Gate Research VIP Weekly Report: Rate Cut Expectations Cool Off, Cross-Chain Security Risks Continue to Escalate (May 18 – May 24, 2026)

Over the past week, both BTC and ETH experienced a sharp pullback followed by a recovery. BTC is currently retesting the $77,500 resistance zone, while $2,200 remains the key resistance level that will determine ETH’s short-term trend direction. Last week, Arbitrum and Base recorded net inflows of approximately $128 million and $117 million respectively, becoming the primary destinations for capital inflows. Capital is no longer parked on mainnets, prediction markets, or macro trading strategies, but is instead flowing back into Layer 2 networks better suited for application deployment and trade execution. Over the past month, cross-chain infrastructure has suffered a series of security incidents with cumulative losses approaching $400 million, as attack surfaces expanded from bridge contracts to validator networks, TSS, cross-chain messaging, and off-chain RPC systems.