Crypto Weekly Recap: CLARITY Advances, US Inflation Soars, Wall Street Raises COIN Stock Target, Strategy Resumes Bitcoin Buys

Highlights The crypto market saw gains this week after the CLARITY Act advanced after a 15-9 vote. Powell’s tenure at the Federal Reserve ended on May 15 and Kevin Warsh is now the new Fed Chair. Analyst expect COIN stock to reach $270 despite Q1 earnings revealing a massive loss.

The crypto market had a volatile week because the total market cap opened the week at $2.61 trillion and dropped to $2.58 trillion, the lowest it has been since May 4. But the weekly recap of events that moved crypto prices this week, like the CLARITY Act advancing and Strategy resuming Bitcoin buying, suggests it might reach $2.6 trillion next week. Benchmark also says Coinbase (COIN) stock might reach $270 even if US inflation at 3.8% is at the highest in three years.
CLARITY Act Advances After Senate Markup Vote
15 senators voted in favor of CLARITY on May 14, and nine voted against it. The bill is headed to the Senate in June 2026, and if it passes again, President Trump will sign it.

Polymarket shows that there is a 67% chance that the bill is going to pass this year. Santiment says that if Trump signs this bill, crypto prices will go up because institutional money is going to enter the market.

BTC ETFs saw $131 million in inflows on May 14 after the bill passed. The flows have never been this high since May 5. XRP had $18 million in inflows after zero flows the previous day.

A weekly recap of how crypto prices performed after the vote shows many are expecting CLARITY to be good for prices because Bitcoin went from $79,300 to $82,000, and XRP went from $1.42 to $1.54.
US CPI Print Soars to Three-Year High
The US released the April CPI print on Tuesday this week, and inflation came in at 3.8%. It was above the expected 3.7%. and has never been this high since May 2023.

US inflation is rising because of the US-Iran war. CPI remained at 2.4% between January and February 2026. And this was before the war started. It jumped to 3.3% in March and reached 3.4% in April.

The CPI is above the Fed target of 2%. The CME FedWatch Tool shows that the chance that the Federal Reserve will hike rates in 2026 has reached 49%, as the crypto market watches what’s next.
Benchmark Raises COIN Stock Target to $270
On Thursday, May 14, COIN was at $222, meaning that the buying caused by CLARITY advancing cooled off and bears tightened their grip, pulling it to $195 on Friday.

But Coinbase had just said it had a loss of $1.49 per share between January and March 2026. This has not prevented the stock from being a buy according to Benchmark.

Wall Street expects that COIN stock is going to $270. Benchmark raised its target and maintained that the stock is still worth buying.
Strategy Resumes Bitcoin Buys
The crypto weekly recap shows Michael Saylor’s Strategy did not buy Bitcoin between May 4 and May 9. But Strategy is buying again after it used $43 million to buy 535 BTC at an average price of $80,340 on May 11.

Strategy now has 818,869 BTC. Only Satoshi, with one million BTC, has more Bitcoin than Strategy. It is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

STRC is making it possible for Strategy to keep up the buying spree after the preferred stock recently had five million volumes, the fourth largest ever seen.
Powell’s Tenure at the Federal Reserve Ends
Jerome Powell is no longer the chair of the Federal Reserve after his term ended on May 15, after eight years of being at the helm.
The Senate had confirmed his replacement, Kevin Warsh, on May 13. 54 senators voted in favor of Warsh.

Trump had been very critical of Powell for failing to trim rates, but even if Warsh is taking over, the CME FedWatch tool shows more than 90% of people expect the Fed not to take rates below the 3.50% and 3.75% this year.

But Warsh has invested in Compound, Solana, and Polymarket. This is why his four-year tenure from now to May 2030 is expected to be good for crypto.