Shell reported adjusted profits of $6.92 billion for the first quarter of 2025, beating analyst forecasts of $6.36 billion by a significant margin and coming in almost 25% higher than the same period last year. The outperformance was driven largely by Shell's trading division, which capitalised on the price swings and supply disruptions triggered by the Middle East conflict.

The US State Department has sanctioned three Chinese commercial satellite companies for allegedly supplying Iran with imagery that enabled military strikes against American forces during the Middle East conflict. The targeted firms are The Earth Eye, a satellite earth station company; MizarVision, a geospatial intelligence firm; and Chang Guang Satellite Technology, a commercial imagery group. A fourth target, Iran's Ministry of Defence Export Center, was also sanctioned.

China's exports grew 14.1% year on year in April in dollar terms, rebounding sharply from 2.5% growth in March and comfortably beating the analyst consensus of 8.5%, according to data released Saturday by China's General Administration of Customs. Imports rose 25.3% year on year, slightly below March's 27.8% but well ahead of the 20% forecast, reflecting both higher commodity prices and a modest improvement in domestic demand. China's trade surplus widened to $84.8 billion in April, up from $51.1 billion in March and in line with the elevated levels seen through much of the post-pandemic period.

On Friday, Revolut users began reporting that the app was showing Bitcoin prices collapsing to around $39,900 — roughly a 50% drop from actual market levels. Some users received push notifications suggesting even more extreme moves, including an alert that Bitcoin had hit a 52-week low of 2 cents. The apparent crash extended across multiple assets on the app, with users reporting simultaneous price drops in XRP, Solana, and even stablecoins like USDT and USDC.

Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin USDT, froze more than $514 million across 370 wallet addresses on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains in the past 30 days alone, according to onchain data from BlockSec's USDT Freeze Tracker. The overwhelming majority of that activity — $505.9 million across 328 addresses — occurred on Tron, which has become the dominant network for stablecoin-based enforcement actions.