THE LATEST CRYPTO NEWS

World Liberty Financial has put 4.52 billion WLFI tokens on the table for an immediate burn if a new unlock plan passes, a move tied to the founder, team, adviser and partner pool. Related Reading: ‘Extremely Good News’ – XRP DeFi Momentum Builds As SEC Softens Position On Interfaces The same proposal would also shift 62.28 billion locked WLFI tokens into longer vesting schedules, giving early supporters a two-year cliff followed by a two-year linear release, while the founder group would face a two-year cliff and a three-year linear vest if they opt in. A Wider Supply Reset The governance page says the burn would happen as soon as the vote clears, and holders who do not accept the new terms would stay locked. Early supporters would keep their full allocation under the revised schedule, but their tokens would not start unlocking until year 2 after passage. Every advisor, institution, partner, founder, and team member locked token — all 45,238,585,647 WLFI — is assigned to a 2-year cliff with a 3-year linear vest upon opting in, and subject to a 10% burn upon doing so. Up to 4,523,858,565 WLFI permanently destroyed. This is the… — WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) April 15, 2026 WLFI frames the proposal as a way to replace open-ended uncertainty with a fixed timeline for release. The plan also draws a line between user groups. Early supporters would get a four-year distribution path with no burn attached. Founders, team members, advisers and partners would face a stricter setup, with the burn applied only to their allocation and the rest released over a longer period. The proposal says that structure is meant to create a clearer picture of future supply and governance. According to reports, the change comes after pressure from buyers who have waited on liquidity for months. It was said that some holders had threatened legal action, while Tron founder Justin Sun criticized the project’s transparency and questioned whether earlier votes were concentrated in a small number of wallets. WLFI then reportedly threatened to sue Sun. I have always been an ardent supporter of President Trump and his crypto friendly policy. As an early supporter who invested heavily in World Liberty Financial, I did so because I believed in the vision that was presented to the public: a decentralized finance platform that… — H.E. Justin Sun ????‍???? ???? (@justinsuntron) April 12, 2026 Governance Under Strain The proposal lands at a tense moment for the project. Wallets linked to WLFI reportedly used billions of tokens as collateral to borrow about $75 million in stablecoins, and the token later hit a new low. The governance page also shows that WLFI has already passed six proposals, with participation ranging from 2.7 billion to 11.1 billion WLFI, and says active voting has reached only about 23% of the locked supply affected by this plan. Related Reading: Dollar’s Shrinking Value Adds Fuel To XRP Bull Case: Finance Expert That detail matters because the new vote is not just about supply. It is also about control, timing and who gets to decide when the token starts moving. The proposal says the current setup leaves too much uncertainty around locked tokens, and argues that the network has grown enough to support a clearer schedule. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

The US-Iran war continues to affect Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin prices, with volatility at high levels. However, risk-on sentiment also appears to be returning, with open interest rising as BTC rises to a new multi-month high.  How The US-Iran War Affects The Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin Prices In an X post, crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe noted that the US-Iran war continues to drive market volatility. He further remarked that there won’t be a path forward where the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin prices will do well if this continues to be the consensus. However, he added that the U.S. economy is “sufficiently weak” and that the Fed has no choice but to start printing money again, which is a positive for these risk assets.  Related Reading: Bitcoin Is Playing Out The Same Cycle Again On A Bigger Scale Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin prices have so far held up amid the US-Iran war, with BTC rallying to a multi-month high of $76,000 yesterday. This comes as market participants continue to price in an imminent end to the war despite the fragile two-week ceasefire. US President Donald Trump recently mentioned that another round of peace talks could happen within the next two days, which has also sparked bullish sentiments.  Interestingly, risk-on sentiment has increased amid the US-Iran war, which is also contributing to the rally for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin prices. On-chain analytics platform Santiment noted that BTC and ETH’s rally to their highest levels since the start of February comes with increased optimism, as margin and leveraged positions are being created rapidly.  Santiment revealed that Bitcoin’s open interest has surged 59% over seven weeks, while Ethereum’s has climbed 45% over the same period. The platform noted that this reflects growing trader conviction but also introduces higher risk as crowded leveraged trades can quickly unwind. They added that when open interest climbs alongside prices, markets often become more volatile, with sudden squeezes in either direction more likely.  Analyst Warns That BTC Has Yet To Form A Bottom Crypto analyst Colin has warned that a bear market bottom has unlikely formed despite the rebound in the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin prices amid the US-Iran war. He noted that the $60,000 February bottom for BTC was only four months into a typical 12-month cycle, which is why he believes that the $60,000 price level isn’t the bear market bottom.  Related Reading: Ethereum Is About To Go ‘Parabolic’ – Analyst Signals Golden Triangle Formation The analyst acknowledged that the bear market could be shorter this time around, but not by 2/3 of the normal bear cycle. He also noted that Bitcoin’s drop so far from its October 2025 peak is only 53%, compared to the 77% crashes recorded in prior cycles. In line with this, Colin said, “The $60k bottom is *statistically unlikely* to be the bottom.” Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

More than 87% of Argentinians surveyed in a January Coinbase poll said they view crypto and blockchain technology as a way to strengthen their financial independence — a sign that the role of Bitcoin in the global economy may already be shifting well beyond what markets have priced in. Related Reading: ‘Extremely Good News’ – XRP DeFi Momentum Builds As SEC Softens Position On Interfaces Bitcoin’s Dual Role Draws New Attention Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, made that case publicly this week. He said Bitcoin could one day command a total addressable market larger than gold’s $34 trillion valuation — but only if it manages to function both as a store of value and as an actual working currency. That’s a bigger claim than what Bitcoin bulls have traditionally made. For years, the comparison to gold was the headline argument. Now, a war is adding a new layer to that conversation. https://t.co/jxIcOn1e23 — Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) April 14, 2026 Iran has proposed allowing ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay a toll in crypto. The plan, reported in recent days amid escalating conflict with the United States, is being watched closely by Bitcoin investors. To Hougan, it points to something larger. In a world where countries have turned financial systems into weapons, he wrote on social media, Bitcoin is emerging as an option that no single government controls. A $1 Million Price Target — And Possibly Higher Hougan previously put a number on his store-of-value thesis: if Bitcoin captures 17% of that market over the next decade, each coin could be worth $1 million. Based on his latest comments, that figure may need to be revised upward if Bitcoin begins functioning like a currency alongside its role as a savings vehicle. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades around $74,150, with a total market cap of roughly $1.4 trillion. Gold, by comparison, sits at $4,854 per ounce, with an estimated market cap exceeding $33 trillion. Corporate treasuries have also been buying in. Data shows private and public companies collectively hold more than 1.5 million Bitcoin, valued at over $116 billion. Merchant Adoption Remains A Work In Progress Still, the currency side of the equation has ground to cover. A study by academic publisher Springer Nature found roughly 11,000 merchants worldwide currently accept Bitcoin as payment — a relatively modest number for an asset of its size. Related Reading: Dollar’s Shrinking Value Adds Fuel To XRP Bull Case: Finance Expert Adoption has been strongest in countries where local currencies have collapsed. Citizens in Turkey and Venezuela, like those in Argentina, have turned to Bitcoin to protect savings against persistent inflation. Whether Iran’s crypto toll proposal signals a turning point for Bitcoin as an international currency — or simply reflects one sanctioned nation finding a workaround — remains to be seen. What’s clear is that Bitwise believes the story is bigger than gold alone. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

The US Justice Department (DOJ) has announced a compensation process for victims of the OneCoin fraud. The funds are expected to come from property forfeited in the case, money traced back to the people behind the scheme, including co-founders Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood.  The DOJ said in a Monday statement that more than $40 million in forfeited assets are currently available for victim compensation. OneCoin Proceeds To Compensate Victims  OneCoin was an international cryptocurrency investment scheme that ran from 2014 to 2019 and relied on deception to draw in investors around the world. Prosecutors say Ignatova and Greenwood, along with others, orchestrated the scheme.  Ignatova, dubbed “the CryptoQueen,” disappeared on October 25, 2017. Since then, she has been presumed to be on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. Greenwood, on the other hand, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023 for his participation in the scheme.  Related Reading: XRP Could Face Big Moves Based On CLARITY Act Outcomes – 3 Key Price Scenarios The DOJ describes OneCoin as a fraudulent cryptocurrency that was marketed and sold through a “global multi-level marketing network.” Although OneCoin began operations in Bulgaria, the scheme reached beyond Europe and targeted victims globally through promises that officials say were false. The DOJ stated that the scheme resulted in losses that totaled more than $4 billion worldwide. In the agency’s description, investors were misled about the nature and legitimacy of OneCoin, and many put money into what the DOJ characterizes as “a lie disguised as cryptocurrency.” At the same time, prosecutors sought criminal forfeiture of property linked to proceeds from the fraud scheme. The DOJ explained that once a final order of forfeiture is issued, net proceeds from those forfeited assets would be used to compensate victims through the remission process. DOJ Details Remission Rules And Deadline While the announcement focuses on the compensation pathway, DOJ officials also framed the forfeiture effort as a way to both remove illegal gains and redirect them toward harm prevention.  Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the statement that victims are central to the department’s work. He said the DOJ pursues forfeiture to “take the profit out of crime” and then use that money to compensate victims where possible. ‘ Related Reading: Three-Way Bitcoin Outlook Tied To US–Iran War—Which Case Is Most Realistic? Under the DOJ’s description, the remission process is intended for victims who purchased OneCoin cryptocurrency between 2014 and 2019.  The DOJ’s announcement explained that eligible victims may be able to seek compensation through this process, which relies on a petition submission to be considered. The agency clarified that submissions must be mailed, emailed, or submitted online along with supporting documentation by the deadline of Tuesday, June 30, 2026.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

As Ethereum (ETH) retests a crucial support zone, Bitmine, the second-largest crypto treasury, has announced its latest ETH purchase, which pushed the company’s holdings closer to its ultimate goal. Related Reading: Dogecoin (DOGE) Retreats, Can Bulls Reclaim Upside Momentum? Bitmine Reaches Major 4% ETH Milestone On Monday, the largest Ethereum treasury in the world, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, revealed it had reached a major milestone after purchasing roughly $157 million of ETH in the past week. In its latest update, the company shared that it acquired 71,524 ETH over the past week, its highest pace of buys since the week of December 22, 2025. Bitmine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, detailed that the Ethereum treasury “has maintained the increased pace of ETH buys in each of the past four weeks, as our base case ETH is in the final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter.’” Notably, the company has been ramping up its bet on the King of Altcoins over the past month, significantly increasing its average of 45,000-50,000 ETH purchases from previous weeks. Now, the company’s crypto and cash holdings have reached $11.8 billion at current prices, comprised of 4,874,858 ETH, 198 Bitcoin (BTC), a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, an $85 million stake in Eightco Holdings as part of its “Moonshots” initiative, and unencumbered cash worth $719 million. In addition, Bitmine’s Ethereum holdings have reached 4% of the total ETH supply. This represents a key milestone toward the company’s goal of controlling 5% of the leading altcoin’s 120.7 million supply, which is currently 81% complete. Last week, the treasury firm announced its uplisting to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from the NYSE American on April 9, 2026, and the expansion of the share repurchase program to $4 billion. Ethereum Starts Q2 In Green In the weekly update, Lee also discussed ETH’s performance amid the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran, noting that “this war remains the most important driver of global markets.” He highlighted that “ETH is now the best-performing asset since the start of the war, with a 17.4% gain and outperforming the S&P 500 by 1,830 basis points. And we believe ETH beating gold by 2,743 basis points demonstrates ETH is the wartime store of value.” “Ethereum continues to benefit from the dual tailwinds of Wall Street tokenizing on the blockchain and from agentic AI systems increasingly needing public and neutral blockchains,” he continued. Market observer Daan Crypto Trades pointed out that Ethereum started the quarter “slightly in the green so far,” with a 3.7% increase Quarter-to-Date (QTD), according to CoinGlass data. The trader noted that this quarter “is generally the best quarter, together with Q1, for Ethereum,” as it has ended in green eight out of ten times, with an average and median return of 58.3% and 15.3%, respectively. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bulls Must Hold This Level Or Price Could Crash To $65,000 Again Meanwhile, crypto analyst Ted Pillows highlighted that ETH is back in its $2,150-$2,200 support zone after the weekend pump. Per the post, if this zone holds, the King of Altcoins could rally back above $2,250 and potentially move toward last month’s top near $2,400. Nonetheless, they warned investors about a potential drop if momentum doesn’t hold. “We’ve seen that historical price action has not really been in Crypto’s favor the past year, so take everything with a grain of salt,” Daan cautioned. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Bullish sentiment towards Hyperliquid is again on the rise, with crypto whales accumulating the perp DEX token. The first HYPE ETF in the U.S. could launch soon, which is also contributing to this bullish sentiment.  Why Bullish Sentiment Towards Hyperliquid Is On The Rise Crypto whales are again massively accumulating Hyperliquid, which has sparked the bullish sentiment towards the perp DEX token. In an X post, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain revealed that BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes bought 26,022 HYPE, worth $1.1 million again, after nearly 3 months. Related Reading: Here’s Why The Hyperliquid Price Is Exploding Again Hayes is one of many crypto whales Lookonchain has flagged as currently buying HYPE. The platform revealed that a particular whale had deposited 7.86 million USDC into Hyperliquid to buy 200,042 HYPE. Another whale, Cooker, also bought 50,751 HYPE for $1.99 million at an average price of $38.5.  Such massive accumulation among crypto whales typically precedes a price surge for Hyperliquid. It is worth noting that the HYPE price is already up amid this accumulation wave, up over 12% in the last week. The perp DEX token has reclaimed the key $40 level and is now eyeing new local highs.  Interestingly, Hayes has predicted that Hyperliquid could reach $150 by August. He stated that this could happen as the HIP-3 markets continue to generate record fees for the perp DEX. The DEX has seen greater adoption since the U.S.-Iran war began, as traders can trade commodities such as oil on HIP-3.  DeFiLlama data shows that Hyperliquid currently ranks among the crypto protocols generating the most fees. This is bullish for HYPE because a majority of these fees go into buybacks, which could spark significant rallies for the token.  An HYPE ETF Is On The Horizon Bitwise has filed an amended registration statement for its Hyperliquid ETF, with the fund set to trade under the ticker ‘BHYP.’ The asset manager also set a management fee of 0.67% for the fund. Meanwhile, it listed market makers FalconX, Flowdesk, Nonco, and Wintermute as approved trading counterparties.  Related Reading: XRP, HBAR, And Litecoin: Pundit Highlights Coins To Watch In 2026 Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the filing indicates that the fund could launch soon, a development that is also bullish for Hyperliquid. The fund is expected to attract new inflows into the HYPE ecosystem as institutional investors gain exposure to the HYPE token through this ETF.  Grayscale and 21shares have also filed to launch a Hyperliquid ETF, which is also bullish for the HYPE price. Balchunas noted that Bitwise may be looking to launch its HYPE ETF soon, given strong interest in HYPE, which is up 200% over the last year.  At the time of writing, the Hyperliquid price is trading at around $42, up almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com

Over 97% of the TRUMP memecoin’s total supply is held by just the top 100 wallets — a concentration so extreme that even aggressive buying by large holders can be easily offset by insider selling. Related Reading: Forget XRP Forecasts: The ‘Delusional’ Crowd Could Have The Last Laugh Whales Move Fast Before April Deadline Multiple large holders have been pulling significant amounts of the token off crypto exchanges in recent days, all ahead of a private luncheon scheduled for April 25 at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, one wallet withdrew roughly 105,754 TRUMP tokens from Binance on Saturday, adding to a stash already worth around $3.2 million. Two days before that, a separate holder pulled 850,488 tokens from Bybit. Two more wallets followed on Monday — one boosting its holdings past 368,000 tokens after withdrawing from BitMart, the other crossing 1 million tokens after pulling funds from Bybit, based on data from blockchain explorer Solscan. Whales are accumulating $TRUMP for #Trump‘s Luncheon. Whale 8DHkza withdrew 850,488 $TRUMP($2.4M) from #Bybit in the past 2 days. Whale 7EtuAt withdrew another 105,754 $TRUMP($298K) from #Binance 17 hours ago and currently holds 1.13M $TRUMP($3.2M).https://t.co/Qns5mI638Z… pic.twitter.com/VRYmLb6gxJ — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 12, 2026 The reason for the rush is straightforward. Only the top 297 token holders get an invitation to the Mar-a-Lago event, where Trump is expected to speak. The top 29 holders are offered an additional private reception — on the same day as the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, DC. A Pattern That Has Played Out Before This is not the first time a Trump-linked event has triggered a buying surge. Trump held a similar crypto gala in May 2025, and the token climbed to $15.55 in the weeks leading up to it. But it fell as the event approached and continued sliding afterward, settling around $8.89 a month later. The current cycle shows a similar shape, though at lower prices. When the April luncheon was announced in March, TRUMP jumped to $4.30. Since then, reports indicate the price has dropped more than 30%, trading around $2.81 as of Monday, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, said that retail selling in a thin market is pushing prices down. Supply held by insiders is making things worse — even modest distributions from a few large wallets are enough to cancel out whatever buying pressure the whales bring. Related Reading: Bessent Presses Congress On Crypto Rules As Senate Clock Ticks Down Criticism And Congressional Pushback Intensify Democratic lawmakers have openly accused Trump of using his office for personal financial gain through the token project, and legislation aimed at curbing such activity has been introduced in Congress. Critics have raised the same concerns about the upcoming luncheon, pointing out that access to a sitting US president is effectively being tied to how much of a speculative digital token someone holds. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Subnet developer Covenant AI announced its exit from Bittensor due to decentralization concerns and alleged punitive actions by the AI-focused network ecosystem co-founder, Jacob Steeves. Related Reading: Solana Price At Risk As Key Pattern Emerges – Is $52 The Next Stop? Covenant AI Slams Bittensor’s Decentralization On Friday, Covenant AI’s founder, Sam Dare, released a statement announcing the subnet developer’s departure from decentralized artificial intelligence network Bittensor, citing governance disputes and decentralization concerns. “We cannot in good conscience continue to build on a network where the foundational claim we make to our investors, that this infrastructure is decentralized and permissionless, is contradicted by the reality of how the network is actually governed,” Dare wrote, calling Bittensor a “decentralized theater.” For context, Covenant AI was one of Bittensor’s most prominent contributors, operating three subnets: Templar (SN3), Basilica (SN39), and Grail (SN81). As reported by NewsBTC, the team’s Covenant-72B model, which was acknowledged by NVIDIA’s CEO and cited by Anthropic’s co-founder, recently triggered a significant rally for TAO’s price. In the statement, Covenant AI’s founder argued that Bittensor’s alleged decentralization problem “runs deeper than any single incident,” affirming that the network actually has “centralized control with decentralized branding.” He claimed that Bittensor’s founder, Jacob Steeves, also known as Const, maintains effective control over the triumvirate structure the network operates on, “resists any meaningful transfer of authority, and deploys changes unilaterally whenever he chooses, without process and without consensus.” In addition, Dare alleged that Steeves took a series of actions against Covenant AI’s operations over the past few weeks, including suspending emissions to its subnets, overriding moderation capabilities over its community channels, publicly deprecating the subnet infrastructure, and applying “direct economic pressure” through strategically timed token sales. Bittensor Founder, Community Push Back Steeves quickly responded to the allegations, denying Dare’s claims in an X post. First, the Bittensor founder addressed the suspending emissions argument, affirming that he doesn’t have that ability but sold some of his alpha holdings on the three subnets, as “they were not running, and were on near 100% burn code.” “This changed the emission in the same way all buys and sells on Bittensor do. I don’t have any privilege beyond what normal TAO holders have,” he stated. Regarding the deprecation and removal of moderation rights, Steeves argued that Dare “specifically deprecated his own channels,” particularly the Discord channel, and repeatedly deleted posts of “genuine, honest criticism.” As a result, he claims to have “removed that ability temporarily and then reinstated it later,” but did not remove his moderator role. “I simply stopped him from deleting posts from others in his channels.” Alex DRocks, a Bittensor community member and participant of the Discord channels, backed some of Steeves’ counterclaims. “I saw the legit post deletions in real-time and also the bittensor discord channels being deprecated by Sam (Covenant owner) too. Everything Const said above checks out,” he wrote in an X thread. “The deleted posts were critiques about sn39 redoing exactly what another compute subnet is doing while they had shilled about innovating and doing better than others. (…) What this proves is that Sam Dare couldn’t handle a simple question without deleting the messages,” DRocks continued. Lastly, Steeves denied making “large visible token sales” to apply economic pressure, affirming that he has sold less than 1% of what he had invested in Covenant AI’s teams. TAO Price Crashes After ‘Calculated Exit’ Amid the controversy, Bittensor saw its token, TAO, crash 25% from the $340 area to a multi-week low of $250 before bouncing toward the $260 level. Analyst Ardi noted that 24 hours before the Covenant AI’s news dropped, TAO’s sell volume hit its highest level since December 2024. Related Reading: Ethereum Reclaims $2,200, But Analyst Says It’s Not Time To Celebrate Yet – Here’s Why “If you think that’s a coincidence, you don’t understand the game you’re playing. This was a calculated exit and execution,” he stated, explaining that larger wallets that knew beforehand “were unloading into the breakout attempt yesterday, using that strength to nuke millions in size well before the headline hit the market.” Meanwhile, retail-sized wallets had to absorb the pressure, competing for an exit at 20% lower. The analyst pointed out that TAO was in an “accumulation continuation phase” following its recent breakout, but warned that “the chart is going to have a difficult time absorbing 18-month high sell volume when it’s right at a key support level.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Attention has again been drawn to the popular trader James Wynn, who went from a high of almost $100 million in profits to less than $1000 in his Hyperliquid account at the moment. The trader continues to trade Bitcoin and was recently liquidated as the market recovered.  Popular Bitcoin Trader Who Went From Almost $100 Million To Below $1,000 HypurrScan data shows that popular Bitcoin trader James Wynn’s account has gone from a peak of $84.21 million in May 2025 to $914.21 at the moment. The trader gained prominence for reaching a $84 million peak in just over two months after he began trading on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid.  Related Reading: Here’s Why The Hyperliquid Price Is Exploding Again The trader stacked these profits through high-leveraged bets, including betting on Bitcoin. A major highlight of the trader’s journey was building a $1.25 billion BTC position by going long with 40x leverage on the leading crypto. This was one of the largest Bitcoin positions at the time, which drew more attention to the trader.  That position was eventually liquidated, and since then, the Bitcoin trader has lost up to $100 million on his positions. Further data from HypurrScan data show that he currently has a loss of $22 million all-time PnL (Profit and Loss) on Hyperliquid. Wynn was notably a bull as his trading profits on Hyperliquid climbed to a peak of $84 million.  However, since the crash in his trading profits, the trader’s sentiment toward Bitcoin has continued to flip. Towards the end of last year, he became largely bearish on BTC, rightly predicting that the leading crypto would suffer a long-term downtrend. Bitcoin has been in a downtrend since reaching an all-time high (ATH) of $126,000. Earlier this year, in February, Wynn predicted that BTC would still drop to as low as $48,000 in this bear market.  More Liquidations Amid Bearish Sentiment On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain revealed that James Wynn was recently liquidated on his Bitcoin position as the crypto market recovered amid the U.S.-Iran ceasefire. The trader had shorted Bitcoin just below $67,000 and got liquidated as the price hit $67,900. Lookonchain noted that the trader has been liquidated six times in just the past two weeks.  Related Reading: Crypto Trader Predicts Bitcoin Price Will Hit $100,000 Again When This Happens Wynn had mainly been shorting Bitcoin while the leading crypto traded in the $67,000 range. However, the leading crypto has yet to make a new low, holding the $66,000 support, and has instead rebounded above the psychological $70,000 level since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. HypurrScan data show that the trader has not opened a new position since the ceasefire agreement.  At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $72,000, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com

Amid the recent market recovery, Solana (SOL) has jumped roughly 10% from last week’s lows, reclaiming the $82 level and retesting a major resistance. However, some market observers have warned that the rally could be short-lived if the cryptocurrency doesn’t turn a key level into support in the coming days. Related Reading: Ethereum Reclaims $2,200, But Analyst Says It’s Not Time To Celebrate Yet – Here’s Why Solana Price In ‘Consolidation Trap’ On Thursday, Solana surged 2.5% to try to reclaim the $84 area after losing this area on Wednesday night. The altcoin has been trading between the $76-$92 levels since February, moving within the lower half of this range over the past two weeks. Ali Martinez highlighted a structural pattern that has been “remarkably consistent” since October 2025. Notably, the analyst explained that Solana has been repeating a three-step cycle every time it has lost momentum over the past six months. According to Martinez, the pattern begins with the reclaim of the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA). This is followed by the rapid failure to hold the 50-day SMA as support. Lastly, SOL enters the “consolidation trap”, a brief, sideways “complacency” period before the actual leg down starts. As the chart shows, the cryptocurrency recorded this pattern in November 2025 and January 2026, when it dropped below the 50-day SMA and consolidated for weeks before the next major sell-off, ultimately resolving lower and reaching a new local bottom. Solana moved above the 50-day SMA in mid-March, when it hit its local top of $97, and has since dropped below it. Now, the altcoin is in its consolidation phase, “drifting sideways” between $79-$81, and sitting below the key SMA near the $86 mark. “If this pattern holds, this sideways movement is not ‘stabilization’—it is the coiling of a new leg down. Based on previous instances, a failure to reclaim the $86 level quickly could project a move toward the $52,” Martinez asserted. SOL Breakdown Imminent? Market observer Leviathan noted that Solana has retested the lower area of its local range seven times since February, and every bounce has gotten weaker after each retest. At the time of writing, the price has been rejected from the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), suggesting that a retest and breakdown from the key $76-$80 support area could be next. “Historically, the more a support level gets tested, the weaker it becomes. Watch this level closely,” he asserted. Analyst Crypto Lens shared a similar outlook, pointing to a potential bearish formation on SOL’s chart. Per the post, the cryptocurrency has been trading in a bearish flag pattern since early February, and broke down from the formation when it dropped below the $81 area in late March. Related Reading: XRP Leads Crypto Funds $224M Rebound With Largest Weekly Inflows Since December This structure also developed in late 2025, leading to a 54% correction after Solana broke down from the pattern. After the recent bounce, the altcoin is retesting the pattern’s lower boundary from support, which could turn this level into resistance if momentum doesn’t hold. “This isn’t random price action, it’s a pattern,” the analyst warned, “If this continues, SOL could be heading toward the $45 zone.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Crypto markets are showing early signs that the worst may be over, following a prolonged decline that began with the industry’s sharp sell-off back in October of last year.   In a new report shared on social media, technical analyst Ali Martinez says the market is now starting to form what he calls a structural floor. Next Cycle Setup For Crypto Leaders Martinez’s view is rooted in the idea that seven months of heavy volatility may also be creating a rare opportunity. For those focused on the longer-term picture, he argues, the current turbulence can act as a reset period before the next multi-year cycle.  Rather than treating the current sell-off as purely negative, Martinez suggests it may be setting up the conditions for a new upward phase once the market stops bleeding. Related Reading: Adam Back Denies Being Bitcoin Creator In Response To NYT: ‘I Am Not Satoshi’ When looking at the “big picture” for broader crypto market structure, Martinez points to a metric he says helps define the floor: the CVDD Channel, which stands for Cumulative Value Days Destroyed.  According to his analysis, Bitcoin’s “Golden Zone” is currently near $49,330. He claims that historically, entries into this area have tended to show up before bull market runs, and he outlines upside targets for what could follow—potentially reaching $178,478, and in an even more extended scenario, $273,158. The analyst then turns to Ethereum (ETH). Martinez says he is watching whether ETH is moving within a parallel channel pattern, and if that interpretation holds, he believes the zone between current levels and $1,070 could offer a high-conviction entry point.  From there, he highlights an ecosystem-wide rally scenario with a macro target around $8,670 as the next major objective, framing it as a move that would emerge as the broader crypto ecosystem matures. Outlook For XRP, SOL, And DOGE For XRP, Martinez focuses on a specific support level as the key to determining whether the crypto market can stabilize. He says that if XRP can hold support near $0.80, it could create a strong “buy the dip” setup, potentially giving traders a chance before a later retest of XRP’s all-time high near $3.30 and beyond.  Solana (SOL) is next, and Martinez suggests SOL may need a broader “generational” reset to complete the bottoming process. He argues that the possible low area ranges from $74 to $50, describing that band as a total reset of speculative “froth.”  Martinez characterizes that kind of clearance as a major launchpad for the next upward move, implying that the more aggressive the washout, the more room there may be for the following leg higher. Related Reading: JPMorgan CEO Says Bank Must Build Its Own Blockchain To Counter Crypto Threats Finally, Martinez discusses Dogecoin (DOGE) using what he calls fractal signals. He says the memecoin’s chart structure indicates a coiling phase that often appears before the next parabolic move.  In that context, Martinez points to a zone he believes is where larger, more informed buyers could begin accumulating. His range for that buildup is between $0.090 and $0.060, which he describes as the area where accumulation could start to intensify ahead of a potential upside surge. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), together with the Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA) are rolling out unified rules for withdrawal across all registered crypto exchanges. A Unified Crypto Withdrawal System From now on, all local crypto exchanges are being forced to have one tough, standardized withdrawal‑delay regime by South Korean financial regulators. According to the Korean outlet News1, the intention behind the new withdrawal delay system for crypto exchanges is to prevent damage from voice phishing scams that depend on speed. The new criteria for ‘withdrawal delay exceptions’, which according to News1 have previously been highly susceptible to criminal exploitation, will be standardized. Intensive monitoring will also be conducted on accounts to which these exceptions apply. Related Reading: Crypto Trust Crisis — The “Kim Jong‑Un Test” Is Exposing Secret North Korean Moles The aforementioned vulnerability was created by “exchange‑by‑exchange loopholes” that scammers abused, The Korea Times claims. In many of these voice phishing schemes, dirty cash is funneled into an account, quickly flipped into crypto, and rushed back out again before investigators can track it or lock it down. What The Change Really Entails South Korean exchanges have been obliged to hold crypto withdrawals for 24 to 72 hours after a deposit since May 2025. This creates a buffer window that lets banks and regulators spot and stop suspicious transfers. However, the rules include exemptions based on factors like how long an account has been open, its past activity, trading size, and any history of misconduct. Each exchange has set and applied those standards on its own until now. In some instances, accounts slipped into the exempt bucket with minimal checks, letting scammers sidestep the waiting period and pull funds out almost instantly. Between June and September 2025, 59% of identified fraud‑linked exchange accounts sat in these “exception” buckets that dodged the delay. Under the new standards, authorities want exception accounts cut to under 1% of users. Exchanges are also required to tighten KYC, fund‑source checks and monitoring on those accounts Regulators also intend to tighten scrutiny of exempt accounts, rolling out stronger, recurring customer checks. This includes routine verification of where funds come from, at least once a year. Alongside it, a new system designed to more systematically track and analyze withdrawal patterns will also be required. To keep inconvenience to a minimum, exemptions will still be available when immediate withdrawals are genuinely needed, for example, to settle accounts. Market Implications The new measure comes on top of other recent strict Korean crypto regulations, like AI‑powered transaction surveillance and potential early account freezes for suspected manipulators. Just this Monday, the FSC ordered all domestic crypto exchanges to have a new 5-minute asset-matching system, as regulators found that the existing kill switches of some of the major exchanges were unreliable. Related Reading: Binance Deploys PRER Volatility Shield — Here’s How New Price Bands Could Hit Your Orders All new users and large fresh deposits will face predictable 24–72 hour “cooling‑off” windows before they can move coins to self‑custody or offshore venues, which dulls fast‑money flows and arb activity. Standardized delays and tighter exemptions make it harder for scam rings to spin up fresh accounts across multiple exchanges, but they also push sophisticated traders toward long‑term setups, derivatives on regulated venues, or non‑Korean liquidity hubs. If the model works and fraud metrics fall, Korea’s unified‑delay template is likely to show up in other high‑risk jurisdictions as a “best practice” for managing scam‑heavy retail flows. Bitcoin bounced back and reclaimed $72k earlier today. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for the high $71ks on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSDT on Tradingview. Cover image from Perplexity. BTCUSDT chart from Tradingview.

While Ethereum (ETH) retests a key level for the first time this month, some market watchers have advised caution, warning that the start of a new bull run may not be here yet. Related Reading: XRP Leads Crypto Funds $224M Rebound With Largest Weekly Inflows Since December No Ethereum Party Until This happens After jumping nearly 10%, Ethereum is attempting to reclaim a crucial area that has served as a major resistance zone since the early February crash. Over the past two months, the King of Altcoins has been trading sideways, hovering between the $1,800-$2,200 levels. As the altcoin breaks past the $2,150-$2,200 area, some market observers cautioned investors not to celebrate yet, arguing that ETH has failed to hold this level despite multiple retests during this period. Analyst Ted Pillows affirmed that as long as Ethereum holds above the $2,200 level, it could make a move towards last month’s top, around the $2,400 area, but warned investors not to “mistake it for the start of a bull run,” suggesting that new lows will come between Q2 and Q3 2026. Similarly, market watcher Crypto Scient advised investors not to “confuse positioning with guessing,” explaining that the cryptocurrency hasn’t broken out of its macro downtrend, which began last October. According to the chart, Ethereum is currently near the macro trend resistance while still respecting a Lower High (LH) structure. To him, this is “where most people front-run and get chopped.” Scient argued that even if the bottom is on and ETH’s bull run has begun, “the money won’t be made under this trend. It will be made once the price is above it.” Nonetheless, the price needs to break above the trend, flip it into support, and show acceptance above it before investors can call a true reversal. “Until that happens, this is just another retest in a downtrend,” he asserted. Key Levels To Watch Ali Martinez shared “the ultimate accumulation zones” for Ethereum, outlining some potential scenarios for its price. In the first case, the cryptocurrency could be trading in a multi-year ascending triangle, with the $1,800 level being the “line in the sand.” As he explained, this price point serves as the triangle’s hypotenuse and, if it holds, could trigger a rally toward the $4,900 x-axis. This level also aligns “almost perfectly” with the 0.80 MVRV Pricing Band, located around the $1,880 area. The 0.80 band “has been a reliable indicator of cycle bottoms,” as it has historically marked where sellers exhaust themselves, and “Strong Hands” take over, Martinez highlighted. Meanwhile, in the second scenario, Ethereum could be moving within a parallel channel, risking another 30%-50% correction toward the channel lows between $1,150-$1,170. Martinez emphasized that the UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) reveals massive clusters of ETH were bought between $2,079 and $1,882. The URPD also shows that below $1,880, the most significant buy-walls sit at $1,584, $1,238, and $1,089, meaning that if the February lows are lost, the price would visit those levels. Related Reading: Bitcoin Next Big Move In Mid-April? Analyst Explains Why ‘Decision Time’ Could Be Near “While accumulation happens in the $1,000s, the ‘Start Engine’ for the next major rally is the Realized Price at $2,500,” the analyst noted, adding that whenever Ethereum reclaims its Realized Price, it has historically signified that the average holder is back in profit and the “cooling period” has finalized. “A clean break and hold above $2,500 is my primary trigger for the beginning of a new macro bull rally,” Martinez concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Bithumb has pushed its stock market listing past 2028, citing the need to overhaul its accounting systems and internal controls after a high-profile crypto payout error drew scrutiny from South Korean regulators. Related Reading: XRP Headed For A Price Shock, Japan’s Financial Heavyweight Says Regulator Steps In After Industry Audit The Financial Services Commission announced Monday that all crypto exchanges operating in the country must now reconcile their internal records with actual asset holdings on a five-minute cycle. The directive followed an emergency inspection triggered by Bithumb’s February blunder, in which the exchange accidentally sent 620,000 Bitcoin to 249 users during a rewards promotion. Bithumb recovered nearly all of it the same day — 99.7% — and used company funds to cover the remaining 1,788 BTC that had already been sold. What the inspection turned up across the broader industry alarmed regulators. Three of South Korea’s five largest exchanges were checking their books just once every 24 hours. Systems meant to pause trading when major discrepancies were detected were found to be inadequate. Sweeping Operational Changes Now Required Under the new rules, exchanges must build automated systems that match ledger records to actual wallet balances every five minutes. They are also required to set clear thresholds that trigger automatic trading halts when something looks off. High-risk activities — promotional payouts, for example — will need third-party reviews and sign-off from multiple internal levels before going through. High-risk accounts must be separated, and automated payment verification tools will become mandatory. External audits are changing too. Quarterly reviews are out. Monthly audits are in. Exchanges will also need to publish detailed breakdowns of asset balances by both wallet and ledger. The FSC said it and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance plan to finish drafting the updated rules before the end of April. Related Reading: XRP Wallet Count Tops 8 Million As Trading Volume Nears $4 Billion Bithumb Delays IPO, Naver Slows Share Deal Bithumb’s listing plans have now been pushed back at least three years from its original 2025 target. The exchange has brought in advisory firm Samjong KPMG and said it will spend 2027 focused on tightening its financial policies and controls before making another run at going public. Separately, Naver Financial has delayed its planned share swap with crypto firm Dunamu by about three months. A shareholder vote is now set for Aug. 18, with the deal expected to close by Sept. 30. South Korea has long been one of the most active countries in regulating crypto markets. These latest moves signal that pressure is intensifying — and that exchanges can expect less room for error going forward. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView

Global crypto investment products bounced from the late-March sentiment downturn, with XRP funds and European investors stealing the spotlight from Bitcoin and US markets. Related Reading: Bitcoin Next Big Move In Mid-April? Analyst Explains Why ‘Decision Time’ Could Be Near XRP Inflows Fuel Crypto Funds Recovery According to the latest CoinShares report, global crypto funds recorded $224 million in inflows last week, a modest recovery from the late-March sentiment downturn, when investors pulled $414 million from the products amid worries about escalating tensions in the Iran conflict and the prospect of higher inflation. James Butterfill, CoinShares Head of Research, explained that despite the improvement in sentiment, momentum reversed at the end of the week due to stronger macro data and hawkish expectations, leading to minor outflows. “Stronger-than-expected retail sales data later in the week, alongside increasingly hawkish investor expectations and mixed geopolitical signals, led to minor outflows in the latter half of the week,” he wrote. In an unusual shift, Switzerland led activity last week, bringing $151.5 million into crypto funds, followed by Germany’s $27.7 million inflows. The US ranked third, recording only $27.5 million in inflows last week, while Canada saw $11.2 million. Moreover, funds based on XRP, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, saw the largest inflows of any asset. Per CoinShares data, XRP products recorded $119.6 million in inflows, its largest positive net flows since mid-December. This figure brought its Year-to-Date (YTD) inflows to $159 million, around 7% of the category’s Assets under Management (AuM). It’s worth noting that US-listed XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) registered their first red month since their November launch, with $31.1 million in outflows.   Despite the March setback, US XRP ETFs recorded positive net flows of $42.52 million in the first quarter of 2026, only behind Solana funds. Bitcoin Shows Mixed Signals, Ethereum Lags Global Bitcoin funds followed XRP and saw total inflows worth $107.3 million during the week, “improving on what has been a bad start to the month, [as] net outflows remain at US$145m for the month so far,” CoinShares added. Notably, short Bitcoin investment products recorded $16 million in inflows during this period, their largest performance since mid-November, which signals polarized opinions on the asset. Despite the muted US activity last week, US Bitcoin ETFs started this week with their largest single-day performance in over a month. According to SoSoValue data, the category saw $471.3 million in positive net flows on Monday, its highest inflows since February 25. As reported by NewsBTC, US Bitcoin funds ended the first quarter of 2026 by breaking out of a four-month negative streak, pulling in $1.32 billion in March, its first monthly gain of 2026. Following XRP and Bitcoin, Solana funds also saw inflows, totalling $34.9m last week. As CoinShares noted, the category’s steady inflows this year represent 10% of AuM. Related Reading: Crypto Trust Crisis — The “Kim Jong‑Un Test” Is Exposing Secret North Korean Moles In addition, the US-based Solana products ended March on a positive note, leading altcoin funds with inflows worth $45.44 million and $213.1 million in the monthly and quarterly timeframes, respectively. Nonetheless, Ethereum tells a different story, as funds continue to lag behind other major crypto assets. According to the report, Ethereum products saw $52.8 million in outflows last week, extending its negative streak as investors digest recent negative developments. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Ethereum exchange reserves have fallen to a record low, even as the token trades near $2,15 and still struggles to break out. CryptoQuant data shows reserves are down about 77% from their 2021 peak, while CoinGlass data points to a surge in futures activity, with volume topping close to $50 billion in 24 hours. Related Reading: XRP Wallet Count Tops 8 Million As Trading Volume Nears $4 Billion Exchange Balances Keep Sliding The long slide in exchange balances has been building for years. According to CryptoQuant analyst Rich_dady, the decline has accelerated since late 2025, and the gap between price and reserve levels suggests that coins are still leaving exchanges at a fast pace. That kind of movement usually means holders are sending ETH to cold storage, staking it, or parking it away from trading venues. Even with that tighter supply, the market has not shown the kind of buying pressure that would normally push price higher. The report says ETH rose about 4% over the past 24 hours, but the move has not been enough to change the broader picture. Buyers, it says, have not stepped in with much force. Futures Trading Is Running Ahead Of Spot The bigger action has been in derivatives. CoinGlass data cited in the piece shows open interest climbing at the same time futures volume jumped past $49 billion in a single day. The report also points to $1.2 billion in futures inflows over 24 hours, a sign that traders are taking on more leverage while spot flows stay mostly flat. That split matters. When derivatives heat up faster than spot buying, the market often gets choppier instead of trending cleanly in one direction. The report says that setup points to weaker demand than the supply picture might suggest on its own. $2,100 Support Still Holds For Now ETH remains above $2,100 support, but the report says that level has not yet turned into a clean launch pad for a stronger move. The current setup leaves the market waiting on spot demand, which the piece says is still the missing piece. Related Reading: XRP Headed For A Price Shock, Japan’s Financial Heavyweight Says Without more consistent buying from new entrants, lower exchange reserves alone may not be enough to force a breakout. For now, the picture is uneven. Supply on exchanges keeps shrinking, yet price action stays boxed in. Traders are active, leverage is rising, and the spot side remains quiet. That leaves Ethereum in a narrow and uneasy stretch, where the next clear move may depend less on supply and more on whether buyers finally return. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

A new report claims crypto tokenization is a structural overhaul of market plumbing, not just an efficiency tweak. Crypto Tokenization: The Hot New Thing? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a new report with fresh warnings related to crypto tokenization. Shifting Wall Street’s trading rails onto blockchain-based systems could speed up financial crises beyond regulators’ capacity to react, even as the technology vows to reduce costs and wipe out settlement lags, Bloomberg says. Tokenization is a process that moves assets and liabilities onto programmable ledgers, embedding settlement, margin and compliance into code. Tobias Adrian’s report claims that such “atomic settlement”, plus 24/7 markets and smart contracts can accelerate liquidity strains and market shocks, potentially outpacing regulators’ ability to respond. The Fund sees the “most consequential” shift happening inside the regulated system itself (banks, FMIs, asset managers), not just on DeFi rails. Related Reading: Here’s Why The Bitcoin And Ethereum Prices Could Keep Crashing This Week Currently, real world assets (RWAs) amount for above roughly mid‑tens of billions. According to Bloomberg, major banks, clearing houses and asset managers such as BlackRock and JPMorgan are already running live pilots of the technology, aiming to lift fee income by making trading in traditional assets like stocks and bonds smoother and easier. On the decentralized exchange’s side, Hyperliquid has recently started trading more volume in tokenized commodities than digital assets. Since the conflict began, tokenized oil has ranked among the five most‑liquidated instruments on the leading perp DEX at least three times. On the CEX’s side, NewsBTC reported that Binance has just joined the RWA’s trading hub bandwagon, with its recently released Gold (XAU) and silver (XAG) futures climbing into the top five by trading volume on Binance Futures. Crude oil benchmarks CL and BZ also posted volumes of $760 million and $358 million respectively. The Four Main Risks According To The Report The report highlights the risk of interoperability and fragmentation risk. Liquidity split across siloed chains and platforms, makes trading less efficient, increases slippage, and complicates risk management. Another one of the dangers of tokenization is that with instant, continuous settlement, trades close immediately instead of over 1–2 days, so there’s no natural “pause” in the system. Adding to that, with automated margin calls, once prices drop to a certain level, positions are liquidated by code, not humans, adding more sell orders into a falling market. In a tokenized system, some of the roles once played by regulated human institutions are now played by code and new types of infrastructure. Those come with their own failure modes, like smart-contract bugs, oracle failures or opaque governance. There is also a macro and emerging-markets (EM) risk. In EMs and smaller economies, large, fast flows of crypto tokens and dollar‑pegged stablecoins can weaken the local central bank’s ability to manage its own currency and interest rates. In simpler words, crypto and stablecoins can create a parallel, dollar‑based monetary system that can undermine local policy tools in smaller or weaker economies. The IMF itself also concedes crypto tokenization an upside: lower settlement frictions, 24/7 liquidity, more transparent collateral chains, and potential gains in cross‑border payments and inclusion. Related Reading: Ripple Makes A $13 Trillion Bet With This Move, And XRP Price Could Be Set To Explode A Need For Clearer Legal Frameworks And International Cooperation For all these reasons, the organization is urging for sharper legal rules and tighter international coordination. Without them, tokenized finance might worsen market fragmentation instead of delivering efficiency gains, the report warns. The report asks for safe settlement assets (central bank money, wCBDCs), clear legal treatment of tokenized claims, common standards for finality/interoperability, and upgraded crisis‑management tools for 24/7 market. Besides that, it places emphasis on governance of code (who controls upgrades and kill‑switches), cross‑border coordination, and the risk that poorly harmonized rules leave tokenized markets “fragmented and peripheral”. If tokenization really does restructure global market plumbing, crypto‑adjacent rails could sit much closer to the core of the financial system in the next cycle. This is why the IMF is intervening early. Traders can expect growing institutional flows into tokenized RWAs and money‑market products, but also more regulatory scrutiny on leverage, settlement, and platform governance. Tail‑risk dynamics may change: less settlement friction can mean sharper intraday moves and more binary liquidity squeezes during stress. Jurisdictions that move fastest on legal clarity and standards are likely to capture tokenization volume and set de facto rules for the rest. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for almost $70k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview. Cover image from Perplexity. BTCUSD chart from Tradingview.

The price of Ethereum has been hovering around $2,000 for nearly a month, with the technical structure showing no clear path to recovery. According to the latest on-chain data, the “King of Altcoin” is witnessing a rare signal that could mean that it is at the beginning of a positive trend. ETH Net Taker Volume Suggests Potential Bullish Price Trend  In an April 4 post on the social media platform, pseudonymous market analyst Darkfost revealed that the Ethereum derivatives market is experiencing a regime shift for the first time since the last bear phase. This market outlook revolves around the change in the Net Taker Volume metric in recent weeks. Related Reading: Chainlink Price Lags Under $9: Large Binance Inflows Suggest Further Sell-Side Pressure The Net Taker Volume metric is an on-chain indicator that tracks the difference between the buying and selling volume of market orders in the derivatives market of a particular cryptocurrency (Ethereum, in this case). The metric is used to evaluate whether buying or selling pressure is the prevalent force in the market at a given time. When the value of the Net Taker Volume metric rises and turns positive, it indicates that buying volume is more significant than the selling volume. On the flip side, a negative value suggests that sellers are overwhelming the buyers in the Ethereum derivatives market. According to CryptoQuant data highlighted by Darkfost, volume from buyers appears to be prevailing in the Ethereum derivatives market, with a positive difference of over $104 million. This shift of the metric into the positive territory is happening for the first time in the past three years. The crypto analyst noted that the price of Ethereum was under intense selling pressure even as it climbed to new all-time highs. However, the market regime seems to be changing for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Darkfost mentioned that the positive buying pressure being experienced by Ethereum could contribute significantly to the formation of a strong bottom and potentially a foundation for a bullish market structure. “If this dynamic persists and the spot market and ETFs begin to support the move, Ethereum could potentially restart a positive trend,” the analyst concluded. Ethereum ETFs Record Negative Outflow For Third Consecutive Week The US-based Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted another period of negative performance over the past week. According to the latest market data, the spot Ethereum ETFs saw over $42.15 million withdrawn over the past week. Notably, the crypto-linked investment products saw a total net outflow of more than $71.12 million on Thursday, April 3, reflecting the waning investor demand and appetite. As earlier inferred, the direction of the ETH ETFs’ capital flow needs to change if the price is to enjoy a sustained recovery. As of this writing, the price of ETH stands at around $2,058, reflecting a 0.6% leap in the past 24 hours. Related Reading: Ethereum Foundation Nears 70,000 Staked ETH Target — Details Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

Adoption of Bitcoin and Ethereum is poised to take a significant step forward as Charles Schwab introduces direct trading for both assets on its platform. As one of the largest financial institutions in the world, managing trillions in client assets, Schwab’s entry into the crypto space represents a major bridge between traditional finance and digital assets. What Schwab’s Move Means For Bitcoin And Ethereum Liquidity A $12 trillion asset, Charles Schwab, is preparing to launch direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for users. Crypto commentator Leolanza revealed on X that the development highlights a broader trend that traditional financial platforms are making it easier for everyday investors to buy crypto through the same systems they already use for stocks and ETFs.  Related Reading: Markets On Edge: $16.4B In Bitcoin And Ethereum Options Expire Set To Today By enabling crypto trading directly within a familiar brokerage platform, Schwab is reducing friction and expanding access for more capital to flow into both BTC and ETH. The intersection between quantum computing and crypto is drawing closer, as a new blockchain has been launched specifically to resist quantum attacks. Crypto trader MANDO CT has noted that while this may sound futuristic, the risk being addressed is increasingly viewed as legitimate within the industry. Today, leading networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on encryption that is highly secure under current technological limits, but could be vulnerable in the future if a significant breakthrough in quantum computing advancements occurs. While the risk still feels distant to most investors, the groundwork to address it is already being laid. Mando CT pointed out that narratives in crypto rarely wait for full clarity until the risk becomes obvious. Instead, they tend to build gradually before reaching a tipping point. Similar to how Artificial Intelligence evolved from early signals into a dominant global trend, quantum-resistant technology could follow the same trajectory. Transforming Blockchain Into A Developer Ecosystem The evolution of blockchain technology is the progression of ideas built upon the foundations laid by Bitcoin. Analyst Dave highlighted that BTC introduced the world to a decentralized, censorship-resistant digital money that operates outside traditional financial systems. It established the core principles of sound money and financial sovereignty. Related Reading: Bitcoin And Ethereum Prices Are Struggling Again, And Here’s What’s Behind It Building on that foundation, ETH learned from BTC by adding smart contracts, enabling developers to create platforms for decentralized applications and unlocking new possibilities in programmable finance and digital assets. Cardano took these ideas further by focusing on a rigorous research-driven approach and scalability, and combining BTC’s security with ETH’s flexibility.  Dave highlights its focus on sustainability, decentralized ecosystem governance by its community, scarcity, and reliability. However, a solid foundation with integrated upgradeability is not just for enterprises, but is capable of government adoption. Featured image from Pexels, chart from Tradingview.com

Ethereum could outpace Bitcoin by a wide margin over the next four years — at least according to one of the most bullish forecasts to come out of traditional banking. That is the view from Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, who laid out the projection in a recent podcast appearance. Ethereum’s Potential Gain Towers Over Bitcoin’s While Bitcoin grabs the bigger headline number, the math actually favors Ethereum. Kendrick’s base case puts Bitcoin at $500,000 by 2030 — roughly 7.5 times its current price of $66,400. Ethereum, sitting at $2,034, would need to hit $40,000 to meet his target. That works out to about 20 times its current value. In other words, Ethereum holders would see nearly three times the relative return compared to Bitcoin investors, if the forecast holds. Related Reading: Bitcoin Stumbles Hard: The Worst Q1 In Years Raises Big Questions Kendrick flagged the ETH/BTC ratio as one indicator to watch. That ratio currently sits at around 0.03. His outlook has it climbing to 0.04 in the near term, a signal that Ethereum would be gaining ground on Bitcoin in relative terms. He also offered a more immediate checkpoint: if Bitcoin gets back to $100,000 by the end of 2026, Ethereum should be trading near $4,000. That would represent gains of roughly 50% for Bitcoin and 95% for Ethereum from where both assets currently stand. Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered: “I’ve got $500K Bitcoin by 2030 and $40K Ethereum by 2030 – a massive outperformance.” That’s ~20x on $ETH from here. pic.twitter.com/p7dFwPrTzG — Milk Road (@MilkRoad) April 1, 2026 Banks Are Choosing Ethereum First One reason why Kendrick believes in the bullishness of Ethereum is that the financial sector has been joining the blockchain revolution. From Kendrick’s point of view, large asset management firms and banks usually begin their blockchain ventures by developing products based on Ethereum since it has a reputation for safety and reliability. For instance, BlackRock started creating blockchain products using Ethereum first before venturing into other blockchain networks. This pattern, Kendrick argues, gives Ethereum a durable edge. As more institutions follow the same playbook, demand for the network could build steadily through the end of the decade. He described this as the “first phase” of real-world adoption playing out primarily on Ethereum, even if activity eventually spreads to competing blockchains. Related Reading: XRP Could Soon Enter Arizona’s Treasury — Here’s What’s Happening Network Usage Seen As A Price Driver Beyond institutional adoption, Kendrick pointed to raw network activity as a key factor in his price outlook. Rising transaction fees on Ethereum-based applications are seen as a gauge of demand. As stablecoins, decentralized finance, and tokenized real-world assets continue to grow on the network, that increased usage could push the token’s value higher. The forecast was shared during an interview on the Milk Road podcast with host John Gillen. Standard Chartered has not publicly released a formal research note tied to these specific figures, but Kendrick’s comments drew wide attention across the crypto community following the appearance. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

Gold (XAU) and silver (XAG) futures have climbed into the top five by trading volume on Binance Futures. Binance Metal Rush Doesn’t Leave Crypto Behind Just weeks after Binance rolled out gold and silver perpetual futures settled in USDT, the cumulative volume across the metals contracts already reached the tens of billions of dollars, a CryptoQuant report from yesterday claims. However, CryptoQuant’s analyst Marteen assures that Binance is still overwhelmingly crypto‑native. Bitcoin leads the futures volume around the low‑$20‑billion range with Ethereum following behind at $18.1B and Solana at a distant third at $3.0B. But the metals’ rise into the top bucket shows non‑crypto assets are no longer a sideshow. Gold is already in 4th place at $2.15B, and silver is right behind it at $1.98B. Related Reading: Bitcoin Liquidations Dethroned? A Tokenized Bet Just Posted Crypto’s Biggest Loss Marteen’s conclusion is simple. Binance still leans heavily toward crypto, but it has outgrown being a pure crypto venue. Commodities have soaked up liquidity at speed, and equity‑linked products are now starting to see meaningful flow as well. [Binance] – Snapshot Futures Volume – April 1st, 2026. Source: CryptoQuant. Binance Joins The Oil Rush Too According to WuBlockchain, Binance’s new “TradFi” futures suite (gold, silver and stock‑linked products) has rapidly captured a meaningful share of overall derivatives activity on the platform. On April 2, the first full trading day after launch on Binance, USDⓈ-margined perpetual contracts for crude oil assets CL and BZ recorded trading volumes of $760 million and $358 million respectively, ranking third and fourth among Binance TradFi perpetual products. Meanwhile,… pic.twitter.com/PoROHzQsur — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 3, 2026 Crude oil benchmarks CL and BZ posted volumes of $760 million and $358 million dollars respectively, placing them third and fourth among Binance’s traditional‑finance perpetual products. Daily Volume by Symbol. Binance TradFi-USDT Perp. Source: WuBlockchain. Trading activity, however, remains dominated by gold (XAU) and silver (XAG), which together generated $5.58 billion in daily volume, makin up more than 70% of the total. Are Crypto Venues Morphing Into Multi‑Asset Trading Hubs? Let’s keep in mind that Binance is not the only crypto venue experiencing such a dramatic shift. In recent weeks, Hyperliquid has been under the spotlight for many reasons, but one of the main ones is that the leading perp DEX’s combined HIP-3 (oil, gold and silver) open interest reached all-time highs. The platform is now trading more volume in tokenized commodities than digital assets. Just yesterday, NewsBTC reported that tokenized Brent oil futures on Hyperliquid generated about $46.6 million in liquidations in 24 hours, making oil the third‑most liquidated asset on the decentralized exchange. Gold Perpetual Contracts on Binance right now, showing the performance. They are trading for almost $4.7k Source: XAUUSDT.P on Tradingview. Gold and silver have been ripping on the back of inflation worries, rate‑cut bets and geopolitical stress. Binance is joining the 24/7 RWA’s trading hub bandwagon by effectively letting traders express those macro views with high leverage and stablecoin collateral, instead of using legacy commodity exchanges. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Puts Wall Street Onchain — Will This Warp Crypto Volatility Next? Gold and silver breaking into the top five on Binance Futures is a signal that the line between crypto and TradFi markets is dissolving, with liquidity, speculation and hedging all moving onto the same rails. A portion of derivatives capital rotating into metals and stock‑linked contracts can thin order books and amplify volatility in smaller altcoins during risk‑off episodes. Silver Perpetual Contracts on Binance right now, showing the performance and technicals. They are trading for almost $73. Source: XAGUSDT.P on Tradingview. Sophisticated players might use metals futures on Binance as a hedge against crypto drawdowns. Correlation regimes between BTC and gold (as the one between oil and Bitcoin explained by NewsBTC yesterday) could shift as both trade on the same venue. Ignoring this new macro layer on Binance’s futures board could mean missing an important signal about where “smart” derivatives flow is going. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for almost $67k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview. Cover image from Perplexity. All charts from Tradingview.

Years of crypto scams running havoc on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, have resulted in the implementation of a “kill switch” for users talking about crypto. An Auto-Lock For Crypto Posting? The announcement of the toughest anti-crypto scam measure to date was made by Nikita Bier, X’s Head of Product, through a post on the same social media on Wednesday. Yeah we’re aware. We are in the process of implementing auto-locking + verification if a user posts about cryptocurrency for the first time in the history of their account. This should kill 99% of the incentive, especially since Google isn’t doing shit to stop the phishing… — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 1, 2026 The measure was brought to public attention after Bier, who is also a Solana ecosystem advisor, replied to a post from UK-based web3 creator Benjamin White. In his thread, White explained how his account had been phished via a fake copyright email. This led to his X account being compromised and used to promote a crypto scam. Yeah – I got phished. ???? You can listen to exactly what happened here, or read the article below. Shout out to the @premium support team (@nikitabier – this needs more exposure). BE SAFE EVERYONE. https://t.co/u6cMy8Dirq pic.twitter.com/HwZZvaTuc5 — Benjamin (@HelloBenWhite) April 1, 2026 Now, according to the new guidelines, X can auto‑lock an account it mentions crypto for the first time, and force extra checks before it can post again. Bier’s argue this should kill most of the incentive, making freshly hijacked or newly spun‑up accounts effectively useless to scammers. Related Reading: Bitcoin Liquidations Dethroned? A Tokenized Bet Just Posted Crypto’s Biggest Loss Updates And Details On The Crypto “Kill Switch” In a different post from the same day, Bier laid out the way suspensions works and reiterated that some financial scams are running “rampant” on the platform. For context: All suspensions are determined by the policy team; no one, including me, has unilateral decisionmaking authority. Having said that: • This was posted on March 31st, not April 1 • Fake X-trademarked financial scams run rampant on this platform • Soliciting… — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 1, 2026 Bier also replied to a concerned user inquiring about “community-mention spam attacks” (when accounts tag a lot of people at the same time to promote cryptocurrencies) assuring that such activity should also now be blocked on the site. That community-mention spam attack should be blocked as of yesterday afternoon. — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 1, 2026 The platform will also detect fraudulent memecoin activity. Yesterday, Bier corrected a now deleted Community Note explaining that “it is always a hack” when a high-profile account without any previous relation to crypto suddenly drops a memecoin. The social network will now require account ownership verification in such cases. @CommunityNotes Wrong. If you have more than 10k followers and you drop a meme coin without any prior connection to crypto, it is always a hack. We will be detecting that and requiring account ownership verification — to reduce the incentive to phish X accounts. — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 2, 2026 The usual playbook for this type of scams include phishing emails posing as copyright or security warnings, fake login pages, stealing passwords and 2FA, then using captured X accounts to blast out scam links and tokens. X is a valuable target for scammers because it allows them to tap in the reputation of real users and their follower networks, not to mention the speed at which posts can go viral in “crypto Twitter” culture. A Long Battle Against Scammers The social network has taken legal action against banned users in the past, including crypto fraudsters, who tried to bribe employees to get suspended accounts reinstated, describing this as part of a broader criminal network. X’s Global Government Affairs account publicly framed this as “strong action against a bribery network targeting our platform,” explicitly linking it to suspended crypto‑scam accounts. X has exposed and is taking strong action against a bribery network targeting our platform. Suspended accounts involved in crypto scams and platform manipulation paid middlemen to attempt to bribe employees to reinstate their suspended accounts. These perpetrators exploit social… — Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) September 19, 2025 Regulators specifically criticized X’s design of the subscription‑based blue check system, saying it allowed users to buy badges without proper identity checks, increasing the risk of scam accounts appearing “verified”. The European Union fined the social network with €120 million under the Digital Services Act at the end of last year, in part because its paid blue‑check verification “misleads users” about authenticity and exposes them to scams and impersonation. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Puts Wall Street Onchain — Will This Warp Crypto Volatility Next? The new measure of auto‑locking first‑time crypto posters makes hijacked accounts less monetizable, raises costs for scam rings, and could sharply cut opportunistic phishing campaigns. On the downside, legitimate newcomers to crypto, small creators, and journalists could face friction, false positives, or temporary silencing at the exact moment they try to enter the conversation. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for almost $67k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview. Cover image from Perplexity. BTCUSD chart from Tradingview.

Circle’s USDC added roughly $2 billion in supply during the first quarter of 2026, pulling ahead of rival Tether at a moment when the broader crypto market was contracting. It marked the sharpest divergence between the two largest stablecoin issuers since the bear market of mid-2022. Related Reading: Bitcoin Stumbles Hard: The Worst Q1 In Years Raises Big Questions USDC Gains As Tether Loses Ground While USDC grew, Tether’s USDT shed approximately $3 billion over the same period. Reports indicate USDC has been gaining traction in trading and on-chain transactions, with transfer activity hitting a record high in February. The shift aligns with growing institutional preference for a US-regulated issuer as Congress moves closer to passing stablecoin legislation. Total stablecoin supply reached $315 billion by the end of March, up about $8 billion from the prior quarter, according to CEX.io data. Growth was slower than at any point since late 2023, but it was still growth — at a time when most other corners of the crypto market were shrinking. Stablecoins also captured 75% of all crypto trading volume in Q1, the highest share ever recorded. Data shows investors rotated into dollar-pegged assets as a defensive move, choosing to stay inside the crypto ecosystem rather than exit it entirely. Total stablecoin transaction volume for the quarter topped $28 trillion, extending a run that has seen stablecoins process more value annually than Visa and Mastercard combined. Yield-Bearing Products Fuel New Supply A significant portion of fresh issuance came not from USDC or USDT, but from yield-bearing stablecoins — products that pay returns similar to interest-bearing accounts. That segment is now valued at around $3.7 billion, with daily trading volumes exceeding $100 million, based on CoinGecko data. The growth has drawn pushback from traditional banks, which have been lobbying Congress against stablecoins that offer returns, arguing they function more like financial instruments than payment tools. The debate is unresolved, and its outcome could determine how much room yield-bearing products have to grow inside the US market. Related Reading: XRP Could Soon Enter Arizona’s Treasury — Here’s What’s Happening Retail Activity Drops As Automated Trading Rises Not all of the quarter’s numbers pointed upward. Retail-sized transfers — those associated with individual users — fell 16%, the steepest single-quarter decline on record. Automated trading and algorithmic activity filled much of that gap, accounting for approximately 75% of all stablecoin transaction volume during the period. CEX.io’s report frames the overall picture as one of structural growth under pressure — a market where institutional and automated flows are increasingly driving the numbers, even as everyday participation fades. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

Solana-based Drift Protocol has suffered the largest exploit of 2026 to date, losing nearly $300 million in a “highly sophisticated operation” that has raised concerns about the growing threat of human-targeted attacks in the crypto space. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETFs Break Four-Month Negative Streak With $1.32B Inflows While ETH, XRP Funds Bleed Solana DEX Loses $285M On April Fool’s Day On Wednesday, Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Drift Protocol was the victim of an exploit that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from its vaults. After online reports flagged unusual on-chain activity yesterday afternoon, Drift’s official channels confirmed the attack, quickly suspending deposits and withdrawals. According to reports, the attack lasted less than 20 minutes and stole around $285 million in multiple assets, including USDC, JPL, USDT, JUP, USDS, WBTC, and WETH, from nearly 20 vaults. This marks the largest crypto exploit of 2026 to date, and one of the largest hacks in the industry, just above WazirX’s $235 million hack. The hack wiped out half of the Solana-based project’s total value locked (TVL), which fell from roughly $550 million to $252 million, per DeFiLlama data. Drift protocol’s token, DRIFT, also plunged, retracing nearly 40% over the past 24 hours. Within hours, the exploiter had swapped $270.9 million into USDC, bridged them from Solana to Ethereum via the CCTP TokenMessengerMinterV2, and purchased 129,000 ETH, splitting them across multiple wallets. In a Thursday post, Drift shared the details of the incident, affirming that “a malicious actor gained unauthorized access to Drift Protocol through a novel attack involving durable nonces, resulting in a rapid takeover of Drift’s Security Council administrative powers.” Solana’s durable nonces are an advanced mechanism that allows transactions to bypass the typical short expiration date of regular transactions. This enables users to pre-sign transactions for future execution, offline signing, or complex multisig workflows. “This was a highly sophisticated operation that appears to have involved multi-week preparation and staged execution, including the use of durable nonce accounts to pre-sign transactions that delayed execution,” the post continued. Malicious Actors Targeting Humans, Not Smart Contracts The Solana-based DEX emphasized that the exploit was not the result of a bug in Drift’s programs or smart contracts, noting that they found no evidence of compromised see phrases either. “The attack involved unauthorized or misrepresented transaction approvals obtained prior to execution, likely facilitated through durable nonce mechanisms and sophisticated social engineering,” the project underscored. Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, addressed the incident, asserting that it is a blow to the whole Solana ecosystem. Liu pointed out that “Smart contracts held up. The real targets now are humans: social engineering and opsec weaknesses more than code exploits.” Related Reading: Analyst Forecasts More Pain For XRP In Q2 – How Much Lower Can It Go? Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet linked Drift’s attack method to Bybit’s $1.4 billion hack, which was attributed to North Korean hacking groups. As he explained, the attackers likely compromised several machines belonging to multisig signers through long-term infiltration and misled operators into approving the malicious transactions. This modus operandi is similar to the Bybit hack last year, widely attributed to DPRK-linked actors. The pattern is becoming familiar: patient, sophisticated supply-chain-level compromise targeting the human and operational layer, not the smart contracts themselves. Guillemet affirmed that the incident is “yet another wake-up call for the industry” to raise the bar on security. “Ultimately, security is not just about code audits. It’s about giving operators and users the right information at the right time, so they can make informed decisions about what they sign,” he concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin ended the first quarter of 2026 at $68,200 after falling 22% over the period, its weakest opening three months since 2018. The slide erased an early push higher that had briefly carried the cryptocurrency close to $95,000 before the market turned lower. Related Reading: XRP Could Soon Enter Arizona’s Treasury — Here’s What’s Happening A Sharp Turn After A Strong Start The quarter did not begin quietly. Bitcoin opened the year at a little past $87,000 and moved higher in the early stretch, showing enough strength to reach nearly $95,000. That momentum did not last. The price later sank to about $60,000 on February 6, marking a fast shift in tone after a strong start to the year. From there, the market kept swinging. Bitcoin managed a brief rebound to around $70,000 later in February, but the recovery faded. Selling pressure returned as tension in the Middle East spread through risk markets, and Bitcoin slipped again, touching about $63,000 before the quarter ended. Coinglass data used in the report shows how unusual the quarter was when set against recent history. Bitcoin fell nearly 50% in the first quarter of 2018, then posted smaller swings in the years that followed. Source: Coinglass It gained 8% in 2019, lost 10% in 2020, surged over 100% in 2021, slipped 1.40% in 2022, and then rebounded with gains of 70% in 2023 and 65% in 2024. The pattern broke again in 2025 with an 11% decline before this year’s deeper drop. Geopolitical Stress Kept Traders On Edge The latest decline was tied in the report to rising unrest in the MidEast. That pressure did not stay confined to one trading session. It lingered through March and helped push Bitcoin into a choppy finish for the quarter, with rapid price changes making it harder for the market to settle. The report also pointed to fresh selling at the start of the second quarter. After US President Donald Trump signaled a tougher stance and warned of further military action in the weeks ahead, Bitcoin fell 3% in 24 hours to $66,700. Ethereum, BNB, and XRP also traded lower by about 3% to 4% as the broader crypto market softened. Related Reading: Bitcoin Ends 5-Month Losing Run — Real Reversal Or Just April Fool’s Hype? April Brings A Different Seasonal Pattern Despite the weak finish to March, the report noted April has often been a better month for Bitcoin. Coinglass data cited in the report shows an average April gain of 11.90% and a median return of 5% over the years, which has kept some traders looking for a rebound even after the rough quarter. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

Arizona lawmakers are weighing a bill that would let the state keep digital assets in a reserve instead of selling them off, and XRP is one of the names on the list. Related Reading: Bitcoin Ends 5-Month Losing Run — Real Reversal Or Just April Fool’s Hype? The proposal would place those assets under the state treasurer’s control, and it could also let the state earn extra returns through staking, airdrops, or limited lending if the move does not raise financial risk. What The Fund Would Hold SB1649 creates a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund made up of digital assets that are held by, confiscated by, or surrendered to Arizona. The bill text also says the treasurer could deposit state-held digital assets through a secure custody solution or an approved exchange-traded product, then administer the fund directly. It defines “digital asset” broadly enough to include Bitcoin, XRP, stablecoins, nonfungible tokens, Dash, Internet Computer, Ravencoin, Chia, eCash, Monero, and other digital-only assets that meet the bill’s fair-value test. That fair-value test is built around adoption, annual transactions, annual transaction value, and development activity. In plain terms, the bill tries to sort assets by market use and technical strength before they can be treated as reserve holdings. The wording is broad, but it is not an open-ended invitation to buy anything. It sets a screening standard first. A Bill That Keeps Moving The measure has already cleared the House Rules Committee and is headed to a full House vote. Arizona legislative tracking shows the committee approved it 8-0 on March 30, after earlier Senate action sent it across the chamber. That means the bill is still alive, but it is not law yet. The House step matters because it moves the proposal closer to the finish line. The bill would give the treasurer authority to manage the fund, and it would also allow digital assets reported as abandoned property to be delivered in native form to the state or its custodian. If those assets sit unclaimed long enough, staking rewards and airdrops could be shifted into the reserve fund. Related Reading: Ripple’s RLUSD Stablecoin Sits On $1.57 Billion In Reserves: Audit Firm Why XRP Is In The Mix XRP has drawn extra attention because it is named directly in the bill, not implied through a broad crypto category. The same section that lists Bitcoin also lists XRP alongside several other assets that could qualify under the reserve framework. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView

Bitget Wallet has integrated Hyperliquid’s HIP‑3 infrastructure, effectively plugging 24/7, permissionless onchain macro markets directly into its self‑custodial “everyday finance” app. Related Reading: Crypto Quantum Scare Is Real Says Top Trading Firm, But Here’s Where The Real Risk Is Hyperliquid Expands Its Frontiers Once More The new joint venture was announced by Bitget Wallet and Hyperliquid on a press release published on Business Insider today. As explained on the announcement, Bitget Wallet users will now be able to trade a broad basket of real‑world‑assets (RWAs) spot and perp markets, all from a single wallet interface. The offered RWAs include around 300 equities and ETFs, major indexes, and commodities like gold, crude oil, and natural gas. Alongside this, users can also partake in chosen local macro products and pre‑IPO markets tied to private names like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. As usual with DeFi, everything runs 24/7/365. Bitget positions the new effort as part of their “everyday finance” push where one app handles both crypto and macro exposure under self‑custody. A Deep Dive In Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 It doesn’t come as a surprise that everyone wants a piece of Hyperliquid right now. Explaining all of the recent achievements of the once-underdog, now-leading perp DEX would amount for half the piece, but interested readers can consult NewsBTC’s coverage of all of it here. Suffice to say that a few weeks ago, the combined HIP-3 open interest surpassed $1.5 billion, with $5.4 billion recorded in perpetual futures volumes across commodities and macro assets, according to Binance. This means that Hyperliquid is now trading more volume in tokenized commodities than digital assets. Hyperliquid’s HIP‑3 turns the protocol into permissionless financial infrastructure, letting builders deploy their own perp markets onchain, with full control over oracles, leverage limits, and settlement logic. Bitget Wallet is effectively riding this rail to surface 24/7 macro markets to its 90M+ user base, without running a centralized exchange order book itself. CEXs offer deep liquidity but require deposit/custody. Since with HIP‑3 markets route through a non‑custodial wallet, user assets stay in their control while accessing similar macro exposure. What This Means For Traders This integration turns the wallet into a front‑end for a 24/7 global macro rail, blurring the line between DeFi and traditional brokerage. As geopolitical shocks and commodity spikes increasingly happen outside regular market hours, traders are leaning on HIP‑3 perps as a real‑time macro sentiment gauge while traditional venues are closed. Related Reading: Crypto Pump‑And‑Dump Era Ends Here? Why DOJ’s New Indictments Should Scare Market Makers The new ventures align with a broader DEX trend where onchain perps volume and open interest are climbing. Some analysts like Arthur Hayes are projecting Hyperliquid’s HYPE token and HIP‑3 markets could challenge centralized incumbents over the next cycle. Bitget Wallet users can now fade or ride moves in gold, oil, equity indexes, and selected pre‑IPO names 24/7, from the same interface they use for crypto, while keeping custody and tapping onchain liquidity. This creates a number of new opportunities, like new hedging tools for crypto‑native portfolios (e.g., short NASDAQ, long BTC during a macro risk‑off), higher weekend and overnight volatility as positions can be opened or closed when TradFi is asleep and anew battleground between CEX derivatives desks and permissionless perps for high‑beta macro flow. At the moment of writing, HYPE trades for $35 in the daily chart. Source: HYPEUSDT on TradingView. Cover image from Perplexity,

EDX Markets, the crypto exchange backed by Wall Street giant Citadel Securities, has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter, according to a public filing disclosed Wednesday.  The move comes as US regulators under the current Trump administration have adopted a more receptive posture toward crypto firms seeking to operate under federal banking charters. EDX Seeks OCC Trust Charter To Court Big Banks EDX’s chief executive, Tony Acuña‑Rohter, who is slated to join the proposed trust’s board, told Bloomberg that the exchange expects large banks to drive the next phase of crypto adoption. He said securing an OCC trust charter would give EDX a competitive edge in servicing those institutions.  By operating under a national trust charter, crypto firms can operate across state lines under a single federal regulator, rather than obtaining multiple state money‑transmitter licenses, simplifying custody, settlement, and fiduciary services for digital assets. Related Reading: Expert Finds Prime Bitcoin Buy Zone Below $60,000, Supported By This Vital Indicator EDX’s filing argued that the existing structure of many digital‑asset platforms concentrates multiple functions — brokerage, exchange, market‑making, and custody — within single vertically integrated firms, creating potential conflicts of interest and single points of failure.  The company said moving custody, asset management, and trade settlement into an OCC‑chartered national trust bank would provide customers with the “most secure regulatory structure possible,” and would align digital‑asset market infrastructure more closely with the separation of duties customary in traditional equities and derivatives markets. The application places EDX among several crypto companies pursuing similar paths. In December of last year, five firms — including Circle (CRCL) and Ripple — received conditional approval for trust charters. However, not everyone in the financial sector supports that approach.  Growing Bank Unease Over Crypto Trust Charters  Some incumbent banks and industry groups have pushed back, concerned that expanding trust‑bank charters to crypto companies stretches the historical purpose of the charter and could introduce new risks.  Rebeca Romero Rainey, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, warned that conditional approvals could endanger consumers and create institutions that the OCC might struggle to regulate effectively.  Related Reading: TAO Rockets 70% — Here’s What Fueled Bittensor Move And The Near‑Term Outlook She also argued that the new framework can permit stablecoin operators to access the federal banking system without meeting the same capital and regulatory standards required of full‑service, deposit‑taking banks. Yet, the OCC’s leadership has defended the approvals. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said new entrants to the federal banking system can bring fresh products and services and boost competition, which he maintained would benefit consumers and the broader banking sector.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

QCP Group released an article today weighining in the quantum risk for crypto, following the Google whitepaper from March 30 showing Bitcoin‑style elliptic‑curve cryptography can be broken with far fewer quantum resources than previously assumed. Related Reading: Google Says End For Bitcoin Is Near? Quantum Computers Could Attack Crypto This Soon A Bigger Threat Beyond Crypto The crypto-quantum panic continues raging on, with multiple important voices from crypto and technology, such as former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), responding to the report in different ways. QCP’s article, written by Rachel Lee, establishes the firm’s opinion in a simple sentence: the quantum threat is more of a persistent structural challenge than a short‑term market threat. At QCP, we view this as a long-term structural issue, not an immediate market risk. The distinction matters. What Lee means is the target of the threat is not crypto in isolation: it’s the entire public‑key infrastructure stack that also secures banking rails such as SWIFT, TLS/HTTPS, VPNs and wider financial plumbing. A breakthrough in quantum computing that compromises ECC would therefore have system-wide implications, not just for digital assets. This quantum-vulnerability happens because what quantum computers could actually break are public‑key signatures (ECDSA, Ed25519, RSA), not the proof‑of‑work consensus mechanism that make blockchain technology to be considered highly secure. “A Transition, Not a Trigger”, QCP Says Lee reminds us that “we remain a considerable distance” from the technological power that would be needed to break the cited ECDLP standard. As of today, the most advanced quantum systems we have are operating roughly 1,000x below the necessary threshold to even conduct such an attack. More importantly, QCP argues that even in the scenario where we have the computational power that would make any of this possible, digital assets would not be, by ay means, the primary target. TradFi and networks carrying confidential or mission‑critical information are way more tempting targets. The global banking system and sensitive communications infrastructure would present far more immediate and valuable attack surfaces. Paradoxically, this means crypto is better positioned to coordinate contentious upgrades than many siloed banking and government systems that depend on slow hardware refresh cycles and legacy HSMs. The system is already repricing this structurally. Both the crypto sector and traditional finance are already pouring resources into post‑quantum defenses and migration plans. Protocol communities are testing mitigation approaches, even as global security standards are still being refined. Efforts such as the Italian NIST’s post‑quantum standards and Google’s own 2029 internal quantum deadline are grounding the quantum-risk from a sci‑fi edge case into a realistic technological transition. Related Reading: Bitcoin Range Traps Traders At $65K — Are Long‑Term Holders Finally Surrendering? Immediate Market Implications According to QCP, quantum is now a background macro risk factor for crypto, not a near‑term catalyst. It’s more relevant to long‑duration value, L1 roadmaps, and wallet design than to next‑month price action. Quantum computing is a long-term issue the industry should monitor and prepare for, not a near-term reason to reassess digital assets. Protocols and projects that can credibly ship post‑quantum signatures, hardened key‑management and private mempools may attract a “quantum‑ready” premium over time, while assets with ossified governance or huge pools of exposed coins will trade with a structural discount. At the time of writing, BTC trades for the highs $68k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged ten senior staff and employees at four crypto “market‑making” firms with running fraudulent campaigns designed to pump up both the trading volume and the price of certain digital assets. An FBI Crypto-Trap The charges, announced by the DOJ on a Monday press release, include employees from the firms Gotbit, Vortex, Antier and Contrarian. Three of the defendants were taken into custody in Singapore and extradited to the United States. They appeared before a federal judge in Oakland for the first time on Monday. Two of them were CEO’s at the aforementioned companies. 10 Foreign National Executives and Employees of Four Different Cryptocurrency Financial Services Firms Are Charged by @USAO_NDCA With Orchestrating Fraud Schemes to Artificially Inflate the Trading Volume and Price of Cryptocurrencies. Three defendants, including 2 CEOs, were… — U.S. Department of Justice – International (@USDOJ_Intl) March 31, 2026 The charges arise from an undercover FBI FBI and IRS‑CI operation that began on May 2024, targeting “wash-trading”. The FBI created crypto tokens and then watched these firms fall on the trap as they orchestrated artificial volume and price spikes. Let’s remember that wash trading occurs when the same party effectively trades with itself to manufacture fake volume and liquidity, laying the groundwork for pump‑and‑dump style price manipulation. In a pump-and-dump, organizers hype and artificially drive up a token’s price only to dump their holdings at the top. Related Reading: Google Says End For Bitcoin Is Near? Quantum Computers Could Attack Crypto This Soon According to the announcement, the defendants have been charged in three separate indictments. They are accused of not only working together to jack up trading volume and prices, but then cashing out by dumping those tokens at inflated levels onto unsuspecting investors, turning the schemes into the classic pump‑and‑dump play described before. The scheme also harmed buyers beyond the United States. On top of the three extradited individuals, two co‑defendants have already pled guilty and received sentences from U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martínez‑Olguín. Authorities have so far seized more than $1 million worth of cryptocurrency. Market Impact And Takeaways For Traders This is not the first time the DOJ charges individuals with wash-trading indictments. On October 2024, 18 individuals and entities were charged in Boston for widespread fraud and manipulation in the cryptocurrency markets. In that case, the charges included the leaders of four cryptocurrency companies, four “market makers” (ZM Quant, CLS Global MyTrade and Gotbit) and employees at those firms. “Fake” volume and manufactured liquidity have been structural features of altcoin markets. The charges suggest the DOJ will treat these patterns like traditional securities fraud and not “quirks” of a new asset class. Related Reading: Bitcoin Range Traps Traders At $65K — Are Long‑Term Holders Finally Surrendering? Traders should keep in mind that high on‑chain or exchange volume in illiquid tokens is now a red flag, especially when tied to thinly documented market‑making agreements. This operation may be followed by more enforcement, which translates into higher legal risk premia on small‑cap tokens, more scrutiny for market makers, and potentially cleaner but thinner liquidity in the short term. If the DOJ ends up completely succeeding here, the “high‑beta casino” corner of crypto could shrink, while compliant venues and assets benefit from a credibility re‑rating over time. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for the highs $68k. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview