X Layer Has Introduced Exchange OS

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In Today's Note

• BTC remained under pressure, falling as low as $76K and failing to hold above $78K, while spot Bitcoin ETF outflows extended to a fifth consecutive day.
• US equities recovered on hopes of a diplomatic path forward, with the Dow closing at a record high and the Nasdaq-100 ending slightly higher as Iran reviewed the latest US proposal.
• Binance launched pre-IPO perpetual futures, Zerion announced the shutdown of its gasless ZERϴ Network, Galaxy and BitGo continued their Delaware court battle, and the Blockchain Leadership Fund announced bipartisan endorsements for the 2026 midterms.
  

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

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Macro & Markets

• Despite US equity markets being closed yesterday for the Memorial Day holiday, futures contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both jumped by over 1% and are trading higher on the day today. 
• Contracts for July 2026 WTI crude oil fell to $90 a barrel yesterday, a level they last traded at in late April 2026, after President Trump signaled that the US was closing in on a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

• President Trump wrote on Monday via Truth Social that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely”, though he cautioned that “It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!”. 
• As part of any peace agreement with Iran, Trump said that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries in the region should “at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords”. 
• Earlier on Sunday Trump wrote that the US’s relationship with Iran “is becoming much more professional and productive”, though also cautioned his message with the caveat that Iran “cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb” and that the US blockade of the strait would remain in place until an agreement is agreed between both sides.

• The improvement in risk sentiment was apparent in crypto markets too. 
• After trading at $74K in the early half of the weekend, BTC jumped above $77,800 before paring back some of those gains. 
• Expected volatility has fallen close to a 12-month low though, as spot price struggles to break past $80K. 
• 7-day BTC options implied volatility fell to 28%, a level short-dated IV last traded at back in September 2025 while volatility smiles continue to point towards a demand for downside protection.
• The decline in forward looking volatility follows a similar suppression in realised volatility which at 29% is close to its year-to-date low.

• Still, the macro backdrop remains highly uncertain — despite Trump’s touting of significant progress, US and Israeli jets struck missile launch sites in Iran as well as Iranian boats trying to place mines in the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours. 
• According to the US Central Command, the strikes were defensive in nature and intended “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces”. 

• During a speech on Friday, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that he supports making it clear that the central bank’s next policy rate decision is equally likely to be a rate hike as a cut. 
• Waller said “Inflation is not headed in the right direction” and “I would support removing the ‘easing bias’ language in our policy statement to make it clear that a rate cut is no more likely in the future than a rate increase.” 
• According to the governor, even if the oil shock dissipates soon, he can “no longer rule out rate hikes further down the road if inflation does not abate soon.”
• When asked about his shift in sentiment in the Q&A that followed, Waller responded, “I’ve been in favor of the easing bias for a long time, but the last couple of labor market reports and inflation reports just turned me the other way”. 

DeFi & TradFi

• Hyperliquid has expanded its recently launched HIP-4 outcome-market framework into real-world event prediction markets, enabling validators to deploy and settle outcome markets directly at the protocol level.
• The key innovation is that market creation and resolution are governed by the validator set itself, rather than relying on an external oracle provider.
• While HIP-4 outcome markets only went live on mainnet earlier this month, this latest development extends the framework beyond crypto-native contracts into offchain events, with its first market focused on May CPI year-over-year data.

• OKX’s X Layer, the exchange’s EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain, has introduced Exchange OS, an upgrade designed to let developers, institutions, and ecosystem participants create custom crypto markets using a shared exchange infrastructure stack.
• The upgrade moves core trading functions such as matching, margin, liquidation, settlement, and risk management to the protocol layer, reducing the need for builders to recreate complex exchange systems from scratch or rely entirely on centralized infrastructure.
• Exchange OS is intended to support a range of market types, including spot, perpetuals, and outcome markets, while giving operators flexibility around market design, risk controls, and compliance.

• Tether and the Government of Georgia plan to launch GEL₮, a Georgian lari-backed stablecoin designed to bring the country’s national currency onto blockchain-based payment rails under a dedicated stablecoin regulatory framework.
• The initiative aims to support faster and lower-cost digital payments, remittances, cross-border transfers, and programmable financial infrastructure, while building on Georgia’s broader push to position itself as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction with regulatory clarity around reserve management, redemption rights, and AML compliance.
• Tether said Georgia’s framework has been designed to align with emerging U.S. stablecoin rules including the GENIUS Act, positioning the country as an early jurisdiction seeking interoperability between national stablecoin regulation and evolving global digital asset standards.

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