Bitcoin (BTC) price prediction: Will the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap continue its upward trend?

The Saudi Central Bank reportedly disclosed an investment in MicroStrategy ($MSTR) stock, with posts on X claiming a purchase of 25,656 shares.

The Saudi Central Bank reportedly disclosed an investment in MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:) stock, with posts on X claiming a purchase of 25,656 shares in the last quarter.

Given MicroStrategy’s significant Bitcoin holdings, this move is widely interpreted as providing indirect exposure to the cryptocurrency. The investment aligns with the broader narrative of growing institutional interest in crypto.

While this investment sparks debate, with some seeing it as a strategic diversification and others as a risky bet with public funds, it’s certainly an interesting development to follow.

In other news, the Central Bank of Russia has reported Bitcoin as the top-performing investment asset in 2025, with a 38% return over the past 12 months.

This compares favorably to other assets, including gold, stocks, and bonds. Since 2022, Bitcoin's cumulative return has reached 121.3%.

Breaking down the year-to-date performance in 2025, Bitcoin shows a 17.6% return and in April 2025 alone, it gained 11.2%.

This recognition is a shift from Russia's previous stance, which saw the Central Bank include Bitcoin in its financial overview and plans to launch a crypto exchange for qualified investors.

However, Bitcoin's volatility remains notable, with a reported 17.6% drop in Q1 2025.

The Economist published an interesting article on May 17, 2025, titled "Crypto meets the swamp: Why it won’t end up well."

In the piece, they label cryptocurrency as the “ultimate swamp asset.” They argue that the U.S. crypto industry has strayed from its decentralized ideals and become a tool for rent-seeking, particularly benefiting political figures like Donald Trump and his associates.

The article criticizes crypto for facilitating fraud, money-laundering, and financial crime on a large scale, deviating from its original promise of financial freedom. It's a stark view but certainly raises relevant issues that are being discussed openly.

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company, has disclosed a $408.5 million investment in BlackRock's (NYSE:) iShares Bitcoin Trust (NYSE:) ETF, according to a 13F filing with the SEC.

This positions Mubadala as one of the largest known institutions to hold IBIT. As of March 31, 2025, the fund reported a stake of 8.7 million shares in the ETF.

Some reports suggest that the investment may have since increased to around $461 million, which would make Mubadala the seventh-largest IBIT holder.

This move is significant as sovereign wealth funds typically don't invest directly in crypto assets.

The narrative of broad institutional interest in crypto continues with this development, which could influence broader market confidence.

The next FTX distribution of over $5 billion to eligible creditors is scheduled to begin on May 30, 2025.

Payments will be made through BitGo or Kraken, and funds are expected to reach creditors within 1 to 3 business days.

The Ethereum Foundation announced the "Trillion Dollar Security" (1TS) initiative on May 14, 2025, aiming to massively enhance Ethereum's security infrastructure to support trillions in onchain assets.

This initiative is focused on improving wallet safety, securing smart contracts, enhancing user experience (UX), and strengthening protocol layers.

Key features include smart accounts (ERC-4337), social recovery, spending limits, and advanced key management like MPC and biometrics.

This ecosystem-wide effort aims to boost trust and enable secure mass adoption for both individual and institutional users, positioning Ethereum as a robust global digital asset management platform.

JPMorgan Chase has completed its first public blockchain transaction, settling tokenized U.S. Treasuries outside its private network.

The transaction was facilitated by Ondo Finance and involved Chainlink's interoperability technology.

This move is interesting as it signals a step away from the bank's traditional reliance on its private blockchain, Kinexys Digital Payments (formerly JPM Coin).

The settlement included a cross-chain transfer of tokenized short-term Treasuries on Ondo's public ledger, showcasing the integration of JPMorgan with existing decentralized finance infrastructure.

This development is seen as a milestone in bridging traditional finance (TradFi) with DeFi, with potential implications for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

Mastercard is partnering with MoonPay to launch stablecoin payment cards, enabling users to spend cryptocurrencies such as USDC, USDT, and DAI at over 150 million merchants worldwide.

The service converts stablecoins to fiat at the point of sale, powered by MoonPay's Iron infrastructure.

This expands Mastercard