This Week's News Preview | The Federal Reserve Releases the Last FOMC Minutes of the "Powell Era"

整理：Jerry，ChainCatcher

Key News:

• Coinbase will launch four AI infrastructure stock perpetual contracts on May 18.
• Binance contracts will launch multiple U-based TradFi perpetual contracts on May 18.
• The Federal Reserve will release the last FOMC meeting minutes of the "Powell era" on May 21.
• The Blue Sky Greyscale case has over 120,000 multinational claims, with the UK recovery registration deadline on May 22.
• Cardano NFT trading platform JPG Store announced it will cease operations on May 23.

May 18 (Monday)

Coinbase will launch four AI infrastructure stock perpetual contracts on May 18

Coinbase announced it will launch four AI infrastructure stock perpetual contracts on May 18, including Cerebras Systems (CBRS), TSMC, Nebius Group (NBIS), and Bloom Energy (BE).

The official statement indicated that the related contracts support long and short positions, leverage, and 24/7 trading, and will be open to retail and institutional traders in regions that meet liquidity conditions.

Binance contracts will launch multiple U-based TradFi perpetual contracts on May 18

The Binance contract platform will launch the FLNCUSDT perpetual contract at 21:55 on May 18, with a maximum leverage of 10 times; the DRAMUSDT perpetual contract at 22:00, with a maximum leverage of 20 times; and the RKLBUSDT perpetual contract at 22:05, with a maximum leverage of 10 times.

Binance contracts will launch the first USD1 priced perpetual contract BTCUSD1 on May 18

Binance contracts announced that the BTCUSD1 U-based perpetual contract will officially launch at 17:00 Beijing time on May 18, 2026 (09:00 UTC), supporting a maximum leverage of 100 times.

It is reported that this is the first USD1 contract trading pair launched by Binance, using USD1 as the settlement asset. Additionally, the contract supports a multi-asset model. Currently, the collateral conversion rate for USD1 in Binance's unified account reaches 99.99%, meaning USD1 has simultaneously taken on the roles of pricing currency, margin asset, and collateral on the leading trading platform.

May 21 (Thursday)

The Federal Reserve will release the last FOMC meeting minutes of the "Powell era" on May 21

At 2:00 on May 21, the Federal Reserve will release the FOMC meeting minutes from April 29, which will be the last meeting minutes of the "Powell era," detailing the committee's stance before Powell's successor takes over.

Y Combinator will conduct in-person interviews for crypto and fintech startups in New York for the first time on May 21

According to The Block, the well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator will hold in-person interviews in New York City for the first time, focusing on fintech and cryptocurrency startups, hoping to support more companies in this field.

YC stated on Wednesday: "This is the first time YC has moved the interview process for a specific industry offline, as they are meeting with founders who are forming key ecosystems."

A YC spokesperson stated that the interviews will take place offline in New York on May 21. The standard investment condition for selected startups is a $500,000 investment for a 7% equity stake. Earlier this year, after YC introduced this option, startups could also choose to receive funding in the form of Circle's stablecoin USDC.

The YC Winter 2026 batch includes several crypto and fintech startups, including financial infrastructure Sponge Wallet for the AI agent economy, crypto deposit service provider Unifold, unified trading platform Sequence Markets for crypto, real-world assets, and prediction markets, as well as the cross-platform trading platform Valence for prediction markets.

Since its establishment in 2005, YC has invested in over 5,000 companies, with a total valuation exceeding $1 trillion. Its portfolio includes OpenAI, Airbnb, Stripe, and Reddit. YC's first crypto investment was in Coinbase in 2012, and it has since invested in over 150 crypto and fintech companies, including the prediction market platform Kalshi, DeFi trading platform Axiom, and NFT marketplace OpenSea. Last year, YC collaborated with Coinbase to support startups building on-chain infrastructure, referring to this shift as "Fintech 3.0."

May 22 (Friday)

The Blue Sky Greyscale case has over 120,000 multinational claims, with the UK recovery registration deadline on May 22

According to Caixin, on February 16 and 17, 2026, the UK High Court held a two-day hearing for the asset disposal of the money laundering case involving 60,000 bitcoins belonging to Qian Zhimin, with over 11,300 Chinese victims planning to submit recovery applications to the UK High Court, which only accounts for 8.8% of the 128,409 victims. The UK recovery registration will close on May 22.

According to Section 281 of the UK Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), if someone claims that assets frozen or intended for confiscation by the government originally belonged to them, they can submit a recovery application to the UK High Court. On October 22, 2024, the UK allowed Blue Sky Greyscale victims to proactively seek recovery, providing evidence to the UK High Court to prove they are victims of the Blue Sky Greyscale case and have a relationship with the assets involved.

May 23 (Saturday)

Cardano NFT trading platform JPG Store announced it will cease operations on May 23

According to the official announcement from JPG Store, the NFT trading platform serving the Cardano ecosystem for over four years, JPG Store and Comet platform will officially close on May 23, 2026, due to operational difficulties.

After the platform closes, NFTs stored in self-custody wallets and JPG Store contracts will still belong to the users and can continue to be accessed through other aggregation platforms or Cardano CLI. The smart contracts will remain open-source, and the platform will provide GitHub links for community developers to continue building related tools.