Key points:

Bitcoin has a fight for both $100,000 and a $2 trillion market cap on its hands this month.

Dips below six figures are “easily possible,” analyst Filbfilb says, but the odds are stacked in bulls’ favor.

ETH/BTC needs to hit the 0.03 inflection point as part of an altcoin comeback.

Bitcoin (BTC) is poised for expansion with BTC price action rarely more “bullish-looking,” a popular analyst says.

In his latest commentary on X, popular market analyst Filbfilb revealed a key support battle now underway on BTC/USD.

Filbfilb on $100,000 battle: “This time is no different”

Bitcoin has begun to consolidate after making rapid gains this month, with the area just north of $100,000 seeing “choppy” BTC price moves.

For Filbfilb, however, current market behavior is about more than simply reclaiming six figures.

Bitcoin’s market cap is now fighting to flip the $2 trillion mark from resistance back into firm support after losing it at the start of February, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirms.

“Bitcoin is currently at 2 tril resistance btw, its not just 100k,” he told X followers.

Bitcoin market cap 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The tug-of-war comes as Bitcoin’s dominance of the overall crypto market cap itself begins to fade, leading some to anticipate the reemergence of altcoins.

Giving his thoughts on the largest altcoin, Ether (ETH) versus BTC, Filbfilb said that the “trend changes” once ETH/BTC reclaims 0.03, a level likewise last seen in early February.

ETH/BTC 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Zooming out, however, the implications of Bitcoin definitively leaving $100,000 behind are plain.

“$1 or $100 is normally a sticking point for most assets due to humans. Do an exercise and look at other assets; they all do similar stuff,” Filbfilb continued, referring to the psychological significance of round-number price points.

“Burn the round number after ages of resistance to liquidate shorts, come back to the 80s, then find expansion later. I believe this is no different.”

BTC/USD found multimonth lows at around $75,000 in April. As Cointelegraph reported, the event was well supported by onchain reversal signals, with the Hash Ribbons indicators delivering a rare “buy” signal shortly beforehand.

”Honestly ridiculous”

Bitcoin meanwhile continues to field bullish price prognoses from longtime traders and analysts, who agree that the current slowdown is a stepping stone on the way to a rematch with all-time highs near $110,000.

Related: BTC bulls get ‘biggest signal’ — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Targets include $120,000 in the short term, with June in line for $150,000 or more.

“As for Bitcoin… Honestly.. Ridiculous, the more you zoom out, the more insane it looks,” Filbfilb added on the outlook. 

“Short-term pullbacks below 100k are easily possible, however, I haven’t seen such a bullish-looking thing in a long time.”BTC/USD 3-day chart with indicator data. Source: Filbfilb/X

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

A major Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been shut down by the Telegram messaging service, upon which it operated.

The internet’s largest illicit marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it will shut down following Telegram’s ban of thousands of associated accounts on May 13. 

“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from now on,” read the notice on the marketplace website.

A report from Wired said that this involved banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served as the infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its vendors.

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told the outlet, “communities previously reported to us by WIRED or included in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down,” before adding that “criminal activities like scamming or money laundering are forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and are always removed whenever discovered.” 

Closure notice on Haowang Guarantee website. Source: Haowang Guarantee

The Chinese language black marketplace facilitated an estimated $27 billion in illicit transactions, predominantly using the Tether stablecoin (USDT), according to blockchain security firm Elliptic. 

Elliptic researchers also found that the wider Huione Group of companies had facilitated over $98 billion in crypto transactions.

Related: Largest ‘illicit online marketplace’ has grown 51% in 6 months: Elliptic

The marketplace provided services to crypto scammers, including money laundering, stolen personal data used for pig butchering scams, telecommunications infrastructure and equipment, deepfake software and IDs, and even physical restraint devices used in scam call center compounds across Southeast Asia. 

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said it was a “huge win” as the “largest darknet marketplace to have ever existed has been shut down.” 

“It’s a game-changer in terms of overall online criminal markets, and it’s huge for victims of online fraud. This marketplace was a key enabler of the global scam epidemic, and I think this will put a real dent in the ability of online scammers to do what they do.”

In early May, the platform was designated as a money laundering operation by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It was to be severed from the US banking system. 

Xinbi Guarantee growing

However, another Telegram-based illicit marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee has been identified by Elliptic, which discovered thousands of crypto addresses used by the merchants on it. 

On May 13, the firm said that it has seen $8.4 billion in transactions so far, but that should be considered as “lower bounds of the true volume of transactions on the platform.”

Xinbi was linked to a Colorado-based company that was incorporated in 2022 but listed as delinquent in January 2025.

Black marketplaces such as these have unveiled a “China-based underground banking system,” based around stablecoins and crypto payments, which is being leveraged for money laundering on a “significant scale,” Elliptic stated.

 Magazine: Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is ‘best case,’ SOL, HYPE tipped for gains: Trade Secrets

The US Senate could pass a key bipartisan stablecoin bill as soon as next week after removing language targeting President Donald Trump and his family’s sprawling crypto interests.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said onstage at an event by Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand With Crypto, that she thinks it’s a “fair target” to have the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.

Joining her onstage was Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who hinted that the bill’s language was changed to scrap provisions that targeted Trump’s various crypto projects, which include memecoins, a crypto platform, a stablecoin, and a crypto mining company that plans to go public, among others.

“When this language comes out, people will see really good refinement, a lot of progress, on things like consumer protection, and bankruptcy protection, and ethics,” Gillibrand said. “Things beyond just ‘what’s the structure?’ and ‘what’s required for an issuer?’”

Source: Brian Armstrong

Senate Democrats pulled support for the bill on May 8 and stalled its momentum, airing concerns that it wouldn’t help address multiple crypto-tied deals that will personally enrich Trump.

“A lot of what President Trump is engaged in is already illegal,” Gillibrand said. “I also think his issuance of a memecoin is illegal based on current law.”

“It’s literally offering anyone who wants to curry favor with the administration to just send him money — that’s about as illegal as it gets.”

“I’m not so worried about this bill having to deal with all President Trump’s ethics problems. What this bill is really intended to do is regulate the entire space of stablecoins,” she added.

Gillibrand said the revised bill includes “some ethics requirements,” but it was “not an ethics bill.”

“If we were dealing with all President Trump’s ethics problems, it would be a very long and detailed bill,” she added.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, also on stage, was hopeful the Senate would vote on the stablecoin bill “early next week.”

Armstrong, whose company cozied up to Trump by donating $1 million to his inauguration fund, declined to comment when asked if the President’s memecoin could impact the passage of bipartisan crypto bills.

“It’s not my place to really comment on President Trump’s activity,” he said. “What I do think is important is that this bill remains focused on stablecoins.”

Crypto bills “absolutely critical” to pass before midterms

The crypto industry is pushing for Congress to pass the GENIUS Act and a Republican-drafted crypto market structure bill before the midterm elections on Nov. 3, 2026, where all 435 House seats and a third of the 100 Senate seats are up for election.

“We have a very narrow window to get legislation through between now and the midterms,” Marta Belcher, the president of the crypto lobby group the Blockchain Association, told Cointelegraph at the Consensus conference in Toronto.

“I strongly suspect that window is going to close very quickly. I don’t know if we’re going to get another window like this to get legislation through,” she added.

“It’s absolutely critical that we get it through now, especially because there really is a real possibility that in the future we end up with an administration that is hostile to crypto.”

The Association’s communications director, Chris Jonas, added that it’s critical the bills pass before Congress takes a recess for the month of August.

Related: Crypto execs flock to DC to support Senate stablecoin bill 

“Once you get into the calendar year of the midterms, historically not a lot of legislation moves, so that’s why it’s so critical,” he explained.

Trump should be on track to sign both crypto bills before the August break, according to Bo Hines, the executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets.

Hines noted on stage at Consensus on May 13 that negotiations on both bills are still ongoing, but it was “the President’s desire” to sign both “stablecoin legislation and market structure legislation before the August recess.”

Legal Panel: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight