It's not all HYPE: Privacy and quantum-resistant coins advance as bitcoin coasts

Your day-ahead look for May 21, 2026

What to know:

• Tokens tied to perpetual-futures derivatives platforms, led by Hyperliquid’s HYPE, have surged on booming onchain trading volumes and strong fee revenue.
• Privacy- and quantum-resistant coins are gaining as investors favor clear use cases amid rising concerns over surveillance, AI and future quantum attacks on blockchains.
• Major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether, XRP and solana are little changed.

This is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here, if you haven't already.

Bitcoin BTC$77,027.07, ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), solana (SOL) and other top 10 coins have had a tough time lately, with each falling at least 2% in the past seven days. Still, there is always a bull market somewhere, and several crypto sub-sectors have chalked up impressive gains.

Coins associated with derivatives protocols, particularly those focused on perpetual futures such as HYPE and LIT, have surged by 40% or more.

HYPE has been rallying since Trade.xyz, a trading interface based on the Hyperliquid blockchain, listed the Space pre-IPO perpetual contract on Monday, valuing the company at $1.78 trillion. Trading volume on the contract topped $30 million on its first day. The protocol consistently earns millions in fee revenue per week, accounting for over 40% of total marketwide fee revenue, according to data source DefiLlama.

And it's not just Hyperliquid; investors are trading on other venues, too. According to CoinGecko, the monthly average volume on the top 12 decentralized exchanges for perpetual futures contracts has risen to $612 billion in 2026 from $532 billion in 2025.

Privacy and quantum-resistant coins such as Zcash (ZEC), Quantum Resistant Ledger's QRL, Qubitcoin's QTC and Starknet's STRK are also climbing, with gains between 6% and 25%.

Data shows that investors are willing to overlook macro and geopolitical concerns and deploy capital, but only in coins with strong use cases and narratives.

Privacy is the flavor of the season, with fund managers like Arthur Hayes saying it is a fundamental necessity as advanced AI, large tech firms and government surveillance rapidly erode privacy. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin on Wednesday outlined steps taken to bring privacy features to Ethereum, the world's largest smart-contract blockchain.

As for quantum risks, Google researchers have already warned that a sufficiently powerful quantum machine, could in theory, attack a massive blockchain like Bitcoin with significantly fewer resources that previously estimated.

Bitcoin itself is struggling to recover the ground lost in the past seven days, currently trading around $77,300.

"Softer on final stages" talks between the U.S. and Iran "takes some inflation pressure off the tape and gives risk assets room to bounce," analysts at Marex said.

This doesn't, however, feel like a clean restart of the bull trend, they said, but more like a relief bid in a market that is still constrained by rates.

In traditional markets, NVDA closed Wednesday flat despite a blowout quarterly earnings report, while oil dipped to $98 per barrel. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead."

What’s trending

• Crypto custody firm Copper is looking to sell the company for $500 million (CoinDesk): Copper is seeking a buyer willing to pay about $500 million for the crypto custody firm. Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald has been appointed to help sell Copper
• TradFi giant IG to expand crypto trading across Europe through Bitpanda (CoinDesk): IG, which started offering crypto trading in the U.K. a year ago, plans to expand the service across Europe using Bitpanda.
• Elon Musk's SpaceX held 18,712 bitcoin at fair value of $1.29 billion at end of Q1, IPO filing shows (CoinDesk): The rocket and satellite company is looking to go public at a valuation of more than $1.5 trillion, which would be the biggest IPO in history and make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
• Treasury yields resume climb as traders monitor inflation risks (CNBC): Treasury yields resumed their march higher on Thursday, with borrowing costs rising across the curve as investors’ attention returned to the inflationary pressures facing the U.S. economy.

Today’s signal

Ether's price has dropped below the trendline connecting March and April lows. This trendline represented the recovery rally.

The breakdown, therefore, suggests an end to the price bounce and may invite more selling pressure from momentum traders, potentially yielding a deeper price slide.

The low of $1,937, from which prices turned higher in late March, is the key support now. A violation there would expose levels below $1,800.

More For You

Your day-ahead look for May 20, 2026

What to know:

• Bitcoin rebounded above $77,000, lifting major crypto indexes and some altcoins, even as analysts warned the market remains squeezed between supportive regulation and macroeconomic headwinds.
• With bitcoin pinned between its rising 50-day and falling 200-day moving averages, a break above $82,500 or below $76,000 is likely to set the trend...

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