535. The more serious bearish development would be sustained trade below $62,380. That would place BTC outside the previous month’s accepted value area and suggest that the market may need to search for demand at lower prices. Traders should still distinguish between a brief move below $62,380 and genuine acceptance beneath it. Crypto markets can produce fast stop-runs through visible support before reversing. Repeated closes or continued trading below the level would carry more bearish significance than a momentary sweep. What Bitcoin traders may consider watching Different traders may use these levels in different ways, at their own discretion: Short-term breakout confirmation: Watch whether BTC can break above $63,175 and successfully retest it, with $63,247-$63,270 providing the next validation area. Support-zone reaction: If BTC returns to $62,380-$62,535, watch whether buyers defend it again or whether selling begins to hold below the zone. Broader recovery confirmation: Treat $64,000-$64,095 as the decisive recovery test instead of assuming that every bounce from $63,000 marks a durable bottom. Because Bitcoin trades continuously, weekend conditions can sometimes involve thinner liquidity and less reliable breakouts. Confirmation through time, repeated closes or a successful retest may therefore be more useful than reacting to the first price spike. What should Bitcoin traders watch next? Bitcoin has defended the lower part of the previous month’s value area, but the rebound still needs to prove itself. The immediate challenge is to move beyond $63,175 and $63,270. The much larger test remains $64,000-$64,095. A successful reclaim would indicate that Bitcoin is returning toward the center of the previous month’s accepted value rather than merely bouncing from support. Until that happens, Bitcoin may be stabilizing, but it is not yet showing a fully confirmed bullish recovery. This analysis presents conditional market scenarios and opinions (not promises) at investingLive.com, not a guarantee of future performance. Traders should consider volatility, position size and their own risk limits before acting. This article was written by Itai Levitan at investinglive.com.

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