It may be appropriate to attempt to mitigate the extent of the freeze as much as possible, even at the cost of greater complexity, said BitMEX.

BitMEX Research has proposed an alternative to freezing quantum-vulnerable dormant Bitcoins, advocating a wait-and-see approach and a “canary fund” with a quantum bounty instead. 

BitMEX Research proposed a soft fork on Thursday that would only activate a full freeze of vulnerable coins if it is “proven that a quantum computer capable of stealing Bitcoins actually exists.”

The system uses a “canary approach,” creating a special Bitcoin (BTC) address using a “Nothing-Up-My-Sleeve Number” (NUMS). This is a cryptographic proof in which the private key is unknown, but it is a valid address that could theoretically be spent by a powerful enough quantum computer.

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CryptoQuant says Bitcoin could be reaching a temporary ceiling after hitting a multi-month top of $76,000 on Wednesday, with investors moving Bitcoin in bulk to exchanges.

Bitcoin deposits to crypto exchanges surged on Tuesday as it rallied above $76,000, suggesting it is hitting “near-term selling pressure” as investors move their coins into a position for sale, according to CryptoQuant.

In a report on Wednesday, CryptoQuant said the size and rate of Bitcoin (BTC) inflows to exchanges have increased since the rally, with hourly inflows spiking to 11,000 BTC, the highest since December.

CryptoQuant said it is a “historically reliable warning signal of near-term selling pressure, as holders move coins to exchanges in preparation for potential distribution at key resistance zones.”

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Back said the safest approach is to build optional upgrades that would allow Bitcoin to migrate to quantum-resistant cryptography once it's needed.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back, an early pioneer of the crypto movement, said Bitcoiners should be looking at building quantum-resistant solutions now, even if the threat is still decades away. 

“Quantum computing still has a lot to prove. Current systems are essentially lab experiments. I’ve followed the field for over 25 years, and progress has been incremental,” Back said at Paris Blockchain Week on Tuesday.

“That said, Bitcoin should prepare,” Back said, adding that the “safest approach” is to build optional upgrades that allow migration to quantum-resistant cryptography if needed.

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Institutional investors are buying Ether again, but a handful of factors could slow market momentum and negatively impact ETH’s rally.

Key takeaways:

Institutional ETH accumulation remains robust as Ether ETFs and Bitmine Immersion lead a healthy, spot-driven recovery.

Lackluster DApp revenue and negative ETH funding rates suggest that traders are skeptical of the rally.

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The committee, led by Tether’s head of government affairs, reported spending $3 million on advertising through a company co-founded by Tether US CEO Bo Hines.

The latest filing by the crypto-aligned political action committee (PAC) headed by stablecoin issuer Tether’s head of government affairs shows $11 million in contributions from financial institutions.

In a Wednesday filing with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Fellowship PAC revealed it had received $10 million from financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and $1 million from Anchor Labs, the company behind the crypto bank Anchorage Digital. The January 2026 contributions came amid $3 million in spending by the PAC for “issue advocacy advertising” with the Nxum Group, a marketing company co-founded by former White House crypto adviser and Tether US CEO Bo Hines.

Despite the significant contributions from Cantor Fitzgerald and Anchorage, Fellowship initially claimed to have “over $100 million” from undisclosed backers aligned with the crypto industry at its launch in September. FEC filings showed no receipts over $200 between Aug. 7, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2025, but did not necessarily include any contributions after March 31.

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Short-term Bitcoin traders took profit on 63,000 BTC over the past 24-hours. Will profit-taking continue to stall the rally?

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally stalled above $76,000 stalled on Tuesday after short-term profit-taking by traders reached its highest level in 2026. 

The activity coincided with continued accumulation by long-term holders, and this opposing interaction between the two cohorts may continue to impact Bitcoin’s attempts to break into the $80,000 range.

New Bitcoin short-term holders moved their holdings as BTC in profit sent to exchanges reached 63,000 BTC on April 14, the highest level in 2026, since the 44,800 spike on Jan. 14.

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The contracts mark Injective’s first entry into US-regulated derivatives markets and could help support a spot ETF following a filing from Canary Capital.

Chicago-based crypto exchange Bitnomial has launched monthly futures contracts tied to Injective, marking the first US-regulated derivatives product for the Web3 financial ecosystem’s native token.

According to Wednesday’s announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the contracts settle in INJ (INJ) with monthly expiries, allowing traders to gain price exposure without holding the underlying asset, and can be margined in crypto or US dollars through Bitnomial’s clearinghouse.

The listing also starts a six-month track record that could support a spot exchange-traded fund under US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) listing rules. In July, Canary Capital filed for a staked INJ ETF, with Cboe BZX Exchange submitting a corresponding rule change to the SEC.

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CEO Tarek Mansour said in an interview that Kalshi would prevent kids from using a parent’s ID to skirt its age restrictions by launching a parent portal and AI verification.

Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour reportedly announced a new strategy for the prediction markets platform to crack down on minors illegally using its services.

According to a Wednesday Semafor report, Mansour said that Kalshi was launching a “portal for parents” to submit their identification to check whether their children were using the platforms under their names. There have been incidents in which minors have been able to bypass Kalshi’s age requirements — a US-based user must be 18 years old — by using one of their parent’s IDs for verification.

“We are also adding selfies to accounts, where you can basically look at the face of a person, and it can tell you obviously if this person is not the actual parent that’s 50 years old,” said Mansour, according to Semafor.

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The product is designed to generate yield by participating in network validation, adding an income component to passive exposure.

Bitwise Asset Management has launched a spot Avalanche exchange-traded product, giving investors exposure to the Avalanche token while staking a portion of its holdings to generate yield.

Bitwise plans to stake roughly 70% of its AVAX holdings through its in-house infrastructure, while maintaining a liquidity reserve of about 30% to meet redemptions and operational needs.

The fund began trading Wednesday on the NYSE under the ticker BAVA, closing up about 1.5%, to $25.50 per share, according to Yahoo Finance. The Avalanche token (AVAX) was last trading at $9.52, up 1.8%, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Jane Street said it needs GPU-based computing power to keep its trading and research operations competitive amid growing adoption of AI.

CoreWeave, a publicly traded AI cloud infrastructure company, announced on Wednesday a $6 billion deal with quantitative trading firm Jane Street, in which the firm will use CoreWeave’s AI cloud computing infrastructure to power its trading and research operations.

Under the agreement, CoreWeave will provide Jane Street with compute from multiple data center facilities, the company's announcement said.

Jane Street also purchased $1 billion in CoreWeave Class A Common stock at $109 per share, according to CoreWeave.

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A Bitcoin daily candlestick close above $76,000 would complete a bullish trend reversal and shift the bulls’ short-term price target to $84,000. Will altcoins follow the rally?

Key points:

Bitcoin’s shallow pullback from the $76,000 resistance suggests that buyers are holding onto their positions, expecting the recovery to continue.

Select major altcoins are showing strength and are expected to break above their overhead resistance levels.

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Potential conflicts of interest in the state’s gubernatorial race and a pro-crypto Super PAC endorsing a Republican candidate for Senate could cloud the 2026 race.

Another political action committee (PAC) aligned with the cryptocurrency industry announced its endorsement for a candidate in Ohio’s Senate race, signaling a move that could mirror the 2024 US election.

In a Wednesday notice, Sentinel Action Fund, a group that claims to be the “only conservative Super PAC advancing pro-crypto candidates and supporting pro-crypto innovation,” said it would be supporting Republican Jon Husted in this year’s race to represent Ohio in the US Senate. 

Husted was appointed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in January 2025 to replace JD Vance, who was elected vice president alongside US President Donald Trump in his 2024 election win. He still faces a field of Republican candidates ahead of a May 5 primary in Ohio, where former Senator Sherrod Brown will also face off in the Democratic primary against Ron Kincaid.  

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London-based Legal & General Asset Management is the latest global asset manager to expand distribution across blockchain networks and trading models.

London-based Legal & General Asset Management has made its liquidity funds available in tokenized form through Calastone’s blockchain-based distribution network, enabling investors to access and transfer fund shares via digital infrastructure as an alternative to traditional settlement systems.

According to Wednesday’s announcement, the tokenized share classes are issued with permissioned access, allowing authorized users to buy, hold and transfer them within a regulated environment, while traditional share classes remain available through existing distribution channels.

The funds, denominated in US dollars, euros and British pound sterling, manage more than £50 billion in assets and are designed for capital preservation and same-day liquidity. They invest in high-quality, short-term money market instruments, including government bonds, bank deposits and corporate debt.

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Ether looks poised to gain a price advantage over BTC as the ETH/BTC ratio soars to a 10-week high.

The ETH/BTC ratio has climbed to a 10-week high, suggesting that Ether (ETH) is gaining momentum against Bitcoin (BTC) in the charts. 

Ether’s footing has improved as clearer DeFi regulations from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were applauded by the crypto community. At the same time, Bitmine has added 71,524 ETH to its Ether treasury on April 13. 

The ETH/BTC ratio broke through a descending trendline resistance that had been in place since August 2025. A daily close above this trend line marks the first breakout in months.

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New Bitcoin macro analysis found its "addressable market" surpassed the $38 trillion gold market cap, driven by geopolitical instability and financial sanctions.

Bitcoin (BTC) has a target market that is “probably a lot bigger” than gold’s $30 trillion market cap, says a crypto industry executive.

Key points:

Bitcoin should continue to outperform during geopolitical crises, says Bitwise’s Matt Hougan.

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The Massachusetts Democrat has been critical of private companies, including non-bank entities, issuing their own dollar-pegged stablecoins.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked Elon Musk for information on X Money, a payments feature that is expected to be integrated into the X social media platform in the near future.

Warren, who is a longtime critic of Musk and the cryptocurrency industry, wrote in a letter on Tuesday that X Money’s potential stablecoin and crypto integrations could pose risks to the financial system and US national security.

She questioned whether the platform would also issue its own stablecoin, under a legal “carveout” in the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which allows private companies to issue their own stablecoins. 

Warren said X Money’s limited beta preview suggests it will offer 6% interest on deposits and partner with Cross River Bank, which was subject to enforcement action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a banking regulator. She said:

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Bitcoin paused its rally toward new range highs while the S&P 500 came within an inch of a fresh year-to-date high, leading analysts to warn that traders are overconfident.

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $74,000 at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as US stocks edged higher on news that the US and Iran may be open to another round of ceasefire negotiations.

Key points:

Bitcoin consolidates as analysts warn that stocks may be too optimistic over geopolitical relief.

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EIP-8105 proposes a scheme-agnostic encrypted mempool for Ethereum, designed to hide transaction payloads until after inclusion and reduce harmful MEV.

Sandwich attacks cost Ethereum users an estimated $60 million per year. Transactions broadcast to the public mempool are publicly visible before inclusion, which gives MEV bots the ability to affect the order of transactions and insert their own for profit. This problem has persisted on some level in spite of years of discussion and various out-of-protocol mitigation attempts.

Encrypting mempool transactions would be one of the most compelling solutions to prevent MEV. While this idea has been actively discussed for years, it has not yet been implemented at the protocol level. In our earlier research, we examined several proposals based on threshold-encryption, including Shutter, Batched Threshold Encryption, and Flash Freezing Flash Boys. In this article, we turn to a meta proposal titled “Universal Enshrined Encrypted Mempool (EIP-8105)“.

Universal Enshrined Encrypted Mempool, also known as EIP-8105, is a scheme-agnostic encrypted mempool design, which means it can support a wide range of encryption methods, including threshold encryption, MPC committees, TEEs, delay encryption, and fully homomorphic encryption. A new system contract on the execution layer, called the key provider registry, is planned to facilitate this flexible design. It would allow any account to register as a key provider that holds and reveals decryption keys using their own preferred encryption technology. 

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The UK financial regulator has launched a consultation on crypto rules covering stablecoins, trading and staking ahead of a broader UK crypto regime expected to take effect in 2027.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said Wednesday it is consulting on guidance for the country’s future crypto regime, in the latest step toward a broader framework that is expected to take effect on Oct. 25, 2027.

In a statement, the FCA said it is seeking industry feedback on the guidance to help companies understand how they might be affected by the regime. The full consultation text is available on the FCA website, with the feedback window closing on June 3, 2026.

The regulator said the guidance will clarify requirements for areas such as stablecoin issuance, crypto trading, custody and staking. “We want to develop a competitive and sustainable cryptoasset sector where UK consumers are served by authorised cryptoasset firms and can make informed decisions,” the FCA said.

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The new proposal outlines multi-year lockups and opt-in token burn, as the Trump-linked DeFi platform responds to pressure over delayed liquidity access.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial on Wednesday posted a governance proposal that would place 62.28 billion locked WLFI tokens under new multiyear vesting schedules and introduce a potential burn for founder, team, adviser and partner allocations. 

Under the proposal, early supporters’ locked tokens would face a two-year cliff followed by a two-year linear vest. Founder, team, adviser and partner allocations would face a two-year cliff followed by a three-year linear vest if those holders opt in to the new terms.

The plan also provides for a burn of up to 4.52 billion WLFI tokens, or 10% of the founder, team, adviser and partner allocation. Holders who do not accept the new vesting terms would remain locked indefinitely.

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Only 4% of Danish citizens own crypto, far below other European countries, as banks, taxes and risk fears limit adoption, according to a new staff paper from the country's central bank.

Only 4% of Danish citizens own cryptocurrencies, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2023 despite the global growth of the sector across Europe and other jurisdictions, according to a new staff paper from the country’s central bank published Wednesday.

The Danmarks Nationalbank staff paper, based on a survey conducted by Epinion, revealed that among those who do hold crypto, most maintain relatively small positions. The majority reported holdings below 10,000 Danish kroner (around $1,570), with total national holdings estimated between $317 million and $847 million.

The survey is based on responses from 3,013 citizens aged 15 and above. The data was gathered between October and November 2025 through Denmark’s Digital Post system, with options to respond online or by phone. The sample was weighted to reflect national demographics.

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Fireblocks launched Earn, giving institutions direct access to Aave and Morpho-based stablecoin lending as firms seek yield on idle balances.

Update April 15, 2026, 2:00 p.m. UTC: This article has been updated to include a comment from a Fireblocks spokesperson.

Enterprise digital asset infrastructure platform Fireblocks said Wednesday it launched Earn, a feature that lets institutional clients route stablecoin balances into onchain lending strategies through Aave and Morpho-powered products.

The product launches with a Sentora-curated vault on Morpho and direct access to Aave’s stablecoin lending markets, according to Fireblocks. The company said Earn is available now in Early Access for Fireblocks customers.

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Virginia signed a law bringing digital assets into unclaimed property rules, requiring in-kind transfer and limiting how quickly the state can sell them.

The US state of Virginia has approved changes to its unclaimed property framework, bringing digital assets under state custody rules while limiting how soon those assets can be sold.

On Monday, Governor Abigail Spanberger signed House Bill 798 into law. The measure amends the state’s Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act, requiring custodians of unclaimed crypto to transfer those assets in-kind, meaning in their original form, rather than liquidating them into cash.

The law also imposes a minimum one-year holding period before any sale. “The administrator may subsequently direct such holder of unclaimed digital assets to liquidate the reported but unremitted digital assets not less than one year following the filing of a report,” the bill reads.

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Pakistan’s central bank has allowed banks to open accounts for licensed virtual asset service providers, ending years of restrictions and marking a shift toward a regulated framework.

Pakistan’s central bank has allowed banks to open accounts for licensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and their customers, replacing an eight-year-old prohibition on dealing in virtual currencies.

In a circular dated April 14, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said regulated entities may open bank accounts for entities licensed by the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), the statutory body responsible for licensing, regulation and oversight of virtual asset activities in the country.

The move follows Pakistan’s passage of the Virtual Assets Act 2026 in March and marks a shift toward a more formal regulatory framework for digital assets after years of restrictions following an outright ban in 2018. 

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EU officials plan to reassess MiCA as companies test its limits, with industry feedback set to shape potential changes to the bloc’s crypto framework.

A European Commission adviser said the European Union’s landmark MiCA crypto regime is likely to evolve as digital asset markets develop beyond the conditions the law was originally designed to address.

Speaking at the Paris Blockchain Week (PBW) 2026, Peter Kerstens, an adviser on technological innovation, digital transformation and cybersecurity at the European Commission’s financial services department, said the Commission will review the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and launch a public consultation to assess whether the rules are working for market participants and supporting business development.

The remarks suggest EU policymakers are already thinking about how MiCA may need to evolve as the crypto market matures. Kerstens said he could not predict the future, but added that EU financial legislation typically evolves in stages, suggesting it would be “rather unusual” if there were not a “MiCA 2” over time.

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The exchange said the new product is available across the European Economic Area through its Malta-based MiFID business, with up to 10x leverage and multi-asset collateral.

OKX said Wednesday it is rolling out a Europe-specific crypto derivatives product called X-Perps, extending its regulated offering across the European Economic Area (EEA) through its Malta-based MiFID business.

The company said the new derivatives product is available to retail and institutional traders across all 30 EEA countries.

OKX said the platform is purpose-built in compliance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), a European Union regulatory framework governing financial instruments such as securities and derivatives.

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EToro is set to acquire self-custodial wallet provider Zengo, and the trading platform’s CEO predicted a Bitcoin rally above $250,000 after another quarter of crypto market downside.

EToro said Wednesday it agreed to acquire self-custodial crypto wallet provider Zengo, deepening the trading platform’s push into onchain products as digital assets remain central to its business.

The deal will let eToro add Zengo’s wallet technology and broaden its offering in areas such as tokenized assets, prediction markets, perpetuals and yield products, according to the company. Terms were not disclosed. Bloomberg reported the transaction is worth about $70 million, mostly in cash, citing a person familiar with the matter.

CEO Yoni Assia said at Paris Blockchain Week during a fireside chat that the acquisition fits eToro’s effort to attract a more crypto native user base while expanding beyond regulated brokerage products into self-custody infrastructure.

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Ripple and Kyobo Life are piloting tokenized government bond settlement as South Korea builds rules for token securities and digital asset payments.

Ripple has partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance, one of South Korea’s largest life insurers, to pilot blockchain-based settlement of government bonds, as Seoul moves to formalize rules for tokenized securities.

Ripple Custody, Ripple’s digital asset custody solution, will support the issuance, storage and settlement of tokenized government bonds, the company said in a Wednesday announcement. The companies will also explore tokenized treasury settlement across Korea’s financial system.

The project aims to replace traditional bond settlement processes, which often rely on multiple intermediaries and two-day settlement cycles, with onchain execution that enables near real-time settlement. This change could reduce counterparty risk and improve capital efficiency.

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Societe Generale-FORGE said MetaMask will add its MiCA-compliant USDCV stablecoin, extending distribution for one of Europe’s bank-backed digital dollars.

Societe Generale-FORGE, the digital asset arm of French banking giant Societe Generale, has integrated its Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA)-compliant USD CoinVertible (USDCV) stablecoin into MetaMask, giving the wallet’s millions of users access to a regulated dollar token issued by a major European bank.

The company said in a release on Wednesday that under the partnership with Consensys, USDCV, which is backed by cash and cash-equivalent reserves and issued under French electronic money regulations, will be surfaced in MetaMask on mobile and web. The token is redeemable 1:1 in dollars and will be made available for functions including trading, decentralized finance interaction and fiat on-ramping, with Transak serving as the on-ramp provider.

The move expands access to one of the few dollar stablecoins issued by a major European bank. It also comes as regulated issuers seek to turn MiCA compliance into a commercial advantage by distributing tokens across widely used crypto platforms. SG-FORGE CEO Jean-Marc Stenger said the MetaMask rollout is intended to broaden access to compliant digital assets.

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It is the second long-term social-engineering attack this month, after the $280 million exploit of the Drift Protocol.

Crypto wallet Zerion revealed that North Korean-affiliated hackers used AI in a long-term social engineering attack to steal about $100,000 from the company’s hot wallets last week. 

The Zerion team released a post-mortem on Wednesday, where it confirmed that no user funds, Zerion apps or infrastructure were affected and that it had proactively disabled the web app as a precaution. 

While the amount was relatively small in crypto hacking terms, it is another incident of a crypto worker being targeted for an “AI-enabled social engineering attack linked to a DPRK threat actor,” Zerion said.

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Tat Thang, a partner at the prediction platform Polymarket, suggests X is building a Web3 equivalent of the Chinese WeChat Pay citing its recent moves to scrub crypto bots.

Social media platform X has launched its smart cashtag feature on iPhones in the US and Canada, letting users view stock and cryptocurrency data directly from the app as part of Elon Musk’s plan to shift X into a financial platform.

The new feature allows users to select a specific asset or smart contract address when posting a ticker. Tapping a tag displays live price charts and related posts. 

Canadian users will be able to trade stocks and crypto through a deal between X and Wealthsimple, an online brokerage. The trading feature has not yet rolled out in the United States. 

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Elastic Security Labs says a multi-step social engineering scam is aimed at those in crypto and finance, using a community plugin feature on a note-taking app to spread malicious device-controlling software.

Crypto users have been warned of a new social engineering scam that tricks victims into using community plugins on the note-taking app Obsidian to unknowingly run malware that can take control of their devices.

Elastic Security Labs said in a report on Tuesday that it found a novel campaign targeting those in crypto and finance using “elaborate social engineering on LinkedIn and Telegram” to trick victims into allowing malicious, yet seemingly safe, software to run on their devices.

Attackers abuse the community plugin ecosystem on Obsidian to “silently execute code when a victim opens a shared cloud vault,” with attacks working on both Windows and macOS devices.

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Apple told Cointelegraph that the fake Ledger Live app was removed and that the developer was terminated from its app store.

Apple has confirmed it took down a malicious app that impersonated the Ledger self-custody crypto wallet after an onchain analysis found that more than 50 victims fell for the scam, losing a combined $9.5 million.

Apple told Cointelegraph on Tuesday that the fake Ledger Live app was removed and that the developer, “SAS Software Company,” was terminated from the Apple App Store.

Apple said the developer used a “bait-and-switch strategy” to trick users into installing a fake Ledger Live app and sharing their seed phrases.

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Crypto Valley raised $728 million across 31 deals in 2025, outpacing global blockchain funding growth as a $400 million TON deal lifted totals.

Switzerland’s Crypto Valley captured 47% of European blockchain venture funding in 2025, raising $728 million across 31 deals, according to an annual report released Wednesday by venture firm CV VC.

Globally, blockchain venture funding rose 30% to $15.5 billion across 986 deals last year, while Crypto Valley’s total climbed 37% from $531 million in 2024, the report said.

One deal did much of the heavy lifting. The Open Network (TON) accounted for $400 million of Crypto Valley’s 2025 funding haul, followed by Sygnum Bank at $58 million, stablecoin platform M0 at $40 million, Impossible Cloud Network at $34 million and CratD2C at $30 million, according to the report.

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The authors described it as a “private incentive to upgrade” because lost or frozen coins will make everyone else’s coins worth slightly more.

Update (April 15, 6:45 am UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from Jameson Lopp.

Cypherpunk Jameson Lopp and five co-authors from the Bitcoin quantum security space have proposed freezing quantum-vulnerable coins on the Bitcoin network, including Satoshi’s $74 billion stash, to prevent them from being stolen once quantum computers become available.

The move is the second part of a three-stage proposal under BIP-361 called the “Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset,” which was posted as a draft to GitHub on Tuesday.

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Bitwise's Matt Hougan previously estimated that if Bitcoin captures 17% of the store-of-value market over the next decade, it could be worth $1 million a coin.

Bitcoin’s addressable market has the potential to surpass the $34 trillion gold market if it is eventually widely used as both a currency and a store of value, according to Bitwise's chief investment officer Matt Hougan.

Hougan said on Tuesday that while Bitcoin (BTC) has been seen as a contender to gold, the war in Iran has shown that Bitcoin can also serve in a “currency-like manner,” referring to Iran’s proposed plan to charge a toll that can be paid in crypto for ships to navigate the Strait of Hormuz. 

“In a world where countries have weaponized their financial rails, Bitcoin is emerging as an apolitical alternative,” Hougan said. 

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Kraken’s market valuation has dropped from $20 billion to $13.3 billion since the company confidentially filed for an IPO with the SEC in November.

Crypto exchange Kraken has hinted it is still going ahead with an initial public offering despite reports suggesting the plan was put on hold last month due to market conditions. 

Kraken filed for a confidential IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in November, but an unconfirmed report in March suggested that the plan may have been frozen. 

Speaking at the Semafor World Economy 2026 conference on Tuesday, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi didn’t address the pause but confirmed the company had “confidentially filed” for an IPO when asked by Semafor reporter Rohan Goswami whether “there are plans to take Kraken public soon.”

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US Senator Thom Tillis will publicly share an agreement to end a crypto and banking clash over stablecoin yields, but both sides are resisting the proposal, Politico reports.

Bank and crypto lobbyists have both relayed concerns over the latest proposal to end the stalemate on stablecoin yields in the US Senate’s crypto market structure bill, legislation that has been in limbo since the House passed the CLARITY Act in July.

Senator Thom Tillis told Politico on Monday that he plans to publicly release a draft agreement this week that aims to end a fight over a provision in the Senate’s crypto policing bill that would ban third parties, such as crypto exchanges, from offering stablecoin yield payments.

The draft had already been seen by banking and crypto representatives earlier this month, with Politico reporting that it drew pushback from the banks, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

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Bitcoin rallied to $76,000 on Tuesday as a bullish chart breakout and increasing onchain activity hint at an extended rally to $90,000.

Market analysts say Bitcoin (BTC) is showing “renewed bullish momentum” after its 5% rally above $76,000 on Tuesday, with bulls eyeing further gains to $90,000 amid improving network activity.

Data from TradingView shows the BTC/USD pair rose over 5% on Tuesday to an intraday high of $76,120, levels last seen on Feb. 6. 

The surge saw Bitcoin's price reclaim key support levels, including the $75,000 zone where the 100-day exponential and simple moving averages converge.

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World Liberty Financial allegedly used illiquid tokens to borrow $75 million, fueling bad debt fears and rattling confidence among traders.

World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token risks dipping 20% in April, according to a mix of convincing technical and fundamental indicators.

Key takeaways:

WLFI is painting a bear flag setup with a 20% downside potential.

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Backed by Blockchain Capital, the Amplify suite aims to enable platforms to generate yield and offer lending using customer-held digital assets.

Paxos Labs has raised $12 million in a strategic funding round led by Blockchain Capital to expand its Amplify platform, a suite of tools that lets companies offer crypto yield, lending and stablecoin issuance through a single integration.

The Amplify suite includes three modules — Earn, Borrow and Mint — allowing platforms to generate yield on digital assets, enable crypto-backed loans and issue branded stablecoins with a single integration designed to unlock additional features over time.

According to Tuesday’s announcement, the platform provides a single SDK with configurable controls, while Paxos Labs manages liquidity, counterparty vetting and backend operations, and shares a portion of generated revenue with integrating partners.

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Bitcoin rallied alongside stocks and investors’ hope for interest rate cuts, but is the rejection at $76,000 a sign of a bull trap?

Key takeaways:

The US Federal Reserve's shift toward balance sheet expansion may provide the liquidity needed to boost Bitcoin and broader risk markets.

The war in Iran and high oil prices might be driving investors toward scarce assets to hedge against rising inflation.

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The decentralized exchange aggregator said users should refrain from visiting its website after a frontend exploit.

Decentralized exchange aggregator CoW Swap is calling on users to refrain from using its website after an unknown party hijacked its domain.

In a Tuesday X post, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind CoW Swap said its website had experienced a “DNS [Domain Name System] hijacking,” leading to a pause of its backend and APIs. The frontend exploit, through the website http://swap.cow.fi, was ongoing at the time of publication.

“We are now actively working to resolve the situation,” said CoW Swap. “Please continue to refrain from using swap dot cow dot fi until we confirm that it is safe to use.”

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HYPE's price soared to $45, but data show weak spot volumes and rising leverage use as signs that market momentum may fade.

Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE (HYPE) re-tested $45 on Tuesday, marking its highest value since October 31, 2025. The rally extends a 108% rally from its yearly low at $21 on Jan. 21.

With HYPE price pushing toward all-time highs, market demand signals remain mixed, as weak spot buying activity threatens to slow the rally's momentum.

HYPE currently trades 26% below its all-time high of $59, with relatively thin resistance between the current levels and its peak. The next liquidity zone lies between $52 and $48 and could be reached if momentum sustains. However, the HYPE spot and futures trading data suggest the rally is not entirely conviction-driven.

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The proposed fund would invest in Bitcoin ETPs and sell call options to generate income while limiting exposure to price swings.

Goldman Sachs has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund designed to generate income while limiting exposure to the cryptocurrency’s volatility, according to a preliminary prospectus dated April 14.

The proposed Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF would aim to deliver current income alongside capital appreciation by investing primarily in spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) and related options, rather than holding Bitcoin (BTC) directly.

The fund would generate yield by selling call options on Bitcoin-linked ETPs, a strategy that can produce premium income but may cap upside in rising markets.

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The crypto exchange's move could signal a challenge to platforms like Kalshi through the integration of prediction markets, expected to be a $1 trillion market by 2030.

Crypto.com has signed a definitive agreement with online casino company High Roller Technologies as part of the cryptocurrency exchange’s move into prediction markets in a challenge to companies like Kalshi and Polymarket.

In a Tuesday notice, High Roller said the deal with Crypto.com would allow the crypto exchange to launch “an event-based prediction markets offering” to US-based users. The notice emphasized that the event contracts would be offered via CDNA, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-registered exchange, at a time when US state gaming authorities are cracking down on prediction markets.

“We believe this partnership gives us a strong starting position in a market with meaningful long-term potential, and we’re confident in our ability to deliver,” said High Roller CEO Seth Young.

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Ether bounced off multi-year support, while a bullish MACD crossover could signal that ETH is on the path to new highs.

Ether (ETH) is currently displaying a technical pattern that follows a 2025 fractal, in which Ether gained 250%. The weekly timeframe chart shows Ether retesting an ascending trend line that has supported the price since 2022.

A bullish cross from the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator also confirmed the price bottom. 

Ether’s current price action is following a similar pattern, with the price again bouncing off the same structural support and a confirmed bullish MACD crossover. 

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The payments giant is operating a validator node on the Tempo blockchain, taking a direct role in transaction validation as it expands infrastructure for stablecoin settlement.

Visa has launched a validator node on the Tempo blockchain, taking a direct role in verifying and processing transactions on a network designed for real-time stablecoin payments.

Visa said the node is operated in-house using its own infrastructure and was developed over six months working with Tempo’s engineering team, positioning the company as an “anchor validator” alongside early participants including Stripe and Zodia Custody.

The role places Visa in the transaction validation layer, where it helps order and confirm payments while supporting network security and performance during the network’s early phase.

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XRP transaction activity on Binance mirrors a 2025 signal that preceded the altcoin’s run to an all-time high. Could it happen again?

XRP (XRP) has consolidated within a tight price range below $1.40 over the past 20 days, but new data suggests it may be poised for a bullish breakout after a shift in Binance activity signals reduced sell-side pressure. 

Binance’s withdrawal and deposit activity is flashing a setup that mirrors June 2025, when the altcoin embarked on a rally to $3.65.

Crypto analyst Amr Taha noted a shift in XRP activity on Binance, with transaction flows moving away from deposit-heavy behavior. The seven-day average shows XRP withdrawals rising to 53% while deposits dropped to 46%, returning to the levels last seen in June 2025.

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Figure Technology is adding auto loans to Democratized Prime and extending Hastra beyond Solana, widening tokenized consumer credit access for DeFi investors.

Update (April 15, 7:50 am UTC): This article has been updated to add more comments from Figure spokesperson.

Blockchain-based lender Figure Technology Solutions and Hastra, its onchain credit platform, are adding auto loans to their tokenized credit marketplace, broadening the real-world assets (RWAs) available to decentralized finance (DeFi) investors beyond home equity products.

Democratized Prime, a decentralized lending marketplace on Figure Markets, is adding auto finance as its first new asset class as part of its plan to build a marketplace where different types of consumer credit can be issued, traded and funded onchain, according to a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

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Kevin Warsh did not include the value of several crypto and AI investments among his disclosures as he awaits his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee.

Update (April 14 7:51 PM UTC): This article has been updated to with date of nomination hearing.

Kevin Warsh, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve to replace Chair Jerome Powell, has reported millions of dollars in assets ahead of his confirmation hearing, including investments in crypto and AI companies.

In a filing with the US Office of Government Ethics, Warsh reported Excepted Investment Funds (EIFs) in Compound, Dapper Labs, Kinetic, as well as AI companies Delphi, Conversion, Factory, Glue and others ahead of his confirmation hearing in the Senate.

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Bitcoin rallied to levels not seen since early February after US PPI inflation fell well below market expectations.

Bitcoin (BTC) reached monthly highs above $76,000 on Tuesday as US inflation data continued to buoy risk assets.

Key points:

Bitcoin upside continues as bulls target $76,000 — the highest price since early February.

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A Fake Ledger Live app on Apple’s store is tied to $9.5 million in crypto thefts, as ZachXBT links over 50 victims’ funds to a KuCoin-linked mixer and questions Apple’s liability.

Update April 15, 2026, 6:43 am UTC: This article has been updated to add comments from a KuCoin spokesperson.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT said a fake Ledger Live app listed on Apple’s App Store was tied to about $9.5 million in crypto stolen from more than 50 suspected victims between April 7 and 13.

In a Tuesday Telegram post, ZachXBT said the alleged thefts affected users across Bitcoin, Solana, Tron, XRP Ledger and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks. He claimed the stolen funds were laundered through over 150 KuCoin deposit addresses allegedly tied to AudiA6, which he described as a centralized mixing service. 

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Tether launches tether.wallet, a self-custodial app supporting USDT, XAUT, USAT and Bitcoin with cloud-based key backup features.

Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, USDt (USDT), has launched a self-custodial wallet called tether.wallet.

Tether.wallet supports three Tether-issued assets: USDT, XAUt (XAUT) and the US-focused USAT (USAT), as well as Bitcoin (BTC), the company announced Tuesday.

Tether said the wallet allows users to transact without requiring them to hold separate network or gas tokens, with fees paid directly in the asset being transferred.

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X product chief Nikita Bier teases a crypto “fix” product as speculation grows around an X Money rollout this month, a potential Bitcoin revival and Bier’s Solana ties.

X’s head of product Nikita Bier hinted on Tuesday that the platform could launch a crypto-related product, prompting speculation across the industry.

The post drew attention because it came just weeks before the expected launch of X Money, a payments and digital wallet product that Elon Musk has presented as part of his plan to expand X into a broader financial platform.

The post quickly drew responses across the crypto industry, prompting immediate speculation around X’s potential Bitcoin (BTC) revival, Solana-related initiatives, stablecoins as well as prediction markets.

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XRPL is integrating Boundless’ zero-knowledge tech into its base layer, stepping into the race to offer banks confidential onchain transactions without losing regulatory visibility.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) used by blockchain payments company Ripple has tapped Boundless, a zero-knowledge infrastructure provider, to let banks and asset managers execute confidential yet compliant transactions directly on the network, according to a Tuesday release shared with Cointelegraph.

Boundless chief executive Shiv Shankar told Cointelegraph the design aims to shield details like transaction size, frequency and counterparties from public view, while still allowing regulators to audit activity via selective disclosure and role-based access controls.

Boundless’ integration is meant to enable a range of institutional use cases that have historically been challenging to run on fully transparent ledgers. Those include cross-border business-to-business payments, treasury and capital management, over-the-counter positions, tokenized asset issuance and decentralized exchange or lending activity, where order flow and positions are highly sensitive, according to Shankar.

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Deutsche Börse said it will invest $200 million in Kraken’s parent company for a fully diluted stake of 1.5%, subject to regulatory approval.

Update April 14, 12:39 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include a comment from a Kraken spokesperson.

Deutsche Börse said Tuesday it will invest $200 million in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, deepening a partnership between the two companies as the German exchange operator expands further into digital assets.

The investment, which is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the second quarter, will give Deutsche Börse a 1.5% fully diluted stake in Kraken through a secondary share purchase.

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Nauru moves from building rules to promoting its digital asset framework as it looks to attract companies and cross-border partnerships.

Nauru has appointed crypto entrepreneur Dadvan Yousuf as an international trade commissioner to help advance its digital asset strategy and attract global investment.   

In a statement on Tuesday, President David Adeang said the appointment is part of the Pacific nation’s efforts to strengthen international partnerships and position itself as a hub for virtual asset activity. The government said Yousuf will support cross-border engagement with virtual asset service providers, financial institutions and technology firms.

The move comes less than a year after Nauru passed legislation establishing the Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority (CRVAA), a dedicated regulator tasked with licensing and overseeing crypto firms, digital banks and other virtual asset activities.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $291 million in outflows on Monday as BTC climbed above $74,000, marking the biggest day of redemptions since March 27, led by FBTC.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) clocked a day of outflows on Monday despite BTC surging above $74,000.

Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs recorded $291 million outflows on Monday, the largest daily outflow since March 27, according to SoSoValue data.

The selling largely came from the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which led the outflows at $229 million, according to Farside data.

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Hacken’s Q1 2026 report finds $482 million lost across 44 incidents, with phishing, legacy code bugs and key compromises driving losses as regulators tighten security demands.

Update (April 14, 2026, 11 am UTC): This article has been updated to adjust the total number of hacks and scams in the first quarter to $482 million and the total number of incidents to 44.

Web3 projects lost $482 million to hacks and scams in the first quarter of 2026, while multi-billion-dollar “mega hacks” gave way to a larger number of mid-sized incidents, according to blockchain security company Hacken.

According to Hacken’s Q1 2026 report, phishing and social engineering attacks dominated the period, accounting for $306 million in losses in a quarter that saw 44 incidents overall. A single $282 million hardware wallet scam in January was responsible for more than half of the quarter’s damage.

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UK Liberal Democrats called on the FCA to examine Nigel Farage’s promotion of Stack BTC as scrutiny grows over crypto conflicts and political donations.

UK Liberal Democrats have urged the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate Nigel Farage’s involvement with Bitcoin treasury firm Stack BTC following a promotional video and disclosed shareholding.

In a letter to the FCA, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper asked the regulator to investigate whether Farage breached market rules by appearing in a promotional video for Stack BTC while holding a financial stake in the company.

“The FCA must investigate whether Farage’s plans to cash in on Crypto could potentially amount to market abuse and a conflict of interest,” she wrote, adding that “we cannot allow political leaders to treat the financial markets like a personal piggy bank to potentially line their own pockets.”

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OneCoin was launched by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood in Bulgaria. Ignatova has been missing since 2017, and Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The US Department of Justice has launched a compensation process for victims of the $4 billion crypto Ponzi scheme OneCoin, using forfeited assets taken from some of the scheme's architects.

The Justice Department said on Monday that more than $40 million in forfeited assets is available to compensate anyone who purchased OneCoin between 2014 and 2019 and recorded a net loss.

Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for Manhattan, said the compensation process was “an important step toward returning funds to those harmed.”

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OneCoin was launched by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood in Bulgaria. Ignatova has been missing since 2017, and Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The US Department of Justice has launched a compensation process for victims of the $4 billion crypto Ponzi scheme OneCoin, using forfeited assets taken from some of the scheme's architects.

The Justice Department said on Monday that more than $40 million in forfeited assets is available to compensate anyone who purchased OneCoin between 2014 and 2019 and recorded a net loss.

Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for Manhattan, said the compensation process was “an important step toward returning funds to those harmed.”

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Bitcoin falling to the $50,000 level is being seen as the “last significant accumulation zone” before any sustained recovery, says LVRG Research director Nick Ruck.

Several crypto analysts said there will be a final flush that sends Bitcoin prices as low as $50,000 before the cryptocurrency can mount a measurable recovery.

Bitcoin (BTC) trader and author Ivan Liljeqvist posted to X on Tuesday that Bitcoin is yet to have “the big flush.”

“I don’t think we’ve had it yet, I don’t think $60,000 was the bottom,” he added. “Trend is still down.”

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The American Bankers Association is concerned that stablecoin yields would lead to mass deposit outflows from smaller community banks.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) has criticized a White House report that claimed banning stablecoin yields would only have a negligible impact on banks, arguing that the conclusion was reached by asking the “wrong question.”

The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers claimed in a research paper on Wednesday, on the “Effects of Stablecoin Yield Prohibition on Bank Lending,” that under a baseline scenario, banning stablecoin yield may only increase bank lending by $2.1 billion, representing a marginal net increase of about 0.02%.

ABA chief economist Sayee Srinivasan and vice president for banking and economic research Yikai Wang said in a statement on Monday that the “live policy concern” is not whether prohibiting yield on stablecoins would impact bank lending but whether allowing yield on stablecoins would encourage deposit outflows, particularly from community banks.

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Chris Giancarlo, who oversaw the first Bitcoin futures ETF approval as CFTC chairman, will now advise fintech and digital asset founders and boards.

Chris Giancarlo, the former chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is stepping away from law to become a full-time adviser to cryptocurrency firms.

Giancarlo, referred to as “Crypto Dad” while in office for his crypto advocacy, posted to X on Sunday that he was leaving the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher and retiring from law altogether as he makes the switch to advising crypto and fintech companies.

“From here on, I'll devote my time to advising founders & builders of FinTech & Digital Assets and their CEOs and boards, research & writing on public policy issues, and continuing work with non-profit programs,” he said.

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A broad hope for a US deal with Iran to end weeks of conflict has spurred investor confidence in riskier assets.

Bitcoin has surged to its highest price in nearly a month, triggering hundreds of millions worth of liquidations as hopes of a deal between the Trump administration and Iran washed the crypto market with positive sentiment.

The crypto market surged to a total value of $2.6 trillion, its highest level for a month, liquidating 177,000 traders of $530 million over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass.

The majority of liquidations occurred in the past 12 hours, and 80% of them, or $425 million, were leveraged short positions in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). 

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Coinone is the second to face South Korea’s crackdown on exchanges in the last month, following a $24 million fine and a six-month partial suspension order against Bithumb.

South Korea’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinone, is facing a fine and a partial business suspension over anti-money laundering lapses, according to multiple local media reports.

South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission accused Coinone of failing to comply with anti-money laundering obligations, including verifying user identities in about 70,000 cases, The Korea Times, Chosun and Yonhap News reported on Monday.

The FIU also alleged Coinone facilitated more than 10,000 transactions with 16 foreign exchanges not registered with South Korean regulators, despite repeated warnings.

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The launch of Foundry Zcash Pool has cut ViaBTC’s mining pool hashrate dominance from around 65% to 37%.

Crypto mining pool operator Foundry Digital has launched a pool for the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, which the company says has secured nearly 30% of the Zcash network hashrate through partnerships with multiple institutional mining clients.

“Institutional and public miners are seeking a compliant, purpose-built Zcash mining solution,” Foundry said on Monday, a month after announcing its plan to create the Foundry Zcash Pool.

Foundry, which is also the largest mining pool on the Bitcoin blockchain, did not disclose which institutional miners it had onboarded to reach a 29.2% hashrate share.

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Large Ether investors are back in profit, increasing the chances of a rally toward $3,000, but resistance at $2,800 may delay the recovery.

Ether's (ETH) rebound to $2,300 over the weekend put large investors back into profit but is this a sign that ETH may rally to $3,000?

Data from TradingView shows that Ether’s price rose 20% to $2,330 on Saturday from its local low of $1,940 reached on March 29.

The recovery was fueled by the US and Iran’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire and a strengthening market structure. The rebound has also pushed ETH whales into profitability, according to data from CryptoQuant.

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Bitcoin rallied above $74,000 after the Monday stock market close, but derivatives data show that some traders remain bearish.

Key takeaways:

Despite strong ETF inflows, Bitcoin remains tied to the S&P 500 and sensitive to global macroeconomic developments.

Bitcoin futures premiums and miner selling suggest that the bear market persists despite Bitcoin trading above $74,000.

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The technology services provider said wealth managers have faced challenges integrating digital assets without relying on separate systems.

Broadridge Financial Solutions has launched a digital asset platform for Canadian wealth managers, allowing companies to offer cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets alongside traditional investments.

According to Monday’s announcement, the platform integrates trading, custody and asset servicing, enabling firms to manage digital and traditional assets within existing workflows rather than through separate systems. It also supports both advisor-led and self-directed models, with connectivity to custodians and exchanges.

The platform offers access to cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets including equities, funds and alternative investments, with integrated wallets, institutional custody options and connectivity to exchanges and asset managers.

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Hester Peirce, who heads the SEC’s crypto task force, said that the staff statement represented “expansive readings of the securities laws“ in response to digital assets.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a staff statement clarifying how the agency plans to interpret software interfaces facilitating crypto transactions in its broker-dealer regulations.

In a Monday statement, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets staff said that under certain circumstances, interfaces that “assist users engaging in user-initiated crypto asset securities transactions on blockchain protocols [...] utilizing the user’s self-custodial wallet” may not necessarily be required to register as a broker-dealer with the agency.

The SEC statement specified that self-custodial wallets with such user interfaces may be exempt from registration requirements, provided they do not “solicit investors to engage in any specific crypto asset securities transactions,” provide commentary on “any potential execution [routes] displayed to a user,” and other circumstances.

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While others refrain from boosting their Ether holdings, Bitmine's latest purchase gives it ownership of about 4% of total supply as the company expands its staking strategy.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies said Monday that it purchased 71,524 Ether over the past week, bringing its total holdings to about 4.87 million tokens.

The company said the position represents roughly 4.04% of the total Ether (ETH) supply, based on about 120.7 million tokens outstanding, as it continues to pursue a target of acquiring up to 5% of global supply. Its balance sheet also includes 198 Bitcoin (BTC) and about $719 million in cash.

Bitmine said the latest purchase marks its fastest weekly pace of Ether accumulation since December 2025.

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Bitcoin and altcoin charts highlight growing strength across the industry. Will geopolitics and US economic health concerns stand in the way of the rally?

Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed the $72,000 level as bulls attempt to push the price closer to its multi-month range highs. While lower levels are attracting buyers, sustaining the higher levels might pose a challenge.

Coin Bureau founder and market analyst Nic Puckrin told Cointelegraph that for BTC to reach $90,000, the geopolitical tensions must end, bringing oil prices to $80. Additionally, economic data must soften in order to calm investors’ fear that stagflation may hamper the US economy.

Another cautious view came from CoinEx exchange chief analyst Jeff Ko, who told Cointelegraph that the short-term sentiment “remains fragile and heavily macro-driven, especially by oil, the dollar and inflation expectations.” The analyst sounded more confident over the medium term as he does not expect oil prices to remain elevated due to the supply-demand fundamentals.

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The exchange’s head of security said there had been two incidents involving “inappropriate access” to client data, involving about 2,000 user accounts.

Kraken’s chief security officer said that the company would not be negotiating with a criminal group threatening to release certain information related to client data.

In a Monday X post, Nick Percoco reported an attempt to extort an unspecified amount from the cryptocurrency exchange by an unnamed group “threatening to release videos of our internal systems with client data shown.” He said Kraken’s systems “were never breached” and user funds were not at risk from the attempt.

“We will not pay these criminals,” said Percoco. “We will not ever negotiate with bad actors.”

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The exchange’s head of security said there had been two incidents involving “inappropriate access” to client data, involving about 2,000 user accounts.

Kraken’s chief security officer said that the company would not be negotiating with a criminal group threatening to release certain information related to client data.

In a Monday X post, Nick Percoco reported an attempt to extort an unspecified amount from the cryptocurrency exchange by an unnamed group “threatening to release videos of our internal systems with client data shown.”

He said Kraken’s systems “were never breached” and user funds were not at risk, describing the incidents instead as cases of unauthorized access rather than a system-wide compromise.

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Bitcoin’s attempts to hold rallies above the $70,000 to $75,000 range continue as ETF demand limps along, US treasury yields rise and traders take profit as BTC price hits overhead resistance.

Establishing a strong Bitcoin (BTC) uptrend in 2026 remains a challenge, as exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows have shown limited growth since peaking above $60 billion in 2025.

At the same time, inflows to the gold ETF also dropped by nearly 25% in Q1 and the lack of a capital rotation into BTC signals muted institutional demand.

A recent report from Ecoinometrics shows a clear shift in the demand and persistence of Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows. Before the October 2025 price peak for BTC, ETF inflows often came in extended streaks, including a 15-day run of $4.4 billion in June 2025, which helped sustain upside momentum.

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Bitcoin’s attempts to hold rallies above the $70,000 to $75,000 range continue as ETF demand limps along, US Treasury yields rise and traders take profit as BTC price hits overhead resistance.

Establishing a strong Bitcoin (BTC) uptrend in 2026 remains a challenge, as exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows have shown limited growth since peaking above $60 billion in 2025.

At the same time, inflows to gold ETFs also dropped by nearly 25% in Q1 and the lack of a capital rotation into BTC signals muted institutional demand.

A recent report from Ecoinometrics shows a clear shift in the demand and persistence of Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows. Before the October 2025 price peak for BTC, ETF inflows often came in extended streaks, including a 15-day run of $4.4 billion in June 2025, which helped sustain upside momentum.

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Not all Bitcoin faces the same level of risk from quantum computing. Dormant wallets with exposed public keys could be the first targets.

The common narrative surrounding the impact of quantum computing on Bitcoin focuses on a doomsday scenario in which the entire network collapses at once. However, this perspective overlooks a critical distinction in how the risk is actually distributed.

Bitcoin's quantum vulnerability is not a blanket threat. It is concentrated in dormant addresses with exposed public keys. This includes many of the oldest coins from the “Satoshi era” and lost wallets.

While modern Bitcoin (BTC) addresses use stronger security layers, these legacy holdings could become the primary targets of the first generation of powerful quantum machines. These wallets offer attackers time, scale and minimal resistance. That combination makes them the most likely starting point for any future quantum-driven disruption.

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Bitcoin price data suggests BTC remains undervalued and that short positions opened above $70,000 face a high risk of liquidation.

Bitcoin (BTC) futures data shows that traders who opened new short positions above $70,000 over the weekend could be at risk of liquidation as a wave of leveraged positions were closed on Monday.

The weekly change in Bitcoin futures market open interest fell to -2.46% on Monday, down from an 8.9% increase on March 31, suggesting a decline in leverage.

Multiple long-term Bitcoin valuation metrics also sit at historic lows, with analysts estimating that nearly 90% of the downside has already been priced in. 

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The collaboration aims to bring regulated custody and staking for JitoSOL to South Korea as institutions prepare for new crypto rules.

Jito Foundation has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean digital asset custodian KODA to explore institutional custody and staking support for JitoSOL in the local market. 

According to Monday’s announcement, the agreement includes outreach to institutional investors and the development of compliant custody and staking pathways.

It comes as South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is expected to finalize a digital asset regulatory framework later this year.

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The Fellowship PAC reported spending more than $1.1 million on advertising for two Republicans running in Georgia and Kentucky in 2026.

Update (April 14 at 5:00 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a late Monday FEC filing.

Fellowship, a super political action committee (PAC) that claims to have $100 million in its war chest ahead of the 2026 US midterms, has begun reporting spending and endorsements for the next election.

According to a Wednesday filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Fellowship PAC reported spending $300,000 on advertising for Clay Fuller, a Republican who won a special election for Georgia's 14th Congressional District to replace resigning congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The PAC also reported $850,000 in advertising for Nate Morris, a Republican running for a US Senate in Kentucky in 2026.

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Bitcoin rallied to $72,500 as US stocks reacted to US efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the rebound, BTC traders warned that a price correction remains a risk.

Bitcoin (BTC) reversed its losses after Monday’s Wall Street open as markets digested the newest developments in the US-Iran war.

Key points:

Bitcoin joins US stocks in a relief bounce despite the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz going ahead.

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The European Central Bank said tokenization could improve EU capital markets, but only with central bank money, interoperable infrastructure and resilient regulation.

The European Central Bank (ECB) set out a cautious path toward tokenizing Europe’s capital markets, saying the technology can deliver efficiency gains only if it remains anchored to central bank money, infrastructures remain interoperable, and regulation is “robust and supportive.” 

In its latest Macroprudential Bulletin published on Monday, the ECB said distributed ledger technology (DLT) could help deepen the European Union’s savings and investments union, but warned that benefits will depend on interoperable infrastructure and policymakers keeping pace with new risks. 

The central bank’s stance highlights a push to modernize market plumbing in the bloc without loosening control over settlement or financial stability.

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Bernstein says Bitcoin’s selloff already reflects quantum risk and that developers still have time to agree on a post-quantum upgrade path.

Bernstein said in a note on Monday that Bitcoin’s selloff has already priced in much of the market’s fear around quantum computing, arguing that the threat is real but still manageable rather than an immediate existential risk.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) near 50% drawdown from its $126,198 all-time high in October 2025 suggests that the market has “priced in” several risks tied to a quantum breakthrough, partly thanks to technological progress on zero-knowledge privacy and quantum-proof cryptography that “counterbalance” the AI and quantum acceleration, Bernstein said in a Monday note shared with Cointelegraph.

The note lands two weeks after Google researchers said future quantum computers could break the elliptic-curve cryptography used across many blockchains with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits in some architectures, reviving debate over how quickly Bitcoin needs a post-quantum upgrade path. This research suggested a quantum computer could crack a Bitcoin private key in nine minutes, in a theoretical scenario, which is less than Bitcoin’s 10-minute block production time.

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy acquired 13,927 Bitcoin for $1 billion last week, funding the purchase through STRC share sales, lifting the company’s holdings to 780,897 BTC.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public holder of Bitcoin (BTC), added a large haul of Bitcoin to its stash last week, edging toward 800,000 BTC in total holdings.

Strategy acquired 13,927 Bitcoin for $1 billion between April 6 and 12, according to an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The purchases were made at an average price of $71,902 per coin, marking another purchase below the company’s average acquisition price of $75,577.

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StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said the company will split into two units as it adopts a faster and leaner “startup mode.”

Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare is cutting jobs and restructuring its operations as it shifts from infrastructure development toward revenue-generating products. 

CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said in internal remarks that the firm will split into two business units and cut headcount to move faster and operate more efficiently, with one unit focused on applications and the other on Starknet development.

Ben-Sasson said the company would adopt a “startup mode” mindset, prioritizing fewer initiatives with higher revenue potential, while warning that downsizing would affect employees across the organization. StarkWare did not disclose how many employees would be affected by the cuts.

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Nigel Farage-backed Stack BTC bought $2.7 million of Bitcoin, deepening the Reform UK leader’s crypto ties as the UK moves to curb crypto donations.

Stack BTC, an Aquis-listed Bitcoin treasury company chaired by former UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, purchased 2 million British pounds ($2.7 million) worth of Bitcoin on Monday, as Nigel Farage deepens his ties to the firm.

According to an April 13 filing, the company purchased 37 Bitcoin (BTC) as part of its treasury strategy at a price of roughly $72,385 per coin and now holds a total of 68.1898 BTC.

The purchase follows Farage’s previously disclosed $286,000 equity investment in the company, which has been marketing itself as a way for UK investors to gain Bitcoin exposure via public markets, and makes Farage the first UK political party leader and sitting member of parliament to publicly back Bitcoin, in what Stack BTC described as a “landmark moment for Bitcoin in British politics.”

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South Korea’s FSS said API trading now makes up 30% of crypto turnover and warned it will crack down on abusive automated trading patterns, local media reported Monday.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Monday that API-based trading now accounts for about 30% of crypto buy-and-sell turnover, warning that some traders are using automated tools to inflate volumes and manipulate prices.

According to reports from Yonhap News Agency and Maeil Business Newspaper, the regulator warned that some traders are using automated tools to inflate volumes and manipulate prices, citing cases involving repeated small trades, spoofed orders and coordinated activity across multiple accounts. 

The FSS said it will launch targeted investigations into accounts suspected of using APIs for excessive or abnormal trading patterns, signaling closer scrutiny of automated trading activity in the market. 

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Crypto ETPs recorded $1.1 billion in inflows last week, led by Bitcoin and US spot ETFs, as easing US inflation data and geopolitical tensions supported demand.

Cryptocurrency investment products clocked significant inflows last week, marking their strongest weekly gains since January.

Global crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) logged $1.1 billion in inflows last week, with Bitcoin (BTC) leading the gains with $871 million in inflows, CoinShares reported on Monday.

The inflows marked the second-biggest weekly gains in 2026 so far, following only the $2.17 billion in weekly inflows recorded in mid-January.

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Sun urged the Trump-linked WLFI platform to disclose who controls the multi-sig and smart contract behind the platform, days after its governance token hit a new low.

Justin Sun, the co-founder of layer-1 blockchain network Tron, has urged the Trump-linked crypto platform World Liberty Financial to publicly disclose who controls the guardian Externally Owned Account (EOA) and multisignature wallets governing its smart contracts, after alleging the setup was used to blacklist his wallet.

Sun said a single guardian EOA tied to the WLFI multisig structure appeared to be the sole owner of a second guardian safe, giving one individual unilateral power to freeze token holders, according to a Monday X post.

WLFI has not publicly responded to the substance of Sun’s latest claims.

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A Hyperbridge exploit let an attacker mint 1 billion bridged Polkadot tokens on Ethereum and cash out about $237,000, reviving debate over bridge security.

A hacker exploited the Polkadot-based cross-chain interoperability protocol Hyperbridge, netting about $237,000 and raising renewed security concerns about blockchain bridge infrastructure.

An attacker minted 1 billion bridged Polkadot (DOT) tokens in a single transaction on Hyperbridge, according to blockchain data shared by cybersecurity platform CertiK. The exploit only affected DOT on Ethereum that was bridged through Hyperbridge, while native DOT tokens and the wider Polkadot ecosystem remain unaffected, Polkadot noted in a Monday X post.

CertiK said the attacker managed to mint the tokens after “slipping through a forged message to change the admin of the Polkadot token contract on Ethereum.” Limited liquidity in the bridged DOT pool capped the proceeds at 108.2 Ether (ETH), worth around $237,000.

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Bitcoin preserved $70,000 at the weekly close as markets began reacting to a breakdown in US-Iran negotiations and blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Bitcoin (BTC) held $70,000 at the weekly close as markets reacted to a breakdown in US-Iran negotiations and escalating tensions around the Strait of Hormuz.

A breakdown in US-Iran negotiations sends oil surging above $100 per barrel, with the Strait of Hormuz now blockaded.

US PPI inflation data is due amid signs that the oil crisis is far from the only driver of price increases.

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Large holders are accumulating TRUMP ahead of a Mar-a-Lago event for top token holders, even as the memecoin trades down over 30% since March.

Crypto whales loaded up more of the TRUMP memecoin ahead of the luncheon at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida this month, which offers entry to the largest holders.

One whale withdrew about 105,754 OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP) from Binance on Saturday to add to its stash of 1.13 million TRUMP, worth about $3.2 million, according to an X post from blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain on Sunday.

Two days earlier, another whale withdrew 850,488 TRUMP from the crypto exchange Bybit.

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Bithumb accidentally sent customers 620,000 Bitcoin instead of 620,000 Korean won in February. The Bank of Korea wants lawmakers to make it so it doesn't happen again.

South Korea’s central bank says crypto exchanges should have their own “circuit breakers” that halt trading to prevent a repeat of the market fallout after Bithumb mistakenly sent more than $40 billion in Bitcoin to its customers in February.

The Bank of Korea said in a payments report on Monday that lawmakers should consider introducing mechanisms similar to the Korea Exchange’s trading curbs to suspend trading if crypto prices suddenly fluctuate.

“Currently, the virtual asset industry lacks internal control mechanisms and faces lower regulatory intensity compared to established financial institutions,” the bank said.

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Almost everyone has a hard time paying their bills every month, said crypto YouTuber Michaël van de Poppe, on why retail may be absent this cycle.

Financial institutions have “accelerated” their participation in crypto markets this year, while retail investors have pulled out, said Exodus CEO JP Richardson on Sunday. 

“This might be the first cycle in crypto history where institutions are in a bull market, and retail doesn’t even know it,” the crypto executive said. 

Richardson cited a few examples, such as the stablecoin market capitalization all-time high this year, Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin (BTC) ETF launch, Schwab starting a waitlist for spot Bitcoin trading, Franklin Templeton announcing a crypto division and Fannie Mae accepting Bitcoin-backed mortgages.

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Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT said Garrett Dutton’s 5.9 Bitcoin has already been sent to deposit addresses associated with KuCoin.

Garrett Dutton, an American musician better known as “G. Love,” said he lost $420,000 worth of Bitcoin after installing a malicious app impersonating the self-custody crypto app Ledger Live from Apple’s App Store and entering his seed phrase.

“I had a really tough day,” Dutton told his 67,500 followers in a post on X on Saturday, adding that he lost his 5.9 Bitcoin (BTC) stash “in an instant” after spending about 10 years accumulating the coins to secure his retirement.

In a follow-up post, crypto sleuth ZachXBT said that Dutton’s Bitcoin has been sent to deposit addresses linked to the crypto exchange KuCoin across nine transactions. KuCoin replied to the post with a statement typically addressed to customers.

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Edge AI computing could help to decentralize AI, reducing reliance on corporate data centers.

Bitcoin mining runs the risk of becoming more centralized as time goes on, while artificial intelligence could be moving in the opposite direction, according to Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn.

Thorn said that while Bitcoin mining began decentralized, with users mining Bitcoin on their personal computers, it has since become far more centralized, requiring ASIC miners or industrial-scale farms. 

“AI may follow the opposite path,” said Galaxy’s research head Alex Thorn on Sunday, explaining that AI started centralized in giant hosted clusters, but as frontier models experience “data scarcity, context limits, and memory bottlenecks, open-source models could close the gap.” 

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Bitcoin mining is becoming more centralized while AI may move the opposite way, driven by edge computing and open-source models.

Bitcoin mining runs the risk of becoming more centralized as time goes on, while artificial intelligence may be moving in the opposite direction, according to Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn.

Thorn said that while Bitcoin mining began decentralized, with users mining Bitcoin on their personal computers, it has since become far more centralized, requiring ASIC miners or industrial-scale farms. 

“AI may follow the opposite path,” Thorn said, explaining that AI began in centralized clusters but could decentralize as open-source models close the gap.

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The vote passed with nearly 75% in favor. Other elements of the framework, including the growth and development grants, will have separate governance proposals.

Aave Labs, the core development team behind Aave, has been granted $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens by the protocol’s DAO under the “Aave Will Win” framework.

The vote passed Saturday with nearly 75% in favor. The stablecoin allocation will be paid in installments over 12 months, while the 75,000 AAVE tokens will vest linearly over four years, according to the governance dashboard. 

The Aave Will Win framework aims to accelerate the protocol’s growth, with the DAO funding development and Aave Labs focusing on building and scaling. The stablecoins directly fund Aave Labs' operations, while the token allocation serves as an incentive for developers to help grow the protocol.

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The European Central Bank has boosted a proposal to take away EU member states' regulatory oversight of crypto and hand it to the European Union’s market regulator.

The European Central Bank has supported the European Commission’s plan to bring the supervision of major crypto companies under the EU’s financial markets regulator. 

The ECB said in an opinion published on Friday that it fully supports bringing oversight of systemically important cross-border capital market companies, such as large trading platforms and crypto companies, under the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

The central bank said the proposals “constitute an ambitious step towards deeper integration of capital markets and financial market supervision within the Union.”

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Some LLM routers are “secretly injecting malicious tool calls and stealing creds,” warns researcher Chaofan Shou.

University of California researchers have discovered that some third-party AI large language model (LLM) routers can pose security vulnerabilities that can lead to crypto theft. 

A paper measuring malicious intermediary attacks on the LLM supply chain, published on Thursday by the researchers, revealed four attack vectors, including malicious code injection and extraction of credentials. 

“26 LLM routers are secretly injecting malicious tool calls and stealing creds,” said the paper’s co-author, Chaofan Shou, on X.

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US President Donald Trump said Iran did not want to compromise its nuclear weapons program, stating it was the only issue that “really mattered.”

Bitcoin fell as low as $70,623 on Sunday after the US announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following failed peace talks with Iran.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) initially fell 1.9% to $71,686 after US President Donald Trump confirmed the blockade in a post to Truth Social on Sunday, adding that peace talks collapsed because Iran refused to end its nuclear program — the only issue that “really mattered.”

Bitcoin dipped further to $70,623 as the US futures markets opened late on Sunday, with oil shooting up 9.5% to $105 per barrel within half an hour of the market open, with Bitcoin down 2.7% over the day at the time of writing. 

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Fallout from the Iran war will likely weigh on markets for much of 2026, dashing hopes of rate cuts until Q3 by the earliest, the Coin Bureau's Nic Puckrin said.

Now almost a week old, the Bitcoin (BTC) recovery is “fragile” as the crypto market faces geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds from the ongoing war in the Middle East, according to Nic Puckrin, a crypto market analyst and founder of the Coin Bureau media outlet.

“Even if the war ends now, its repercussions will likely be the story of 2026, and certainly the dominant narrative for Q2. I don’t expect to see a rate cut until late Q3 or Q4, if at all,” Puckrin told Cointelegraph. He said that he sees: 

If Bitcoin closes the week above $71,000, it could signal continued upside for BTC, with resistance forming around the $74,000 level, he said. At last look, it was trading at about $71,276, according to TradingView data.

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Bitcoin price sold off as negotiations to end the US-Iran war broke down and the Strait of Hormuz returned to the spotlight.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell 3% to trade below $71,000 into Sunday’s weekly close after negotiations to end the US-Iran war broke down.

Key points:

Bitcoin shed its gains as negotiations between the US and Iran broke down.

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Sun criticized the WLFI platform over long token lockup periods and withholding key information from voters.

Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron layer-1 blockchain network, criticized World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump’s sons, over lengthy lock-up periods for the platform's governance token.

Sun said that he invested “significant capital” in WLFI as an early investor and also said that a March WLFI governance proposal to determine token lock-up periods, in which more than 76% of the voting tokens came from 10 wallets, lacked transparency. In a Sunday post on X, Sun wrote (in translation):  

“Justin’s favorite move is playing the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct,” World Liberty Financial said in response, threatening legal action against Sun over his claims. 

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The company has completed 105 Bitcoin transactions since 2020 and is playing contrarian as it continues accumulating BTC via corporate debt and equity financing

Michael Saylor, the co-founder of Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Strategy, signaled that the company is acquiring more BTC, as the price retreated from the local high of over $73,000 reached this week.

“Think bigger,” Saylor said on Sunday, while sharing the chart of Strategy’s BTC purchase history that has become synonymous with imminent BTC acquisitions.

Strategy’s most recent BTC purchase was April 6, when it bought 4,871 coins for more than $329.8 million, bringing its total holdings to 766,970 BTC, valued at about $54.5 billion using market prices at the time of publication, according to the company.

The Tysons Corners, Virginia-based company continues accumulating BTC, even amid a bear market that pushed Bitcoin’s price down to two-year lows, putting Strategy’s BTC treasury underwater.

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Bitcoin miners are heading toward the 2028 halving with thinner margins, tighter power markets and a growing need for capital discipline.

Bitcoin’s fifth halving is roughly two years away, and the mining sector is heading into it with far less margin for error than in 2024, as higher costs, tighter energy markets and clearer regulation reshape the industry.

At the last halving in April 2024, Bitcoin (BTC) traded at around $63,000 as rewards fell from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block, according to Coingecko. In April 2028, at the next halving, miners face higher input costs for half the new coins, as rewards drop to 1.5625 BTC. That looks tougher in a world of record hashrate, higher energy prices and more selective capital.

Energy security has also become a strategic concern after geopolitical shocks jolted fuel and power markets, while regulators from Washington to Europe move from ad-hoc guidance to formal regimes for custody and licensed institutional platforms.

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Stablecoin adoption in Europe is shifting from strategy to execution, with demand increasingly driven by real-world needs.

Banks and corporates across Europe are moving beyond exploration and are now actively selecting infrastructure partners to support stablecoin adoption, according to Lamine Brahimi, co-founder and managing partner at crypto custody technology provider Taurus.

Brahimi told Cointelegraph that 18 months ago, most conversations were still educational, focused on understanding stablecoins and their risks. Today, firms with board-level approval are preparing to go live. He said the introduction of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has accelerated that transition by replacing fragmented national rules with a single bloc-wide regulatory regime.

“In the past 12 months alone some of Europe's most stringent financial institutions are all arriving at the same conclusion, digital assets, including stablecoins, belong inside the existing banking stack, not beside it,” he said.

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Crypto advocate Senator Cynthia Lummis said the country should not risk its financial future by further delaying the CLARITY Act.

Crypto advocate US Senator Cynthia Lummis has urged her colleagues to pass the CLARITY Act soon or risk waiting almost another four years to move the industry forward.

“This is our last chance to pass the Clarity Act until at least 2030,” the Wyoming Republican said in an X post on Friday. “We can’t afford to surrender America’s financial future,” she added.

Her comments come as crypto industry participants begin to worry that the bill’s chances of passing this year are narrowing, with US midterm elections in November potentially changing congressional priorities and slowing momentum on the highly anticipated crypto legislation.

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Polymarket links briefly appeared under mainstream outlets in Google News results for event-driven queries but were later removed.

Polymarket betting markets reportedly appeared inside Google News results alongside established news publishers before disappearing.

A Google spokesperson told The Verge that the platform’s appearance in News was an error. “This site briefly appeared in Google News in error, and it is no longer surfacing in News,” spokesperson Ned Adriance reportedly said.

Before removal, Polymarket links were shown directly beneath mainstream outlets when users searched event-driven queries. In one example cited by website Futurism, a search for “will ships transit the strait” related to the Strait of Hormuz returned a Polymarket market predicting outcomes on vessel passage alongside reporting from Reuters and The Guardian.

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The Ethereum treasury company had aimed to launch a $1.5 billion yield-bearing ETH fund, but will not following a mutual decision to end the deal.

Ether Machine has called off its planned public debut after the Ethereum treasury-focused company and Dynamix Corporation agreed to terminate their merger, citing deteriorating market conditions.

In a Saturday post on X, Ether Machine said the decision to end the deal was mutual and effective immediately. The transaction had aimed to take the firm public through a merger with the Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), alongside involvement from The Ether Reserve LLC.

“The Ether Reserve LLC, together with certain other parties thereto, announced today that they have mutually agreed to terminate their previously announced Business Combination Agreement, effective immediately, as a result of unfavorable market conditions,” the firm wrote.

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Bitcoin and Ether are each less than 10% away from price levels that could signal a reversal in the crypto market, according to a macro analyst.

Bitcoin and Ether are approaching levels that might indicate a trend reversal this year, despite increasing agreement that the industry is heading into a bear market, says macro analyst Jordi Visser.

“If we trade above $76,000 and at the same time we see Ethereum above $2,400, I believe that is the beginning of a move that will be sustainable this year because I don't think we're going to have a recession,” Visser said on the Anthony Pompliano podcast published on YouTube on Friday.

A move to $76,000 would represent an increase of 6.1% from Bitcoin’s (BTC) price of $71,646 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ether’s (ETH) move to $2,400 would represent an increase of around 8%.

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Democratic lawmakers and crypto investors characterized crypto projects launched by or tied to Trump as scams and political corruption.

United States President Donald Trump is facing renewed scrutiny as crypto tokens and projects touted by the US president crash to all-time lows or sit near record low levels.

The Official Trump token (TRUMP), a memecoin pushed by Trump, hit an all-time low of about $2.73 in March 2026 and is currently trading at about $2.86, according to data from CoinGecko.

The governance token issued by World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform co-founded by Trump’s sons, sunked to an all-time low of just $0.07 on Saturday.

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The October 2025 Bitcoin and altcoin crash may have ended the bull market, but its long-term impact on market health may have been overstated.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin orderbook depth has plummeted by 50% since September 2025, signaling a substantial decline in overall market liquidity.

Indicators suggest that the current market fragility stems more from recent 2026 trends than from the 2025 flash crash itself.

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Bitcoin open interest hit five-week highs while funding rates mimicked the BTC price collapse below $60,000, leading analysis to predict a new short squeeze.

Bitcoin (BTC) is due a classic “short squeeze” as open interest hits five-week highs, says new analysis.

Key points:

Bitcoin is seeing a combination of rising open interest and negative funding rates.

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The comments followed recent reports that law enforcement officials retrieved deleted Signal messages through device push notification logs.

Pavel Durov, the co-founder of the Telegram messaging application, said that push notifications create a persistent, critical vulnerability to user privacy, allowing data retrieval even after messages and messaging applications that allow push notification data storage have been deleted from a device.

Durov cited a recent report, originally published by 404 Media, that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to retrieve deleted messages from a Signal user by accessing device notification logs on an Apple iPhone. Durov said on Friday:

Cointelegraph reached out to Signal about the FBI’s data retrieval but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

The recent reports highlight how investigators and those with sufficient technical skills can circumvent end-to-end encryption and breach user privacy by accessing metadata and other information generated by applications, prompting a need for decentralized messaging applications that do not collect such data. 

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The comments followed recent reports that law enforcement officials retrieved deleted Signal messages through device push notification logs.

Pavel Durov, co-founder of the Telegram messaging application, said that push notifications create a persistent, critical vulnerability to user privacy, allowing data retrieval even after messages and messaging applications that allow push notification data storage have been deleted from a device.

Durov cited a recent report, originally published by 404 Media, that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to retrieve deleted messages from a Signal user by accessing device notification logs on an Apple iPhone. Durov said on Friday:

Cointelegraph reached out to Signal about the FBI’s data retrieval but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

The recent reports highlight how investigators and those with sufficient technical skills can circumvent end-to-end encryption and breach user privacy by accessing metadata and other information generated by applications, prompting a need for decentralized messaging applications that do not collect such data. 

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While some proponents believe AI will bring about an employment boom, so far its effect has been to dampen entry-level hiring while delivering mixed results on productivity.

In March, the US jobs market recorded 178,000 new jobs, marking little change from the month before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The anemic growth in job listings comes amid volatile policy swings from the White House, increased energy prices due to the US and Israel’s war with Iran and, according to recent research, AI disruptions to the labor market. 

Proponents of AI and large language models have claimed that the tech will bring about an economic boom, thanks to the promise of efficiency breakthroughs. 

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Crypto’s transparent ledger makes sanctions evasion easier to trace, allowing authorities to track and potentially freeze illicit flows.

Shipping firms that turn to cryptocurrency to pay potential transit fees to Iran could face significant sanctions exposure, according to Kaitlin Martin, senior intelligence analyst at Chainalysis.

Martin told Cointelegraph that under the current sanctions framework, any payments made to the Iranian regime, including those tied to passage through key waterways, could be interpreted as “material support,” putting companies at risk of violating US and international restrictions.

“Doing so could carry significant sanctions violation risk, as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is sanctioned by multiple jurisdictions and Iran is subject to comprehensive sanctions by the United States,” she said.

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WLFI fell to a record low after it was revealed that the project used billions of its own tokens as collateral to borrow $75 million in stablecoins.

WLFI, the native token of the Donald Trump–backed World Liberty Financial platform, sank to an all-time low on Saturday as crypto users expressed concerns after revelations that the project used a large amount of its own tokens to take out loans.

The token hit a new low of around $0.07714 on Saturday, down 83% from its peak of $0.46 reached last September, according to data from CoinMarketCap. WLFI is currently at $0.07879, down by 4.66% over the past day.

The downturn came after it was revealed that wallets linked to World Liberty Financial deployed substantial WLFI holdings as collateral on Dolomite, a decentralized lending platform co-founded by the project’s chief technology officer, Corey Caplan.

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A federal judge in Arizona has temporarily barred state officials from enforcing gambling laws against Kalshi, siding with the CFTC.

A federal judge in Arizona has temporarily barred state officials from enforcing gambling laws against Kalshi, siding with US regulators in a growing dispute over how event-based trading products should be classified.

In an order issued on Friday, Judge Michael Liburdi of the US District Court for the District of Arizona granted a request from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the federal government to halt any state-level action targeting contracts listed on CFTC-regulated markets .

The ruling centers on whether Kalshi’s “event contracts” fall under federal derivatives law or state gambling statutes. Last month, Arizona authorities sought to pursue enforcement against Kalshi under local gambling rules, but the CFTC asked a court order on Wednesday to stop the action.

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Bitwise added the ticker $BHYP and a 0.67% management fee in its latest filing, signaling a potential launch soon, according to Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst.

Bitwise Asset Management has taken a key step toward launching its proposed spot Hyperliquid exchange-traded fund, filing a second amended registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a post on X on Friday, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said that Bitwise had updated its Hyperliquid ETF to include the ticker $BHYP and had also set a management fee of 0.67%.

According to Balchunas, the filing of these details typically indicates that the product will "launch soon."

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Technical and onchain indicators hint at a possible trend reversal in XRP price as traders watch to see if a key support level holds.

XRP (XRP) has been in an eight-month downtrend, with momentum and onchain indicators at levels that previously coincided with macro bottoms.

Data from TradingView reveals that the relative strength index (RSI) of the XRP/BTC ratio is at 24, the most oversold level since October 2025. 

Such low levels in the daily RSI have marked market bottoms for the ratio, ultimately leading to 65% to 345% XRP price breakouts against Bitcoin as seen late 2024 and 2025.

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The CFTC’s task force includes five members with legal and crypto backgrounds to help "clear rules of the road for American innovators."

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has unveiled the first members of its new Innovation Task Force as the agency continues its push to provide greater clarity for the crypto market.

The Innovation Task Force was launched by CFTC Chairman Mike Selig on March 24, who appointed Michael Passalacqua as the leader of the group. Passalacqua is currently the senior advisor to Selig at the CFTC.

In an announcement on Friday, the CFTC said that Passalacqua will be joined by five initial members, including Hank Balaban, a former Latham & Watkins crypto lawyer; Sam Canavos, a former Patomak crypto and prediction markets adviser; Mark Fajfar, a CFTC legal veteran; Eugene Gonzalez IV, a former Sidley blockchain lawyer and Dina Moussa, a CFTC Market Participants Division special counsel.

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Alex Thorn, an executive at crypto investment firm Galaxy, said it is monitoring onchain activity for signs of an oil tanker fee paid in BTC.

The Bitcoin (BTC) community is discussing the feasibility and implications of the Iranian government accepting BTC for tolls paid by oil tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane through which about 20% of the global oil supply passes. 

The reactions were sparked by a Financial Times report, published on Wednesday, which said that the Iranian government was considering BTC payments for oil tolls to avoid sanctions imposed by the United States.

Several conflicting reports have been published since the Financial Times article, which suggest that the tolls are payable in stablecoins or Chinese yuan, according to Alex Thorn, the head of firmwide research at crypto investment firm Galaxy. 

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The 10-day lunar flyby mission is expected to end in a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening.

Users on the prediction markets platform Kalshi are using the platform’s event contracts to bet on the aftermath of the Artemis II mission, NASA’s first manned spacecraft to the Moon in more than 50 years.

As of Friday, several event contracts related to a Moon landing were available on the Kalshi and Polymarket platforms, but many users were taking positions on what would be said at NASA’s news conference following the splashdown.

With just over $4,000 in volume on the event contracts, Kalshi users anticipate that NASA officials will mention the words “president” or “prime minister,” “radiation,” and “damage” in connection with the Moon mission.

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CoreWeave said the agreement means it now serves nine of the 10 major developers of large language models for artificial intelligence.

CoreWeave, a publicly traded AI cloud infrastructure company, announced on Friday a “multi-year” agreement with AI developer Anthropic, which will use CoreWeave’s cloud computing data centers for its Claude AI model workloads.

The agreement will be rolled out in phases, with the “potential to expand over time,” according to CoreWeave’s announcement. 

Shares of CoreWeave surged more than 12% on Friday and are trading at $102.73 at the time of writing.  

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Iran may require oil tankers to pay BTC tolls through the Strait of Hormuz, signaling a new use case for crypto as geopolitical tensions reshape global trade routes.

Bitcoin is emerging as a potential component in the fragile ceasefire that is taking shape between the United States and Iran after a 39-day conflict disrupted the region and forced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran is unlikely to relinquish its grip on the narrow trade artery that handles roughly 20% of global crude oil flows. Instead, it plans to manage transit alongside Oman, collecting tolls from vessels seeking safe passage.

And that’s where Bitcoin (BTC) comes into play. Those payments may not be limited to traditional currencies. Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told the Financial Times that certain ships could be required to pay in BTC for safe passage of their oil cargo.

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Technical analysis, overhead supply awaiting absorption, and a shift in investor sentiment have increased the likelihood of Bitcoin reaching $80,000 in April.

Bitcoin (BTC) extended its bullish run into the Wall Street open on Friday, rallying above $73,000. Traders now eye a move back toward $80,000 by the end of April, as several indicators point to bulls retaking control of the crypto market.

On Tuesday, Bitcoin invalidated what initially appeared to be a bear pennant on the daily chart.

Related: Old Bitcoin whales sold $271M in BTC: Is crypto rally at stake? 

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Bitcoin bulls spent the week stampeding toward a critical overhead resistance level, which, if breached, could restart the bull market in BTC and altcoins.

Key points:

Buyers are attempting to push Bitcoin toward the $76,000 level but are facing significant selling from the bears.

Several major altcoins are likely to pick up momentum if they break above their overhead resistance levels.

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Bitcoin holding above $72,000, along with a sharp uptick in whale activity, suggests traders may target the supply zone at $88,000.

Mirroring a breakout setup from Q2 2025, Bitcoin (BTC) is now eyeing a possible rally toward the $86,000–$90,000 range over the next few weeks.

The bullish view is supported by robust Bitcoin whale activity and large BTC inflows to exchanges, which have dropped by $5 billion over the past two months.

Bitcoin reached a weekly high of $73,255 on Friday after testing the $72,000 level earlier in the week, with the price compressing between $70,000 and $72,000 over the past four days. The higher price range is showing more stability for BTC than in March, when BTC quickly corrected after reaching the key level. 

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Although US inflation was weaker than expected in March, the ongoing war between the United States, Iran and Israel has fueled macroeconomic uncertainty.

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for March, showing a 0.9% month-over-month rise in headline CPI inflation.

CPI inflation is up 3.3% year-over-year, according to the BLS report published Friday. Although inflation came in slightly lower than analyst expectations, inflation remains elevated above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

A surge in energy prices from the Iran war drove March’s inflation figures, with the energy index rising by nearly 11%, led by a 21.2% rise in gasoline prices, the BLS report said.

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TAO drops 30% from its weekly high, confirming fractal setups that projected deeper downside targets for the token in the past.

Bittensor’s TAO token may drop by up to 45% in the coming weeks as Covenant AI, one of its top subnet operators, publicly announced its full exit from the ecosystem.

Key takeaways:

Covenant AI accused Bittensor of being centralized, leading to a 30% drop in TAO prices.

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Bitcoin saw a fresh attempt to hit new local highs on the back of lower-than-expected US CPI data, despite a giant gas-price increase.

Bitcoin (BTC) tagged $73,000 following Friday’s Wall Street open as crucial US inflation numbers came in below expectations.

Key points:

Bitcoin edges higher as US CPI data remains slightly below market expectations.

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Reuters reported that White House staff were warned against using confidential information after suspicious Iran-linked oil futures bets and fresh scrutiny of prediction markets.

The White House warned staff against improperly using confidential information to place bets in futures markets after suspicious oil trades ahead of President Donald Trump’s March 23 Iran announcement drew scrutiny, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the White House sent the internal email on March 24, a day after Trump ordered a five-day delay in attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.

The warning followed a roughly $500 million bet on Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures placed in a one-minute burst shortly before Trump’s March 23 announcement, according to Reuters calculations based on exchange data. Oil prices fell about 15% after the policy shift.

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A Bank of France official called for tighter MiCA rules on non-euro stablecoins as lawmakers advance reporting requirements for self-custodial crypto wallets above 5,000 euros.

French officials are pushing for tighter oversight of crypto from two directions, as a Bank of France official called for stricter limits on non-euro stablecoins under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), and lawmakers in Paris advanced a separate reporting requirement for some self-custody holdings.

Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, delivered a speech at the EUROFI High Level Seminar in March, calling on the EU to restrict the use of stablecoins for payments, particularly those pegged to non-euro currencies.

Published on the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) website on Thursday, he said the Bank of France has been “pressing for a strengthening” of MiCA in this regard.

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New BTC price analysis predicted that the bear market would bottom out later in the year, before beginning a "two-year accumulation phase."

Bitcoin (BTC) should find a floor near $55,000 in the second half of 2026, a new prediction says.

Key points:

Bitcoin’s MVRV Z-score metric still needs to match old bear-market bottoms to signal trend change, says CryptoQuant.

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Bitget’s IPO Prime will debut with preSPAX, a Republic-issued token tied to SpaceX’s post-IPO performance rather than direct ownership of the company’s shares.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has launched IPO Prime, a proxy offering tied to the pre-initial public offering (IPO) phase of Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company, SpaceX.

Bitget said Friday that IPO Prime will start with preSPAX, a Republic-issued token designed to give retail users economic exposure tied to SpaceX’s post-IPO performance. The exchange said the product does not give buyers direct ownership of SpaceX shares, and that SpaceX has not endorsed, approved or authorized the offering.

The launch highlights how crypto exchanges are bringing more traditional investment products onto blockchain rails in a bid to attract users with round-the-clock access to assets that have historically been harder for retail investors to reach.

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World Liberty said its WLFI unlock proposal will go through community input before a formal vote, outlining a phased vesting plan rather than a full token release.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial said Friday it plans to put forward next week a governance proposal that would set a phased unlock schedule for WLFI tokens held by early retail purchasers.

The Trump family-linked DeFi platform said the proposal will be opened for community input before proceeding to a formal vote. According to the project, the vote will not cover a full, immediate unlock, but instead a structured, long-term vesting plan designed to release tokens in stages. 

WLFI tokens remain largely locked for early buyers, with transferability tied to governance-approved unlocks. Tokenomist data shows that about 24.67% of WLFI’s 100 billion token supply has been released, while roughly 75.33% remains locked or pending future unlock decisions.

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Aethir said it halted a bridge exploit on its Ethereum-linked contracts, limiting losses to under $90,000 after PeckShield estimated $400,000 in damages.

Aethir, a decentralized GPU cloud infrastructure designed for artificial intelligence, confirmed an attack on its bridge contracts and said it halted the exploit.

The platform said Friday that it had detected and contained an attack on its Aethir (ATH) bridge contracts connecting Ethereum to other chains.

The team behind Aethir said it promptly disconnected the compromised contracts upon detection and worked with major exchanges to blacklist tracked wallets, limiting losses to under $90,000.

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Covenant AI said it was leaving Bittensor due to its overreaching control on subnets and their large-scale TAO token sales, but Bittensor’s founder denied all allegations.

Bittensor subnet developer Covenant AI said Friday that it is leaving the decentralized artificial intelligence network, accusing Bittensor of operating under a concentrated governance structure that undermines its decentralization claims.

In a Friday post on X, Covenant AI founder Sam Dare said the team could no longer build on or raise for Bittensor because its governance was not meaningfully distributed.

“It is decentralization theatre,” Dare said. “Jacob Steeves maintains effective control over the triumvirate, resists any meaningful transfer of authority, and deploys changes unilaterally whenever he chooses, without process and without consensus.”

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A spoofed CoinDCX site sparked a 7.16 million rupee fraud case, triggering arrests before a court ruled the exchange was impersonated

Impersonation scams can be low-tech yet highly effective, using fake websites that closely mimic trusted cryptocurrency platforms to deceive users.

The CoinDCX case shows how a 7.16 million rupee fraud complaint escalated into legal action before it was identified as an impersonation case.

The fake domain coindcx.pro, not the real platform, was used to mislead the victim and carry out the fraud.

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Hong Kong has issued its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC’s Hong Kong banking arm under its new regime.

Update April 10, 2026, 10 am UTC: This article has been updated to add more details from the announcement.

Hong Kong has granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation under a new regulatory framework overseen by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). 

The HKMA announced the initial batch of licensees on Friday, marking the first approvals under its stablecoin regime. 

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Some industry insiders speculate the crypto sector may be just one market cycle away from full-scale mainstream adoption.

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he hopes that cryptocurrencies and blockchain will simply become an invisible part of daily infrastructure by 2031, much like the internet today. 

Speaking on Scott Melker’s Wolf of All Streets podcast posted Thursday, Zhao said that while new use cases and advances will continue to emerge, he hopes talk of the technology will subside as it becomes part of everyday life. 

“I think in five years, I'm hoping we'll just use crypto,” he added. “There will be other use cases for the blockchain, for data storage, so there will be other cases, but I'm hoping in five years, we stopped talking about the technology, we are just using it and it will be used everywhere.”

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Japan tightens oversight with insider-trading bans and new disclosure rules as crypto markets attract more institutional participation.

The Japanese government amended the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act on Friday to classify crypto assets as financial instruments.

The amendment also bans insider trading and other activities that involve buying and selling based on undisclosed information, Nikkei reported.

The amended act will also now require cryptocurrency “issuers” to be more transparent and disclose information once a year.

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Fidelity and Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETFs also saw a combined $68.2 million in inflows, while four other Bitcoin ETFs also tallied inflows on Thursday.

Investors piled $269.3 million into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust on Thursday, in its best-performing day since early March, around the time the US-Iran war started to kick into high gear. 

The inflows helped to end two days of net outflows among the 12 US spot Bitcoin ETFs, which recorded a net inflow of $358.1 million.

Bitcoin ETF inflows are just one way to gauge retail and institutional demand for Bitcoin.

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xAI argues that the law could force Grok to align with state-defined standards, which would conflict with its goal of “maximally truth-seeking” AI.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado, seeking to block incoming AI rules that restrict speech from AI chatbots like Grok.

The AI company is specifically challenging Colorado’s Senate Bill 24-205, which aims to protect AI users from “algorithmic discrimination” in areas like employment, housing and finance. 

However, in a filing to a US district court in Colorado on Thursday, xAI argued that “Colorado cannot alter xAI’s message simply because it wants to amplify its own views on the highly politicized subjects of fairness and equity.”

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The upgrade from flat fees to variable pricing is designed to support the use of AI agents for LLM inference, compute and data queries. 

Coinbase has announced an upgrade for the x402 protocol, enabling usage-based pricing for agentic AI compute requests, which replaces the former flat fee model.

In a post on X on Thursday, Coinbase Developer Platform announced the "Upto" scheme has gone live, adding it will help open up "variable-cost services" for agentic AI such as large language model inference, compute and data queries.

"Until now, x402 only supported exact, fixed-price payments. That works great for deterministic APIs. But it blocked an entire category of services where the cost depends on usage, such as token count, compute time, or query complexity," Coinbase Developer Platform said.

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However, it could cost users between $75 and $150 per transaction in GPU computing power, limiting its practical use.

A Bitcoin researcher has come up with a way that could immediately make Bitcoin transactions quantum-safe without the need for a soft fork. 

In a proposal published Thursday, StarkWare chief product officer Avihu Levy proposed a Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) transaction scheme that he said would remain secure “even against an adversary with a large-scale quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm.” 

He added that the scheme requires no changes to the Bitcoin protocol and operates entirely within the existing legacy script constraints. The downside is that it is costly and likely is not useful for everyday transactions, he said. 

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A proposed workaround could enable quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions without a protocol change, but high compute costs limit real-world use.

A Bitcoin researcher has come up with a way that could immediately make Bitcoin transactions quantum-safe without the need for a soft fork. 

In a proposal published Thursday, StarkWare chief product officer Avihu Levy proposed a Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) transaction scheme that he said would remain secure “even against an adversary with a large-scale quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm.” 

He added that the plan requires no changes to the Bitcoin protocol and operates entirely within the existing legacy script constraints. The downside is that it is costly and likely is not useful for everyday transactions, he said. 

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OKX Ventures and HashKey are buying into VPBank-backed CAEX as Vietnam’s strict crypto pilot pushes offshore exchanges toward a challenging onshore licensing regime.

CAEX, a crypto platform linked to the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) ecosystem, said OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital are backing the company as it seeks to qualify for Vietnam’s pilot regime for crypto exchanges.

CAEX said Friday that the two offshore companies will join VPBank Securities (VPBankS) and technology partner LynkiD as shareholders.

According to a release shared with Cointelegraph, their investment is intended to help CAEX reach Vietnam’s minimum charter capital threshold of 10 trillion dong (about $380 million), a key condition for participating in the pilot program.

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A listing on the NYSE requires a company to meet strict requirements covering financial health, share distribution and corporate governance.

Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has started trading on the New York Stock Exchange after uplisting from NYSE American as the company expanded its share buyback program.

The Ether (ETH) treasury company’s stock began trading on the NYSE at market open on Thursday under its existing “BMNR” ticker symbol, Bitmine announced Thursday.

Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said it’s a major milestone for the company as the NYSE is considered one of the world's top exchanges.

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A listing on the NYSE requires a company to meet strict requirements covering financial health, share distribution and corporate governance.

Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has started trading on the New York Stock Exchange after uplisting from NYSE American as the company expanded its share buyback program.

The Ether (ETH) treasury company’s stock began trading on the NYSE at market open on Thursday under its existing “BMNR” ticker symbol, Bitmine announced Thursday.

Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said it’s a major milestone for the company as the NYSE is considered one of the world's top exchanges.

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The CIA has already tested AI across 300 projects to process large data sets, assist with language translation and publish reports.

The US Central Intelligence Agency said it will embed “AI co-workers” directly into its analytics platforms to assist analysts with detecting spies and anticipating hostile moves by foreign adversaries.

“Within the next couple of years, we will have AI co-workers built into all of the agency’s analytic platforms — a kind of classified version of generative AI that will help our analysts with basic tasks,” CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis reportedly said on Thursday during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington, DC.

According to Politico, Ellis said the AI co-workers would assist intelligence officers with drafting key judgments, testing analytical conclusions and identifying trends in intelligence that the agency gathers from abroad.

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Newly appointed company president Brett Redfearn briefly worked as Coinbase’s head of capital markets and served for more than three years at the SEC.

Tokenization platform Securitize has named Brett Redfearn as president, with the former official at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also joining its board of directors.

Securitize’s Thursday notice said Redfearn previously served as the SEC’s director of its Division of Trading and Markets, worked as Coinbase’s head of capital markets and held various roles over a decade spent at JPMorgan. He has most recently been a member of Securitize’s advisory board.

Redfearn is the latest former government official to move into the crypto industry, raising questions about their roles overseeing digital assets while in office. Caroline Pham, who served as a commissioner and acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), left the agency in December to join crypto payments infrastructure company MoonPay.

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Bitcoin continues to show strength even as US recession risks rise and the fragile ceasefire with Iran begins to show cracks.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin climbed to $72,000 as rising recession odds and a weak US dollar boosted the appeal of scarce financial assets.

Rising oil prices and a wobbly truce with Iran threaten to reverse Bitcoin’s recent gains.

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Bitcoin continues to show strength even as US recession risks rise and the fragile ceasefire with Iran begins to show cracks.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin climbed to $72,000 as increasing recession odds and a weak US dollar boosted the appeal of scarce financial assets.

Rising oil prices and a wobbly truce with Iran threaten to reverse Bitcoin’s recent gains.

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The Treasury Department said the move reflects increases in frequency and sophistication of actions targeting digital asset platforms.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection (OCCIP) announced on Thursday that it is expanding its cybersecurity threat identification program to include digital asset companies.

Blockchain companies that choose to take part in the program will receive the same cybersecurity threat intelligence provided to traditional financial institutions at “no cost,” according to the Treasury’s announcement.  

“Cyber threats targeting digital asset platforms are growing in frequency and sophistication,” Cory Wilson, the deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity at the OCCIP, said. 

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The stablecoin issuer faces pressure after a stock downgrade and Drift Protocol exploit fallout, raising concerns over USDC exposure, crypto regulation and market risk.

Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group fell sharply Thursday following a Wall Street downgrade and reports tied to a legal probe connected to a recent crypto exploit.

Circle’s stock price closed near session lows in Nasdaq trading, falling 9.9% to $85.10.

The decline adds to a broader slide in the company’s shares, which are down nearly 24% over the past month and about 43% over the past six months, reflecting continued volatility after Circle’s high-profile public debut last year.

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A rare signal from an ETH price indicator suggests Ether is undervalued, while demand in spot and futures markets hints at a rally to $2,500.

Ether (ETH) may be on the path to retesting $2,500 if the current rally above $2,150 and the bullish spot and futures market volumes pushing prices higher are sustained.

Ether is also supported by a key macro indicator that places the altcoin in a rare undervaluation zone not seen since 2022. The data points to fading selling pressure and the early stages of an accumulation process for Ether.

Ether’s daily chart shows bulls leading the charge after a 6.33% rally pushed the price above the $2,150 resistance. ETH now eyes a retest of its March highs near $2,385, with further upside toward the $2,475–$2,635 fair-value gap acting as a price magnet for bulls.

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With a potential scheduling conflict, several senators want to know if the president plans to attend a luncheon for memecoin holders in Florida or just seeking to generate fees.

Three US senators have reportedly asked one of the people behind US President Donald Trump’s memecoin whether the president intends to “dangle access” to himself at a luncheon event, given he is already planning to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner the same day. 

According to a Thursday Politico report, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Adam Schiff sent a letter to Bill Zanker, the individual behind the launch of the memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP). The lawmakers questioned whether Trump had been leveraging his appearance at a luncheon event scheduled for April 25, which the memecoin project announced in March.

“[O]rganizers are promoting a conference by dangling access to President Trump to potential attendees (and in doing so, are encouraging purchases of his meme coin that will generate transaction fees for the President and his family) on a day he may not actually be able to attend,” said the letter to Zanker, according to Politico.

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With a potential scheduling conflict, several senators want to know if the president plans to attend a luncheon for memecoin holders in Florida or is just seeking to generate fees.

Three US senators have reportedly asked one of the people behind US President Donald Trump’s memecoin whether the president intends to “dangle access” to himself at a luncheon event, given he is already planning to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner the same day. 

According to a Thursday Politico report, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Adam Schiff sent a letter to Bill Zanker, the individual behind the launch of the memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP). The lawmakers questioned whether Trump had been leveraging his appearance at a luncheon event scheduled for April 25, which the memecoin project announced in March.

“[O]rganizers are promoting a conference by dangling access to President Trump to potential attendees (and in doing so, are encouraging purchases of his meme coin that will generate transaction fees for the President and his family) on a day he may not actually be able to attend,” said the letter to Zanker, according to Politico.

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CoreWeave’s financing highlights Wall Street’s shift away from volatile, hardware-backed crypto lending toward cash-flow-driven AI infrastructure, according to TheEnergyMag.

CoreWeave’s recent $8.5 billion AI-backed loan highlights a major transition in how Wall Street finances digital infrastructure, marking a shift from “MinerFi” to “ComputeFi,” according to TheEnergyMag.

In its latest Miner Weekly newsletter, TheEnergyMag examined CoreWeave’s multibillion-dollar raise from a group of banks and investors, backed by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms. As Bloomberg reported, the financing underscores how companies are finding new ways to fund data center construction and expand GPU capacity.

Although CoreWeave has pivoted away from the digital asset sector toward AI-focused data center compute, the move offers a broader lesson on the shortcomings of Bitcoin (BTC) mining finance.

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With market pricing data currently monopolized by a few players, Pyth seeks to democratize access with a pay-on-demand model beginning with seven big-name providers.

Pyth Network, a blockchain data oracle provider, is launching a platform for financial institutions to publish and monetize their market data across blockchain networks. 

The Pyth Data Marketplace will initially support datasets for spot foreign currency exchange markets (FX), precious metals and crude oil swaps, while allowing publishers to retain “full control” over the data they share, according to Thursday’s announcement.

Seven new institutional data providers will publish price feeds on the marketplace at launch, the announcement said.

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Institutions can publish pricing feeds onchain via a pay-as-you-go model, offering an alternative to traditional data distribution systems.

Pyth Network, a blockchain data oracle provider, is launching a platform for financial institutions to publish and monetize their market data across blockchain networks. 

The Pyth Data Marketplace will initially support datasets for spot foreign currency exchange markets (FX), precious metals and crude oil swaps, while allowing publishers to retain “full control” over the data they share, according to Thursday’s announcement.

Seven new institutional data providers will publish price feeds on the marketplace at launch, the announcement said.

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Bitcoin whales sold $270 million in BTC on Sunday, but the steady absorption of supply by traders should help bulls maintain their hold on the market momentum.

Data shows Bitcoin (BTC) investors who had held their positions for over seven years took profit last week by selling $271 million in BTC.

A similar wave of “OG whale” selling in January coincided with a more fragile market that lacked buyer demand, triggering a sharp dip in the BTC price. Current onchain data reflects a much stronger market where BTC supply absorption and reduced selling may allow Bitcoin to hold its place in the $70,000-$72,000 range.

Data from Capriole Investments shows that the Bitcoin “OG whale spent value” moved roughly $271 million on Sunday. That marks the largest surge in activity for this cohort since Jan. 10, when a $280 million outflow spike preceded a 13% correction to $78,700 from $90,000 within two weeks.

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Bitcoin whales sold $271 million in BTC on Sunday, but the steady absorption of supply by traders should help bulls maintain their hold on the market momentum.

Data shows Bitcoin (BTC) investors who had held their positions for over seven years took profit by selling $271 million in BTC.

A similar wave of “OG whale” selling in January coincided with a more fragile market that lacked buyer demand, triggering a sharp dip in the BTC price. Current onchain data reflects a much stronger market where BTC supply absorption and reduced selling may allow Bitcoin to hold its place in the $70,000-$72,000 range.

Data from Capriole Investments shows that the Bitcoin “OG whale spent value” moved roughly $271 million on Sunday. That marks the largest surge in activity for this cohort since Jan. 10, when a $280 million outflow spike preceded a 13% correction to $78,700 from $90,000 within two weeks.

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Transactions on the Open Network layer-1 blockchain protocol previously took about 10 seconds to settle, before the Catchain 2.0 consensus upgrade.

The Open Network (TON), an independent layer-1 blockchain that has integrations with the Telegram messaging application, said it has slashed block times to 400 milliseconds with the release of its Catchain 2.0 consensus upgrade.

Payment transactions now settle in about 1 second, while trades settle in “real time,” and decentralized applications will now operate at speeds comparable to traditional apps, according to TON’s announcement on Thursday.

Faster block times produce more validator rewards, as the number of blocks added to the chain increases. TON’s annual inflation is projected to increase sixfold, to 3.6% from about 0.6% following the update, TON said. Inflation reflects the net issuance of new Toncoin.

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Onchain and technical data hint that $1,800 may have been the macro price bottom for Ether. Is there sufficient bullish momentum for a rally to $3,000?

Ether’s (ETH) recent sell-off was stopped at $1,800, as bulls aggressively defended the level. Ether’s rebound above $2,100, along with on-chain and technical data, suggests that traders will hold the price above $2,000 for the short-term.

Key takeaways:

Ether’s profitability metrics drop to levels that have historically marked local bottoms.

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The crypto exchange is mounting a challenge to platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, offering ”gasless” trades as it seeks a share of the $20 billion prediction market.

Binance Wallet has integrated prediction market features into its app, saying it will cover all trading and settlement transaction fees for users as it makes a play for a piece of the $20 billion market.

In a Thursday notice, Binance said it will launch probability-based markets as a feature on the company’s app through an integration with third-party platforms, starting with Predict.fun. According to the crypto exchange, the integration will be “gasless,” with the company sponsoring fees for trades and settlements on the BNB Smart Chain.

Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket offer users the chance to take a position on the outcome of events in a variety of topics, including politics and sports. The latter has put those platforms in the sights of multiple US state authorities who have filed lawsuits for allegedly violating state gaming laws by offering sports bets.

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A new Bitcoin–gold index highlights shifting views on crypto’s role as a store of value as correlations with equities increase and gold outperforms.

MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Management have launched a new index tracking Bitcoin and tokenized gold, offering investors exposure to assets commonly associated with wealth preservation.

The companies unveiled the Coinbase Store of Value Index on Thursday, which tracks Bitcoin (BTC) and Pax Gold (PAXG) — one of the largest gold-backed tokens by market cap. The index is designed as a benchmark combining digital assets with traditional store-of-value instruments.

Bitcoin and gold are weighted using an inverse volatility model, meaning lower-volatility assets receive a higher allocation.

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Operation Atlantic, a joint US, UK and Canadian operation, froze more than $12 million tied to crypto approval phishing and identified over 20,000 victims.

Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have frozen millions of dollars tied to crypto scams in a joint enforcement operation called Operation Atlantic.

The operation, focused on phishing attacks, took place in March and was coordinated by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the US Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission.

Operation Atlantic identified more than 20,000 victims across the US, Canada and the UK, securing and freezing more than $12 million in suspected criminal proceeds, the NCA said Thursday. It also identified “more than $45 million stolen in cryptocurrency fraud schemes,” the agency added.

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Operation Atlantic, a joint US, UK and Canadian operation, froze more than $12 million tied to crypto approval phishing scams and identified over 20,000 victims.

Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have frozen millions of dollars tied to crypto scams in a joint enforcement operation called Operation Atlantic.

The operation, focused on phishing attacks, took place in March and was coordinated by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the US Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission.

Operation Atlantic identified more than 20,000 victims across the US, Canada and the UK, securing and freezing more than $12 million in suspected criminal proceeds, the NCA said Thursday. It also identified “more than $45 million stolen in cryptocurrency fraud schemes,” the agency added.

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Bitcoin avoids major volatility after the first of the week's two key US inflation reports, while a trader sees a "new upwards leg" coming for BTC price action.

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $71,000 at Thursday’s Wall Street open after US inflation data conformed to expectations.

Key points:

Bitcoin waits for new catalysts as US PCE inflation data conforms to market expectations.

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Bitcoin avoids major volatility after the first of the week's two key US inflation reports, while a trader sees a "new upwards leg" coming for BTC price action.

Bitcoin (BTC) hovered near $71,000 at Thursday’s Wall Street open after US inflation data conformed to expectations.

Key points:

Bitcoin waits for new catalysts as US PCE inflation data conforms to market expectations.

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Hyperliquid data showed a 145 million Fartcoin position unwound across wallets, with the platform redistributing about $849,000 in gains to opposing traders.

A trader lost about $3 million after building a large leveraged Fartcoin position on Hyperliquid that unraveled in thin liquidity, triggering the platform’s auto-deleveraging (ADL) mechanism.

Lookonchain said, citing Hyperliquid data, that the trader accumulated about 145 million tokens across multiple wallets before being liquidated. The liquidation redistributed gains to opposing traders, with at least two wallets seeing around $849,000 through ADL. 

PeckShield said the unwind produced about $3 million in accounting losses and left Hyperliquid’s HLP vault down roughly $1.5 million over 24 hours, though Hyperliquid had not publicly confirmed those figures by publication.

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The US Justice Department and commodities regulator asked a federal court to block Arizona’s action against Kalshi, arguing federally regulated event contracts fall under CFTC jurisdiction.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asked a federal court to block Arizona from enforcing state gambling law against Kalshi’s event contracts, arguing that they fall under the CFTC’s exclusive authority over swaps markets.

The Wednesday filing argues that event contracts listed on federally regulated platforms such as Kalshi are swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act and therefore fall within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction.

The filing says Arizona’s enforcement effort unlawfully intrudes on the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction over federally regulated event-contract markets.

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North Korea’s crypto playbook now spans fake developers, conference contacts and major DeFi exploits reaching deep across the industry.

This month’s $285 million exploit on Drift, a decentralized exchange (DEX), was the largest crypto hack in over a year, when exchange Bybit lost $1.4 billion. North Korean state-backed hackers were named as prime suspects in both attacks.

This past autumn, attackers posed as a quantitative trading firm and approached Drift’s protocol team in person at a major crypto conference, said Drift in an X post Sunday.

“It is now understood that this appears to be a targeted approach, where individuals from this group continued to deliberately seek out and engage specific Drift contributors, in person, at multiple major industry conferences in multiple countries over the following six months,” said the DEX.

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Bitcoin Depot said a hacker stole 50.9 BTC, worth about $3.7 million, after gaining access to internal systems linked to corporate wallets.

Crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot said it lost 50.9 Bitcoin, worth about $3.7 million, after a hacker gained access to some of its internal systems.

The breach happened on March 23 after the attacker took control of credentials linked to Bitcoin Depot’s corporate Bitcoin (BTC) wallets, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said that customer accounts, platforms and personal data were not affected.

Bitcoin Depot added that the attack has not had a major impact on daily operations, and said it has insurance that may cover some of the losses. “As the investigation of the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident are not yet completely known,” the filing said.

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Crypto exchanges are seeking market share of TradFi trading venues, but tokenized commodities adoption is limited by pricing and liquidity concerns.

Update April 9, 2026, 1:00 p.m. UTC: This article has been updated to include a comment from Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, CEO and founder of tokenization platform Ubuntu Tribe.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are taking market share from traditional finance (TradFi) trading venues through tokenized commodities products, but finding that mainstream adoption of tokenized precious metals is limited by pricing and liquidity issues.

Silver perpetuals have peaked at about 40% of the equivalent volume of the Comex Silver (SI) Contract, the world’s largest silver futures market that accounts for over 70% of global exchange-traded silver futures volume, according to a Thursday report from Binance Research.

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BitMEX said commodity perpetual swaps volume jumped from $38.1 million to $25 billion in Q1 as traders flocked to 24/7 gold, silver and oil exposure.

BitMEX said in a Thursday report that commodity perpetual swaps were the fastest-growing segment of TradFi perps in the first quarter of 2026, with weekly volume rising 65,463% from $38.1 million to $25.0 billion.

The report said silver, crude oil and gold drove most of that growth. By the week of March 15, Silver (XAG) accounted for 34.8% of the market share of tokenized commodities, followed by crude oil (CL) for 27.7%, gold (XAU) at 27.5% and Silver on Hyperliquid for 6%, according to a Thursday report.

BitMEX said the March entry of crude oil added a new leg to the market, attributing that move to Iran-related geopolitical tensions and broader demand for 24/7 commodity exposure on crypto-native venues.

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Bitcoin needs to regain momentum with higher trading volumes for BTC to reclaim $80,000 as support and sustain the recovery.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) relief rally to $72,000 appears to be cooling off, but analysts said that the BTC price may “continue rising” in the short term.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin must flip the short-term holder realized price at $80,000 into support to confirm the trend change.

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Bhutan has moved another 319 BTC, taking the total to over 9,000 BTC since late 2024, and trimming its sovereign stash by around 70%.

Bhutan moved more Bitcoin from its sovereign-linked wallet on Thursday, further reducing its once sizeable BTC stash and extending its months-long selling. 

Arkham data showed a wallet attributed to the Royal Government of Bhutan and its investment arm Druk Holding & Investment, transferred about 319 Bitcoin (BTC), worth roughly $22.68 million, bringing total outflows since late October 2024 to more than 9,000 BTC.

The transfer follows a series of recent wallet movements by the country flagged by Arkham. In March alone, the Bhutan-tagged wallet moved more than 1,667 BTC (roughly $120 million), taking Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings from about 13,000 BTC in late 2024 to 3,654 BTC in April, according to Arkham Intelligence’s tracking dashboard.

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The decision closes a legal battle spanning more than a year, after Dunamu moved to overturn the sanction and halt its enforcement.

A South Korean court has canceled the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) three-month partial business suspension of Dunamu, the operator of crypto exchange Upbit, according to local reports.

Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday that the Seoul Administrative Court sided with Dunamu in its lawsuit against the FIU, overturning the sanction tied to alleged Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations. 

The court said clear rules existed for transactions above 1 million won (about $675), but found that regulations for smaller transfers were not specific enough, weakening the basis for enforcement within the case. 

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the CLARITY Act is vital to setting clear rules for crypto, tokenized assets and decentralized exchanges, and that US leadership is at stake.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has asked Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act without delay, warning that Senate floor time is limited and now is the moment to act.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday, Bessent said the legislation is critical for providing clear regulatory rules for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets and decentralized exchanges. He warned that with the global crypto market rising to $3 trillion and nearly one in six Americans holding digital assets, the stakes for US leadership in financial innovation are higher than ever.

“To preserve it and rise to the challenge before us, Congress must pass the Clarity Act. Senate floor time is scarce, and now is the time to act,” he wrote.

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Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF drew $30.6 million in first-day inflows, ranking second behind BlackRock’s IBIT as US spot Bitcoin ETFs clocked net outflows on Wednesday.

The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) offered by a US bank, recorded $30.6 million in inflows on its trading debut, giving the Wall Street bank a respectable entry into the spot Bitcoin ETF market.

MSBT started trading on the NYSE Arca on Wednesday, generating $34 million in trading volume, slightly above the expectations of Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who predicted first-day volume would reach $30 million.

As of April 8, MSBT held 444.4 Bitcoin (BTC), worth around $31.7 million, accounting for 0.03% of the estimated 1.29 million BTC collectively held by US spot BTC ETFs.

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Dubai’s regulator issued new guidance placing token launches into three buckets, tightening disclosure and governance standards for stablecoins, RWAs and other digital assets.

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) published detailed guidance on Thursday that clarifies how token issuers should structure, disclose and distribute virtual assets in the emirate, sharpening rules for stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokens.

The document, which interprets VARA’s existing Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook rather than creating new law, sets out three distinct issuance pathways and spells out who is responsible for what in each.

Rather than treating all tokens as if they pose the same risks, the framework draws clear lines between Category 1 issuances (including fiat-referenced virtual assets and asset-referenced virtual assets), Category 2 issuances that must be distributed via a VARA-licensed intermediary, and exempt virtual assets with limited functionality.

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South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb files for a court-approved asset freeze to reclaim 7 BTC remaining from a February payout error.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has begun legal proceedings to recover 7 Bitcoin still missing from a payout error that saw 620,000 BTC mistakenly distributed during a promotional event in February.

The exchange has filed for a provisional attachment, a court-approved measure that freezes assets ahead of a civil lawsuit, targeting users who have yet to return the funds, according to a Thursday report by local outlet Chosun Biz.

On Feb. 6, the exchange wanted to distribute a total of 620,000 won ($420) to 249 event winners. Instead, due to an input error, the system sent out 620,000 Bitcoin (BTC), briefly valuing the mistaken transfer at roughly 62 trillion Korean won ($42 billion). Although the exchange reversed the transactions within minutes, a portion of the funds had already been moved.

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Yuga Labs first filed a lawsuit in June 2022, accusing Ripps and Cahen of copying its Bored Ape Yacht Club cartoon ape images and selling lookalike NFTs.

Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs has settled its long-running lawsuit with a pair of artists accused of profiting off lookalike NFTs.

According to documents filed in the District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday, Yuga Labs and artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen told the court they had reached a settlement agreement.

As part of the settlement, Ripps and Cahen are permanently banned from using Yuga Lab's imagery and trademarks and will transfer control of the smart contracts, domains and any remaining NFTs associated with their RR/BAYC project to Yuga Labs within the next 10 days.

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Canary Capital is preparing to launch an ETF tracking Pepe’s price, despite the token trading 85% below its December 2024 all-time high.

Asset management firm Canary Capital is looking to launch a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) tied to the PEPE memecoin. 

On Wednesday, Canary filed a Form S-1 for the CANARY PEPE ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The ETF would track the performance of Pepe (PEPE), with all of the trust’s PEPE held by a custodian. 

It noted that the ETF trust may hold up to 5% of the trust’s assets in Ether (ETH) to pay the transaction fees on the Ethereum network.

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“In our view, the equitable balance here cuts in favor of the government,” said a panel of judges from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected Anthropic’s request to pause a Pentagon designation labeling the firm a national security supply chain risk.

The three-judge panel denied the emergency motion for a stay on Wednesday, ruling that the government’s interest in controlling how it secures AI technology during active military conflict outweighed any financial or reputational harm Anthropic may suffer from the label.

The decision means that part of the US Department of Defense’s official designation of Anthropic’s products as a “supply-chain risk to national security” remains in place. 

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While nearly 16% of Polymarket users are in profit, only a tiny fraction have made gains large and consistent enough to entertain walking away from their day job.

Just 0.015% of Polymarket traders can reliably make $5,000 or more a month, according to new data, meaning the idea of quitting a full-time job to trade prediction markets is unrealistic for most.

Data from crypto analyst Andrey Sergeenkov on Monday found that while nearly 1% of Polymarket traders earned more than $5,000 in a single month, only 0.1% managed to repeat that the following month and just 0.015% were able to sustain it for four consecutive months.

The average US monthly salary is around $5,220, according to Consumer Shield.

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Two macro catalysts — wealth transfer and payment disruption — could push stablecoin usage far beyond baseline growth forecasts, analysts say.

Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis estimates that stablecoin volumes could hit $1.5 quadrillion within the next decade, potentially exceeding current estimates of global cross-border payment volumes.

In a report on Wednesday, the Chainalysis team said that adjusted stablecoin volume could hit $719 trillion by 2035 just through organic growth, up from $28 trillion in 2025.

This figure could double by 2035 if two major catalysts come into play, said Chainalysis — the baby boom generation passing $100 trillion in wealth to younger, more crypto-native generations and stablecoins becoming the default payment infrastructure. 

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Some officials cautiously eyed a year-end rate cut, but others warned that upward adjustments might be needed if inflation remains above target levels.  

US Federal Reserve members were split on whether the war in the Middle East could spur further interest rate cuts before the end of 2026, according to minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) March meeting.

On Wednesday, the Fed released minutes from its last FOMC meeting on March 17 and 18. The meeting ended with an 11-1 vote to keep rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75%, with many officials cautious about the potential impacts of war and what it could mean for the economy.

Amid a risk of further conflicts, the official consensus pointed to a potential rate cut this year, but as Fed officials noted in the minutes, only if inflation does not get out of control.

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Visa is rolling out a platform that helps merchants make their product inventories discoverable and purchasable by AI agents.

Credit card giant Visa has ventured further into the agentic AI payments race, announcing a new platform on Wednesday to help businesses participate in AI-driven commerce.

In a statement on Wednesday, Visa described Intelligent Commerce Connect as a network, protocol, and “token vault-agnostic ‘on-ramp’” to agentic commerce for AI agent builders and merchants.

The system serves as a universal platform for agentic AI payments, which means AI agents acting for consumers can browse, select and pay for goods.

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The North Korean IT workers coordinated crypto payments through a server using a shared, easy-to-guess password “123456.”

A group of North Korean IT workers made more than $3.5 million in just a few months by faking their identities to work as developers while also attempting to hack crypto projects, according to documents obtained by a hacker who compromised one of their devices.

The leaked data obtained by the unnamed hacker was shared by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT in a post to X on Wednesday. It revealed that one of the IT workers, “Jerry,” and a team of 140 members were making roughly $1 million a month, amounting to $3.5 million worth of crypto since late November.

The North Korean IT workers coordinated payments on a website called “luckyguys.site” using a shared password, “123456,” ZachXBT said, adding that some of the users on that platform appeared to work for Sobaeksu, Saenal and Songkwang, which are sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.

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Bitcoin and global markets rallied after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire, but data show BTC bears have not closed most of their positions yet.

Key takeaways:

The US and Iran ceasefire boosted stock markets and Bitcoin, but BTC derivatives suggest limited bullish momentum.

Legislative setbacks and a "fragile truce" between the US and Iran keep bears active with a potential $68,000 correction on the cards.

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Bitcoin and global markets rallied after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire, but data shows BTC bears have not closed most of their positions yet.

Key takeaways:

The US and Iran ceasefire boosted stock markets and Bitcoin, but BTC derivatives suggest limited bullish momentum.

Legislative setbacks and a "fragile truce" between the US and Iran keep bears active with a potential $68,000 correction on the cards.

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David Woodcock steps into the role as US senators await answers to questions on the agency dropping lawsuits against Justin Sun and several crypto companies.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appointed David Woodcock as director of its Division of Enforcement as lawmakers press for answers on his predecessor’s departure.

In a Wednesday notice, the SEC said Woodcock would be taking over as the agency’s top enforcer starting on May 4. Sam Waldon will continue to serve as acting director of the division until then.

Woodcock, a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, chairs that firm’s Securities Enforcement Practice Group. He previously worked as the director of the commission’s Fort Worth office from 2011 to 2015.

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Bitcoin faces a future quantum threat, but Bernstein analysts say risks are concentrated in older wallets and exposed keys, and unlikely to cause existential disruption.

Advances in quantum computing could eventually pose a threat to Bitcoin’s cryptographic security, but the risk remains manageable and unlikely to cause existential disruption, according to a new research report by Bernstein.

In the report, the Bernstein team — Gautam Chhugani, Mahika Sapra, Sanskar Chindalia and Harsh Misra — described quantum computing as a “manageable upgrade cycle” rather than an “existential risk.”

Recent breakthroughs, including research from Google showing a significant reduction in the resources required to break modern encryption, have accelerated the timeline for potential threats. However, building quantum computers powerful enough to compromise Bitcoin (BTC) remains years away due to major technical hurdles and high costs.

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The proposed rule would direct payment stablecoin issuers to establish AML/CFT and sanctions compliance programs, and be able to “block, freeze, and reject” certain transactions.

Payment stablecoin issuers in the United States will be required to implement a regime targeting illicit finance under the proposed framework for the GENIUS Act.

In a Wednesday notice, the US Treasury Department said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had issued a joint proposed rule to implement provisions of the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025. 

The proposal would direct payment stablecoin issuers to establish and maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) program, maintain a sanctions compliance program, and have the ability to “block, freeze and reject” certain stablecoin transactions. Issuers would be treated as financial institutions for purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

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The proposed rule would direct payment stablecoin issuers to establish AML/CFT and sanctions compliance programs, and be able to “block, freeze, and reject” certain transactions.

Payment stablecoin issuers in the United States would be required to implement a regime targeting illicit finance under the proposed framework for the GENIUS Act.

In a Wednesday notice, the US Treasury Department said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had issued a joint proposed rule to implement provisions of the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025. 

The proposal would direct payment stablecoin issuers to establish and maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) program, maintain a sanctions compliance program, and have the ability to “block, freeze and reject” certain stablecoin transactions. Issuers would be treated as financial institutions for purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

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Bitcoin’s relief rally is facing selling pressure near $72,000, but technical charts suggest a bullish bias. Will altcoins follow in BTC’s footsteps?

Key points:

Bitcoin is showing signs of bottoming out, but some analysts say a final shakeout below $60,000 is still possible over the next few months.

Several major altcoins are showing early signs of buying, but the bulls have a lot of work to do before a trend change is signaled.

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Bitcoin gained momentum as data showed buyers are starting to dominate volumes on Binance, with a $90,000 BTC price target on their radar.

Market analysts say Bitcoin’s (BTC) is building up after its 7% rally above $72,000 on Tuesday, with bulls eyeing further gains to $90,000 amid improving macro sentiment. 

Key takeaways:

BTC price builds a bullish structure after reclaiming $72,000, as a symmetrical triangle breakout targets $90,000.

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Bitcoin gained momentum as data showed buyers are starting to dominate volumes on Binance, with a $90,000 BTC price target on their radar.

Market analysts say Bitcoin (BTC) is building up after its 7% rally above $72,000 on Tuesday, with bulls eyeing further gains to $90,000 amid improving macro sentiment. 

Key takeaways:

BTC price builds a bullish structure after reclaiming $72,000, as a symmetrical triangle breakout targets $90,000.

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Bitcoin buy-side activity across spot and derivatives markets is strengthening, while reduced selling from short-term holders improves the odds of holding $72,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above $72,000 on Tuesday as BTC order book and derivatives data showed buyers returning to the market.

Bitcoin’s recent trading history suggests that holding the $70,000 level is the first task bulls need to master, but previous BTC price rallies were capped by short-term traders selling into the bullish momentum. Will this time be different?

Bitcoin held above $71,300 on Wednesday as the spot market demand strengthened over the past few days. The order flow across major exchanges shows a clear shift toward investor accumulation.

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Empty tankers will reportedly be permitted to pass through the waterway under the US-Iran deal, but certain ships will need to pay a tariff of $1 per barrel of oil in Bitcoin.

Hours after US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran and the United States had agreed to a two-week ceasefire that included opening the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian authorities are reportedly considering charging ships using the waterway in cryptocurrency.

According to a Wednesday Financial Times report, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union said empty oil tankers will be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without incurring charges, but certain ships will need to pay a tariff of $1 per barrel of oil in Bitcoin (BTC).

The spokesperson, Hamid Hosseini, reportedly said Iranian authorities would also assess each ship using the waterway over the two-week period to ensure it wasn’t transporting weapons.

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Empty tankers will reportedly be permitted to pass through the waterway under the US-Iran deal, but certain ships will need to pay a tariff of $1 per barrel of oil in Bitcoin.

Hours after US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran and the United States had agreed to a two-week ceasefire that included opening the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian authorities are reportedly considering charging ships using the waterway in cryptocurrency.

According to a Wednesday Financial Times report, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union said empty oil tankers will be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without incurring charges, but certain ships will need to pay a tariff of $1 per barrel of oil in Bitcoin (BTC).

The spokesperson, Hamid Hosseini, reportedly said Iranian authorities would also assess each ship using the waterway over the two-week period to ensure it wasn’t transporting weapons.

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Bitcoin briefly reclaimed $72,000 on ceasefire news, but fading momentum, resistance and macro risks leave traders questioning the strength of the breakout.

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly hit new three-week highs into Wednesday’s Wall Street open as stocks surged on a US-Iran ceasefire.

Key points:

Bitcoin hits new three-week highs before round-tripping its gains.

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MEXC appointed Vugar Usi as CEO and outlined plans to expand zero-fee trading and pursue MiCA licensing amid growing industry competition.

MEXC appointed Vugar Usi as CEO on Wednesday, elevating the executive as the exchange steps up its push for global licensing, including under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.

MEXC said Usi joined the company as chief operating officer in late 2025 after previously serving in the same position at rival exchange Bitget.

In his new role, Usi said MEXC plans to preserve its low-fee trading focus while expanding broader multi-asset access on the platform.

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ZEC's latest rebound resembled bounces witnessed during the 2021 bear market, raising the odds of a 40% correction in the coming weeks.

Zcash (ZEC) rallied after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran, leading gains in a broader relief rally across global risk markets.

Key takeaways:

A 2021-style fractal warns ZEC price could fall 40% in the coming weeks.

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Standard Chartered is reportedly exploring a shake-up of Zodia Custody that would bring parts of the crypto custodian inside its own investment bank.

Standard Chartered is reportedly weighing a restructuring of its majority-owned crypto custodian Zodia Custody, as large banks look to bring more digital asset infrastructure inside their core banking operations.

The United Kingdom-based lender plans to fold Zodia’s crypto custody business into a division inside its corporate and investment bank that already offers similar services, while keeping Zodia operating as a standalone Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for digital asset custody, according to Bloomberg on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. An announcement on the restructuring could reportedly come as soon as this month.

It is not yet clear whether Standard Chartered has opened negotiations with Zodia’s minority shareholders, which include Northern Trust, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank and SBI Holdings.

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CZ’s new memoir reignited his long-running feud with OKX founder Star Xu, who called the Binance founder a liar in posts on X.

Update (April 8, 2026, 6:21 am UTC): This article has been updated to include a comment from a spokesperson for CZ.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s new memoir has reignited a long-standing feud with OKX founder Star Xu, who accused the Binance founder and former chief of lying about their shared history and past disputes.

In ”Freedom of Money,” released Wednesday, CZ revisits a contract dispute at OKX Coin and claims rivals sought to undermine him with “fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD),” portraying him as an inept chief technical officer.

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Crypto trades settle instantly, but at the cost of capital efficiency. This forces firms to overcollateralize and limits how far markets can scale, says Cosmos co-founder Ethan Buchman.

Crypto’s push for instant settlement is creating a capital inefficiency problem, forcing trading firms to fund every transaction in full and raising concerns about how the market can scale as volumes grow.

In practice, that usually means that firms cannot offset what they owe against what they are owed, forcing them to move more capital than necessary to settle trades.

Ethan Buchman, founder of Cycles Protocol and a co-founder of Cosmos, says crypto markets are “asset-brained.” He argues it treats the financial system like a global stock market where value is constantly moved and swapped.

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Bitcoin miner Cango said it sold 2,000 BTC to pay off debt and cut its BTC production cost by 19% as part of its strategic pivot to energy and AI infrastructure.

Bitcoin mining company Cango said on Wednesday it slashed its Bitcoin production cost to $68,215 per coin, a 19.3% cost reduction compared to the average cash cost of $84,552 per coin reported in the fourth quarter of 2025. 

The company attributed the reduction to its shift toward a “lean-production model” that prioritizes margin resilience over raw scale, according to its monthly operational report. Cango said the production cost reduction will help the company weather the volatility of Bitcoin prices.

The company sold 2,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in March at an average price between $68,000 and $69,000, a spokesperson for Cango told Cointelegraph, netting the company around $137 million. Cango said the proceeds were used to reduce outstanding Bitcoin-backed loans. As of March 31, Cango had $30.6 million in Bitcoin-backed loans outstanding and held 1,025.69 BTC in its treasury.

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The Financial Services Commission said inconsistent exemption rules created loopholes that allowed funds to move quickly with minimal account history.

South Korea’s financial regulator said it will tighten the exception rules under crypto exchanges’ withdrawal-delay system after finding that scam-linked accounts granted exemptions accounted for most voice-phishing-related losses. 

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Wednesday that the strengthened framework, developed with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA), will impose unified standards on when users can bypass withdrawal delays. 

The regulator said exchanges had been applying their own exception criteria with no clear minimum standard, creating loopholes that let bad actors quickly move funds if they meet easy requirements such as account age or trading history. 

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White House economists say banning stablecoin yield would add little to bank lending while imposing significant costs on users.

A White House report found that banning yield on stablecoins would have a marginal impact on bank lending while creating clear economic downsides.

According to the Council of Economic Advisers, a three-member agency within the Executive Office of the President tasked to offer the president economic advice, moving funds from stablecoins back into bank deposits would not translate into significant new lending. Under its baseline scenario, total bank lending would increase by about $2.1 billion, roughly 0.02% of the $12 trillion loan market.

The report, published Wednesday, says that community banks would see even smaller gains. Lending at these institutions would increase by roughly $500 million, or about 0.026%.

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The draft proposal from South Korea’s ruling party reportedly bars stablecoin interest and calls for technical standards to ensure interoperability across blockchain networks.

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party is reportedly preparing a draft bill that would classify stablecoins as foreign exchange payment instruments and require tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to be backed by assets held in trust. 

Citing an integrated draft of the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, the Seoul Economic Daily reported on Wednesday that stablecoins used in cross-border transactions would be treated as “means of payment” under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, placing related businesses under oversight even without separate registration.

The draft bill would also require issuers of tokenized RWAs to place underlying assets in managed trusts under the Capital Markets Act. 

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Thailand’s SEC proposes tightening funding rules for cryptocurrency companies to include anyone backing major shareholders, directly or indirectly.

Thailand’s securities regulator is seeking to curb money laundering and technology-related crimes by tightening funding rules for cryptocurrency companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (Thai SEC) on Monday proposed expanding approval requirements for crypto businesses to include financiers behind major shareholders.

Under the proposal, any person providing backing or financial support to major shareholders would itself be treated as a shareholder requiring regulatory approval from the regulator.

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A New York Times investigation points to Adam Back as Satoshi Nakamoto, but the Blockstream CEO denies it, and critics say proof is still missing.

The New York Times published an investigation on Wednesday arguing that Adam Back, the British cryptographer who invented Hashcash, is the most likely person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym used by Bitcoin’s creator.

Back denied the claim, telling Cointelegraph he was referring reporters to his post on X after previously rejecting similar attempts to identify him as Satoshi. Back reiterated in the post that he is not Satoshi, adding that he “was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic cash, hence my ~1992 onwards active interest in applied research on ecash, privacy tech on cypherpunks list which led to hashcash and other ideas.”

The investigation was conducted by John Carreyrou, a French-American investigative journalist best known for exposing the Theranos fraud. In the report, he claims that Back, who was cited in Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper, actively discussed electronic cash for years, then vanished just as Bitcoin (BTC) emerged, only to reappear after Satoshi disappeared.

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Bitcoin rose toward $72,000 after US President Donald Trump confirmed a ceasefire agreement with Iran, sending oil prices crashing below $100.

Bitcoin (BTC) surged to $72,700 during Tuesday’s New York trading session as oil fell below $100 per barrel after US President Donald Trump confirmed a two-week ceasefire with Iran. 

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin bounced 7% to $72,700 on Tuesday after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire.

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Cathie Wood's ARK Invest increased its Robinhood stake after the platform was selected to operate government-backed “Trump Accounts” for youth savings and investment.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has increased its exposure to Robinhood Markets, purchasing roughly $13 million worth of shares after the trading platform secured a role in a new government-backed savings initiative.

ARK’s Tuesday trade disclosures show a fresh accumulation of Robinhood shares across multiple funds. ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) led the charge, purchasing 132,116 HOOD shares. Additional buying came from the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), which added 33,607 shares, and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF), which picked up 16,918 shares.

Related: Bernstein sees potential bottom for crypto stocks ahead of Q1 earnings

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UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum and others launched a 2026 sandbox to test Swiss franc stablecoin use cases and blockchain payment rails in Switzerland.

UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and Swiss Stablecoin AG have launched a sandbox to test use cases for a Swiss franc stablecoin in Switzerland.

Announced on Wednesday, the initiative will allow participating banks to test selected fanc stablecoin use cases in what the partners described as a secure digital live environment or sandbox. The group said the project is intended to build experience in handling digital payment methods.

The sandbox will be conducted in 2026, with Swiss Stablecoin AG providing the issuance infrastructure. The project is also open to other banks, companies and institutions that want to take part.

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Will quantum-safe cryptography slow Ethereum? It is likely to affect gas fees, validator load and network efficiency, prompting Ethereum to pursue a broader redesign strategy.

Ethereum relies on cryptographic systems that remain secure against classical computers. However, sufficiently advanced quantum machines could one day break these systems, potentially exposing private keys and putting billions of dollars in value at risk.

Ethereum’s post-quantum initiative sends a clear message: there is no immediate threat, yet delaying action is not an option.

Upgrading a global, decentralized network is a complex, multiyear effort that requires:

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Ethereum could see $850 billion in “new flows” by 2030 if the trend continues, according to Token Terminal.

The onchain value of stablecoins on the Ethereum network has reached an all-time high of $180 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm Token Terminal.

Ethereum holds 60% of the stablecoin supply at $180 billion, which is up 150% over the past three years, the firm reported Tuesday.

The company projected that around $1.7 trillion is expected to come onchain across all networks over the next four years and that Ethereum could see $850 billion in “new flows” by 2030, if it grows 470% in that time. 

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Lookonchain noted that the “yes” bets were placed at probabilities between 2.9% and 10.3%, with the three wallets placing their first bets within 26 hours of the announcement.

Three newly created wallets profited a combined $484,575 on Polymarket betting that the US and Iran would agree to a ceasefire by Tuesday, in the latest event to raise suspicion of insider trading.

The wallets were created and funded on Tuesday and had no prior onchain activity before betting on Polymarket’s “US x Iran ceasefire by April 7” market, blockchain data shared by Lookonchain revealed on Wednesday. 

Polymarket data shows the profits secured by the three wallets were $200,525, $158,600 and $125,450 at the time of writing. 

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Lookonchain noted that the “yes” bets were placed at probabilities between 2.9% and 10.3%, with the three wallets placing their first bets within 26 hours of the announcement.

Three newly created wallets profited a combined $484,575 on Polymarket betting that the US and Iran would agree to a ceasefire by Tuesday, in the latest event to raise suspicion of insider trading.

The wallets were created and funded on Tuesday and had no prior onchain activity before betting on Polymarket’s “US x Iran ceasefire by April 7” market, blockchain data shared by Lookonchain revealed on Wednesday. 

Polymarket data shows the profits secured by the three wallets were $200,525, $158,600 and $125,450 at the time of writing. 

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The approval puts Coinbase under Australia’s financial rules as the country formalizes oversight of crypto platforms.

Coinbase is planning to expand its offerings in Australia to include derivatives, equities and payments after securing an Australian financial services license (AFSL).

John O'Loghlen, regional managing director for APAC at Coinbase, said the Australian financial services license (AFSL) will see the exchange initially offer crypto and equity perpetuals but will open the door for futures, options and other traditional financial products.

“We’re going to compete with traditional financial services on stock trading, payments and other TradFi products with the speed and execution of crypto,” O'Loghlen said.

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Ethereum analysts said buyers were back in control, but holding the $2,000 support was key to reversing the market structure.

Market analysts say Ether (ETH) could be ready for a “regime shift” as buying pressure builds up, but bulls must hold $2,000.

Key takeaways:

Ether shows resilience above $2,000, as onchain data shows signs of returning demand, suggesting a possible “regime shift”.

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AI models have reached a level of coding capability that rivals or exceeds that of most human experts at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities, Anthropic said.

Anthropic is limiting access to its new AI model after the company said it identified thousands of software vulnerabilities across major systems, raising concerns about potential misuse in cyberattacks.

The new general-purpose model, Anthropic said, also found high-severity vulnerabilities in every major operating system and web browser.

AI has already been widely adopted by hackers to conduct cyberattacks. There was a 72% year-over-year increase in AI-powered cyberattacks, with 87% of global organizations experiencing AI-enabled cyberattacks in 2025, according to AllAboutAI. 

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Under SEC Chair Paul Atkins, the number of SEC enforcement actions against public companies has decreased by about 30%.

Some past enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies lacked clear investor benefit and misinterpreted federal securities laws, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday. 

Since the 2022 fiscal year, the SEC brought 95 actions and imposed $2.3 billion in penalties for “book-and-record violations,” it said in a statement about its enforcement results for 2025. 

It also reflected a “bias for volume of cases brought versus matters of investor protection,” a misallocation of resources and a misinterpretation of federal securities laws, the SEC said. 

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FDIC’s proposed rules providing insurance for corporate deposits of stablecoin issuers will not extend to the stablecoin holders, as it would conflict with the GENIUS Act’s text, the FDIC said.

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has proposed new rules to regulate FDIC-supervised stablecoin issuers in accordance with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which was signed into law nine months ago.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FDIC said its board of directors voted to issue a proposal that would set reserve, redemption, capital, risk management and custody standards for stablecoin issuers and insured depository institutions under its supervision.

The FDIC insures deposits at more than 4,000 financial institutions and supervises over 2,700 banks and savings associations to maintain stability in the US financial system.

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Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday accepted a two-week ceasefire with the US, but emphasized this did not mean an end to the war.

The price of Bitcoin pushed past $72,000 for the first time in 20 days after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire.

“I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” US President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, hours before his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face military attacks on key infrastructure. 

Iran's Supreme National Security Council also said it accepted the ceasefire. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations.”

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The 30-day simple moving average of the global network hashrate has also declined, though an analyst says the slump is due to Bitcoin prices hurting mining profitability rather than conflict.

Iran’s hashrate has plummeted over the past quarter amid an ongoing conflict with the US and Israel, though the war itself has not dragged down global hashrate, according to a new report from Hashrate Index.

Iran has lost roughly 7 exahashes per second (EH/s) quarter over quarter, said Ian Philpot, marketing director at Luxor Technology, in a report published Monday. The country’s hashrate now sits at about 2 EH/s according to the Hashrate Index heatmap.

Philpot noted that while the regional conflict clearly impacted Iran, it could have triggered a ripple effect for neighboring countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman, yet so far, neither has been affected.  

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Changpeng Zhao’s memoir recounts Binance’s rapid rise, regulatory scrutiny and prison sentence, offering a first-person account of crypto’s most turbulent era.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao became a household name in the cryptocurrency sector after founding Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Following a series of legal and regulatory challenges that culminated in a prison sentence, Zhao has authored an autobiography recounting his rise — and subsequent fallout.

The 364-page manuscript, titled “Freedom of Money,” presents a first-person account of Zhao’s life and career. The foreword is written by Yi He, a Binance co-founder who has worked with Zhao since 2014.

Zhao writes that his story has been shaped by media coverage, court filings and public commentary. He describes the book as an account intended to provide additional context to those narratives.

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The Bitcoin supply held in long-term investor wallets moved above 4 million BTC, while a network activity index flashed a “bull phase” signal.

New data suggests that Bitcoin (BTC) could be moving closer to a bull market phase as its supply slowly shifts back into long-term, retail-linked wallets. The figure surpassed 4 million BTC in Q1 2026.

The accumulation trend aligns with a rise in Bitcoin network activity index to levels last seen in April 2025, signaling a return of stronger network activity.

CryptoQuant data shows that balances held by accumulating address cohorts continued to rise into Q1 2026. The total BTC held by these cohorts has crossed 4.37 million BTC as of Tuesday, up from about 2 million BTC in early 2024, signaling sustained supply absorption.

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The seven House members may have affirmed the commission’s authority over prediction markets, but they questioned its inaction on insider trading.

Seven members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig, asking for information on the agency's inaction on insider trading on prediction markets and event contracts related to war and conflicts.

In a Monday letter, lawmakers said that the CFTC had the authority under the Commodity Exchange Act “to apply its rules and regulations for the purpose of preventing evasion of the [act’s] underlying swap provisions.” The statement signaled that the representatives affirmed Selig’s position that the commission had jurisdiction over prediction markets.

However, the House members expressed concerns about how the CFTC was policing “morally obscene” event contracts, including those on US military actions in Iran and Venezuela — in those cases, there were suspicious trades related to the timing and outcomes of US military involvement. 

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Bitcoin ETF inflows hit $471 million, but stress on digital asset treasuries, selling from miners, and the war in Iran are keeping BTC stuck below $70,000.

Key takeaways:

BTC failed to hold $70,000 despite strong ETF inflows as selling by public miners offset recent institutional buying.

Options markets reflect high demand for downside protection as a 17% put premium signals cautious sentiment.

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According to the bureau, a large number of minors aged 17 and younger were included in complaints related to crypto or crypto ATMs, resulting in more than $5 million in losses.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that Americans’ losses from crypto-related scams increased to more than $11 billion in 2025.

In its annual internet crime complaint report released on Monday, the FBI said that cryptocurrency and AI-related scams were “among the costliest” for Americans in 2025, with 181,565 complaints totaling more than $11 billion. According to the bureau, it received more than one million complaints in 2025 reporting losses of about $21 billion due to cyber-enabled crimes.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that investment scams resulted in the highest percentage of victims reporting losses in crypto as opposed to cash, debit cards, gift cards and other media of exchange. In addition, about 10% of the 13,168 complaints involving cybercrimes targeting minors aged 17 and younger were related to crypto or crypto ATMs, resulting in more than $5 million in losses.

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Wintermute analysts said Bitcoin’s price stability against the extreme bearish sentiment present in the market is a positive. Will BTC ever flip $70,000 back to support?

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to show strong support at $67,000, even as a growing split between BTC's price stability and bearish sentiment among investors leaves the cryptocurrency in a state of equilibrium.

BTC’s resilience in avoiding dips below $60,000 has been driven by strong institutional investor demand and long-term buying, despite volatility stemming from the US-Israel-Iran war.

Market maker Wintermute noted that Bitcoin’s price and sentiment were diverging. The Fear and Greed Index sat at 11 on Tuesday, staying in “extreme fear” for over a month.

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Roman Storm, the co-founder of the crypto mixing service, still faces a possible retrial on two charges after a jury failed to reach a verdict in 2025.

Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has penned a response to Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s motion for acquittal, criticizing his alleged criminal conduct.

In a Tuesday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Clayton said that Storm’s criminal use of Tornado Cash was “window dressing at best and outright misdirection at worst,” rejecting arguments that he be allowed to use a civil copyright case in his defense.

The US Attorney’s filing followed a Thursday notice from Storm’s lawyers saying they intended to use a 2026 Supreme Court case, Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, as part of an argument about the Tornado Cash co-founder’s intent to participate in the crimes of which he is accused: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions.

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Split Capital founder Zaheer Ebtikar is closing his crypto hedge fund after strong returns to join Plasma as chief strategy officer, citing a major industry shift.

Split Capital, a digital asset hedge fund founded by investor Zaheer Ebtikar, is shutting down, with the founder joining Peter Thiel-backed stablecoin startup Plasma.

Ebtikar announced the news in an X post on Tuesday, saying Split Capital was profitable both in 2024 and 2025, and delivered over 100% in returns.

“We were a top performing fund by every mark,” Ebtikar claimed, adding that his decision to wind down the business was driven by a belief that the crypto market had shifted away from strategies that hedge funds are designed to capture.

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Polymarket has become one of decentralized finance’s highest fee-generating protocols, pulling in about $7.1 million in fees in the first week of the second quarter.

Polymarket has become one of decentralized finance’s most profitable protocols after a pricing overhaul, generating about $7.1 million in fees in the first week of the second quarter, according to new data.

That pace implies an annualized run rate of roughly $365 million if sustained, placing the onchain prediction platform among the industry’s top fee generators and giving it nearly all of the sector’s revenue, at 96.8% of onchain prediction market fees.

The gains follow a March 30 pricing change that pushed daily fees to around $1 million, a level that has largely held as trading activity remains elevated, data from DeFiLlama shows, and makes Polymarket the eighth-largest DeFi protocol by fees, along with stablecoin issuers Circle (USDC) and Tether (USDT) and decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid.

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Bitcoin and risk-asset price action tried to brush off new US-Iran war rhetoric just hours before the deadline for a deal passed.

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed near a key long-term trend line at Tuesday’s Wall Street open as markets waited for US-Iran war cues.

Key points:

Bitcoin and US stocks attempt to shrug off claims by US President Donald Trump that a “whole civilization will die” after his Iran deadline expires.

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CME Group said it will launch Avalanche and Sui futures contracts pending regulatory approval, as it expands its regulated crypto product offering.

CME Group is expanding its suite of cryptocurrency futures products, as more traditional finance (TradFi) entities launch regulated crypto trading products.

On Tuesday, CME Group announced plans to launch Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI) futures contracts on May 4, pending regulatory review.

Market participants will be able to trade both micro-sized and larger-sized contracts, including AVAX futures sized at 5,000 AVAX and Micro AVAX futures sized at 500 AVAX, as well as SUI futures sized at 50,000 SUI and Micro SUI futures sized at 5,000 SUI.

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Prediction markets can evolve from betting casinos to decision operating systems. Futarchy replaces manual governance with market-priced causal logic gates.

Opinion by: Jesus Rodriguez, co-founder and CTO at Sentora.

Human coordination is bottlenecked by a terrible algorithm.

When a DAO, a corporation, or a nation-state makes a decision, it relies on "manual feature engineering" like committees and vibes-based voting. High-dimensional, emotional inputs are compressed through the protocol of human politics and hope for a decent output. 

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Multiple Bitcoin indicators, including a bull-bear sentiment index and realized price metric, point to a possible final BTC shakeout toward $54,000

Bitcoin (BTC) is showing signs of the bear market’s late stages but could see another leg lower in the coming months, says Joao Wedson, founder and CEO of on-chain analytics platform Alphractal.

Key takeaways:

BTC may still see one last big drop before recovering, based on one sentiment indicator.

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Lido’s institutional lead argues that more crypto treasury companies will need to incorporate liquid staking to outperform the returns generated by staked Ether ETFs.

Ether treasury companies may need to use liquid staking and other active yield strategies if they want to offer investors something beyond the staking rewards already available through listed Ether products, Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido, told Cointelegraph at ETHCC 2026.

Liquid staking lets Ether (ETH) holders stake their tokens while receiving a transferable token that can still be deployed elsewhere in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Gilbert said strategies such as posting ETH as collateral and borrowing against it could help treasury companies generate higher returns than passive staking products.

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An inspection found slow reconciliation cycles and weak trade-halting systems across major crypto exchanges.

South Korea has ordered all crypto exchanges to reconcile their internal ledgers with actual asset holdings every five minutes after an inspection uncovered weaknesses in internal controls.

The directive was announced on Monday by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) after a meeting with top crypto exchanges and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA), during which they discussed the findings of an emergency inspection triggered by the Bithumb payout incident.

The inspection found that three of the country’s five major exchanges were reconciling balances only once every 24 hours, limiting their ability to respond quickly to discrepancies. Systems designed to halt trading during major mismatches were also found to be insufficient, raising concerns about how exchanges would handle large-scale errors.

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XRP’s profitable supply fell to 43% as high capitulation and a bearish chart setup signaled a potential drop toward $1.10 in the coming weeks.

XRP (XRP) is staring at a potential drop toward $1.10, as a decline in profitable supply suggests growing bearish momentum and a classic setup for new lows.

Key takeaways:

XRP supply in profit has dropped to 43%, levels last seen in November 2024.

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Operation Atlantic is a cross-border law enforcement effort to detect and disrupt crypto scams in real time, targeting approval phishing before funds are fully drained.

Crypto scams have become highly sophisticated cross-border operations that exploit advanced technology and human psychology. By the time victims become aware of the fraud, the stolen cryptocurrency is often rapidly dispersed across a chain of wallets and exchanges in multiple countries.

Operation Atlantic represents a coordinated international effort by law enforcement agencies from the US, the UK and Canada to counter this threat. Rather than limiting itself to post-incident investigations, the operation focuses on identifying, tracking and disrupting crypto scams while they are still in progress.

The initiative brings together key agencies, including the US Secret Service, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the UK National Crime Agency and the City of London Police.

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Binance said it will roll out a spot trading rule on April 14, restricting executions outside a set range during periods of volatility and thin liquidity.

Update April 7, 2026, 12:27 pm UTC: This article has been updated to add comments from a Binance representative.

Crypto exchange Binance is introducing a new spot trading feature that restricts orders from executing outside a defined price range during periods of extreme volatility. 

Binance said Tuesday that a mechanism called the Spot Price Range Execution Rule (PRER) will be rolled out on April 14. 

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Crypto ETPs drew $224 million in inflows last week as XRP led gains, while US ETFs lagged and Ether posted outflows amid mixed macro data and policy expectations.

Cryptocurrency investment products recorded minor inflows last week despite mixed geopolitical signals and increasingly hawkish investor expectations.

Global crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) clocked $224 million in inflows last week, following a $414 million outflow a week before, CoinShares reported on Tuesday.

The fresh inflows brought total assets under management to about $131.8 billion, roughly in line with levels seen at the same time last year. Year-to-date inflows also totaled about $1.2 billion, compared with $960 million over the same period last year.

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Argentine lenders are reportedly testing JPMorgan’s JPM Coin to improve settlement speed and efficiency, even as the central bank maintains restrictions on crypto services.

Argentine banks are reportedly testing JPMorgan’s deposit token infrastructure for back-end settlement workflows, even as the country’s central bank still bars lenders from offering most crypto-related services to clients, according to local outlet iProUP.

A group of financial institutions has begun piloting JPM Coin, a deposit token designed for institutional use. Banco CMF is among the confirmed participants, working through its newly launched corporate unit QORP as part of JPMorgan’s minimum viable product, per the report.

“In the first phase, banks are expected to work on integrating available services to verify improvements in settlement times and interbank reconciliations of integrated banks,” Maximiliano Cohn, chief information officer of CMF, reportedly told the outlet.

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Bitcoin stochastic RSI signals led a trader to draw key comparisons between current BTC price action and its rebound after the 2022 bear market.

Bitcoin (BTC) is copying the end of its 2022 bear market “nearly perfectly,” according to a new BTC price analysis.

Key points:

Bitcoin stochastic RSI values are “nearly perfectly” repeating the end of its last bear market, new analysis claims.

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Spot Bitcoin ETFs draw $471 million in their strongest daily inflow in weeks, while Ether funds return to gains despite cautious sentiment.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have renewed the pace of inflows, recording their largest daily flows in weeks.

Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs posted $471 million in inflows on Monday, the largest daily inflow since Feb. 25, when the funds attracted $507 million, according to SoSoValue.

The inflows came as the Bitcoin price briefly approached $70,000 before retreating below $69,000, according to CoinGecko data.

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The Bitcoin community has a “history of contentious debates over protocol changes,” said Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl.

The challenge to solving the quantum threat to Bitcoin could be more social than technical, according to Grayscale’s head of research, especially if the community fails to come to an agreement on certain contentious issues.

Google released a paper that drew attention in the crypto industry on March 30, suggesting that a quantum computer could potentially crack the cryptography protecting Bitcoin (BTC) using far fewer resources than previously thought.

Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl, however, suggested the problem for Bitcoin doesn’t come from its technical solution, as “bitcoin has lower risk than other cryptocurrencies” because it uses a UTXO model and proof-of-work consensus, does not have native smart contracts and certain address types are not quantum vulnerable.

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One of the three convicted terrorism financiers sent $49,000 worth of stablecoins to a foreign exchange before it was routed to an ISIS-linked campaign.

Onchain evidence was key to securing the conviction of three individuals for terrorism financing in Indonesia in 2024 and 2025, reflecting a clear shift in the way courts value onchain evidence.

“Indonesian courts have demonstrated that cryptocurrency evidence — wallet addresses, transaction histories, on-chain flows — is not only admissible but can anchor a terrorism financing prosecution,” TRM said in a statement Sunday.

TRM said terrorism financing networks have preferred cryptocurrency as a mechanism of choice to move money, as authorities and regulators have been slow to treat it with the same level of scrutiny as traditional fiat channels, but noted that this is now changing. 

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The proposal includes a startup exemption, a fundraising exemption and an investment contract safe harbor for issuers. 

US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins has revealed that a key crypto market safe harbor proposal has landed at the White House for review.

Speaking at the Digital Assets and Emerging Technology Policy Summit on Monday, Atkins said the Regulation Crypto Assets proposal — outlined by the SEC in mid-March — has now been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

"We will have reg crypto that we will be proposing here shortly. It's in fact at OIRA right now, which is the next step before being published," he said.

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New documents seen by The New York Times suggest the Argentine president had seven phone calls with the entrepreneur behind the Libra token.

Newly uncovered call logs suggest Argentine President Javier Milei spoke with one of the entrepreneurs behind the Libra token multiple times on the night he promoted the cryptocurrency, raising questions about Milei’s assertion that he had no connection with the project. 

According to logs obtained by Argentine prosecutors investigating the token’s collapse, which were seen by The New York Times, there were reportedly a total of seven phone calls between the unnamed entrepreneur and Milei before and after he made his Libra promotion post on X.

The contents of those calls remain unknown, according to the Times. 

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The Solana Foundation and Web3 security firm Asymmetric Research unveiled a new security initiative called STRIDE, along with a real-time incident-response network.

The Solana Foundation on Monday announced a new security auditing framework for Solana-based protocols in addition to an incident-response network, warning that “adversaries are rapidly innovating.”

The Solana Foundation, a Swiss organization that supports the adoption and security of Solana, and Web3 security firm Asymmetric Research unveiled the Solana Trust, Resilience and Infrastructure for DeFi Enterprises (STRIDE), stating that it was a “structured program for evaluating, monitoring and escalating security across Solana projects.”

The initiative works to evaluate the security of protocols across eight pillars: program security, governance and access control, oracle and dependency risk, infrastructure security, supply chain security, operational security, monitoring and incident response, as well as log management and forensics. 

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DeFi risk manager Chaos Labs said Aave’s planned migration to Aave V4 introduced risks that it wasn’t willing to assume, while Aave said Chaos wanted to take on full control as the sole risk service provider.

Chaos Labs has parted ways with the Aave ecosystem after serving as the crypto lending protocol’s main risk service provider for three years, citing a budget dispute and disagreements over how Aave should manage risk.

“This decision was not made in haste,” Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg said in a post to X on Monday. “We worked in good faith with DAO contributors. Aave Labs was professional and supported increasing our budget to $5m to retain us. However, we are leaving because the engagement no longer reflects how we believe risk should be managed.”

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov said that Chaos didn’t depart on bad terms, but claimed that Chaos pitched a proposal seeking to become the sole risk provider and thus force out other partners — a compromise Aave wasn’t willing to accept.

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Polymarket is upgrading its exchange infrastructure in the coming weeks, introducing new contracts and a USDC-backed token while phasing out a bridged stablecoin.

Prediction platform Polymarket is overhauling its exchange infrastructure in the coming weeks, introducing a new collateral token and upgraded trading system that give the platform greater control over settlement and risk as it moves toward closer alignment with US regulatory expectations.

In an announcement on Monday, Polymarket said it will deploy new exchange contracts — dubbed version 2 — designed to simplify how orders are structured and matched. The upgrade is intended to make trading more efficient and to make it easier for developers to connect apps and trading bots to the platform.

The new system will also support EIP-1271, an Ethereum standard that allows smart contract-based wallets, such as multisigs and automated trading systems, to sign transactions, expanding compatibility beyond traditional wallets.

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Bitcoin may invalidate its bear flag setup as Strategy buys 46,233 BTC in just over a month, outpacing the 16,200 BTC supply in the same period.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading within a bear flag pattern that projects a breakdown toward the sub-$50,000 area, or roughly 30% below current levels. However, Michael Saylor’s Strategy could spoil the bears’ plans.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin has avoided a bear flag breakdown for weeks as Strategy keeps buying BTC.

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As states seek to regulate prediction markets, a panel of federal judges ruled in favor of Kalshi’s position that only the CFTC has jurisdiction.

A US appellate court has ruled against New Jersey gaming authorities for bringing an enforcement action against prediction market platform Kalshi over sports event contracts. 

In a Monday-issued opinion, a panel of judges in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of Kalshi’s argument that the company had a ”reasonable chance of success” claiming that the Commodity Exchange Act preempted state law, setting the stage for a potential battle over gaming laws in the US Supreme Court.

"This is a big win for the industry and millions of users," Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a social media post on X.

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The CEO's annual shareholder letter warned that new tech is reshaping finance, with tokenization and blockchain competitors gaining as the bank scales its own network.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said “new technologies” are intensifying competition across the financial sector, with blockchain-based players emerging alongside traditional rivals.

In his annual shareholder letter on Monday, Dimon identified artificial intelligence, data and advanced technology as “key to the future,” signaling a shift toward more automated, data-driven financial services.

While blockchain and digital assets were not a central focus, Dimon acknowledged that “a whole new set of competitors is emerging based on blockchain, which includes stablecoins, smart contracts and other forms of tokenization.”

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While an Iran ceasefire favors stocks, Bitcoin’s path to $75,000 remains contingent on market trust despite Trump’s volatile diplomacy.

Key takeaways:

Trump’s Tuesday deadline to Iran creates a pivotal moment for Bitcoin as it continues to decouple from gold.

While a ceasefire could boost equities, Bitcoin’s $75,000 path depends on its role as a hedge against fiscal instability.

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Bernstein says Figure may be undervalued as loan volumes surge and its tokenized credit platform expands, despite recent stock declines and market volatility.

Figure Technology Solutions, a blockchain-based lending platform that went public last year, may be undervalued at current levels as loan originations accelerate and its tokenized credit marketplace scales, according to Bernstein analysts.

In a report published Monday, Bernstein assigned Figure an “Outperform” rating and a $67 price target — nearly double the stock’s recent trading level of around $32.

The bullish call follows a surge in lending activity. Figure originated $1.2 billion in loans in March, up 33% from the previous month and marking the first time monthly volumes exceeded $1 billion. 

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Buyers are attempting to push Bitcoin above the $70,000 level, but some analysts believe the upside may be limited and a drop below the $60,000 support is likely.

Key points:

Bitcoin rose above the $70,000 level on Monday, but analysts remain skeptical, expecting a drop below the $60,000 support.

Several major altcoins have bounced off their supports, indicating demand at lower levels.

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Strategy resumed Bitcoin purchases, acquiring 4,871 BTC for $329.9 million, while reporting a $14.46 billion unrealized loss and expanding its holdings.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest publicly listed holder of Bitcoin, resumed buying BTC last week after reporting no purchases in the final week of March.

Strategy acquired 4,871 Bitcoin (BTC) for $329.9 million last week, according to an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The purchases were made at an average price of $67,718 per coin, below the company’s overall average acquisition price of $75,644. The new acquisitions bring Strategy’s holdings to 766,970 BTC, acquired for a total cost of around $58 billion.

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A darknet threat actor is selling new fraud kit to trick KYC identity verification systems on financial platforms via AI-generated deepfakes and real-time voice altering.

A threat actor known as “Jinkusu” is allegedly selling cybercrime tools designed to bypass Know Your Customer (KYC) checks at banks and crypto platforms.

The tool uses deepfakes and voice manipulation to trick KYC verification systems on finance platforms, cybercrime tracker Dark Web Informer wrote in a Sunday X post.

Cybersecurity company Vecert Analyzer added that Jinkusu uses AI for real-time face swaps via InsightFace for “fluid gesture transfers,” along with voice modulation to evade biometrics.

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Institutional crypto flows through prime brokerages that enforce TradFi custody standards. Ripple's $1.25B Hidden Road acquisition signals a permanent infrastructure shift.

Opinion by: Dominic Lohberger, chief product officer at Sygnum.

Counterparty risk in crypto markets has always moved in cycles. Exchanges default or get hacked. Standards tighten for a while. Then, complacency quietly returns as losses are forgotten. 

What is happening this time is different. 

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Marc Andreessen says AI job loss fears are “all fake” and predicts a “massive jobs boom,” as fresh US data show increasing long-term unemployment and tech companies citing AI while cutting positions.

Marc Andreessen said artificial intelligence will spark a “massive jobs boom,” dismissing fears of widespread job losses as “all fake” in a Sunday post on X.

His optimism contrasts with a March US jobs report showing unemployment holding steady at 4.3%, while the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose by 322,000 over the past year.

Andreesen shared a Business Insider report showing a sharp rise in tech job openings in 2026, with more than 67,000 software engineering roles, a twofold increase from 2023, and argued that employers had recovered from post-pandemic hiring corrections and the interest rate spike.

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Samson Mow pushes back against calls to rush Bitcoin’s move to post-quantum cryptography, warning it could introduce new vulnerabilities.

Rushed quantum fixes for Bitcoin could introduce new risks, Samson Mow warned in response to calls from Coinbase executives for faster action.

Mow, a Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 founder, took to X on Saturday to address comments from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and chief security officer Philip Martin, who urged the industry to begin preparing for quantum computing threats sooner rather than later.

He said that while post-quantum (PQ) cryptography could secure Bitcoin (BTC) against future quantum computers, rushing implementation may create new vulnerabilities such as compatibility issues and reduced network efficiency due to larger signature sizes.

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Perp DEX daily volume fell to $8.4 billion on April 4, its first sub-$10 billion level since September and the lowest since July, DefiLlama data shows.

Onchain perpetual futures trading has cooled for five straight months since peaking in October 2025.

Perp volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) fell to $699 billion in March 2026 from October’s $1.36 trillion, according to DefiLlama data.

The decline has been steady across the period, with volumes slipping through November and December before losses extended through the first quarter of 2026. 

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China’s leading tax and financial authorities are urging banks to incorporate blockchain technology to bolster their credit facilities and data transparency.

China’s tax and financial regulators on Monday urged banks and local authorities to use blockchain and privacy computing to upgrade the “bank-tax interaction” model and expand financing for small businesses.

The State Administration of Taxation and National Financial Regulatory Administration said in a joint policy notice that banks and taxpayers should standardize data sharing and reduce information asymmetry between tax authorities, banks and enterprises.

The report also urged banks to improve credit models, enhance credit approval efficiency and increase the supply of financing services to “honest, tax-paying enterprises.”

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Bitcoin hinted at a long-term bullish trend change as BTC neared an MACD cross that last resulted in $25,000 gains over two months.

Bitcoin (BTC) faces a fresh showdown this week as macro tensions contrast with a bullish BTC price trend reversal.

A classic BTC price metric is above to flip bullish for the first time in nearly a year — last time, price gained $25,000 in two months.

Short time frames see liquidations as “aggressive” traders pile in at $70,000.

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As Iran war odds swing on Polymarket and Kalshi, Sygnum’s Fabian Dori says prediction markets are fast becoming macro tools for crypto desks.

Prediction markets rapidly repriced the odds of US escalation in the Iran conflict, offering a real-time signal of geopolitical risk for traders.

Odds on platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi shifted in real time as President Donald Trump paired new threats with signals of possible negotiations on Sunday, while Bitcoin (BTC) rose more than 3.5% on Monday.

Crypto prediction markets are no longer a sideshow during periods of geopolitical tension, with professional desks increasingly using them to gauge macro risk, according to Sygnum Bank chief investment officer Fabian Dori.  

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In an experiment, a chatbot resorted to blackmail after it found an email about replacing it, while in another, it cheated to complete a task with a tight deadline.

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has revealed that during experiments, one of its Claude chatbot models could be pressured to deceive, cheat and resort to blackmail, behaviors it appears to have absorbed during training.

Chatbots are typically trained on large data sets of textbooks, websites and articles and are later refined by human trainers who rate responses and guide the model. 

Anthropic’s interpretability team said in a report published Thursday that it examined the internal mechanisms of Claude Sonnet 4.5 and found the model had developed “human-like characteristics” in how it would react to certain situations. 

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Circle’s plan to make Arc quantum-resistant comes amid increasing fears that "Q-Day" may come sooner than anticipated.

Stablecoin issuer Circle has released a post-quantum security roadmap for its layer-1 blockchain, Arc, aiming to implement solutions across all layers of the network’s tech stack.

Circle said on Thursday that it is planning a phased implementation, starting with quantum-proof wallets and signatures when Arc launches on mainnet. This feature will be opt-in, the company noted, while adding that solutions at the validator level and surrounding infrastructure will be implemented later on.

“Quantum resilience cannot live only in research papers, exploratory pilots, or distant roadmap slides. It has to show up in the infrastructure,” Circle said.

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Security researcher Taylor Monahan listed at least 40 decentralized finance platforms she claims have been infiltrated by North Korean IT workers at some stage of their lives.

North Korean IT workers have been embedding themselves in crypto companies and decentralized finance projects for at least seven years, according to a cybersecurity analyst.

“Lots of DPRK IT workers built the protocols you know and love, all the way back to DeFi summer,” said MetaMask developer and security researcher Taylor Monahan on Sunday. 

Monahan claimed that over 40 DeFi platforms, some being well-known names, have had North Korean IT workers working on their protocols.

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Bitchat launched in July last year and has been used during protests in Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia and Iran as authorities attempted to restrict usage of the internet.

Bitchat, a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app developed by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, has been removed from Apple’s App Store in China for allegedly violating its internet service regulations. 

In an X post on Sunday, Dorsey shared a screenshot from Apple’s app review team informing him that Bitchat had been removed from the App Store in February and that the TestFlight beta version would no longer be available in China at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

“Bitchat pulled from the China App Store,” he said.

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Michael Saylor posted "back to work" on X on Sunday, signaling a potential Bitcoin purchase after the firm paused buying last week.

Michael Saylor has hinted his Bitcoin treasury firm is back on track with its weekly Bitcoin purchases after taking a rare week off at the end of March.

In an X post on Sunday, Saylor shared a screenshot from StrategyTracker with the caption  "Back to Work.” He often posts the chart ahead of purchase announcements.

The firm took a week off from buying BTC at the end of March, breaking its weekly buying streak for the first time this year. The firm's last purchase was reported on March 23, buying about $77 million worth of BTC at $74,326 per coin.

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The Rwanda central bank's warning came after Bybit added the Rwandan franc to its list of assets that its peer-to-peer platform can use to trade for crypto.

The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has warned the public that crypto payments and trades using the local currency remain illegal in the country after Bybit added support for the Rwandan franc for its peer-to-peer platform on Friday. 

“Crypto-assets are NOT authorized for payments, FRW conversion, or P2P trading involving FRW under the current framework,” the central bank posted to X on Sunday, urging citizens to avoid crypto due to “serious financial risks and no recourse in case of loss.”

The central bank’s comments were in response to an X post from Bybit on Friday, stating that the Rwandan franc (FRW) can be used to buy and sell crypto through its Bybit P2P service.

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The $280 million Drift Protocol attack was likely carried out by threat actors aligned with North Korea state-affiliated hackers.

The hack of the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Drift Protocol could have been prevented if standard operational security procedures were followed by the Drift team, and may constitute “civil negligence,” according to attorney Ariel Givner.

“In plain terms, civil negligence means they failed their basic duty to protect the money they were managing,” Givner said in response to the post-mortem update provided by the Drift team and how it handled Wednesday’s $280 million exploit.

The Drift team failed to follow “basic” security procedures, including keeping signing keys on separate, “air-gapped” systems that are never used for developer work, and conducting due diligence on blockchain developers met through industry conferences.

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The President of the United States continues to give contradictory signals of escalating the war and winding it down within a few weeks.

The odds of the United States invading Iran this year surged to 63% on the Polymarket prediction platform on Sunday, following comments made by US President Donald Trump on social media.

The odds of an invasion before 2027 are still down from the high of 68% on March 29, which occurred due to a US troop buildup and comments from the Trump administration that the US was considering capturing Kharg Island, a major Iranian oil shipping station.

The Polymarket trading volume for a potential US invasion of Iran was about $3.74 million at the time of publication.

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Demand for either currency strengthens both in a reinforcing relationship, contrary to popular sentiment, Sam Lyman told Cointelegraph.

US dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin (BTC) share a “symbiotic” relationship, mutually benefitting from rising adoption, according to Sam Lyman, head of research at Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), a Washington DC-based digital asset advocacy organization.

“Bitcoin is beneficial to the US system because the largest Bitcoin trading pair is BTC/USD,” or Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin, which is backed by cash deposits and short-term US government debt, Lyman told Cointelegraph. He added:

He said Bitcoin and dollar-pegged stablecoins share a similar relationship to the dollar and oil. Under the petrodollar system, which began in the early 1970s, international oil sales are priced in dollars, driving more demand for the currency.

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Demand for either currency strengthens both in a reinforcing relationship, contrary to popular belief, Sam Lyman told Cointelegraph.

US dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin (BTC) share a symbiotic relationship, mutually benefiting from increasing adoption, according to Sam Lyman, head of research at Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), a Washington DC-based digital asset advocacy organization.

“Bitcoin is beneficial to the US system because the largest Bitcoin trading pair is BTC/USD,” or Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin, which is backed by cash deposits and short-term US government debt, Lyman told Cointelegraph. He added:

He said Bitcoin and dollar-pegged stablecoins share a similar relationship to the dollar and oil. Under the petrodollar system, which began in the early 1970s, international oil sales are priced in dollars, driving more demand for the currency.

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The "Rich Dad Poor Dad" author continues to back Bitcoin, gold and silver as alternatives to traditional money.

“Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki has argued that the economic shifts set in motion more than five decades ago are now unfolding, advocating for Bitcoin and gold while warning against rising debt, inflation and retirement risks.

In a Saturday post on X, Kiyosaki pointed to 1974 as a turning point that reshaped both money and retirement systems. He argued that the United States’ move toward a petrodollar framework, alongside policy changes affecting pensions, laid the foundation for today’s financial pressures.

“The future created in 1974 has arrived,” Kiyosaki wrote, linking current inflation and geopolitical tensions around energy to the dollar’s evolution after the end of the gold standard era. He also mentioned the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which introduced new rules for pension plans and coincided with a broader shift toward market-based retirement savings.

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Bitcoin added downside BTC price warnings as Binance order-book data showed multiple investor classes selling coins into the weekend.

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $67,000 on Sunday as traders warned of hidden BTC price weakness.

Key points:

Bitcoin Bollinger Bands demand a volatile BTC price breakout after a slow weekend.

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Blockworks' Michael Ippolito sees surge in token supply diluting returns, breaking the link between fundamentals and price while raising concerns about crypto’s long-term model.

The rapid growth in the number of crypto tokens is outpacing the value they generate, creating an “existential” problem for the industry, according to Michael Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks.

In a series of posts on X, Ippolito noted that while total crypto market capitalization remains relatively strong, the average value per token tells a different story. “The average coin is only slightly higher than where it was in 2020 (!) and down ~50% since 2021,” he wrote.

Median token returns have also deteriorated sharply. Most tokens are down roughly 80% from their highs, suggesting that gains have been concentrated in a narrow set of large-cap assets, while the broader market underperforms, Ippolito claimed.

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Blockworks' Michael Ippolito sees surge in token supply diluting returns, breaking the link between fundamentals and price while raising concerns about crypto’s long-term model.

The rapid growth in the number of crypto tokens is outpacing the value they generate, creating an “existential” problem for the industry, according to Michael Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks.

In a series of posts on X, Ippolito noted that while total crypto market capitalization remains relatively strong, the average value per token tells a different story. “The average coin is only slightly higher than where it was in 2020 (!) and down ~50% since 2021,” he wrote.

Median token returns have also deteriorated sharply. Most tokens are down roughly 80% from their highs, suggesting that gains have been concentrated in a narrow set of large-cap assets, while the broader market underperforms, Ippolito claimed.

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AI firm Anthropic forms an employee-funded PAC while facing questions over political balance and a growing dispute with the Pentagon over AI use.

Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic has launched a corporate political action committee (PAC), entering election financing as debates over AI policy intensify in Washington.

The company filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission on Friday to establish “AnthroPAC,” an employee-funded PAC that will collect voluntary contributions from staff. The filing lists Anthropic as the “connected organization,” with the committee structured as a “separate segregated fund” and registered as a lobbyist-affiliated PAC.

Under US law, individual contributions are capped at $5,000 per election cycle per candidate and must be disclosed through public filings.

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Drift Protocol said, with “medium-high confidence,” that the recent attack was carried out by the same actors responsible for the $58 million Radiant Capital hack in October 2024.

Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), says the recent exploit against the platform was a six-month-long, highly coordinated attack.

“The preliminary investigation shows that Drift experienced a structured intelligence operation requiring organizational backing, significant resources, and months of deliberate preparation,” Drift said in an X post on Saturday.

The decentralized exchange was exploited on Wednesday, with external estimates putting losses at around $280 million.

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Drift Protocol said with “medium-high confidence” that the recent attack was carried out by the same actors responsible for the $58 million Radiant Capital hack in October 2024.

Drift Protocol, the decentralized exchange (DEX) that lost an estimated $280 million in an exploit last week, claims the loss was the result of a six-month, highly coordinated attack.

“The preliminary investigation shows that Drift experienced a structured intelligence operation requiring organizational backing, significant resources, and months of deliberate preparation,” Drift said in an X post on Saturday.

According to Drift, the attack can be traced back to around October 2025, when malicious actors posing as a quantitative trading firm first approached Drift contributors at a “major crypto conference,” claiming to be interested in integrating with the protocol.

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Santiment said bearish Bitcoin comments on social media have climbed to a five-week high, which could signal a reversal sooner rather than later.

Social media bearishness around Bitcoin has reached its highest level since the end of February, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

“FUD has crept back in with the community showing a key lack of optimism,” Santiment said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it is “usually a common ingredient for prices rebounding.” 

The data comes from a large sample of crypto-focused social media accounts and tracks the ratio of bullish to bearish Bitcoin (BTC) comments across X, Reddit, and other social media platforms.

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Santiment said bearish Bitcoin comments on social media have climbed to a five-week high, which could signal a reversal sooner rather than later.

Social media bearishness around Bitcoin has reached its highest level since the end of February, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

“FUD has crept back in with the community showing a key lack of optimism,” Santiment said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it is “usually a common ingredient for prices rebounding.” 

The data comes from a large sample of crypto-focused social media accounts and tracks the ratio of bullish to bearish Bitcoin (BTC) comments across X, Reddit and other social media platforms.

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Thousands of software developers are currently developing virtual private networks to circumvent Tehran's control of local internet access, Durov said.

The Iranian government’s attempt to block the Telegram messaging application in the country has backfired, as users find ways to circumvent national firewalls and online controls, according to Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov.

“Iran banned Telegram years ago,” Durov said on Friday; however, tens of millions of users in the country have managed to access the application via virtual private networks (VPNs) and other similar tools, he added.

VPNs route web traffic through servers distributed around the globe to mask the actual Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of users and obscure their locations. This allows individuals with VPN access to bypass national online restrictions. Durov said:

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The Bitcoin advocate is the co-founder of ProductionReady, a non-profit initiative to fund open source development of BTC software and education.

The Bitcoin (BTC) network needs a “conservative” Bitcoin client node software implementation to preserve its monetary properties and strengthen network decentralization, according to Jimmy Song, co-founder of ProductionReady, a non-profit organization funding open source Bitcoin node software development and education.

The organization has a “bias” against significant code changes, unless there is “overwhelming” community support for the change, Song told Cointelegraph.

“The general principle is: if you're not sure a change makes the money better, don't make it,” he said. 

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The judge said Kalshi’s event contracts are indistinguishable from sports betting, supporting the state’s position that the platform requires a gaming license.

A Nevada judge has reportedly extended a ban preventing Kalshi from offering event-based contracts in the state, ruling that the products constitute unlicensed gambling under state law.

Judge Jason Woodbury said at a hearing in Carson City on Friday that he will grant a preliminary injunction requested by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, barring the company from allowing residents to trade on outcomes such as sports, elections and entertainment events without a gaming license, according to Reuters.

The decision extends a temporary restraining order issued on March 20, which will remain in effect through April 17 while the court finalizes longer-term restrictions.

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Prediction markets are expanding into Asia’s largest economies, but unclear legal definitions and strict gambling laws may limit how far they can go.

Prediction markets are pushing into Asia’s largest economies, even as local gambling laws place strict limits on betting activities.

Asia represents a combination of scale, active retail participation and limited local alternatives, making it too large to ignore despite regulatory risks.

That’s a similar pattern seen in crypto, where technology moved faster than regulation and licensing frameworks, prompting exchanges to enter markets before clear rules were in place. 

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Bitcoin is poised for a reversal if ETF demand returns or a ceasefire occurs, potentially crushing short sellers in a massive price squeeze.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin hitting $72,000 would liquidate $2.5 billion in shorts, potentially crushing bears who are overleveraged.

Iran's war and high oil prices currently pressure BTC, but a ceasefire or ETF inflows could spark a rapid recovery.

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Polymarket cited “integrity standards” for removing the market but did not specify which rule was broken, drawing scrutiny from users who questioned how its policies are applied.

Polymarket removed a market tied to the fate of a missing US service member after mounting backlash, saying the listing violated its “integrity standards.”

The controversy erupted after a prediction market appeared asking when US authorities might confirm the rescue of a pilot shot down over Iran, with more than 60% betting that they wouldn’t be rescued until Saturday.

US Representative Seth Moulton condemned the market, calling it “disgusting” and expressing concerns over people speculating on the fate of a potentially injured service member. “They could be your neighbor, a friend, a family member. And people are betting on whether or not they'll be saved,” Moulton wrote.

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Bitcoin whales and sharks have locked in $30.9 billion in BTC losses this year, resembling the 2022 bear market, as onchain data points to continued downside risk.

Bitcoin (BTC) traders holding 100–10,000 BTC realized losses at an average of $337 million per day in Q1 2026, the worst quarter since 2022, according to data from Glassnode.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin dropped more than 20% after whales last realized losses at a comparable pace in 2022.

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A $500 billion valuation would put Tether ahead of every US bank except JPMorgan Chase, placing it among the world’s biggest financial firms.

Tether is pressuring investors to commit to a fundraising round at a $500 billion valuation within the next two weeks, saying that it may delay the raise if demand falls short.

The El Salvador-based company has been seeking fresh capital since late last year but has faced resistance from investors wary of the valuation, The Information reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. If commitments fall short of expectations, the company is likely to delay the raise.

The $500 billion target would place Tether among the world’s largest financial firms, exceeding every US bank except JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan, the biggest bank in the world, has a market capitalization of about $794.55 billion, while the second-largest bank in the country, Bank of America, has a market cap of $352.86 billion.

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The longer Bitcoin's price stays flat, the bigger the move up could eventually be, according to a crypto analyst.

Bitcoin’s prolonged consolidation below $70,000 may be paving the way for a more significant rally, according to a crypto analyst.

“The longer it lasts, the heavier the breakout will be,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in an X post on Friday.

“Bitcoin remains stagnant in this area, which means that there's literally no direction,” van de Poppe said, adding that he is eyeing Bitcoin (BTC) breaking through $71,000, a level the asset hasn’t reached since March 26.

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The longer Bitcoin's price stays flat, the bigger the move up could eventually be, according to a crypto analyst.

Bitcoin’s prolonged consolidation below $70,000 may be paving the way for a more significant rally, according to a crypto analyst.

“The longer it lasts, the heavier the breakout will be,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in an X post on Friday.

“Bitcoin remains stagnant in this area, which means that there's literally no direction,” van de Poppe said, adding that he is eyeing Bitcoin (BTC) breaking through $71,000, a level the asset hasn’t reached since March 26.

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Bitcoin ETFs offer more use cases for the average investor’s portfolio than a gold ETF does, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could surpass gold ETFs in total assets under management (AUM) as investor demand expands beyond the traditional “digital gold” narrative, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart.

“There are just more use cases of why somebody would put a Bitcoin ETF in a portfolio,” Seyffart said on the Coin Stories podcast published to YouTube on Friday. He pointed to Bitcoin’s (BTC) role as digital gold, a store of value, a portfolio diversifier, and a form of digital capital and property, adding that the market also views Bitcoin as a “growth risk asset.”

Seyffart explained that Bitcoin has “all these different ways” of being viewed, while gold only has “one of those things.”

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Bitcoin ETFs offer more use cases for the average investor’s portfolio than a gold ETF does, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could surpass gold ETFs in total assets under management (AUM) as investor demand expands beyond the traditional “digital gold” narrative, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart.

“There are just more use cases of why somebody would put a Bitcoin ETF in a portfolio,” Seyffart said on the Coin Stories podcast published to YouTube on Friday. He pointed to Bitcoin’s (BTC) role as digital gold, a store of value, a portfolio diversifier, and a form of digital capital and property, adding that the market also views Bitcoin as a “growth risk asset.”

Seyffart explained that Bitcoin has “all these different ways” of being viewed, while gold only has “one of those things.”

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The non-profit foundation has staked 69,500 ETH, nearly reaching the goal it unveiled at the end of February, less than two months ago.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization that steers development of the Ethereum ecosystem, staked over 45,000 Ether (ETH) on Friday, bringing the total amount staked to about 69,500 ETH, less than 500 coins shy of the Foundation’s 70,000 goal.

The EF staked the coins in a series of transactions, each consisting of 2,047 ETH, with the total amount staked on Friday valued at over $92.2 million, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

The EF began staking ETH in February as part of its revamped treasury strategy policy announced in June 2025 and will use the yield generated to fund protocol research, development and ecosystem grants. The EF said in its updated treasury policy:

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The draft bill, yet to be signed into law by the king, marked a significant policy change for Cambodia officials in addressing scam centers.

Cambodia's parliament passed legislation targeting compounds used to defraud victims through scams, including those involving cryptocurrency.

In a Friday notice, the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia announced that the chamber had unanimously approved the draft law with no amendment, with 58 senators voting yes. According to reports, the draft bill, which would still need the king’s approval before becoming law, imposed prison time between two to five years and up to $125,000 in fines for certain crimes, or twice the time in prison and penalties if part of a gang or targeting multiple victims. 

“The draft law stipulates the establishment of criminal rules to fill the gaps and deficiencies in the current law, which will contribute significantly to addressing challenges that pose serious risks to social security, the economy and citizens, including affecting Cambodia's reputation, as well as improving the effectiveness of the fight against fraud through technological systems, aiming to contribute to the preservation and protection of public security and order, and improving the effectiveness of cooperation in combating this crime,” said a translation of the Friday Senate notice on the bill.

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In a recent Cointelegraph interview, macro investor James Lavish explains why markets are pricing in a quick end to the Iran war — and what could happen if that assumption is wrong.

In the latest interview with Cointelegraph, macro investor and former hedge fund manager James Lavish issued a stark warning to Bitcoin holders and global investors: markets may be pricing in a quick resolution to the Iran conflict — but if that assumption proves wrong, the consequences could be severe.

Lavish argued that if the conflict drags on and keeps pressure on oil prices, the result could be a fresh inflation shock, renewed fears of stagflation and a major repricing across global markets.

In his view, this scenario would put the Federal Reserve in an impossible position: unable to raise rates aggressively without risking recession, yet unable to cut rates due to persistent inflation.

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The Independent Community Bankers of America warns Coinbase’s trust charter falls short of regulatory standards and could pose risks to consumers and the financial system.

The Independent Community Bankers of America has opposed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) conditional approval of Coinbase’s national trust bank charter, warning the application falls short of regulatory standards and could pose risks to consumers and the financial system.

On Thursday, ICBA said Coinbase’s application shows deficiencies in risk controls, profitability and resolution planning, and argued the OCC lacks statutory authority to expand trust powers for crypto-related activities without applying the full set of banking regulations.

The group said the decision reflects a broader trend of nonbank entities seeking access to the benefits of bank charters without meeting the same regulatory requirements. It wrote:

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Stephanie Cutter will join the prediction markets company as a policy adviser, having previously worked in Democratic lawmakers’ campaigns.

Predictions market platform Kalshi announced that a former staffer of US President Barack Obama had joined the company as a policy adviser.

In a Thursday notice, Kalshi said Stephanie Cutter would join the prediction markets company from Precision Strategies, a communications firm she co-founded in 2013. Kalshi said the addition of Cutter came as the company planned to “deepen its relationships in DC and across the country.”

According to Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour, Cutter’s experience allowed her to “get [the] message to the right people,” highlighting her background in government and politics. The predictions market already has staff with ties to the US government, including the appointment of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as a strategic adviser in January 2025, the week before his father took office.

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Circle had several hours or days to freeze illicit USDC funds in many of the 15 cases presented, but failed to act, according to ZachXBT.

Onchain detective ZachXBT claims that Circle, the issuer of the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, has failed to freeze or blacklist about $420 million in illicit fund flows since 2022.

Circle can freeze illicit funds and blacklist wallet addresses, but either took “minimal” action to freeze illicit flows or failed to act in 15 separate hack-and-fraud cases, including those linked to North Korean (DPRK) state-affiliated hackers, ZachXBT said. 

The stablecoin issuer allegedly failed to freeze $9 million in USDC from the GMX decentralized exchange (DEX) hack in July 2025, and blacklisted wallets linked to the $200 million Cetus DEX hack in May 2025 after USDC was converted into Ether (ETH), according to ZackXBT.

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Corporate Bitcoin holders split as Strategy holds firm while Nakamoto sells at a loss, exposing risks of debt-driven accumulation and a shifting treasury model under pressure.

Corporate Bitcoin (BTC) holders are diverging into two distinct paths amid continued market pressure. While Strategy held steady on its massive BTC reserves, Nakamoto Holdings moved in the opposite direction, selling at a loss and trimming exposure as it reworks its balance sheet.

The contrast highlights a growing divide in the corporate Bitcoin treasury model. Some holders have refused to sell, treating BTC as a long-term reserve asset and doubling down through volatility, while others are being forced to unlock liquidity, book losses or rethink capital allocation. 

With Bitcoin down 46% from its peak, the risks behind debt-fueled or aggressive buying strategies are becoming harder to ignore.

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Execution risk in crypto is the new custody risk. Live credentials, not just private keys, are now the main attack surface.

Opinion by: Ido Sofer, founder and CEO at Sodot.

The crypto industry is normally well ahead of its game when it comes to pure innovation and functionality, but security is a different matter. 

For years, custody risk in crypto was defined by a single fear: the theft of private keys. The industry responded by hardening storage with cold storage, air-gapped systems, MPC and other methods. It then recognized that protecting only the keys is not enough, introducing transaction security and policies to prevent malicious transactions that steal funds, although the keys remain safe. Both of these remain a serious threat, but focusing solely on private keys obscures a deeper shift.

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Bitcoin is attempting to form a bottom, but select analysts believe that the decline is not over yet and the $60,000 level may break down.

Key points:

Buyers are attempting to maintain BTC above the $66,500 level, but several analysts believe that the $60,000 level may crack.

Some major altcoins risk breaking below their immediate support levels, signaling that bears remain in control.

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Binance led derivatives trading in Q1 2026 with about $4.9 trillion in volume, while Hyperliquid entered the top 10 as perp DEXs continued to gain traction, according to CoinGlass.

Binance maintained its leading position in crypto derivatives trading in the first quarter of 2026, while decentralized exchange Hyperliquid broke into the top 10 venues by volume, according to CoinGlass.

Derivatives trading remained the dominant force in the crypto market in Q1 2026, totaling $18.6 trillion compared with $1.94 trillion in spot trading, according to a CoinGlass report on Friday.

The analysts said trading activity remained strong over the quarter, though liquidity and capital became even more concentrated at the top. “Q1 was not about euphoria. It was about recovery, concentration, and shifting market structure,” CoinGlass said.

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A CKPool-connected solo miner just landed a $210,000 Bitcoin block reward, one of only 20 solo‑mined blocks in the past year, as listed miners sell BTC to stay afloat.

A solo Bitcoin miner secured a roughly $210,000 block reward on Thursday, proving that the so-called “mining lottery” is still paying out even if industrial operators dominate the network.

The miner, connected to CKPool’s solo service, found block 943,411 and earned 3.139 BTC in subsidy and transaction fees, according to data from block explorer mempool.space.

Solo mining remains rare. Statistics compiled by Bennet’s tracker show that solo mining pools have found just 20 Bitcoin (BTC) blocks over the last 12 months, paying out a total of 62.96 BTC, roughly one win every 18.7 days on average. The longest “drought” between blocks was 58 days, and the previous solo win came on Feb. 28.

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Dmail Network will shut down on May 15 after citing high infrastructure costs, failed fundraising and weak token utility.

Decentralized email platform Dmail Network is shutting down after five years of operations, citing high infrastructure costs, weak monetization, failed funding efforts and limited token utility.

The platform said it will gradually cease all services starting May 15, and urged users to export their data before then. It said all nodes will shut down after that date, making emails and accounts inaccessible.

Dmail Network positioned itself as a Web3 communication platform focused on decentralized, wallet-based email, encrypted messaging and onchain notifications. In January 2025, DappRadar ranked Dmail second among AI DApps, with 4.9 million unique active wallets for the month.

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A plan to move supervision of major crypto asset service providers to the France-based ESMA is testing MiCA’s balance between EU-level control and national-level decision-making.

Europe’s next crypto battle is no longer about whether to regulate the industry, but who gets to hold the pen. European Union leaders are weighing a European Commission proposal to hand direct supervision of the bloc’s largest crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), shifting front-line control away from national regulators.

France, Austria and Italy believe the move is overdue. In a joint September 2025 paper, their market authorities called for “a stronger European framework,” arguing centralized oversight is needed to address “major differences” in how countries authorize firms and curb regulatory shopping. 

Malta’s Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is not convinced. A spokesperson told Cointelegraph it is “premature to introduce structural changes” like centralized supervision. The Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) regulation has only recently become fully applicable, and its “impact on the market and market players is still being assessed,” they said. 

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A Bank of Canada staff paper found Aave V3 avoided bad debt in 2024, but said the model pushed losses onto borrowers during liquidations.

A Bank of Canada staff paper found that Aave V3 reported zero non-performing loans in 2024, with overcollateralization and automated liquidations helping prevent lender losses in its Ethereum lending market.

Using transaction-level data from Jan. 27, 2023, to May 6, 2025, the study found that positions were typically liquidated before collateral values fell below outstanding debt, helping contain lender losses across the sample.

But the model came with a tradeoff, the paper said. While it protected lenders from unrecovered losses, it also shifted risk onto borrowers and constrained capital efficiency compared with traditional lending systems.

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ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said that Bitcoin as a "proven" asset would no longer experience drawdowns of 85% or more from all-time highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) is “done” with drawdowns of 85% or more from all-time highs, says ARK Invest CEO, Cathie Wood.

Key points:

Bitcoin will not see another correction of 85% or more versus its latest all-time high, Cathie Wood argues.

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Drift Protocol initiated onchain contact with wallets tied to the $280 million exploit as an unknown sender also attempts to pressure the attacker.

Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX), said Friday it had opened onchain contact with wallets tied to funds stolen in the exploit that outside firms have estimated at roughly $280 million to $286 million.

Drift said on X that it had initiated onchain contact with wallets holding the stolen Ether (ETH), seeking to open a line of communication.

The team sent onchain messages from its Ethereum address (0x0934faC) to four wallets linked to the exploiter at the time of publication, urging the attacker to reach out via Blockscan chat. “We are ready to speak,” Drift said.

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The reported acquisition talks come as South Korea is considering a 20% cap on major crypto exchange shareholders, which would force major platforms to restructure ownership.

South Korean brokerage Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) is reviewing a potential stake in crypto exchange Coinone, according to Korean media reports and company comments, though no deal has been finalized.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Korea Herald reported that KIS started engaging with regulators and politicians as part of a broader process tied to a potential investment in Coinone. Coinone also said no specific transaction had been decided.

The news comes as South Korea considers a proposal to cap major shareholders’ stakes in domestic crypto exchanges at 20%, a move that could force ownership changes across parts of the sector if enacted. Coinone Chairman Cha Myung-hoon reportedly controls about 53.44% of the exchange, meaning a stake sale could become one way to adapt if the proposed cap advances into law.

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January saw the largest attack against a DeFi protocol of the quarter, the $40 million private key compromise of portfolio management platform Step Finance.

Crypto hackers stole over $168.6 million in cryptocurrency from 34 decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in the first quarter of 2026, falling significantly from the same period last year, according to data from DefiLlama. 

The $40 million private key compromise of Step Finance in January was the largest exploit of the quarter, the data shows, followed by a smart contract manipulation that drained $26.4 million in ether (ETH) from Truebit on Jan. 8. The third-largest was a private key compromise targeting stablecoin issuer Resolv Labs on March 21.

The quarterly figure is low given that the industry saw $1.58 billion stolen in the first quarter of 2025, with the bulk coming from the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit. However, experts warn that crypto hacks aren’t tied to specific periods within a year.

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CryptoQuant data shows there are 8.2 million Bitcoin currently at a loss, which is still under the amount of Bitcoin at a loss during the 2022 bear market.

The amount of Bitcoin supply in profit and loss is now getting closer to levels typical of a bear market, according to a CryptoQuant analyst.

There are currently about 11.2 million Bitcoin (BTC) in profit. The previous bear market recorded 9 million BTC in profit at its lowest point, CryptoQuant analyst "Darkfost" said Thursday. 

CryptoQuant data also shows there are about 8.2 million Bitcoin at a loss, with Glassnode data confirming it’s at levels not seen since late 2022. 

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The IMF said tokenization could improve cross-border payments and financial inclusion in emerging economies but cited concerns over volatility and the “erosion of monetary sovereignty.”

The International Monetary Fund said tokenization has the potential to remove friction and boost transparency in finance, but warned that the technology could also create challenges that affect financial stability.

"The net effect of tokenization on financial stability is uncertain,” the IMF said in a 23-page report on Thursday, stating that “atomic settlement and enhanced transparency reduce some traditional risks, but speed and automation introduce new ones.”

More than $27.6 billion worth of real-world assets, minus stablecoins, is currently tokenized onchain, data from RWA.xyz shows. Boston Consulting Group estimated in 2022 that the tokenization market could rise to $16 trillion by 2030, while McKinsey & Co in 2024 predicted a more conservative $2 trillion over the same time frame.

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Stablecoin monthly transaction volume hit $7.2 trillion in February, surpassing the $6.8 trillion processed by the Automated Clearing House network.

Stablecoin transaction volume surpassed the US Automated Clearing House network for the first time in February, a significant milestone for an asset class that has existed for less than 12 years.

According to data from blockchain analytics platform Artemis, the total 30-day adjusted rolling stablecoin volume hit $7.2 trillion in February, beating the Automated Clearing House network at $6.8 trillion.

The data is based on 30-day rolling adjusted volume of stablecoin transactions in US dollars, excluding MEV activity and intra-centralized exchange transactions, comparing this to the daily average volume of other financial systems.

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Circle, known for issuing stablecoins including USDC and EURC, is expanding into the Bitcoin space, targeting institutional users.

Stablecoin issuer Circle said it plans to launch its own version of a wrapped Bitcoin, which would put it against incumbents Coinbase and BitGo as it targets institutional users. 

The asset, called cirBTC and announced on Thursday, is set to launch on Ethereum, backed 1:1 by bitcoin (BTC) and aimed at over-the-counter desks, market makers and lending protocols. 

Circle said the asset is designed to provide institutions with a “highly secure and neutral version of wrapped BTC.”

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Arkham also flagged a 500 Bitcoin outflow from Riot on Thursday, while MARA Holdings, Genius Group and Nakamoto Holdings sold a combined 15,501 Bitcoin in the last week.

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms sold 3,778 Bitcoin in the first quarter, adding to a recent wave of sales by crypto firms amid tough market conditions.

The Bitcoin (BTC) was sold at an average price of $76,626, netting Riot $289.5 million, according to the miner’s operational update released on Thursday. Bitcoin was trading at $66,867 as of Friday.

The miner produced 1,473 Bitcoin for the quarter and had 15,680 coins on its books at the end of Q1. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham also flagged a 500 Bitcoin outflow from a wallet it attributed to Riot Platforms on Thursday. 

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Arkham also flagged a 500 Bitcoin outflow from Riot on Thursday, while MARA Holdings, Genius Group and Nakamoto Holdings sold a combined 15,501 Bitcoin in the last week.

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms sold 3,778 Bitcoin in the first quarter, adding to a recent wave of sales by crypto firms amid tough market conditions.

The Bitcoin (BTC) was sold at an average price of $76,626, netting Riot $289.5 million, according to the miner’s operational update released on Thursday. Bitcoin was trading at $66,867 as of Friday.

The miner produced 1,473 Bitcoin for the quarter and had 15,680 coins on its books at the end of Q1. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham also flagged a 500 Bitcoin outflow from a wallet it attributed to Riot Platforms on Thursday. 

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The x402 protocol won't be owned by a single entity, with the Linux Foundation serving as the agentic AI protocol’s “neutral, non-profit home,” Coinbase said.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services are among the Big Tech firms supporting the newly launched x402 Foundation, established to govern and standardize the x402 protocol for agentic AI payments on crypto and fiat rails. 

The x402 Foundation was launched on Thursday by the open-source software development non-profit Linux Foundation with the help of Coinbase, the creators of the x402 protocol.

Other companies expressing “initial intent and support” of the x402 Foundation include American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb and KakaoPay.

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Bitcoin data shows a series of bearish trading patterns that could usher in new price lows if the key support at $60,000 fails to hold. Here’s why bulls need a rally to $76,000.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) range-bound trading within the $60,000 to $73,000 range is impressive, especially when considering the macroeconomic backdrop of Brent crude oil rising to levels not seen since 2008, a hot war between the US, Israel and Iran, and a volatile stock market where the S&P 500 index trades at a 3.95% year-to-date loss. 

Despite these intensifying headwinds, Bitcoin buyers have shown a steady appetite for buying the price drops to $60,000, and while the level currently holds as support, the risk of lower prices is not zero.   

Bitcoin’s 1-day chart shows a bearish continuation pattern, with one pattern confirmed on Jan. 20 as BTC price entered a correction to $60,014, and a second bear flag currently in play. Every price rally to the flag’s overhead trendline has been rebuffed since Feb. 8, and technical analysis stresses the importance of a rally and multi-day candle close above $76,000 to negate the pattern. 

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Stablecoins dominated crypto trading in Q1 as investors sought safety, while rising bot usage and declining retail flows pointed to shifting market dynamics, according to CEX.IO.

Stablecoins were a rare bright spot in an otherwise subdued crypto market in the first quarter, with supply growth and transaction activity pointing to sustained demand even as broader market conditions weakened.

Total stablecoin supply increased by roughly $8 billion to a record $315 billion in Q1, according to data from CEX.IO. Although this marked the slowest pace of expansion since Q4 of 2023, it still represented growth during a period when the wider crypto market contracted.

The data suggests investors rotated into stablecoins as a defensive strategy, boosting their share of overall market activity. Stablecoins accounted for 75% of total crypto trading volume during the quarter — the highest level on record.

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Are Bitcoin’s odds for a rally to $75,000 diminished by a weakening US economy, the war in Iran and multiple institutional BTC holders selling in the open market?

Key takeaways:

Private credit risks and weak US jobs market data drive Bitcoin lower, but is there a silver lining?

Institutional Bitcoin ETF outflows and miner sales test BTC's strength, but the Federal Reserve's options for addressing the federal deficit may also favor scarce assets.

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The prediction market is introducing price-based contracts tied to stocks and commodities, using Pyth data feeds as the "resolution source" to automatically settle outcomes.

Polymarket has added markets tied to equities, commodities and exchange-traded funds, using price data from blockchain oracle provider Pyth Network as the resolution source to determine outcomes for daily contracts.

The new markets include daily up-or-down and closing price contracts for major equity indexes, commodities such as gold and oil, and a range of US-listed stocks, with outcomes settled automatically based on Pyth’s real-time price feeds. The contracts reset at the end of each trading session.

According to the announcement, the offering includes more than a dozen US-listed stocks, including Tesla, Nvidia and Apple, alongside commodities and equity indices.

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission claims it "first officially recognized" event contracts in 1992 and that Congress has granted it sole authority over the market.

The Trump administration is suing Illinois, Connecticut, Arizona, and their gaming regulators over the federal government’s right to regulate prediction markets.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the US Department of Justice filed separate lawsuits on Thursday against the three states.

In 2025, those states and their gaming regulators sent cease and desist letters to prediction platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, claiming that the event contracts offered by the platforms violated state gambling laws and licensing requirements.

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An executive said the social media platform could lock accounts mentioning crypto for the first time and require verification after a scammer faked reports of a tortoise's death.

Social media platform X is considering implementing new rules for first-time user posts about crypto in an effort to crack down on scammers using phishing attacks to gain access to accounts.

Nikita Bier, the head of product at the platform formerly known as Twitter, made the announcement on Wednesday amid reports that a scammer pretending to be a veterinarian previously responsible for the health of a 193-year-old tortoise named “Jonathan” conned social media users into buying crypto before the truth was revealed.

Bier said that X could auto-lock accounts mentioning crypto for the first time and require them to go through verification. “This should kill 99% of the incentive, especially since Google isn’t doing shit to stop the phishing emails,” read his post.

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Fresh lows below $1,736 could be in store for Ether price if bulls fail to hold the altcoin’s price above an important ascending trendline.

Ether (ETH) price may be at risk of a correction to new year-to-date lows, especially if the bulls fail to secure daily candle closes above the $2,150 to $2,400 range.

Ether’s price action continues to be driven by US and global macroeconomic events, along with investors’ appetite for risk assets during the US and Israel-Iran war. As data shows more than $1 billion in futures-driven sell pressure, the chance of Ether falling below $1,800 rises.

Repeat rejections near $2,150 continue to cap Ether rallies, and the level has acted as a strong resistance seven times over the past two months. The trend and its resistance dominate the price action, despite the pattern of higher-high and higher-low candles, which can be seen on the daily chart.

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The new platform enables companies to hold funds, move money and settle transactions in fiat or crypto within a single regulated system.

Digital banking platform SoFi Technologies has launched Big Business Banking, a platform that allows companies to manage fiat and crypto transactions within a single regulated system.

According to Thursday’s announcement, the offering enables companies to hold deposits, move funds and settle transactions around the clock using either traditional currencies or digital assets, consolidating functions that have typically been split across banks, custodians and crypto service providers.

It also introduces support for issuing and redeeming the company’s stablecoin, SoFiUSD, allowing businesses to convert between fiat and onchain assets while keeping reserves within a regulated banking environment.

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Soluna expanded into artificial intelligence in 2024 to shore up declining revenues from its crypto mining business, mirroring an industry-wide shift toward AI workloads.

Soluna Holdings, a publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) mining and AI infrastructure company focused on renewable energy, announced on Thursday that it closed a $53 million deal to acquire a wind farm to power its upcoming Project Dorothy 3 AI data center campus.

The Briscoe Wind Farm, located in Briscoe County, Texas, has a potential capacity of up to 300 megawatts (MW), according to the company's announcement.

The company forecasts that the facility will generate annualized revenue between $20 million and $24.4 million. 

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Chief legal officer Paul Grewal announced the approval on Thursday, thanking OCC head Jonathan Gould, who took office less than a year ago.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has approved cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s application for a national bank trust charter after six months of consideration.

In a Thursday X post, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the company received conditional approval for the OCC application, following December approvals for Ripple Labs, BitGo, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.

Although the company said in October it had “no intention of becoming a bank" if approved, the move by US regulators marks one of the most significant forays into bridging crypto and traditional finance.

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About 44% of Bitcoin's circulating supply trades underwater at $66,000 with weak spot demand weighing on market sentiment.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $66,450 on Thursday, a 47% drawdown from its all-time high of $126,000 reached in October 2025. As a result, many BTC holders are sitting on significant unrealized losses, underscoring the risks still facing Bitcoin investors at current levels. 

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s 47% drawdown from its $126,000 all-time high has left holders with nearly $600 billion in unrealized losses.

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DeFi prioritizes gas efficiency over market resilience. Simplified financial logic fails under volatility due to computational constraints.

Opinion by: João Garcia, DevReal lead at Cartesi.

Decentralized finance presents itself as a transparent alternative to Wall Street. Yet, what it has largely reconstructed is a simplified version of finance, engineered less around market resilience than around the constraints of gas fees. That trade-off, once treated as a technical footnote, is increasingly shaping the limits of what DeFi can become.

So long as computational minimalism remains the overriding priority, financial robustness will remain secondary, and periods of market stress will continue to expose that imbalance.

DeFi has rebuilt the familiar architecture of finance, including exchanges, lending markets, derivatives and stablecoins. However, the way these systems function reveals how tightly they are bound by their execution environments.

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Analysis warned that Bitcoin risked falling to $10,000 in the long term as BTC price action fell with US stocks amid oil-supply concerns.

Bitcoin (BTC) received a $10,000 price warning as stocks took a fresh hit over oil-supply fears at Thursday’s Wall Street open.

Key points:

$10,000 BTC prices may return as the market struggles to hold ground, says new analysis.

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French blockchain-based stock exchange Lise plans to host what it describes as a fully onchain IPO for ST Group.

French blockchain-based stock exchange Lightning Stock Exchange (Lise) is preparing to host what it describes as a fully onchain initial public offering (IPO), listing aerospace and defense SME ST Group as its inaugural company.

The company called the deal the first IPO on a natively tokenized exchange, where shares are issued and traded as digital tokens rather than recorded through traditional market infrastructure, according to a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

CEO Mark Kepeneghian said it could fundamentally change “how markets are built, how companies raise capital, and how investors connect to the real economy.”

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Trader Murad Mahmudov may lose another $1.56 million if its top bet, SPX6900, drops another 20% in the coming weeks.

Murad Mahmudov, a crypto trader also known as the “Memecoin messiah,” has lost nearly $60 million across his bets in the past nine months. Still, he expects a bullish reversal.

Key takeaways:

Mahmudov thinks SPX6900, which is 96% of his memecoin portfolio, will rise 400,000%.

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Altura, a DeFi protocol led by former Fidelity and PwC staff, is pitching retail investors an onchain gold arbitrage vault targeting 20% yields as bullion trades near record highs.

Altura, a decentralized finance protocol founded by former Fidelity and PwC staff is launching an onchain gold arbitrage strategy aimed at retail investors, targeting 20% annualized returns, according to a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph.

According to Altura, the product pools user deposits into a vault that recycles capital through short-duration physical gold trades. Unlike platforms like Robinhood or Revolut that offer passive gold price exposure, Altura claims to be tokenizing the underlying arbitrage process itself.

The company says it has raised $4 million in funding and has already facilitated the movement of about 185 kilograms of gold, representing roughly $28.5 million in cumulative transaction volume, per the release. 

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Wallet in Telegram rolls out perpetual futures via Lighter DEX, enabling leveraged trading on crypto, stocks and commodities directly inside the messaging app.

Wallet in Telegram, a third-party wallet integrated directly into the Telegram app, is rolling out perpetual futures support with Lighter, a perpetuals decentralized exchange.

Launching Thursday, perpetual futures are available to Telegram users through an integrated custodial solution, Crypto Wallet, the platform said in an announcement seen by Cointelegraph. 

The integration allows users to open long and short positions with up to 50× leverage across more than 50 assets, including crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Toncoin (TON), as well as tokenized commodities and stocks.

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Arkham data linked a 500 BTC outflow to Riot Platforms, worth roughly $34 million, as Bitcoin miners and treasury companies navigate listing pressures and volatile market conditions.

Arkham flagged a 500 Bitcoin outflow from a wallet it attributes to Riot Platforms on Wednesday, in a possible sale the company had not publicly commented on by publication time.

The Bitcoin (BTC) wallet outflow sale comes shortly after Riot posted record 2025 revenue of around $647 million, driven by an increase in Bitcoin mining revenue, and amid other recent Bitcoin disposals by large listed miners.

Last week, MARA Holdings disclosed that it sold about $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin in March to repurchase convertible debt at a discount, reflecting similar moves by other public miners that have collectively sold over 15,000 BTC in recent months as they balance operational needs and investment plans against a more volatile price and cost backdrop.

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A new bill in Canada would ban crypto donations to political parties, a move which election overseers have supported in past recommendations to Parliament.

A new bill in Canada, if passed, would ban political parties and other third parties in elections from accepting cryptocurrency donations in a bid to prevent election interference.

The Strong and Free Elections Act would also ban contributions made by money orders and prepaid cards, citing these methods as difficult to track.

The bill notes the potential for foreign actors to influence elections through difficult-to-trace digital payment methods, ensuring Canadian elections “remain free, fair and secure at all times,” according to Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon. 

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High-demand assets enable continuous settlement, collateralization and network effects. Programmability on dollars and bonds compresses financial frictions where trillions already flow.

Opinion by: Sebastián Serrano, founder and CEO of Ripio.

For much of the past decade, the crypto industry has tried to tokenize niche assets in an attempt to reinvent finance. While creative, this approach has largely missed the core economic truth about where tokenization actually creates value.

In these early stages of blockchain adoption, tokenization works best not at the fringes of the economy, but at its center. The industry’s first instinct — to tokenize illiquid assets — was a miscalculation. The most successful tokenization effort involved the most liquid asset in the world (the US dollar) in the form of USD-backed stablecoins.

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Polymarket’s March 30 fee overhaul lifted daily fees and revenue, but how long the spike lasts is unclear as regulatory pressure builds.

Prediction market Polymarket’s recent fee expansion has started to affect its numbers, with daily fees and revenue climbing sharply in the days following a March 30 price overhaul. 

According to DefiLlama data, daily fees rose from about $363,000 on Monday to over $1 million on both Wednesday and Thursday, while revenue (the portion retained after incentives) reached as high as $995,000 on Wednesday before easing to about $899,000 on Thursday. 

The jump follows the rollout of a broader fee model on Monday, when the platform expanded taker fees beyond crypto and sports to categories including finance, politics, economics, culture, weather and tech, while keeping geopolitical and world events fee-free. 

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Drift said a durable nonce attack helped drive its Solana exploit, as critics questioned why stolen USDC moved for hours without a freeze.

Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX), confirmed Thursday it was targeted in a roughly $280 million exploit, describing it as a “highly sophisticated operation.”

The platform took to X on to share its findings from a preliminary investigation, saying that the attackers exploited Solana’s durable nonces, a mechanism enabling pre-signed transactions, to seize control and drain funds. The protocol had earlier said it was experiencing an active attack and suspended deposits and withdrawals while coordinating with security firms, bridges and exchanges.

The attack began on Wednesday, with the theft involving multiple assets, including Circle’s USDC (USDC) and various altcoins. Onchain data later showed that the exploiter swapped the majority of assets into USDC, with the funds later bridged to Ethereum.

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Metaplanet lifted its Bitcoin holdings to 40,177 in Q1 after buying over $400 million of BTC to become the third-largest BTC treasury.

Metaplanet said it acquired 5,075 Bitcoin during the first quarter of 2026 for around $405 million or about $79,898 per coin, making the company the third-largest publicly-listed Bitcoin treasury, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.

The Tokyo-listed company now holds a total of 40,177 Bitcoin (BTC) on its balance sheet, with an aggregate cost basis of roughly $4.18 billion and an average cost of $104,106 per coin, according to investor materials shared by chief executive Simon Gerovich.

Metaplanet also reported a year-to-date BTC Yield of 2.8% for 2026, a company metric that tracks growth in Bitcoin holdings on a per-share basis rather than income generated across the treasury.

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Coinbase legal chief Paul Grewal says US lawmakers are nearing agreement on the CLARITY Act, with a Senate markup expected soon.

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the US Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is “moving toward” a markup hearing in the US Senate Banking Committee and could eventually move to a floor vote if senators resolve the stablecoin yield dispute and schedule a markup.

Speaking in a Wednesday interview on Fox Business, Grewal said lawmakers are nearing agreement on core elements of the crypto market structure bill, even as debate continues over stablecoin yield. “I think we’re very close to a deal,” he said.

The remarks point to possible movement on one of the last major sticking points in Senate talks over crypto market structure legislation: whether stablecoin issuers or platforms should be allowed to offer yield or similar rewards. The dispute has helped delay a Senate Banking Committee markup, leaving the broader effort to set federal rules for digital asset oversight still unresolved.

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XRP price charts remained bearish amid increasing signs that the $1 level could be tested as support in the coming weeks.

XRP (XRP) traded 64% below its multi-year peak of $3.66 on Thursday, as more signs of a potential deeper correction toward $1 emerged.

Key takeaways:

XRP faces stiff resistance above $1.40, where more than 1.1 billion tokens were previously acquired.

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Bitcoin fell on fresh US-Iran cues, while analysis warned that a resurgent US dollar could spark new lows across crypto and risk assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw another $69,000 rejection on Thursday as risk-assets suffered over US-Iran war headlines. Meanwhile, one trader warned that a strengthening dollar “will send crypto and stocks to new lows.”

Key points:

Bitcoin faces fresh downside pressure as stocks and gold fall on US President Donald Trump’s address to the nation.

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Singh faced legal action from the SEC, CFTC and US Department of Justice after FTX collapsed in November 2022 but avoided significant prison time by cooperating with authorities.

Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX, will pay $3.7 million to resolve his case with the US commodities regulator over his role in the collapse of the crypto exchange and the misappropriation of user funds.

As part of the supplemental consent order, Singh will be required to pay a disgorgement of $3.7 million, while a five-year ban on trading in markets and an eight-year registration ban are imposed, blocking him from obtaining a license to operate in the sector, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The initial consent order and supplemental consent order resolve the CFTC’s enforcement action against Singh,” it added.

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The legislation “embraces innovation, protects participants and empowers internet-native communities to compete with big tech incumbents,” said a16z’s Miles Jennings.

The US state of Alabama has become the second US jurisdiction after Wyoming to grant decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) legal status under the DUNA Act.

The Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association (DUNA) Act (Senate Bill 277) was introduced in February by Republican Senator Lance Bell. The House passed it 82-7 with 16 abstentions on March 17, and has now been signed by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, according to a16z Crypto.

Speaking about the bill’s passage, a16z Crypto’s head of policy and general counsel, Miles Jennings, said on Wednesday that “decentralized governance is essential to crypto’s future — it’s one of the core constructs in market structure legislation.”

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As part of the offering, Paradigm is also exploring an internal market-making desk for prediction market trading and a prediction market index.

Crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm is reportedly building a prediction markets terminal, joining a wider push by exchanges, brokers and crypto firms into prediction markets.

Led by Paradigm partner Arjun Balaji, the prediction market offering will cater to professional traders and market makers, Fortune said in a report on Wednesday, citing sources that said they started working on the project in late 2025.

Paradigm’s offering adds to a growing list of companies looking to offer access to prediction markets, which some forecast could reach $1 trillion in annual volume by the end of the decade.

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The AI and crypto company has added to a pattern of Bitcoin treasuries offloading this year, with Michael Saylor's Strategy bucking that trend.

AI-powered Bitcoin treasury and education company Genius Group revealed on Tuesday that it sold the remainder of its Bitcoin in Q1 to pay off debt, adding to a recent wave of companies offloading assets amid a crypto bear market. 

“The company will recommence building its Bitcoin Treasury when it believes market conditions are more favorable,” it stated. 

The move appears to go against its “Bitcoin first” strategy, which it touted in November 2024, vowing at the time to commit 90% or more of its current and future reserves to be held in Bitcoin. 

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Huione Group helped launder funds from Southeast Asian scam networks behind “pig butchering” schemes and other crypto scams.

Li Xiong, a key member of a group that helped crypto scam rings in Asia to move money, has been extradited from Cambodia to China, where he will face fraud and money-laundering charges, according to Hong Kong-based news outlet Ta Kung Wen Wei.

“On April 1, with strong support from the relevant authorities in Cambodia, a task force sent by China’s Ministry of Public Security successfully escorted Li Xiong, a core key member of the Chen Zhi criminal syndicate, back to China from Phnom Penh, Cambodia,” it said on Wednesday, citing a statement from China’s Ministry of Public Security on WeChat.

Xiong previously served as chairman of Huione Group, an organization that served scam centers in Cambodia that carried out “pig butchering” frauds and other investment schemes to steal crypto from victims around the world. 

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Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun said last year that the country’s Ministry of Justice holds 210 Bitcoins, worth $14 million, confiscated during criminal investigations.

Taiwan should reconsider adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset to hedge against global turmoil and the risk of war, according to a research fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

In a report on Tuesday, Jacob Langenkamp said that should China pursue reunification with Taiwan by military force through a blockade or full invasion, Bitcoin (BTC) is the only reserve asset that would remain fully accessible and spendable under either scenario.

“Uniquely for Taiwan, Bitcoin provides geopolitical resilience: in a PRC blockade or invasion, gold is stranded or seized and USD reserves face potential restrictions, but Bitcoin remains fully accessible without physical transport,” he added.

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Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun said last year that the country’s Ministry of Justice holds 210 Bitcoins, worth $14 million, confiscated during criminal investigations.

Taiwan should reconsider adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset to hedge against global turmoil and the risk of war, according to a research fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

In a report on Tuesday, Jacob Langenkamp said that should China pursue reunification with Taiwan by military force, either through a blockade or full invasion, Bitcoin (BTC) would be the only reserve asset that would remain fully accessible and spendable.

“Uniquely for Taiwan, Bitcoin provides geopolitical resilience: in a PRC blockade or invasion, gold is stranded or seized and USD reserves face potential restrictions, but Bitcoin remains fully accessible without physical transport,” he added.

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US President Donald Trump said the military is "very close" to finishing its war in Iran in a speech that saw oil and Bitcoin prices move.

Crude oil rose to over $100 a barrel while Bitcoin fell 2% after a national address by US President Donald Trump on the conflict in Iran, where he vowed to hit Iran "extremely hard" over the next few weeks. 

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday during an address to the nation, Trump said the US military is "very close" to finishing "Operation Epic Fury," claiming to have wiped out Iran's nuclear and naval capabilities while also significantly hampering its drones, missiles and weapon factories.

Stocks, crude oil, and crypto prices have been impacted by conflict in the Middle East over the last few months. Oil prices eased on Tuesday after Trump said the war would be wrapping up in the next few weeks, though his latest speech has seen it rise again. 

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An IPO and valuation above $1.75 trillion would make SpaceX a top-10 public company by market capitalization, above the likes of Meta and Tesla.

Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX has reportedly filed confidentially for an initial public offering, moving it closer to what could be the biggest public listing in US history.

SpaceX submitted its IPO confidentially to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The IPO could be finalized as early as June, the sources said.

SpaceX could seek a valuation exceeding $1.75 trillion in the IPO, sources told Bloomberg in February. A valuation of that size would make the aerospace company more valuable than Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA) and Bitcoin (BTC).

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A valuation above $1.75 trillion would rank SpaceX among the largest public companies in the US, above several major tech names at current market values.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reportedly filed confidentially for an initial public offering, a move that could lead to one of the largest listings in US market history.

SpaceX submitted its IPO confidentially to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The IPO could be finalized as early as June, the sources said.

SpaceX could seek a valuation exceeding $1.75 trillion in the IPO, sources told Bloomberg in February. A valuation of that size would make the aerospace company more valuable than Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA) and Bitcoin (BTC).

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According to the company CFO, Bithumb was “strengthen[ing] accounting policies and internal controls” ahead of its IPO plans, already delayed from 2025.

South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is reportedly expecting its initial public offering (IPO) sometime after 2028, in another delay after restructuring and regulatory hurdles.

According to a Tuesday report from Maeil Business News Korea, a Bithumb official said that it would “focus on preparing for the listing until 2027.” CFO Jeong Sang-gyun said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting that Bithumb was “strengthen[ing] accounting policies and internal controls” following an IPO advisory contract with Samjong KPMG.

Shareholders reconfirmed CEO Lee Jae-won for a two-year appointment at the Tuesday meeting, but the delayed IPO timeline was the latest after Bithumb initially expected a 2025 listing. Under Lee, the exchange faced a six-month suspension and a $24 million fine from South Korean authorities for alleged anti-money-laundering violations.

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The Treasury published its notice of proposed rulemaking for states on dollar-pegged stablecoins with market caps of less than $10 billion

The US Department of the Treasury issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on Wednesday and is seeking public comment on proposed regulations for state-level stablecoin governance frameworks under the GENIUS Act.

The GENIUS stablecoin regulatory framework, also known as the “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act,” gives states the authority to regulate stablecoins with a market cap of less than $10 billion, as long as the regulations do not deviate significantly from federal policies.

The Treasury outlined several non-negotiable stablecoin regulations that must be in line with Federal regulations, including a 1:1 reserve backing with cash or high-quality cash equivalents and monthly reporting requirements. 

States must also fully comply with federal anti-money laundering and sanctions policies for stablecoins, while upholding bans on token rehypothecation, or the use of the same asset to support multiple claims.

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An $80 million leveraged position includes a Bitcoin short and a long bet on oil prices, though the trader has a history of large losses.

Key takeaways:

A Hyperliquid whale placed an $80 million bet against Bitcoin and the S&P 500 while going long on Brent crude oil prices.

The whale’s history of massive losses and inconsistent signals suggests the trade could fall on the wrong side of the market.

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The crypto exchange seeks a charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to separate custody from trading and expand services under a regulated banking framework.

EDX Markets, an institutional crypto exchange, has applied to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank that would provide crypto custody, asset management and trade-settlement services.

The proposed entity, EDX Trust, would operate as a non-depository national bank, separating custody and settlement from trading while continuing to route order matching through EDX’s existing platform.

In its application, the company said the model is intended to address structural risks in crypto markets, where trading, custody and brokerage are often combined within a single platform, creating potential conflicts of interest and single points of failure.

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A debate over stablecoin yield, likely to impact Tether, is underway in the US government as lawmakers consider a market structure bill.

Jesse Spiro, the head of government affairs at stablecoin issuer Tether, will chair a crypto-backed super political action committee (super PAC) to “actively support candidates” in the 2026 US midterm elections and beyond.

In a Wednesday announcement, the Fellowship PAC, a committee that launched in August 2025 and later claimed to have raised “over $100 million” from undisclosed backers aligned with the crypto industry, said that Spiro would become chair ahead of its first political endorsements for the 2026 elections.

The PAC said that it would support candidates in favor of innovation, regulatory clarity for digital assets, and open markets.

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Technical charts show Bitcoin and altcoins on the verge of a bullish trend reversal, but Bitcoin’s resistance at $69,000 could cap the current upward momentum.

Key points:

Buyers will have to sustain Bitcoin above $69,000 to gain the upper hand in the short term.

Select major altcoins may break above their near-term resistance, signaling buying at lower levels.

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The reported incident could be a $200 million exploit of the decentralized crypto exchange due to a leak of a crypto wallet private key.

Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), detected “unusual” trading activity on the platform on Wednesday, warning users not to deposit funds until the issue has been resolved.

The Drift team did not disclose the specific cause of the ongoing incident or the damage in its initial announcement and is currently investigating the issue. 

In a subsequent update, the Drift team announced that deposits and withdrawals on the platform have been suspended. 

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A threat researcher estimates the exploit could reach $200 million and may be linked to a compromised private key.

Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), detected unusual trading activity on the platform on Wednesday, warning users not to deposit funds until the issue has been resolved.

The Drift team did not disclose the specific cause of the ongoing incident or the damage in its initial announcement and is currently investigating the issue. 

In a subsequent update, the Drift team announced that deposits and withdrawals on the platform have been suspended. 

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The value of the Bitcoin treasury company's holdings peaked at over $711 million in October 2025, when BTC hit an all-time high of about $126,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Nakamoto (NAKA) selling its BTC at a loss could signal capitulation of more crypto treasury companies and the start of a “contagion” that could spark a wave of forced selling, according to market analyst Nic Puckrin.

“Cracks are beginning to show in the digital asset treasury (DAT) market,” Puckrin said, adding that the war in the Middle East will likely place further pressure on Bitcoin’s price and treasury companies in a reinforcing cycle. He said:

Nakamoto sold 284 BTC in March for $20 million, implying a price of about $70,000 per coin; the company also reduced its stake in the publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet, selling shares at a loss. 

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Buffett called the recent US stock market dip “nothing” versus past 50% crashes, signaling more downside for risk assets like Bitcoin in 2026.

Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said in a CNBC interview this week that his firm purchased approximately $17 billion in US Treasury bills at the latest auction. Is a stock market crash coming and what does it mean for Bitcoin (BTC)?

Key takeaways:

Berkshire held $373 billion in cash or cash equivalents as of 2025’s close, more than double the levels in 2023.

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Naoris Protocol said it has launched its mainnet, introducing a layer-1 blockchain that uses post-quantum cryptography for transaction validation and network security.

Naoris Protocol has launched its mainnet, introducing a layer-1 blockchain designed to use post-quantum cryptography for transaction validation and network security. The network is live with limited, invite-only participation, allowing early users to run validator nodes and process transactions.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, it integrates cryptographic standards finalized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to address risks in existing blockchains, where current encryption methods could become vulnerable over time.

Before mainnet, the protocol’s test network processed more than 100 million transactions and flagged what it described as hundreds of millions of potential security events.

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Michael Selig summarized his first 100 days overseeing the commodities regulator since being confirmed by the US Senate in December.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig said on Wednesday that the agency is prepared to oversee the entire digital asset market, even as Congress has yet to pass a market structure bill defining its authority.

In a Wednesday statement about his first 100 days as CFTC chair, Selig said that the commission was “ready to take responsibility” for the crypto market and reiterated his claim that it was the sole regulator to oversee prediction markets.

His comments come as the US Senate considers the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill that has been effectively stalled in committee amid discussions over stablecoin yield and other issues.

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Meta’s 2026 stablecoin push favors partnerships over issuing its own coin. Here is why the company is choosing infrastructure and distribution instead.

Meta plans to introduce dollar-linked stablecoin payments across its platforms in late 2026. Unlike its earlier Libra attempt, the company will not issue its own cryptocurrency but instead integrate existing stablecoins.

Regulatory opposition to the Libra/Diem project made it clear that governments were uncomfortable with Big Tech issuing private global currencies. Meta’s new strategy reflects those lessons by avoiding direct control over the currency itself.

Instead of managing stablecoin reserves or issuance, Meta intends to work with external partners that handle infrastructure, compliance and settlement, while Meta itself focuses on user experience and payment distribution.

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Token voting fails crypto governance with low participation and whale dominance. Decision markets price conviction to fix broken DAO incentives.

Opinion by: Francesco Mosterts, co-founder of Umia.

Crypto prides itself on being a market-driven system. Prices, incentives, and capital flows determine everything from token valuations to lending rates and blockspace demand. Markets are the industry’s primary coordination mechanism. Yet, when it comes to governance, crypto suddenly abandons markets altogether.

Recent governance disputes at major protocols have once again exposed the tensions inside DAO decision-making. Participation remains extremely low and influence is highly concentrated. A study of 50 DAOs found “a discernible pattern of low token holder engagement,” showing that a single large voter could sway 35% of outcomes and that four voters or fewer influence two-thirds of governance decisions.

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The update adds digital asset accounts and real-time visibility tools for corporate finance teams managing liquidity across systems.

Ripple has added digital asset capabilities to its treasury management platform, allowing corporate finance teams to hold, track and manage cryptocurrencies and fiat balances within a single system, the company said.

According to a company announcement, the update introduces Digital Asset Accounts and a unified dashboard that aggregates balances across bank accounts, custody providers and onchain wallets, giving treasury teams real-time visibility into both cash and digital assets.

The system supports assets including XRP (XRP) and Ripple USD (RLUSD), with balances updated in real time and recorded alongside fiat transactions. APIs connect external custodians and sync activity into the platform, according to Ripple.

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Franklin Templeton has agreed to acquire CoinFund spinoff 250 Digital to launch Franklin Crypto, a dedicated crypto arm targeting institutional crypto investment management.

Global asset manager Franklin Templeton is set to expand its crypto footprint by acquiring a spinoff of the crypto-native investment firm CoinFund.

Franklin Templeton said Wednesday it plans to acquire 250 Digital, a CoinFund spinoff that runs liquid crypto investment strategies, expanding the asset manager’s digital asset business. The deal will form part of a new unit called Franklin Crypto once it closes.

The move follows CoinFund’s decision earlier this year to spin out its liquid strategies business into 250 Digital as the company sharpened its focus on venture investing.

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Michael Saylor's Strategy has raised funds to purchase at least 1,111 BTC this week, increasing the odds of sending prices higher in April.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) looks set to restart its Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation engine after a short pause, with its STRC preferred stock likely funding fresh crypto purchases this week.

Key takeaways:

Strategy may purchase at least $76.25 million in Bitcoin this week.

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Hong Kong’s first stablecoin licences failed to materialize by the expected end of March target, with the HKMA saying only that it is still advancing the process.

Hong Kong has missed an earlier end of March target for awarding its first stablecoin licences, with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority saying only that the licensing process is advancing and decisions will be announced shortly.

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) told Cointelegraph that the HKMA is “actively taking forward the licensing matter and will announce further details in due course,” without offering a revised timetable. 

The HKMA’s public register still showed no licensed stablecoin issuers at the time of writing.

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US President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to lead the Fed, but the financier’s plans to lower interest rates may come up against hard economic realities and a split board.

The US Senate could soon hear testimony to confirm financier Kevin Warsh as the new chair of the Federal Reserve.

Warsh, who previously served on the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011, has criticized the central bank’s policies under current chair Jerome Powell. Warsh has called for “regime change” and lower interest rates.

Regarding crypto, Warsh has a somewhat nuanced approach. He hails Bitcoin as a sustainable store of value, but claims it doesn’t function as money. 

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Gen Z embraces Bitcoin despite acknowledged volatility. Younger investors treat crypto risk as portfolio diversification rather than pure speculation.

Opinion by: Alex Tsepaev, chief strategy officer at B2PRIME Group.

Each generation has its own distinct characteristics, even when it comes to investing. Younger people, for example, show a higher tolerance for risk. More than 64% of Gen Z and 49% of millennials say they are willing to take on more of it.

That appetite naturally includes investing in cryptocurrencies, which is considered one of the riskiest asset classes in modern markets. No surprise, then, that nearly two-thirds of Gen Zs plan to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin this year. Even more striking is that they are almost four times as likely to own crypto as to own a retirement account. 

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Bitcoin ended its longest monthly losing streak since 2018 with a green March candle, sparking hopes of a powerful rebound similar to past cycles.

Bitcoin (BTC) closed March in green, ending the longest monthly losing streak since 2018. Data suggests that the coming months may prove to be profitable for BTC.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin ended March 2% higher, marking the first green monthly close in six months.

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Shares of the European crypto asset manager are set to start trading today, marking a venue shift as digital asset companies navigate a weaker market backdrop.

CoinShares, a European-based digital asset manager, is slated to make its US public markets debut today following the completion of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, highlighting the crypto industry’s deepening ties with public markets.

The company announced Wednesday that it had finalized a previously announced business combination with Vine Hill Capital Investment Corp., resulting in the formation of a new holding entity, CoinShares PLC. The combined company begins trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday under the ticker symbol CSHR.

The transaction, first unveiled in September, values CoinShares at approximately $1.2 billion and includes a $50 million capital commitment from institutional investors.

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Australia passes a law requiring crypto exchanges and custodians to obtain financial services licenses as the country moves to regulate digital asset platforms.

Australia has passed legislation that will bring many digital asset platforms and tokenised custody platforms under the country’s financial services licensing regime.

The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 has now cleared both houses of the Australian Parliament, according to parliamentary records, marking the biggest step yet in Canberra’s push to create a dedicated regulatory framework for digital assets.

Introduced in November 2025, the bill amends the Corporations Act and ASIC Act to regulate digital asset platforms and tokenised custody platforms, with the stated aim of improving consumer protection, market integrity and regulatory certainty.

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US Fed Governor Michael Barr said clearer US rules could help the market grow, but warned that GENIUS Act implementation must still guard against runs, weak reserves and illicit finance.

US Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said Tuesday that clearer US stablecoin rules could speed the market’s growth, but warned that regulators still need to address money laundering risks, bank run risks and consumer safeguards as they implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

Speaking at a Federalist Society event on stablecoin regulation, Barr said the law provides “needed clarity” for issuers, but that “a great deal will depend on how federal and state regulators implement the statute.”

Barr said stablecoins are still used mainly for crypto trading and as a US dollar store of value in some foreign markets, though they could also lower remittance costs, speed up trade finance processing and help firms manage treasury operations. He also highlighted the risk of bad actors buying stablecoins in secondary markets without identity checks, and said issuers may be tempted to stretch for yield in reserve assets in ways that undermine confidence during stress.

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Extraditions of executives from market makers Vortex, Contrarian, Gotbit and Antier mark the latest step in a multi‑agency effort targeting alleged “market‑manipulation‑as‑a‑service.”

Three crypto executives extradited from Singapore appeared in federal court in Oakland on Monday as US prosecutors expanded a wash-trading case that has now charged 10 foreign nationals tied to four crypto market-maker companies.

The court appearances mark the latest step in a US crackdown on alleged wash trading in digital asset markets that began with an undercover operation unsealed in October 2024, according to a Tuesday press release from the US Justice Department (DOJ).

The DOJ said the cases, which center on Gotbit, Vortex, Antier and Contrarian over conduct dating back to 2018, involve schemes to inflate token prices and volumes through coordinated trading that made assets appear more liquid and in-demand than they really were.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs ended Q1 in the red, with about $500 million of net outflows despite March inflows, as sentiment remained weak amid geopolitical tensions.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) finished the first quarter of 2026 with net outflows, even after March delivered the category’s first monthly inflows of the year.

Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs recorded $1.32 billion in March inflows, the first monthly gain of 2026 and the first since October 2025, according to SoSoValue.

The inflows were not enough to offset monthly redemptions of $1.61 billion in January and $207 million in February, resulting in roughly $500 million in net outflows in Q1.

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A shallower Bitcoin drawdown than previous cycles "indicates a maturing market with reduced volatility and stronger institutional confidence," said Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research.

Bitcoin (BTC) has declined by about 50% this market cycle, far less than in previous cycles, Fidelity Digital Assets said, adding this trend could continue over time. 

Bitcoin’s post-all-time-high drawdowns have historically been steep, at about 80% to 90%, but this cycle has been about 50%, Fidelity Digital Assets research analyst Zack Wainwright said Tuesday.

One can see the “diminishing returns” that have developed from cycle to cycle when looking at Bitcoin’s price performance from the perspective of the previous all-time high, he said.

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Block cut 4,000 of its staff in February as part of its AI-driven pivot. A new post by Block's Jack Dorsey has shed light on how the company and others might operate in the future.

Block co-founder Jack Dorsey has shared his vision of a future workplace where artificial intelligence could take the role of middle managers, weeks after the company cut around 4,000 employees because of AI. 

In a blog post on Tuesday, Dorsey and Block’s lead independent director, Roelof Botha, said AI can track projects, identify issues, assign work and share critical information faster than humans, adding that Block is in the “early stages” of transitioning toward a model where the technology performs these tasks. 

“We're questioning the underlying assumption: that organizations have to be hierarchically organized with humans as the coordination mechanism,” they said. 

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“There’s a myth in mainstream media and social media that insider trading doesn’t apply in the prediction markets … That is wrong,” said CFTC enforcement director David Miller.

The US commodities regulator’s chief enforcement director sent a cautionary message to prediction market insider traders on Tuesday, vowing that violators will face enforcement action.

“We are aware of the speculation about insider trading,” CFTC enforcement director David Miller said at a panel at New York University on Tuesday. “We are watching.”

Miller, a former federal prosecutor who was appointed to the position on March 2, said the Commission will use its prosecutorial discretion and will not dedicate resources to “trivial” cases.

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The closure of Mercado Coin doesn't mark the end of Mercado Libre's crypto rewards strategy as it still offers the Meli Dolar (MUSD), a US dollar stablecoin which launched in 2024.

Latin American e-commerce platform Mercado Libre is reportedly phasing out Mercado Coin, launched in August 2022, which offered cashback and other perks to users.

According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, users must sell or spend their loyalty coin balances through the Mercado Pago app before April 17. If no action is taken, the balances will be converted to Brazilian reals. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Mercado Libre for comment.

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Moody's assigned a provisional Ba2 rating to New Hampshire’s bond project, placing it below investment grade, as it cited Bitcoin’s volatility. 

New Hampshire's new first-of-its-kind Bitcoin-backed US municipal bond is now one step closer to reality after being given a rating from Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday. 

In a statement on Tuesday, Moody's assigned New Hampshire's Bitcoin bond project a provisional Ba2 rating, which falls within the “speculative grade” category and indicates the bonds will have substantial credit risk.

A ratings assessment could be seen as a key step for the proposed bond. Bond ratings offer a way for institutions to assess credit risk and guide decision-making. Some institutional investors have mandates allowing them only to invest in investment-grade assets.  

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New research from Caltech and Oratomic, a Caltech-linked startup, says quantum computers of the future may be closer to reality.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology theorize that a functional quantum computer may require far fewer qubits than previously thought, making it feasible for the first quantum computer to be deployed before the end of the decade. 

Caltech researchers, working with a Caltech-linked start-up, Oratomic, said that by reducing the errors that “riddle today’s rudimentary quantum computers,” a functional quantum computer could be built with as few as 10,000 to 20,000 qubits. 

It was previously thought that millions of qubits were necessary for a quantum computer to function properly, said Caltech. A qubit is the basic unit of a quantum computer and the equivalent of a bit in a classical computer to encode information in binary.

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Bitfarms said it was impacted by a decline in Bitcoin prices last year. The company is now five months into its pivot from Bitcoin mining to HPC and AI.

Bitfarms (BITF) shares climbed 6.6% on Tuesday despite reporting a widened $284.5 million net loss for 2025, driven by a decline in Bitcoin prices and a high cost of revenue, with the company advancing its pivot to AI and high-performance computing. 

The company’s full-year results statement on Tuesday showed a 72% year-on-year increase in revenue to $229 million. This was outweighed by $248 million in cost of revenue, leading to a gross loss. 

General and administrative expenses also increased year over year, while the change in fair value of digital assets led to a $50.5 million loss in 2025 compared with a gain of $26 million in 2024. This was partially offset by a $28.2 million realized gain on the sale of digital assets. 

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Bitfarms said it was impacted by a decline in Bitcoin prices last year. The company is now five months into its pivot from Bitcoin mining to HPC and AI.

Bitfarms (BITF) shares climbed 6.6% on Tuesday despite reporting a widened $284.5 million net loss for 2025, driven by a decline in Bitcoin prices and a high cost of revenue, with the company advancing its pivot to AI and high-performance computing. 

The company’s full-year results statement on Tuesday showed a 72% year-on-year increase in revenue to $229 million. This was outweighed by $248 million in cost of revenue, leading to a gross loss. 

General and administrative expenses also increased year over year, while the change in fair value of digital assets led to a $50.5 million loss in 2025 compared with a gain of $26 million in 2024. This was partially offset by a $28.2 million realized gain on the sale of digital assets. 

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Solana’s declining DEX volumes raise the likelihood of a SOL price correction to $75, but the network’s DApp revenue highlights its resilience.

Key takeaways:

Solana outperforms Ethereum in high-revenue DApps, providing a fundamental cushion against recent price drops.

Rising Ethereum Layer-2 dominance challenges SOL as traders monitor the critical $80 support level for a retest.

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Bitcoin held above $68,000 as investors reacted to signs Trump may seek a quicker end to the Iran war, though traders remain cautious.

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly jumped to $68,589, and US stock markets rallied as investors reacted to US President Donald Trump's statements on considering options for ending the US and Israel-Iran war. Separate, unconfirmed comments attributed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also suggested that Iran may be looking for ways to end the war. 

On Tuesday, reporting from The Wall Street Journal said that President Trump told his aides that he could consider ending the war in Iran, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining partially closed, but an official statement has not been given. 

Unconfirmed reports also suggest that Iran’s president is looking for a way to exit the conflict with certain assurances being made by the US and Israel. Regardless of the accuracy of the statements from either president, the Dow gained more than 1,125 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained 2.91% and 3.83%, respectively. 

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The conflict in Iran has been escalating following US and Israeli strikes against Iran in February, which sent oil prices higher and crypto and broader markets tumbling.

Update: April 1, 1:30 am UTC: This article has been updated to include more details surrounding US President Donald Trump’s comments and background information.

US President Donald Trump said the US could wrap up its military campaign in Iran within weeks, claiming the goal of eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been achieved.

Speaking to reporters at the White House during an executive order signing ceremony on Tuesday, Trump said the exit could come within two to three weeks because “there’s no reason for us to do this.”

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The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remains pinned in the ‘extreme fear’ zone, but Bitcoin’s lengthy consolidation phase above the $60,000 support may be a positive sign.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index currently exhibits “extreme fear” with a reading of 11, and the condition has held for 12 consecutive days. Although there was a brief recovery between March 17 and March 18, the index has stayed in “extreme fear” since Jan. 28.

Traders use the index as a contrarian metric for monitoring investor sentiment as it is comprised of volatility, volume, social trend and market momentum data.

With that view in mind, in previous bull and bear markets, traders interpreted “extreme fear” readings as dip-buying opportunities, but given how bearish market conditions have been since January, it’s possible that the signal could be invalid.

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The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remains pinned in the "extreme fear" zone, but Bitcoin’s lengthy consolidation phase above the $60,000 support may be a positive sign.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index currently exhibits “extreme fear” with a reading of 11, and the condition has held for 12 consecutive days. Although there was a brief recovery between March 17 and March 18, the index has stayed in “extreme fear” since Jan. 28.

Traders use the index as a contrarian metric for monitoring investor sentiment as it is comprised of volatility, volume, social trend and market momentum data.

With that view in mind, in previous bull and bear markets, traders interpreted “extreme fear” readings as dip-buying opportunities, but given how bearish market conditions have been since January, it’s possible that the signal could be invalid.

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The #2 Texas state official called on lawmakers to study “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling“ as other jurisdictions take the platforms to court.

Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor and President of the Senate in Texas, has included a study of prediction markets and crypto and blockchain as part of legislative priorities for the state’s next legislative session, scheduled to begin in January.

In a Friday announcement, the lieutenant governor’s office issued 2026 interim charges for Texas Senate committees to study in preparation for the next legislature. Patrick said that the charges were intended to “advance the priorities of Texas’ conservative majority,” including an analysis of prediction markets and digital assets.

According to the charges, Patrick wants lawmakers to focus on “closing gambling loopholes” by studying “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling and the exploitation of federal law to circumvent Texas gambling prohibitions” on elections.

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The #2 Texas state official called on lawmakers to study “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling“ as other jurisdictions take the platforms to court.

Dan Patrick, Texas’ lieutenant governor and president of the Senate, has called for lawmakers to study prediction markets, crypto and blockchain as part of legislative priorities ahead of the state’s next session in January 2027.

In a Friday announcement, the lieutenant governor’s office issued 2026 interim charges directing Texas Senate committees to examine key policy areas ahead of the next legislative session. Patrick said that the charges were intended to “advance the priorities of Texas’ conservative majority,” including an analysis of prediction markets and digital assets.

According to the charges, Patrick asked lawmakers to focus on closing gambling loopholes by studying “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling and the exploitation of federal law to circumvent Texas gambling prohibitions,” including those related to election wagering.

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S&P Dow Jones Indices puts its iBoxx US Treasuries Index on the Canton Network, allowing institutions to access bond benchmark data through tokens rather than feeds.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has tokenized its iBoxx US Treasuries Index on the Canton Network, making a major fixed-income benchmark available as a digital asset and signaling a shift toward onchain data infrastructure in traditional finance.

In a Tuesday announcement, S&P said the index was brought onchain together with Kaiko, a provider of digital asset market data and infrastructure that supports the tokenization and onchain delivery of the index.

The iBoxx US Treasuries Index is a widely used benchmark that tracks the performance of US government bonds across different maturities, serving as a reference point for institutional investors and fixed-income products.

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