Flare Network leads altcoins as Bitcoin stalls

Flare Network gained 14% on May 15 as altcoins outpaced Bitcoin stuck below its 200-day moving average.

Flare Network activated the FAssets v1.3 upgrade on its mainnet on May 15, enabling XRP holders to mint the DeFi-ready FXRP token in a single XRP Ledger transaction using native destination tags.

The upgrade allows minting directly from major centralized exchanges including Binance and Kraken as a simple withdrawal, removing the multi-step friction that had limited adoption. FLR gained 14% on the announcement.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE led all 24-hour gains at 16%, driven by Bitwise’s launch of a spot Hyperliquid ETF and Coinbase’s new designation as the protocol’s official USDC treasury deployer.

Unibase’s UB token added 11%, continuing its May momentum after the May 7 launch of its ERC-8183 Agent Service Market. Total cumulative crypto futures volume rose 14% to $220 billion over 24 hours.

Bitcoin’s 200-day average caps the session

Bitcoin remained below its 200-day simple moving average near $82,228 throughout the session, trading around $80,592. The Senate Banking Committee’s 15-9 Clarity Act approval on Thursday had briefly pushed Bitcoin above $82,000, but macro pressure from hotter-than-expected inflation data and the $2.6 billion options expiry reversed those gains by Friday.

As crypto.news reported, Flare has been executing a broader tokenomics overhaul under FIP.16, cutting annual FLR inflation by 40% to 3% and introducing protocol-level MEV capture designed to link network usage directly to token value. That structural shift provides a bullish case for FLR independent of broader market conditions.

As crypto.news noted when FLR printed a similar catalyst-driven rally in April 2025, upgrades that lower friction for XRP capital entering the Flare ecosystem have historically preceded sustained volume growth in the days following the launch.