THE LATEST CRYPTO NEWS

Prediction market traders on Polymarket put the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 at 55% — a jump of nine percentage points in a single day — after two US senators released final language settling one of the bill’s most contested disputes. Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Defenders Launch ‘Evidence Base’ In Battle Against FUD Banks Got Restrictions, Crypto Got Rewards The new text, published Friday by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks, draws a clear line on stablecoin yields. No crypto firm may pay customers any form of interest simply for holding stablecoins — a practice that critics argued mimicked bank deposits and put traditional lenders at a disadvantage. But firms are allowed to offer rewards tied to what the bill calls “bona fide activities,” meaning actual use of crypto platforms or networks. Coinbase chief legal officer Faryar Shirzad called the outcome a win for consumers. “In the end, the banks were able to get more restrictions on rewards, but we protected what matters,” Shirzad said, referring to Americans’ ability to earn rewards through real crypto usage. The final rewards text in the CLARITY Act is now public. We’ve been clear throughout this process: much of this debate was based on imagined risks, not real evidence, nor was it based on a real understanding of how crypto actually works. Nevertheless, the crypto industry showed… https://t.co/XoQ7Zp1Y39 — Faryar Shirzad ????️ (@faryarshirzad) May 1, 2026 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was blunter. His response to the news: “Mark it up” — a direct call for the Senate Banking Committee to move the bill forward. Not everyone was satisfied. Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz offered a sharper take, saying the result simply meant Americans could not earn risk-free yield on their dollars without going through a bank. Image:  MetaAI Senate Markup Could Come As Early As May 11 Galaxy Digital head of firmwide research Alex Thorn said the release of the final text signals that the Senate Banking Committee could schedule a markup as soon as the week of May 11. That would mark a significant acceleration for legislation that had stalled for months, partly because the stablecoin yield question had no agreed answer. ???? CLARITY ACT — text of tillis (R) / alsobrooks (D) compromise on stablecoin yield is out now they previously said they had “agreement in principle” release of text suggests that senate banking will schedule markup imminently, as soon as week of may 11 pic.twitter.com/5COMHE8IJu — Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) May 1, 2026 Thorn also flagged a likely complication. He expects banks to step up their opposition once the markup is on the calendar, a warning that the compromise text may not be the end of the fight — just the start of a new one. The broader timeline had already been set by several senators. Bernie Moreno said he expects the bill to get done by the end of May. Senator Cynthia Lummis put it more starkly in April: “It’s now or never.” BTCUSD trading at $78,205 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView Related Reading: XRP Could See Fresh Demand As Japan’s Rakuten Unlocks Loyalty Point Conversions A Long-Running Dispute Pushed To The Side The stablecoin yield debate had been one of the main obstacles holding up the CLARITY Act, a bill designed to give the US crypto industry clearer regulatory ground to stand on. With that dispute now resolved — at least on paper — attention shifts to the rest of the legislation. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

Shiba Inu (SHIB), one of the market’s largest memecoins, is still far from its glory days. The token is trading more than 90% below the all-time highs it reached in October 2021.  Even with gains of about 5% during April’s price action, the rebound looks limited in the broader context—especially as investors weigh the long-term forces that can either lift a token or keep it pinned. No Fast Scarcity, Bigger Downside A recent Motley Fool report points to several structural factors that have helped shape Shiba Inu’s current performance and could continue to influence where it goes next. One of the biggest issues is the coin’s supply. SHIB’s total supply is roughly 589.5 trillion tokens, with nearly all of that supply already in circulation. While a major portion was removed from circulation in 2021, the remaining amount is still so large that it doesn’t change the overall picture.  Related Reading: Hyperliquid Jumps Into The Betting Boom With New ‘Outcome Tokens’ For Real-World Events The report emphasizes that the supply scale makes it difficult to tighten Shiba Inu in a way that would noticeably impact price. To illustrate how challenging meaningful supply reduction would be, the report notes that even if 1 trillion tokens were permanently removed every single day for a full year, hundreds of trillions would remain. In practical terms, that means supply-driven scarcity is unlikely to occur quickly enough to create a major upward re-pricing.  At the same time, the report highlights a key downside that works in the opposite direction: there is no comparable built-in mechanism that rapidly reduces supply when demand weakens.  Near-Zero Warning For Shiba Inu The report also warns about the risk of a slow, sustained decline. It suggests that as investor attention fades and capital rotates toward other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), SHIB’s combination of large supply and limited scarcity could make it vulnerable to continued downward pressure.  In that scenario, the report goes as far as saying Shiba Inu could drift toward near-zero levels by the end of 2026, not as a sudden collapse, but as the result of prolonged weakness. Beyond supply mechanics, the report also points to SHIB’s ownership and distribution. It argues that the token’s supply is concentrated among a small number of wallets. According to the report, the top 10 wallets hold more than 60% of SHIB’s total supply.  Related Reading: US Rep. Calls Bitcoin A ‘Geopolitical Weapon Used By Multiple Adversaries’ This matters because SHIB’s price, the report suggests, is heavily influenced by trading behavior—who is buying and who is selling at any given time. When large holders control a substantial portion of circulating tokens, their decisions can have an outsized effect.  If a few major wallets choose to sell, the added supply can weigh on price. At the same time, the report notes that many of the remaining Shiba Inu holders are small retail investors, who typically have limited capital to absorb large sell orders. The report connects this to a reinforcing cycle. As Shiba Inu prices decline, investor interest often weakens further. That can lead to reduced trading volume and thinner liquidity, which then makes the market more sensitive to selling pressure.  At the time of writing, SHIB was trading at $0.0000063, marking a slight increase of 1.8% over the past seven days.  Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin is trading below a key cost threshold that short-term holders paid to acquire it — a sign that many recent buyers are sitting on losses heading into one of the largest options expiry events of the month. Related Reading: 23 Billion+ XRP Already Quantum Safe, According To New Wallet Analysis Bitcoin: Bears Hold The Edge Going Into Expiry Glassnode data shows Bitcoin is currently priced under the Short-Term Holder Cost Basis of $78,900, and also below the True Market Mean of $78,000. Support is seen further down, in the $65,000–$70,000 range. That backdrop sets a cautious tone as roughly 23,000 Bitcoin options contracts — worth $1.74 billion — are set to expire today on derivatives exchange Deribit. The put-call ratio for those contracts sits at 1.10, meaning more traders are betting on price declines than on gains. Bitcoin’s max pain price — the level where the greatest number of options expire worthless — is $76,000, slightly below where it was trading at press time around $77,200. Deribit has flagged the settlement as one to watch closely, with data showing a 95% probability that Bitcoin options expire above that $76,000 mark. Heavy volume is concentrated at the $75,500 and $77,000 strike prices. ???? May 1st Options Expiry Alert. At 08:00 UTC today, ~$2.14B in crypto options are set to expire on Deribit.$BTC: ~$1.74B notional | Put/Call: 1.10 | Max Pain: $76,000$ETH: ~$394M notional | Put/Call: 0.95 | Max Pain: $2,325 BTC spot pinned right at max pain. ETH trading… pic.twitter.com/UC2GkTnBMb — Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) May 1, 2026 In the past 24 hours, the put-call ratio for Bitcoin trading activity climbed to 0.73, while overall volume dropped. The Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates unchanged contributed to the slowdown. Ethereum Sits Below Its Own Pain Point Ethereum is facing similar pressure. More than 175,000 ETH options worth $400 million are expiring on Deribit today, with a put-call ratio of 0.95. In the last 24 hours alone, put volume rose sharply past call volume, pushing that ratio to 1.17 — a sign traders are adjusting for potential downside. What makes Ethereum’s situation slightly different is where it’s trading relative to max pain. The ETH max pain price is $2,325, but the token was changing hands around $2,284 at the time of writing — already below that level. Its 24-hour range ran from $2,232 to $2,293. Trading volume fell 45% over the past day. Broader Pressures Weigh On Crypto Markets The options expiry is not happening in a vacuum. US PCE inflation came in at a three-year high of 3.5%, rattling broader markets and prompting profit-taking across crypto. Oil prices rose to $106 a barrel as the US maintained a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Reports indicate US President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s offer to end the standoff, with reports of a possible escalation adding to market unease. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst Together, those factors have kept buyers cautious. Crypto markets saw widespread selling after the inflation data dropped, and uncertainty around the geopolitical situation has not eased. Whether today’s options expiry adds to that pressure — or passes without incident — may depend on whether Bitcoin can hold above the $76,000 mark when contracts settle. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView

CryptoCred, the prominent trader and educator behind Breakout, has warned that crypto’s old market structure may no longer offer the broad, reflexive upside that defined previous cycles. In a blunt assessment posted on X, Cred argued that participation alone is no longer enough, with market quality, liquidity, correlation and speculative attention all deteriorating at the same time. “Crypto’s current state is a bit shit,” Cred wrote, setting the tone for a critique that went beyond short-term price weakness. His argument was not simply that markets are down or that altcoins have underperformed. It was that the assumptions traders carried from earlier cycles may now be structurally less reliable. Crypto Has A Brutal New Problem At the center of his thesis is the idea that market capitalization has become a poor proxy for quality. Cred argued that much of the top 50 now consists of “ghost coins or bloated governance slop” that has underperformed and is difficult to treat as investable. That matters because previous cycles often allowed traders to use size and liquidity as rough filters for relative safety. In his view, that shortcut has become less useful. Related Reading: CEO Behind $4.7 Billion Crash Banned From Crypto, But How Will This Work? The problem is even sharper further down the risk curve. Cred said the long tail of speculative crypto assets has shifted from a high-risk, high-reward arena into something more predatory and time-sensitive, where holding for too long can mean getting caught by insiders, mercenary liquidity or violent rotations. The result is a market where speculation still exists, but the distribution of risk and reward has changed. “Everything is extremely correlated and you can’t meaningfully make bets based on sectors as it all converges into a tightly correlated mush, especially to the downside,” he wrote. “Broad brush alt season is an artefact of the past that’s very hard to replicate given that there are simply too many coins and the excess of speculation doesn’t really happen on centralised exchanges anymore.” That point cuts directly against one of crypto’s most durable cycle narratives: that capital eventually rotates from Bitcoin into majors, then into mid-caps, then into the speculative long tail. Cred’s argument is that the market has become too fragmented for that rotation to work cleanly. With too many tokens competing for attention and much of the highest-velocity speculation happening away from centralized exchanges, the classic “alt season” wealth effect becomes harder to reproduce. He also pointed to a reputational shift. Crypto, in his view, is no longer the obvious frontier for speculative capital. Institutional demand has moved toward artificial intelligence, while retail appetite has been absorbed by 0DTE options, single-name equities and other high-beta venues. That does not mean crypto has no bid. It means it may no longer monopolize the appetite for asymmetric risk. Related Reading: April’s Crypto Carnage: North Korea Hit Twice And Snagged 76% Of 2026 Hack Value The most important part of Cred’s post may be his claim that convexity has flattened. Even assets once treated as relatively safe crypto beta, including BTC and ETH, have disappointed some of the old cycle expectations, he argued. The familiar logic of buying deep drawdowns because new highs and explosive upside were assumed to follow has become harder to justify if the magnitude and reliability of those rebounds are weakening. “Convexity has flattened,” Cred wrote. “Even a lot of the historically safe blue chip stuff has underperformed and the historical anchor of ‘buy deep drawdowns because all-time highs are guaranteed and explosive’ has disappointed. All the shit we used to put up with because of the accessibly massive trend and momentum effects is now harder to justify because those same effects are getting neutered or siphoned off into other arenas.” Cred acknowledged the obvious counterargument: cycles. Crypto has repeatedly gone through periods where market structure looked broken before liquidity returned and risk appetite revived. But he said the most recent cycle itself supports his concern, because gains were “extremely concentrated” rather than broad-based, and “something very obviously broke after 10/10.” His conclusion was that trading crypto now requires more precision than it did in earlier eras. Timing alone may no longer be enough if the rising tide does not lift the entire market. Selection matters more. So does actual trading skill. “Participation alone can be an edge if the asset class is early enough and/or mispriced enough,” Cred wrote. “I don’t think that holds either, and we might actually have to learn how to trade.” At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.57 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Two US senators introduced the Prediction Market Act of 2026, which would create a more complete regulatory framework for prediction markets and event contracts.  The legislation is being presented as a bipartisan effort, sponsored by Republican Senator Dave McCormick and Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and it lays out a series of rule changes intended to modernize oversight in the sector.  The Prediction Market Act’s Safety Checklist At the core of the bill is an effort to reduce uncertainty by clearly defining key terms. The Prediction Market Act would define what an event contract is, what qualifies as public interest, and other relevant terminology. The goal is to narrow ambiguity in how these markets operate, especially when they relate to matters that could carry higher stakes.  Related Reading: Hyperliquid Jumps Into The Betting Boom With New ‘Outcome Tokens’ For Real-World Events The proposal also includes a requirement for additional scrutiny for certain contracts. Under the bill, event contracts involving enumerated activities—including violence—would require individual review, using newly established criteria to determine how the public interest standard should be applied.  The bill further aims to strengthen how these markets are offered to the public. It would establish enhanced certification standards for exchanges that list event contracts, along with disclosures designed to be easier for retail customers to understand.  Beyond disclosures, the Prediction Market act would require exchanges such as Polymarket and Kalshi to implement additional operational safeguards, including measures related to advertising, and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements, with the intent of improving protections around how they interact with customers funds.  Key Institutional Pieces Of The Bill  The Prediction Market Act also includes conflict-of-interest rules for public officials. It would prohibit lawmakers and high-ranking government officials from owning event contracts. The act would also establish a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Office of the Retail Advocate to support retail investors’ interests. It would also form an Advisory Council on Consumer Protection, tasked with analyzing potential gaps in safeguards and recommending additional protections for customers.  Related Reading: US Rep. Calls Bitcoin A ‘Geopolitical Weapon Used By Multiple Adversaries’ In addition, the act would create an Innovation Advisory Committee to advise the commission on policy questions at the intersection of technology and finance, reflecting the way these markets rely on modern systems. Finally, the Prediction Market Act would require the CFTC to stay on top of changes by studying and reporting back to Congress on developments in these fast-moving markets. The intent, according to the framing of the bill, is to ensure oversight keeps pace with how prediction markets evolve rather than lag behind new practices. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

MoonPay has launched "MoonAgents Card," a stablecoin debit card for AI agents and users to spend directly from onchain wallets.

Celsius founder Alexander Mashinsky, who was responsible for the $4.7 billion 2022 crypto crash, has been banned from crypto. This forms part of a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) while the crypto founder continues to serve a 12-year sentence.  Celsius Founder Banned From Crypto As Part of $10 Million FTC Settlement  A court order filed by the FTC shows that the Celsius founder is permanently banned from crypto. The order stipulates that Mashinsky is not allowed to advertise, market, promote, offer, distribute, or assist in doing any of these things with respect to products or services used to deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw assets.  Related Reading: Here’s What Happened In The Donald Trump Crypto Meeting With $TRUMP Holders This crypto ban forms part of a $10 million settlement with the FTC. The order included a $4.72 billion monetary judgment against the Celsius founder in favor of the Commission. This sum relates to Mashinsky’s role in the 2022 crash of his crypto lending platform, which left customers unable to access $4.7 billion in deposits.  However, this monetary judgment is suspended, and Mashinsky has been ordered to pay $10 million to satisfy this monetary relief. The order also noted that the crypto founder shall be deemed to have satisfied the payment obligation if he pays this amount to the Department of Justice (DOJ) pursuant to the forfeiture order entered in his criminal case.  It is worth noting that the Celsius founder is currently serving a 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation. The crypto founder had pleaded guilty in 2024 to committing commodities fraud and securities fraud at Celsius and was subsequently sentenced last year. The prosecution revealed that Mashinsky had used customers’ assets to place risky bets and to “line his own pockets.” In addition to his prison term, the Celsius founder was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit $48 million.  Crypto Founder Denied New Trial In Fraud Case Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who was convicted for fraud like Mashinsky, has had his request for a new trial denied. According to an ABC report, a federal judge denied SBF’s request for a new trial, rejecting the FTX founder’s claims that there are new witnesses in his case who could give evidence that would clear him of any wrongdoing.  Related Reading: Crypto Decentralization Myth Busted: ETH And USDT Freezes Unveil A Shocking Truth The judge described this claim as baseless. SBF is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in the collapse of defunct crypto exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried was found to have used up to $8 billion in customers’ funds for his personal projects.  However, he continues to deny any wrongdoing despite being found guilty, stating that his exchange was always solvent. It is worth noting that SBF was also seeking a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, but the White House has revealed that Trump has no plans to pardon him.  Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com

Ripple’s escrow accounts are among the wallets that may not be as protected as they appear. A new breakdown of every account on the XRP Ledger found that multi-signature wallets — including those tied to Ripple — hold 36.60 billion XRP, or over 36% of the total supply, but are not automatically shielded from future quantum threats without proper key management. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst What The Numbers Show The analysis was conducted by XRPL validator Vet, who reviewed all 7,810,364 accounts on the XRP Ledger. Based on that review, 23.16 billion XRP currently sits in wallets considered safe from quantum attack. That works out to 27% of all accounts — roughly 2.13 million wallets. Two factors account for their safety: either the wallets have never signed a transaction, meaning the public key has never been exposed, or the account holders rotated their keys and disabled master keys as an extra security step. The first group covers over 24% of accounts. The second, more deliberate group accounts for 2.65%. The logic is straightforward. When a wallet signs a transaction, its public key becomes visible on the ledger. A sufficiently advanced quantum computer could theoretically use that public key to work backward and derive the private key. Wallets that have never signed anything don’t have that exposure. Did a Full History deep dive on all 7.8M XRP Accounts for Quantum Threat exposure targeting dormant accounts. Genesis XRP accounts, the Satoshi Era equivalent, is 0.02% of all XRP supply that is dormant and exposed. Exposed supply increases as dormancy thresholds are lowered.… https://t.co/AxINT1RaXV pic.twitter.com/QvZD8zBCNg — Vet (@Vet_X0) April 29, 2026 Dormant Accounts Raise Hard Questions On the other side of the ledger, 76.82 billion XRP spread across 5.6 million accounts is considered exposed. But Vet noted that 96% of that amount belongs to users who are still active — people who, when the time comes, can move their funds to safer addresses. The harder problem is dormant accounts. Wallets that have been inactive for five or more years hold 2.94% of the total XRP supply, which amounts to 3.83% of all exposed XRP. At the far end, accounts with no activity since before 2014 represent just 0.02% of total supply. Reports indicate that group includes only 14,710 accounts, compared to 1.33 million in the five-year inactive category. For context, Vet pointed to Bitcoin, where holdings tied to Satoshi Nakamoto make up roughly 5% of total supply — much of which may never be moved. Nobody knows why dormant wallets were abandoned. Lost keys, forgotten accounts, and personal circumstances all come into play. That uncertainty makes them the most difficult part of the quantum exposure problem. A 2028 Deadline Already In Motion The XRP Ledger currently uses Ed25519 and secp256k1 cryptographic standards. Both remain secure today, but could become vulnerable as quantum computing advances. Related Reading: WLFI Selloff Deepens After Controversial Governance Vote Goes Live Ripple has laid out a four-phase roadmap aimed at making the network fully quantum-resistant by 2028. Early testing of new systems is already underway, with updates to the main network planned for later phases. The long-term fix for exposed wallets is expected to involve quantum-resistant encryption that lets users migrate funds to better-protected addresses. That works for people who still have access. For those who don’t — whether due to lost credentials or other circumstances — the exposure may be permanent. Featured image from ForkLog, chart from TradingView

A new crypto crime report by TRM Labs paints a stark picture of how North Korean hacking groups have been operating in 2026 so far. Through April, they were responsible for 76% of all losses tied to crypto hacks, but the report emphasizes that this outcome wasn’t driven by a steady stream of attacks.  Instead, the massive share of stolen value comes down to just two incidents whose combined haul—about $577 million—far outweighed everything else that year. Two Crypto Hacks, Nearly $600M Stolen The first breach highlighted by TRM Labs took place on April 1: the Drift Protocol hack. The report puts the value stolen at $285 million. The second incident followed on April 18, when the KelpDAO bridge exploit reportedly resulted in $292 million in losses.  Related Reading: Hyperliquid Jumps Into The Betting Boom With New ‘Outcome Tokens’ For Real-World Events What’s striking is that these two events account for only about 3% of the total number of crypto incidents in 2026 during that period.  Yet together, they represent 76% of the stolen value, underlining a pattern the report says has defined North Korea’s approach across most years since 2017—relatively few attacks, but extremely outsized payouts. The report also charts how North Korea’s share of crypto hack losses has grown over time. It notes that the figure was under 10% in 2020 and 2021, then rose to 22% in 2022, 37% in 2023, 39% in 2024, and 64% in 2025.  The 76% figure through April 2026 is described as the highest sustained share on record, suggesting that the pattern seen in recent years is not just continuing, but accelerating. April Sets New Record Of Incidents TRM Labs details how the Drift Protocol hack was carried out, focusing on the time and preparation that preceded the actual drain. The crypto hack involved about three weeks of pre-attack staging.  It also included months of social engineering intended to compromise protocol signers. Once the attackers were in position, the full drain reportedly took place in roughly 12 minutes, showing how planning can turn into rapid theft at the moment of execution. Related Reading: A Stealth Force In Derivatives—Why Bitcoin Can’t Punch Past $80,000 Yet The KelpDAO hack, dated April 18, followed a very different technical path. According to TRM Labs’ crypto crime report, the exploit centered on a flaw in a single-verifier design used in a LayerZero bridge.  After the breach, the attackers moved quickly into laundering: they routed proceeds through THORChain after more than $75 million was frozen on the Arbitrum blockchain (ARB).  The findings align with another data point from the broader crypto ecosystem. DeFiLlama, which tracks activity and incidents in decentralized finance (DeFi), flagged April as the most-hacked month in crypto history by number of incidents.  Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

World Liberty Financial’s native token WLFI lost roughly 17% of its value on Wednesday as a governance proposal affecting more than 62 billion WLFI tokens officially opened for community voting — and the backlash was immediate. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst A Token Already Deep In The Red WLFI was trading at around $0.06 at the time of writing, according to data from CoinGecko. That marks a 70% drop since the token first reached open markets, making Wednesday’s selloff the latest in a long string of losses for holders of the Trump-family-linked DeFi project. The proposal behind the price drop would impose strict vesting schedules on tokens currently held by early investors and insiders. Under the plan, early investors face a two-year lockup cliff, followed by two more years of gradual release. Founders, team members, and advisers get the same two-year cliff but with a three-year linear vest after that. Voting runs through May 7. Token unlock proposal is now live for vote. ☝️ This is one of the most significant governance proposals in WLFI history. Here’s what’s at stake. — WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) April 29, 2026 World Liberty Financial framed the move as a show of long-term commitment. “62,282,252,205 locked WLFI tokens are subject to this proposal,” the project said in a post on X. “None of it touches the market for a minimum of two years if passed.” Voting Numbers Tell Only Part Of The Story On paper, the vote is going well. As of Wednesday, 99.95% of cast votes supported the proposal, and the required quorum of 1 billion WLFI tokens had already been cleared, with 6 billion tokens in favor and just 3.2 million against. But those numbers don’t capture the full picture. Criticism has been loud on X, where replies to World Liberty’s announcement were largely negative. The voting structure itself drew sharp criticism — anyone who does not cast a vote risks having their tokens locked up with no end date. That mechanic has been widely called coercive. All the $WLFI early investors who thought they were sitting on solid profits just got rugged, by the Trump family themselves. This essentially gives them another shot at squeezing the same lemon they’ve been inflating with hot air for the past two years. Which, what a surprise,… https://t.co/yLSNcfeZlm — Simon Dedic (@sjdedic) April 15, 2026 Moonrock Capital founder Simon Dedic was among the most pointed critics. Reports indicate he compared the proposal to a rug pull and raised questions about the timing — the two-year unlock period lines up with the remainder of US President Donald Trump’s time in office. Tron founder Justin Sun, who holds a significant amount of WLFI, called it one of the “most absurd” proposals he had ever come across. Related Reading: Dogecoin Futures Open Interest Explodes As Leveraged Traders Pile In World Liberty Defends The Structure The team behind World Liberty Financial said the vesting design was built to create what they described as a “more clear, bounded picture of governance preferences.” The goal, they said, was to keep tokens in the hands of people who are genuinely committed to the project’s future. The proposal was first submitted to the governance community on April 15 before going live for voting this week. World Liberty Financial called it “one of the most significant governance proposals in WLFI history.” Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Solana Ventures, Solana Labs' Anatoly Yakovenko and Solana Foundation’s Nick Ducoff have all participated in the round.

Facebook paid its creators nearly $3 billion in 2025 — a 35% jump from the year before. Now some of those Meta creators will get paid in crypto. Related Reading: Dogecoin Futures Open Interest Explodes As Leveraged Traders Pile In Meta: A Second Try At Digital Payments Meta has begun rolling out USDC stablecoin payouts to select creators in the Philippines and Colombia, marking the company’s return to digital currency after a failed attempt years ago. Creators who sign up can link a third-party crypto wallet to Facebook’s payout platform and receive funds directly on the Solana or Polygon blockchains. The rollout is live now, though it remains limited to eligible creators in those two countries for the moment. Polygon confirmed the launch on Wednesday, adding that expansion to more than 160 markets is expected soon. “This is how creators’ lives are improved,” the blockchain network said, pointing to faster settlement times and access to dollar-denominated assets as key benefits for users outside the US. The future of marketplace commerce is on Polygon.@Meta launched stablecoin payouts for creators on the Polygon Chain. Live in Colombia and the Philippines, with 160+ markets coming, users now get faster settlement with USDC while gaining access to dollar denominated assets. pic.twitter.com/hjodzNpuyU — Polygon | POL (@0xPolygon) April 29, 2026 One catch: Meta does not convert USDC to local currency. Creators who want cash will need to use an outside exchange on their own. The company also reserved the right to pay through alternate methods if technical problems arise. Big Scale, Careful Rollout The creator pool affected by this change is broad. Meta’s platforms — Facebook and Instagram — host influencers, educators, and entertainers who earn through content posted on the apps. According to company data, that creator base collectively received close to $3 billion from Facebook alone last year. USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle, ranks as the second-largest stablecoin by market value. Data from DeFiLlama puts its market cap at over $77 billion as of Thursday. Tether’s USDT still leads the market at a little over $189 billion. Stablecoins have been gaining traction across the financial industry. Reports indicate that banks and financial institutions in Europe are actively picking infrastructure partners to support stablecoin adoption, a sign that corporate interest in the technology has moved well beyond cryptocurrency circles. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst The Ghost Of Diem Meta’s history with stablecoins is complicated. The company first entered the space in 2019 under the name Libra, which was later rebranded as Diem. The project ran into a wall of regulatory opposition from central banks and lawmakers who raised concerns about financial stability, privacy, and consumer protection. In January 2022, the project acknowledged it could not move forward and sold its assets to Silvergate Capital Corporation. This time, Meta is not building its own stablecoin. By using USDC — an already-regulated, widely accepted digital dollar — the company sidesteps much of the friction that doomed Diem. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

A crypto analyst has placed a seven-figure bet against Dogecoin, warning that the market looks dangerously overextended. CryptoQuant’s JA Maartun opened a short position of 1 million DOGE, citing a sharp and rapid buildup of leveraged contracts that he described as a risky setup. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst The Numbers Behind The Warning DOGE futures open interest climbed 33% in just five days, jumping from roughly 505 million to approximately 683 million DOGE contracts. The surge was steady, beginning around April 23 and peaking close to 685 million before settling slightly. What made the move stand out wasn’t just the size — it was the fact that price barely moved during the same period. DOGE traded in a narrow band between $0.094 and $0.101 while the contract volume swelled. That kind of divergence typically signals traders piling into positions on borrowed exposure rather than actual buying in the spot market. Maartun’s short targets a price of around $0.09069, which would represent roughly a 10% drop from where DOGE was trading at the time of his post. DOGE: Open Interest is up +33% in the last 5 days. ???? pic.twitter.com/zVvia03RGh — Maartunn (@JA_Maartun) April 28, 2026 A Crowded Market With Nowhere To Hide When open interest rises sharply without a matching move in price, it creates tension. Both sides of the trade — long and short — become vulnerable to a sudden unwind. If buyers can’t push DOGE higher, overleveraged long positions may be forced to close, sending the price down fast. If sellers miscalculate, a short squeeze can push it sharply upward instead. Either way, the setup tends to produce volatility. Maartun acknowledged the risk openly, calling his own trade a “risky” one before placing it anyway. That kind of candor is uncommon in crypto commentary, where analysts often present calls with more confidence than the data supports. Bitcoin is currently futures-driven. Open interest is rising, but on-chain apparent demand remains net negative despite ETF inflows and Saylor buys. Historically, bear markets end when both spot and futures demand recover. pic.twitter.com/HcCjBQTniL — Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) April 27, 2026 Bitcoin’s Weakness Adds Pressure The situation for DOGE doesn’t exist in isolation. Reports indicate that CryptoQuant’s CEO Ki Young Ju flagged a similar pattern in Bitcoin earlier, noting that BTC’s push toward $79,000 had been driven by futures activity rather than real demand. Related Reading: Crypto Markets Rattle As Bitcoin Sinks Under $77K Following Oil Spike On-chain data showed spot buying was still negative even as institutions and ETF inflows kept headlines bullish. Bitcoin subsequently pulled back toward $75,000 — and altcoins like DOGE felt the pressure. With Bitcoin retreating and DOGE futures open interest at elevated levels, the path of least resistance may be downward. A broader market dip would likely accelerate any unwind of crowded DOGE positions, given how quickly sentiment can shift in lower-cap assets. Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin (BTC) failed again to push back above the $80,000 level this week, a price point that has remained stubbornly resistant since early February. After struggling through the latest attempt to break higher, BTC retraced to around $75,400 on Wednesday. Bloomberg attributes part of this stagnation to a less visible but powerful force: positioning in the options market. According to the report, a concentrated set of call options has built up around the $80,000 strike on Deribit. Why Bitcoin Keeps Stalling Near $80,000 As Andy Baehr, managing director of asset management at GSR, explained in the report, many speculators are choosing to sell calls at $80,000 because it is viewed as a “safe” area to monetize premiums. The other side of those trades is where the pressure begins.  Dealers who buy the calls often hedge by selling Bitcoin, creating what Baehr described as an “electric fence” effect—an arrangement that makes it harder for BTC to surge through the strike level without an unusual catalyst. That helps explain why Bitcoin has still struggled to clear $80,000.  Related Reading: Galaxy Digital Posts $200M Quarterly Loss—Did Hyperliquid Help Avoid New Crisis? The options picture is reinforced by activity levels in broader markets. The report also points to on-chain data and platform metrics suggesting that the group (retail) that drove the earlier rally has largely stepped back. Instead, many are said to be nursing losses or waiting for clearer signals.  At the same time, a persistently bearish Bitcoin futures market and slowing spot demand have encouraged some traders to underwrite more call options, aiming to capture premium income on the expectation that Bitcoin will not meaningfully trade above the $80,000 strike over the coming months. May Expiries, Rolling Calls, And Stock-Driven Volatility Deribit’s $80,000 Bitcoin calls appear especially concentrated in the late May and June expiries. According to market data provider Kaiko, out of roughly $1.5 billion in notional call open interest, contracts totaling $160 million are set to expire on May 1, with an additional $566 million expiring on May 29.  Those clustering dates can matter because they concentrate both hedging activity and speculative behavior into specific time windows. Thomas Erdösi, head of product at CF Benchmarks, said the pattern suggests persistent call selling and evidence of “systematic rolling.” In other words, rather than allowing positions to roll off naturally, market participants may keep moving risk forward in a way that maintains pressure near the strike.  Erdösi also cautioned that options positioning alone does not tell the whole story, noting there are signs of profit-taking into the $80,000 area for Bitcoin as well. Related Reading: XRP Price Target At $18,000: Expert Says—Only One Condition Must Be Met Finally, the report flags that volatility outside crypto may spill into Bitcoin’s price action. With equities showing sharper movement in recent sessions, BTC has tended to follow along.  Bohan Jiang, senior derivatives trader at FalconX, suggested that this could contribute to a more stabilizing pattern around $80,000. In his view, with stocks “chopping around” recently, Bitcoin’s behavior has mirrored that uncertainty—helping explain why attempts to break through the level keep stalling. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin’s technical indicators had just started flashing warning signs when crude oil markets made things worse. The MACD histogram turned red — a signal that buying pressure was fading — right as West Texas Intermediate crude surged past $104 a barrel, rattling risk assets across the board. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst Bitcoin Gives Back Recent Gains BTC had clawed its way above $78,000 earlier this week, briefly restoring confidence among buyers. That recovery is now gone. The cryptocurrency slipped below $77,000 on April 28, trading at $76,180 — its lowest level since April 22, when it had just reclaimed that threshold after weeks of struggling beneath it. The $77,000 mark carries weight in Bitcoin’s recent history. The asset first broke below it in early February and spent a prolonged stretch under it. A failed retest on April 17 kept sellers in control. The brief breakout on April 22 looked like a turning point. It wasn’t. For Bitcoin to get back on track, analysts say it needs to retake $77,000 and push through the upper Bollinger Band near $79,850. Until then, the immediate floor sits around $75,490, near the middle Bollinger Band — a level BTC has bounced from before, though holding it is far from guaranteed. Oil Jumps As Iran Talks Hit A Wall The backdrop driving the sell-off is a breakdown in US-Iran negotiations. On April 27, Iran put forward a new proposal through Pakistani intermediaries. The offer included reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting a US blockade, while asking to push nuclear discussions to a later stage. US President Donald Trump rejected it. His administration made clear that the terms didn’t go far enough — particularly on nuclear weapons, which Trump said Iran could not be allowed to develop. A planned US delegation trip to Islamabad had already been canceled after earlier Iranian terms were seen as insufficient, with travel security concerns also cited. Indirect back-channel communication continues, but face-to-face talks remain frozen. Oil markets moved fast. WTI crude shot from $98 to a peak of $104 before pulling back slightly to $101. That still left it up 2.50% on the day and more than 4% on the week, following a 12.70% surge the prior week. Related Reading: Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Could Be Near As White House Signals Major Update Crypto Markets Feel The Pressure Bitcoin retreated 2% on April 28 after sliding 1.64% the previous day. The consecutive losses erased what had looked like a meaningful recovery, leaving the asset more than $3,000 below where it traded just days earlier. Broader market uncertainty tied to Middle East tensions is adding to the pressure. When oil climbs sharply, it typically signals supply fears and geopolitical instability — conditions that tend to push investors away from higher-risk assets like crypto. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin could fall to around $30,000 before the year is out — at least according to one widely followed chart analyst. That bleak projection, drawn from a pattern tied to US midterm election years, is adding fresh weight to a growing skepticism about whether Bitcoin can reach $250,000 in 2026. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst Pattern Tied To Election Years Raises Red Flags Analyst Merlijn The Trader pointed to a recurring tendency for Bitcoin to sell off sharply in May of midterm election years. In 2014, Bitcoin dropped 60%. In 2018, it fell 65%. In 2022, the decline hit 66%. Each of those drops started around May. If 2026 follows the same script, Bitcoin — currently trading near $77,000 — could lose more than 60% of its value, landing somewhere close to $30,000. THREE WORDS. THREE CYCLES. ZERO EXCEPTIONS. Sell. In. May. But only in mid-term election years. 2014: -61%. 2018: -65%. 2022: -66%. 2026: mid-term year. -60.73% is pointing to $30K. May is approaching. The chart doesn’t lie. The calendar doesn’t either. pic.twitter.com/qUshNbIHPN — Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) April 27, 2026 Capital Group analysts have noted that midterm elections tend to increase market uncertainty, as campaign activity picks up in the spring and investors pull back from riskier assets. That environment, they say, historically pushes people toward caution. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is already trading roughly 40% below its October 2025 record high of approximately $126,000. Despite that slide, high-profile bulls like billionaire Tim Draper and Fundstrat’s Tom Lee have not walked back their $250,000 year-end target — a price that would require the cryptocurrency to more than triple from where it sits today. Bitcoiners Those of you predicting $250,000 in 2026 need to stop with the mushrooms This is called a channel $BTC While it does not preclude further price gains, it is NOT a bullish bottoming pattern The Factor Report reports on classical chart analysis https://t.co/6nRit1xsVp pic.twitter.com/ApMM46KFla — The Factor Report (@PeterLBrandt) April 27, 2026 Peter Brandt Tells Bulls To Put Down The Mushrooms Veteran futures trader Peter Brandt has been blunter than most. Reacting to the $250,000 predictions, Brandt posted on social media: “Those of you predicting $250,000 in 2026 need to stop with the mushrooms.” He pointed to what he described as a bear flag channel forming on Bitcoin’s daily chart — not a bottoming pattern, he stressed, but a continuation of the existing downtrend. Based on the setup, BTC tested resistance near $79,500 before showing signs of pulling back. A move down to the flag’s lower boundary, around $69,000, is possible in May if selling pressure returns. A more severe breakdown below that line, Brandt warned, could push Bitcoin under $50,000. Halving Cycle Data Suggests The Peak May Already Be In The halving cycle history makes the bear case harder to dismiss. Bitcoin’s price peaks have historically arrived 12 to 18 months after each halving event. After the 2012 halving, the peak came in 12 months. After 2016, it arrived in 17. After 2020, it took 18 months. Related Reading: Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Could Be Near As White House Signals Major Update The most recent halving happened in April 2024. Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $126,000 in October 2025 — right at the 17 to 18-month mark. Now, more than 24 months past that halving, the price sits around $77,000 and is still declining. That timeline, analysts say, lines up closely with prior cycle peaks, suggesting the top for this cycle may already be behind us. Not everyone is ready to call it a bear market, though. Analysts at Bernstein have pointed to a potential recovery toward the $100,000 to $150,000 range, a more measured view that neither chases the $250,000 target nor surrenders to the most bearish projections. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

Galaxy Digital reported a tough start to the year as crypto prices fell and market values broadly contracted. In its first-quarter (Q1) results, the company reported a net loss of $216 million while the total crypto market capitalization slid by roughly 20% during the same period.  Despite that difficult environment, Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz said in an interview with Bloomberg that Hyperliquid (HYPE) helped the company avoid even worse outcomes. Galaxy Digital Q1 Snapshot In Galaxy’s Q1 2026 reporting, the company attributed the net loss primarily to the depreciation of digital asset prices over the quarter. The firm also posted an adjusted gross loss of $88 million, along with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $188 million. On a per-share basis, Galaxy reported diluted and adjusted EPS of $0.49.  Even with the losses, Galaxy Digital ended the quarter with a solid balance sheet, including total equity of $2.8 billion and cash plus stablecoin holdings totaling $2.6 billion as of March 31, 2026. The company said it ended Q1 with approximately $5 billion in assets under management and $3.2 billion in assets under stake.  Related Reading: XRP $10 By 2027? Top Expert Flags Two Must-Happen Catalysts For A Bull Run At the same time, the firm reported that its asset management segment generated $69 million in net inflows across the quarter, suggesting demand still existed even as pricing pressure weighed on performance. Novogratz’s comments focused on how Galaxy Digital managed risk and exposure while markets moved against crypto. He said the balance sheet “lost money because crypto prices were down,” but argued Galaxy “way outperformed” what would have happened if it had not taken steps to adjust its positions.  Hyperliquid As The ‘Future Of Crypto’? According to Novogratz, the company cut some positions and shifted a significant portion of its level two exposure into Hyperliquid. He described Hyperliquid as one of the tokens he has discussed previously and indicated that the platform’s structure stands out in the sector. In explaining the reasoning behind Galaxy’s support, Novogratz said he backed Hyperliquid “mostly because it’s got an economic model,” contrasting it with other tokens he described as being more “association tokens.”  The executive added that Hyperliquid provides a way to look at what the future of crypto could look like, framing it as a more substantive approach compared with projects that function differently. Galaxy Digital’s relationship with Hyperliquid goes beyond investment interest. The company has significant exposure to Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, and it also acts as a validator on the network.  Bitcoin Over $100,000 Again? Novogratz also addressed Bitcoin’s (BTC) current price action. He noted that if Bitcoin manages to climb back above $100,000, it may still be difficult for the asset to sustain that level depending on broader economic conditions.  Related Reading: Solana Prepares For The Quantum Era: Foundation Details Step-By-Step Transition He pointed out that to reach that price “you’re going to need a few things to happen,” and emphasized that easing from central banks would be central to the equation. However, he cautioned that macroeconomic pressures are unlikely to ease quickly, citing inflation concerns tied to current events.  Galaxy Digital CEO referenced the war in Iran and said “we’ve got some pretty ugly inflation prints that are going to come through the pipeline,” adding that, in his view, “I don’t think the Fed does anything but sits and watches.” Despite the quarterly loss, Galaxy Digital’s stock (trading under the ticker symbol GLXY) surged around 4% during Tuesday’s trading session, reaching $26 per share. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid’s native token saw a 5% loss and retraced to $39.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin’s valuation against gold has dropped to one of its lowest levels on record — a signal that, historically, has shown up near major market bottoms. Related Reading: Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Could Be Near As White House Signals Major Update A Pattern Worth Watching That’s one of the key observations from crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe, who believes Bitcoin is building toward new all-time highs before the year is out. Van de Poppe points to the relationship between Bitcoin and gold as a telling sign. When gold rallies hard, Bitcoin often lags. But once gold peaks, Bitcoin has tended to catch up — and then some. That rotation, he argues, may already be in motion. His broader case rests on more than just one metric. The Sharpe ratio — a measure of return relative to risk — is currently sitting at levels that mirror past bear market floors: 2015, 2018, and 2022. Each of those periods was followed by significant price recoveries. Based on that pattern, van de Poppe believes Bitcoin is undervalued right now and offers a strong risk-reward setup for long-term investors. Short-term dips, he said, remain possible. But the overall structure of the market, in his view, points higher. Key Price Levels To Watch Bitcoin recently hit a 12-week high before pulling back. It is now working to hold above the $77,000 mark. According to van de Poppe, $79,000 is the critical resistance line. A clean break above it would open the door to a move between $86,000 and $95,000. From there, $110,000 becomes the next target over a six-month window. On the downside, $73,500 is the level to watch. If that support holds, the uptrend stays intact. If it breaks, a deeper retest could come before any renewed push higher. Data shows that Bitcoin dropped close to $60,000 back in February before snapping back sharply — a move that caught many traders off guard. That kind of recovery against bearish sentiment is not unusual in past cycles, reports note. Related Reading: Trump Memecoin Gala Leaves Crypto Battling Fresh Credibility Crisis A Big Target For Year’s End The long-range call is the one drawing the most attention. Van de Poppe sees Bitcoin reaching between $150,000 and $160,000 by late 2026 — a level that would represent new all-time high territory. He bases that projection on historical cycle behavior, which has shown 30% to 50% gains within three months of a confirmed low. Whether that bottom is already in remains an open question. But for van de Poppe, the signals are stacking up in one direction. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The crypto market is consolidating after months of bearish price action, with participants navigating an environment defined by geopolitical tension, macro uncertainty, and a price structure that has yet to confirm a clear direction. In this context, top analyst Darkfost has identified a behavioral shift that cuts across the usual boundaries between crypto and traditional finance — and what it reveals about where market participants are directing their attention is worth understanding. Related Reading: XRP’s Recovery Is Real, But The Risk Appetite Behind It Is Still Broken – Analyst Since Binance launched gold futures trading in January, the platform has recorded more than $100 billion in trading volume. That figure, accumulated in under four months, is not a product success story. It is a behavioral signal. The participants who typically live in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins have collectively directed nine figures into the world’s oldest safe-haven asset — and the environment driving that demand is the same one currently suppressing crypto prices. Ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States continue to limit market visibility and sustain demand for assets that hold value through uncertainty. Gold has been the primary beneficiary of that dynamic, posting gains of approximately 210% since October 2023 before the correction that began in late January. That correction has since brought gold 16.5% below its all-time high. The safe-haven trade has not reversed — it has pulled back. And in markets, 16.5% corrections after 210% rallies tend to attract a specific kind of attention. $6.6 Billion in a Single Day — and the Demand Has Not Gone Away The volume evolution on Binance’s gold futures tells the story of a market that found its audience faster than almost anyone anticipated. Standard sessions now regularly record between $500 million and $1 billion in trading activity — a baseline that would have been considered extraordinary for a product that did not exist four months ago. During the February correction and again in late March, that baseline was left behind entirely. Multiple sessions exceeded $3 billion, and on March 23 the platform recorded $6.6 billion in a single day — a figure that reflects institutional-scale participation, not retail curiosity. Darkfost frames the current consolidation in gold’s price as structurally natural rather than structurally concerning. After a 210% rally over two years, a 16.5% correction represents the kind of profit-taking that follows any sustained advance — and the persistence of Binance gold futures volume through that correction suggests the underlying demand has not reversed alongside the price. The structural advantage Binance introduced is worth naming directly. Traditional gold markets close on weekends. Binance does not. For a market participant whose primary trading environment operates continuously — where geopolitical developments on a Saturday morning can move prices before any traditional venue opens — permanent access to gold exposure is not a convenience. It is a capability that did not previously exist for this audience. Darkfost’s assessment is that Binance made the right call. The $100 billion in volume and the $6.6 billion single-day record suggest the market agrees. Related Reading: Ethereum Buyers Stepping In Right Now Are the Most Aggressive Since Early 2023: Is the Bottom In? BTC/XAU Ratio Tests Structural Support After Sharp Breakdown The BTC/XAU ratio is attempting to stabilize after a decisive breakdown that shifted the relative strength balance back in favor of gold. After topping near the 35–37 zone, the ratio entered a sustained downtrend. Losing both its short-term and medium-term moving averages in sequence — a clear signal that Bitcoin has been underperforming gold across this phase of the market. The recent move lower into the 13–15 range marked a significant reset. That level aligns with prior consolidation zones from 2023, suggesting the market has returned to a historically relevant demand area. The reaction so far has been constructive but not yet convincing. Price has bounced modestly and is now attempting to reclaim the 17 level, but it remains below the declining 50-week and 100-week moving averages, which continue to act as dynamic resistance. Related Reading: Chainlink Is Getting Cheaper, And Whales Are Not Buying The Dip: Discount Or A Trap? Volume expanded notably during the selloff, indicating that the move was driven by strong conviction rather than thin liquidity. The subsequent rebound, by contrast, has occurred on lighter participation — a detail that raises questions about its durability. Structurally, the ratio remains in a corrective phase. A sustained reclaim of the 20–23 region would be required to suggest a shift back toward Bitcoin outperformance. Until then, the trend continues to favor gold. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Nuva is a marketplace for tokenized real-world assets that aims to help users earn yield by connecting issuers and users directly.

The round was co-led by growth equity firm Left Lane Capital and venture firm Neo, an early backer of Kalshi.

Young workers between 18 and 45 are the target audience for a new Bitcoin investment product quietly launched last month by Porvenir, the largest pension fund administrator in Colombia. Related Reading: XRP Signals Imminent Breakout — Is A 10% Rally Coming? The fund says it designed the offering specifically for people who want to diversify their retirement savings but have never had a regulated, simple way to do it. A Low Bar To Entry The minimum investment is COP100,000 — roughly $25. That figure alone separates this product from most institutional crypto offerings, which typically carry thresholds that exclude lower-income workers. Porvenir manages about 25% of Colombia’s total pension assets, and the country’s pension system covers around 60% of its working population, according to World Bank data. The numbers suggest the product’s reach could be significant over time. The fund does not buy Bitcoin directly. Instead, it routes investor money into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, known as IBIT, which tracks Bitcoin’s price and manages more than $50 billion in assets. That structure means account holders gain price exposure without needing to set up a crypto wallet, remember a private key, or worry about their holdings being hacked. Porvenir has been open about what the product does not do. It does not shield investors from price swings. If Bitcoin falls, so does the portfolio. Before anyone can put money in, a risk assessment must be completed to confirm they understand what they’re getting into. Not The Only Fund Moving This Way Porvenir is not the first Colombian pension manager to go this route. Protección and Skandia have already released similar products. Juan David Correa, president of Protección, said access to Bitcoin should be part of a long-term diversification approach rather than a way to chase short-term gains. The products at both firms are limited to voluntary pension plans — mandatory retirement savings are kept separate. The product was officially announced at the Asofondos Annual Congress in Cartagena in April 2026. Porvenir operates as the pension arm of Grupo Aval. Related Reading: Trump Memecoin Gala Leaves Crypto Battling Fresh Credibility Crisis Voluntary Accounts Only The Crypto Porvenir Portfolio sits within voluntary pension accounts, not mandatory ones. That distinction matters. Workers are not automatically enrolled or exposed to Bitcoin through their required contributions. Participation is a deliberate choice, subject to a screening process. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The Solana Foundation has addressed growing concerns about the potential impact of quantum computing on blockchain security. In a blog post published on Monday, the organization set out its next steps and described a clear roadmap that the network could follow should the threat become more than theoretical. The Solana Post-Quantum Signature Plan  Even though the risk is still considered distant, the Solana Foundation argued that networks should study the issue and prepare early, rather than waiting until a crisis forces rushed decisions.  A key part of Solana’s preparation, the Foundation said, involves Anza and Firedancer, two validator client developers that together represent a substantial share of stake in the network.  Related Reading: Bitcoin Could Hit New All-Time High Fast On Quantum Fix, Capriole Founder Says Both teams have been allegedly investigating post-quantum migration paths closely, and they reached the same conclusion independently: Solana would need a post-quantum digital signature scheme that uses compact signatures and is suitable for high-throughput blockchain environments. That shared direction led both teams to a post-quantum signature approach known as Falcon. Solana said that research from both groups resulted in initial implementations. Importantly, the organization emphasized that no immediate network change is required today, and it is unlikely to be needed in the near term.  However, the Foundation said the Solana ecosystem now has a plan that has been thoroughly researched, could be activated when the time is right, and is designed so that the transition would be manageable.  The blog post also claimed the migration could occur quickly and that network performance is not expected to take a meaningful hit during the switch. From Winternitz Vault To New Wallets Beyond the validator client work, the Foundation said the wider Solana ecosystem has already been proactive in the post-quantum space. It pointed to Blueshift’s “Solana Winternitz Vault,” which it described as offering a direct route to quantum resilience and said has been in place for more than two years.  The post then laid out a roadmap for how Solana says it will handle quantum readiness as the conversation evolves. The first step is to keep researching quantum threats and continuing to evaluate Falcon along with potential alternatives.  Related Reading: Bitcoin Is Headed For $40,000: Analyst Reveals The Best Time To Buy BTC Solana’s next move, if quantum becomes a credible concern, would be to adopt a post-quantum scheme for new wallets. From there, the Foundation says the ecosystem would migrate existing wallets to the selected post-quantum approach.  Finally, the Solana Foundation’s blog post said that it will continue sharing updates as the work progresses, describing post-quantum readiness as an ongoing effort rather than a one-time project. At the time of writing, the blockchain’s native token, SOL, was trading at $84.42. This represented losses of 2% and 1.5% in the 24-hour and seven-day time frames, respectively.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Bitcoin is moving through another major reset following its 42% crash from its all-time high. However, what appears to be a sharp decline may actually be laying the foundation for the next phase of growth. A crypto expert believes the pullback is revealing underlying strength, pointing to a structure that remains intact despite short-term pressure. Bitcoin Cycles Show Why Crypto Market Crashes Can Be Healthy The recent decline in the total crypto market cap, which pushed it down by about 46% from its $4.22 trillion peak, reflects a pattern that has often appeared before major rallies. Crypto enthusiast @DamiDefi drew attention to this, noting that similar pullbacks have historically occurred at key turning points, often just before strong upward moves begin. Related Reading: Will Ethereum Reach $250,000 Before Bitcoin? Here’s What Needs To Happen This observation is supported by the chart he shared. It shows the market returning to the $2.25 trillion zone, a level that has consistently acted as support since 2021. As @DamiDefi highlighted, the latest retest followed the same structure, with buyers stepping in once again to defend the level and limit further downside. This consistent reaction around the same zone strengthens the idea that the market still rests on solid foundations. The data further suggests that funds are not exiting the market entirely but are instead moving between assets. During periods like this, capital often shifts quietly into areas that have been overlooked or undervalued. In this way, the correction does more than reduce prices. It allows the market to reset, reposition, and rebuild strength more gradually. This process plays a key role in creating a more stable base for future growth while reducing the chances of fragile, short-lived rallies. Bitcoin Faces Key Resistance As Recovery Builds With support holding firm, attention is now turning to the next challenge, which @DamiDefi identified in his analysis. The market is currently trading around $2.58 trillion, a level that previously acted as resistance in both 2021 and 2024. This makes it a critical point in the current structure. Related Reading: Why The PEPE Price Could Stage A 55X Rally To Reach New $0.0001 ATH For the recovery to continue, this resistance needs to turn into support. A strong monthly close above $2.58 trillion would signal that buyers are gaining control again. If that happens, the next target lies between $3.5 trillion and $3.85 trillion, a zone where price faced rejection during the 2025 highs. There are already signs of momentum building. The monthly candle is up about 10.90%, and there is still time left before it closes. This steady upward movement, combined with the strong support at $2.25 trillion, suggests that Bitcoin’s crash from its ATH may have helped reset the market, allowing the price to rebuild with stronger conviction. Looking at the full picture, the decline from Bitcoin’s ATH appears to fit into a familiar cycle. As @DamiDefi highlighted, large pullbacks like this have often come before major rallies. With key support holding and resistance now in focus, the current phase may not be a setback, but a necessary step in Bitcoin’s broader growth cycle. Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com

Strategy’s preferred equity instrument, STRC, has been trading below its $100 par value — a detail that has quietly drawn attention from investors watching the company’s ability to keep funding its Bitcoin purchases. RR Saturn Steps In As Questions Mount The company behind the Bitcoin treasury strategy recently attracted fresh capital despite the uncertainty. Saturn, a STRC-backed yield provider, put $18 million into STRC, bringing its total investment to $33 million. The move came even as critics questioned whether demand for the instrument is strong enough to sustain Strategy’s aggressive acquisition pace. STRC offers holders a monthly payout with an annual return of 11.5%, and the funds raised through it go directly toward buying more Bitcoin. Still, the stock sitting below par has prompted questions. An account tracking STRC activity posted online over the weekend, estimating that the past week saw roughly zero Bitcoin purchased. “What will Monday’s 8-K confirm?” the post asked. The ₿eat Goes On. pic.twitter.com/tBDs2z0b4z — Michael Saylor (@saylor) April 26, 2026 That question may already have an answer in the works. Saylor Posts The Orange Dots — Again On Sunday, April 26, Michael Saylor posted on X with a simple message: “The Beat Goes On.” Attached was Strategy’s so-called “Orange Dots” chart, a visual record of every Bitcoin purchase the company has made. Based on past trends, the post is widely read as a signal that another acquisition announcement is coming. Strategy now holds more than 815,000 Bitcoin. Last Monday, the company added to that total with a $2.54 billion purchase, cementing its position as the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world. No other publicly traded company comes close. The title of Saylor’s post — “The Beat Goes On” — captures the tone he has maintained for years: steady accumulation, public signaling, and near-total indifference to critics. BTC Schiff Calls It A ‘Ponzi’ Scheme Peter Schiff, one of Bitcoin’s most vocal long-term critics, has been especially focused on STRC lately. He has called it “the most obvious Ponzi that has ever existed” and warned that the math behind the product doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. The claim that Bitcoin only has to rise by 2% per year to cover the 11.5% yield on $STRC indefinitely assumes $MSTR stops issuing STRC. But Saylor is actually increasing issuance. The more STRC MSTR sells, the more BTC must rise to cover the yield. Also, if the price of STRC… — Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) April 25, 2026 His argument centers on the relationship between STRC issuance and Bitcoin’s price growth. According to Schiff, the claim that Bitcoin only needs to rise 2% annually to cover STRC’s 11.5% yield assumes the company stops issuing more STRC. RR If issuance grows, the required rate of Bitcoin appreciation rises with it. He also warned Saylor of potential lawsuits, saying the product’s marketing could be considered misleading. Schiff sees only one exit from what he calls a death spiral — canceling the dividend. But he says that move would itself trigger steep losses across STRC, Strategy’s stock, and Bitcoin prices. Strategy has not publicly responded to Schiff’s claims. Saylor, for his part, appears unmoved. The orange dots keep getting added to the chart. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView

Three sitting US senators have opened a formal investigation into a dinner event tied to US President Donald Trump’s memecoin, with questions mounting over whether the arrangement amounts to a “pay-to-play” scheme that funneled money from ordinary investors to a tight circle of insiders. Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Big Players Are Accumulating — Is $80K Just The Start? Senators Move To Examine The Event The dinner became a flashpoint after analyst Simon Dedic posted on X that the Trump-linked token had been used to drain money from retail buyers at a scale that dwarfs many past crypto failures. Based on his figures, roughly $4.3 billion left the pockets of everyday investors. About $1.2 billion of that ended up in wallets controlled by insiders, while $320 million reportedly went to entities connected to the Trump family. I am wondering whether the Trump memecoin dinner tonight is one of the most damaging thing that has happened to crypto’s reputation in years. Even worse than FTX or Luna. Those at least pretended to be something legitimate before they collapsed. But this is the President of the… pic.twitter.com/l9nzwaN1jv — Simon Dedic (@sjdedic) April 25, 2026 The token itself has lost around 95% of its value from its peak. An estimated 2 million holders are now sitting on losses — most of them late buyers who entered based on hype and name recognition rather than any underlying project. A Different Kind Of Collapse What sets this situation apart from earlier crypto disasters is how it unfolded. The FTX collapse and the Terra Luna crash were painful. But both projects, at least on the surface, claimed to offer something real before they fell apart. Reports indicate that critics see this situation differently — less about a failed experiment, more about a structure that was designed to benefit a few from the start. That framing is what has made the Trump memecoin dinner such a charged topic in crypto circles. The blending of political branding, celebrity influence, and speculative trading has put the story in front of audiences far beyond the usual crypto crowd. That visibility cuts both ways. It draws attention to the losses suffered by retail investors, but it also puts crypto itself under a harsher light at a time when the industry has been trying to build mainstream credibility. Related Reading: XRP Signals Imminent Breakout — Is A 10% Rally Coming? Credibility On The Line The congressional scrutiny comes as the broader crypto industry watches closely. Two million holders are now on record as having lost money on the token, a number large enough to draw attention from lawmakers who have long questioned whether the space needs tighter oversight. That pressure was already building before this event surfaced. The investigation by the three senators has yet to produce formal findings. But its existence alone signals that this story is moving beyond crypto forums and into the kind of political and regulatory territory that could have lasting consequences for the industry. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Crypto analyst Trader Tardigrade is pointing to a setup that could define Dogecoin’s next major move. The Dogecoin monthly candlestick chart, which stretches back to 2014, shows a pattern that has played out with remarkable consistency, almost mechanical in nature.  According to that structure, Dogecoin is now sitting right at the level where previous price explosions have been triggered. Related Reading: Stablecoins Go Institutional As Morgan Stanley Rolls Out New Portfolio A Pattern That Has Played Out Twice Before Dogecoin is still trading below $0.10 into the last week of April, languishing well below its cycle peak of $0.48 and largely ignored by many crypto investors. But for Trader Tardigrade, that lack of action may be precisely the point.  The structure at the center of Trader Tardigrade’s analysis is a descending triangle that appears to form on Dogecoin’s monthly chart at the end of every major market cycle. Looking at the monthly chart below, Dogecoin initially broke above this triangle formation in 2024. However, the meme coin has been on a price correction path since late 2024, and is now at the point of retesting the apex of the triangle. Interestingly, similar retests of the apex of the triangle, which is its tightest, most compressed point, have always indicated the precise moment before an explosive move to the upside. Back in 2017, Dogecoin compressed into the tip of such a formation and then surged in what became its first significant bull run. The pattern repeated in 2020, when the DOGE price once again coiled into the triangle’s apex before exploding into the historic 2021 rally that took the meme coin to a peak of $0.73. Now, in 2026, Trader Tardigrade is pointing to a third convergence. The monthly chart shows price action once again compressing and retesting the triangle’s tip. Dogecoin’s Price Chart. Source: @TATrader_Alan On X Dogecoin Price Projection According to Trader Tardigrade, when Dogecoin comes back to the tip of the triangle, it doesn’t ask permission. The prediction is a bounce from the triangle’s apex that pushes the Dogecoin price into new price territories. Notably, the analyst’s projection sees Dogecoin going as high as $2.4 if the bounce plays out in full. Although the pattern itself is clear, the broader market environment will likely play a key role in determining how this setup unfolds. This is because Dogecoin’s previous rallies coincided with strong bullish phases across the crypto market. The crypto market is more complex right now, and the fundamental landscape around Dogecoin in 2026 is materially different from what existed in prior cycles.  Related Reading: XRP Signals Imminent Breakout — Is A 10% Rally Coming? Bitcoin, for one, needs to stabilize into a full bullish momentum first. The leading cryptocurrency has been attempting to stabilize above $78,000, while capital flows into the industry have picked up in recent days. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Wallets holding at least 1 million BONE quietly grew their positions by over 4% in April — a detail that might say more about where this token is headed than any single-week spike in new addresses. Related Reading: XRP Signals Imminent Breakout — Is A 10% Rally Coming? Validator Activity Drives Holder Surge BONE, the gas token powering Shiba Inu’s Layer-2 blockchain Shibarium, crossed 93,000 holder addresses this week after adding 5,653 new wallets in seven days. That weekly growth rate hit 87%, a sharp jump from the prior week. According to the Shibizens X account, operated by the Shibarium team, most of that growth traces back to validator re-delegations on the network rather than a wave of new retail buyers. Etherscan data confirmed the total at 93,010 at the time of reporting. $BONE holder count has surpassed 93,000 addresses. ???? +5,653 new holders in the last 7 days → ~87% increase vs the previous week Key drivers: • Validator re-delegations on Shibarium Observed trends: • Tokens moving off exchanges into non-custodial wallets • Increased… pic.twitter.com/svq50JlfYP — Shibarium | SHIB.IO (@Shibizens) April 23, 2026 On-chain data also shows BONE tokens moving away from centralized exchanges and into non-custodial wallets. Reports from Shibizens indicate transaction activity is climbing alongside an expanding active user base — trends that typically point to reduced short-term selling pressure and growing user confidence in the network. Big Wallets Holding Long, Holding More The 4.2% position increase among large holders in April has pushed their collective share to almost 60% of total supply. These top wallets aren’t new to the token. Based on reports from Shibizens, their average holding period sits around 412 days — well over a year — suggesting major participants are focused on Shibarium’s longer-term trajectory rather than reacting to short-term price swings. Trading volume also moved sharply higher, rising 51.77% over a 24-hour window to reach $1.7 million. That spike in volume came even as BONE’s price remained under pressure, trading around $0.05766 — a 2.5% drop in a single day. Price Gap Remains A Heavy Overhang The numbers paint a complicated picture. Year-to-date, BONE has lost 28% of its value. Over the past month alone, it shed more than 10%. Those losses are part of a much larger decline that has stretched over years. Related Reading: Stablecoins Go Institutional As Morgan Stanley Rolls Out New Portfolio BONE once traded at $41.67 — its all-time high, reached in September 2021. At its current price, the token sits 99.86% below that peak. The gap between where BONE trades today and where it once stood is something no single week of holder growth can paper over. The BONE network surpassed 93,000 holders following what the Shibarium team is calling a massive weekly surge. Whether the holder growth, rising volume, and accumulation by large wallets point to something bigger — or simply reflect routine network activity — remains to be seen. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin has spent April staging a recovery from its March lows, briefly climbing back above $79,000. However, not everyone is convinced of the rebound, and some analysts believe the move is only a mid-bear-market rally before a deeper correction.  One such analyst is one that previously predicted a coming peak in July 2025. Now, the same analyst is predicting how far the Bitcoin price still has to fall before it puts in a true bottom. Related Reading: Stablecoins Go Institutional As Morgan Stanley Rolls Out New Portfolio Analyst Uses Previous Top Model To Predict Bitcoin Bottom Crypto analyst Killa made a cycle-top prediction of $121,362 back in June 2025. This call was made months before Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $126,100 in October 2025 and it was off by only about 3.9%. Now, using the same analytical framework that generated that call, Killa has turned the model toward the downside. The principle behind the projection is that each successive Bitcoin market cycle produces a smaller multiple relative to the prior cycle’s bottom, reflecting the maturation of the asset. His data across five cycles shows the high-to-bottom multiple declining from 15.50x in the first cycle to 7.64x, then 6.26x, and then 4.47x in Cycle 4, where Bitcoin peaked at $69,800 before bottoming at $15,600. Applying the same rate of reduction, Killa projects the current cycle’s multiple at 3.25x, dividing the $126,100 cycle top to arrive at a base bottom target of $38,800. To account for the 5% variance that offset his top prediction, he added in two upside scenarios of $40,740 and $42,680. Even at the top of that range, Bitcoin would still be well below the $60,000 level that some market participants have cited as the correction bottom.  Bitcoin Price Chart. Source: @KillaXBT On X At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $78,015, meaning a move to $42,680 would still require a drop of about 45%, while a further drop to $38,800 would be close to a 50% correction from current prices. Three Years Up, One Year Down Killa’s bottom projection finds support from a separate analysis by analyst CryptoBullet, who approached the question of a bottom from a symmetry standpoint.  CryptoBullet’s weekly Bitcoin chart characterized the current cycle as a five-wave Elliott Wave advance beginning in late 2022, with Wave 5 completing around the $126,000 high in October 2025. The subsequent correction, labeled as a W-X-Y corrective structure in blue, projects a final Wave Y leg down below $50,000 to $45,000.  Bitcoin Weekly Chart. Source: @CryptoBullet1 On X Related Reading: XRP Signals Imminent Breakout — Is A 10% Rally Coming? According to the analyst, three years of upward price action from the November 2022 bottom through the 2025 peak cannot reasonably be corrected in less than a year of decline. The current bear phase is shown extending into the second half of 2026 before the bottom structure can be completed.  Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Demand for US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs has rebounded into its longest positive stretch of 2026, putting fund flows back at the center of Bitcoin’s latest test of the $80,000 area. SoSoValue data show the products drew net inflows for nine consecutive trading days through April 24, adding about $2.12 billion since April 14. The run […]
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