Fundstrat’s chief investment officer, Tom Lee, says the next big move in markets won’t be led by stocks — it’ll be driven by crypto. Speaking Wednesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Lee argued that Bitcoin and Ether are positioned to lead the next leg of the rally, alongside the Magnificent 7 tech stocks and the broader software sector. Related Reading: Bitcoin Could Hit $85K Before April Ends, Analyst Says Crypto And Tech Move In Step He also said some investors are still sitting on the sidelines, waiting for more clarity on the Middle East conflict before putting money to work — and that their eventual return could push prices higher. His comments came on a day when markets moved decisively. The Nasdaq Composite closed at a new all-time high of 24,016, up 1.60% for the session. The S&P 500 tagged its own record at 7,022, gaining 0.78%. Tech stocks as a group were up more than 2% on the day, according to data from Yahoo Finance. Even as S&P 500 $SPY reached all-time hit today, investors remain skeptical and sidelined: – many said long war = long bear – but stocks bottom on bad news not “good” We expect leaders to be: – crypto $ETH $BTC $BMNR – MAG7/software $MAGS $IGV Great speaking with… https://t.co/5hTtN3Wcl9 — Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FundstratDirect.com (@fundstrat) April 15, 2026 Bitcoin kept pace. The world’s largest cryptocurrency briefly hit $76,000 on Wednesday, up roughly 1.20% over the prior 24 hours. That move was part of a broader run — BTC has climbed nearly 10% over the past two weeks. A War Winding Down Much of Wednesday’s optimism was tied to signals out of Washington. US President Donald Trump said that the US-Iran conflict may be close to ending. “If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly.” Trump stopped short of declaring victory. A deal, he made clear, has not been struck. But the tone was enough to lift investor confidence across both equity and crypto markets, with traders interpreting the comments as a sign that the geopolitical pressure weighing on risk assets could soon ease. Related Reading: ‘Extremely Good News’ – XRP DeFi Momentum Builds As SEC Softens Position On Interfaces Bulls See Room To Run Lee, known for his bullish market calls, pushed back against any suggestion that the recent rally has run out of steam. He posted on X that stocks tend to bottom on bad news — not good — making the case that the upward move has further to go. His view is that the market and US economy have held up well despite the ongoing conflict, and that the conditions for continued gains remain in place. Whether crypto leads equities or simply rides alongside them remains to be seen. But on Wednesday, at least, both were pointing in the same direction — up. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView
CoinShares joins a growing wave of crypto firms tapping U.S. public markets after its $1.2 billion SPAC merger announced last September.
The listing makes CoinShares the latest crypto firm to go public and follows similar moves by BitGo, Circle, Bullish, and Gemini in recent years.
Wall Street spent years talking about tokenization, but never seemed to move beyond vague plans and pilot projects. This week, however, we've seen a culmination of various efforts and incentives that showed it's finally taking things seriously. BMO said it plans to launch tokenized cash capabilities with CME Group and Google Cloud for real-time payments […]
The post Here’s why Wall Street suddenly obsessed with tokenization – but on its own terms appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Nasdaq's structure the SEC approved opens door to bring blockchain benefits to equities, while preserving the same-old intermediaries and market structure, industry insiders say.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved on Wednesday a significant rule change allowing one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, Nasdaq, to support trading in tokenized securities, a move that could accelerate the integration of blockchain technology into the mainstream financial markets. Nasdaq Rule Amendments Approved Nasdaq’s modified regulations were approved by the SEC following a seven-month assessment that began in September 2025 and included adjustments to ensure compliance with federal securities laws and investor protection requirements. For context, tokenized securities are blockchain‑based representations of traditional financial instruments—stocks, bonds, or funds—where ownership rights are recorded as digital tokens on a distributed ledger. Related Reading: Citigroup Lowers 12-Month Bitcoin Price Forecast To $112,000, ETH To $3,175—Here’s The Reason Proponents say tokenization can enable around‑the‑clock trading, speed up settlement, and permit fractional ownership, modernizing elements of market infrastructure that have long relied on legacy systems. According to the SEC’s filing, Nasdaq’s approved pilot program will operate in coordination with the Depository Trust Company (DTC), providing a regulated pathway for market participants to trade these digital representations of securities. Cross‑Border Rails For Tokenized Securities The SEC’s approval clears the way for several industry initiatives already under development. Earlier this month, Payward — the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken — announced a partnership with Nasdaq to build an equities transformation gateway. That project pairs Nasdaq’s regulated market infrastructure with Kraken’s xStocks framework, with the stated goal of allowing tokenized equities to move seamlessly between permissioned institutional environments and permissionless decentralized finance (DeFi) networks. Related Reading: This Week Could Be The Most Volatile For Bitcoin In 2026, Top Expert Warns According to Nasdaq, the collaboration will underpin a new Nasdaq equity token design intended to preserve issuer control, maintain compliance with existing regulatory frameworks, and protect the traditional rights attached to company shares. The stock exchange also disclosed earlier in the month a partnership with Boerse Stuttgart Group’s tokenized settlement platform, Seturion, to link its European trading venues to settlement infrastructure tailored for tokenized securities. Featured image from Reuters, chart from TradingView.com
The SEC’s approval lets Nasdaq test blockchain-based versions of stocks that trade and settle like traditional shares.
The race for the "everything exchange" makes Wall Street operators and crypto exchanges rivals and partners at the same time.
A crypto analyst is calling for a $40,000 Bitcoin price surge within 60 days, and the macro environment may be building the case for exactly that. Bitcoin is still pushing around $70,000, and many traders are watching closely after weeks of volatility across global markets. Bitcoin Will Have Its Turn Very Soon One market participant known as ₿ariksis suggested that the Bitcoin price could surge from $70,000 to $110,000 within the next 60 days if the current macro and technical conditions are set up well. Related Reading: Has Bitcoin Price Bottomed Yet? Analyst Says We’re Not There Yet The prediction from ₿ariksis is built on rotation across major assets. Gold, silver, and oil have delivered strong upward moves in recent weeks. Gold, silver, and oil have already recorded strong moves in recent weeks. Both gold and silver have been pushing to new all-time highs in recent months, but Bitcoin has lagged behind. Geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran have pushed crude oil prices above $100 per barrel, which is another type of rapid rally that can unfold across markets. Bitcoin is already known for how fast things can change, and this serves as a reminder that the leading cryptocurrency could be next in line for a fast repricing. A move from $70,000 to $110,000 in 60 days would require a gain of about 57%. This is obviously volatile, but not outside Bitcoin’s historical character once momentum and liquidity line up. Bitcoin Is Already Winning The Battle Of Relative Strength The case for Bitcoin’s resilience was sharpened further by BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who shared a normalized comparative chart tracking Bitcoin, gold, and the Nasdaq 100 from February 28. Related Reading: This Analyst Correctly Predicted Bitcoin’s Recovery Will End Badly, But What’s Next? According to the chart shared by Hayes, Bitcoin has outperformed gold and the Nasdaq 100 since the US-Iran war started on February 28. Bitcoin’s line pushes above both gold and the Nasdaq over the period in the normalized performance chart, even as the oil and gas price spikes created the kind of macro conditions that usually punish risk assets. Bitcoin gained approximately 7% over the measured period, while gold declined roughly 2% and the Nasdaq 100 edged down 0.5%. “Relative to similar type large risky assets, $BTC did the best when viewed against oil and gas energy price spikes,” Hayes noted. There is also a second layer to this story: institutional conviction has not disappeared during the turbulence. For instance, Strategy recently disclosed that it acquired another 17,994 BTC for about $1.28 billion, bringing its total holdings to 738,731 BTC. The technical side of the bullish case shows Bitcoin’s price action is now touching a rising diagonal support that connects major cycle bottoms from 2018, 2020, 2022, and now 2026. The newest touch is marked near the mid-$60,000 area, almost exactly where Bitcoin has been trying to stabilize. Each prior interaction with that trendline came near important cycle lows, and each was followed by a major recovery phase. According to a crypto analyst that goes by the name Vivek San, Bitcoin rallied 450% the last time this setup appeared. The projection by the analyst points to a return above $100,000, then sketches a possible extension above $240,000 into 2027. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
Grayscale’s Avalanche Staking ETF (GAVA) has debuted on Nasdaq, offering AVAX exposure and staking rewards.
The partnership is set to connect Nasdaq's European trading venues to Seturion's blockchain-based platform.
Nasdaq has partnered with Kraken’s parent company Payward to build infrastructure linking tokenized equity markets with blockchain networks.
Nasdaq plans to work with Kraken to distribute tokenized versions of public stocks globally as the exchange pushes to bring blockchain infrastructure into traditional markets.
The proposed offering mirrors the probability-based format common on prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.
The exchange has filed a proposal with the SEC to list yes-or-no bets on the Nasdaq-100 amid continued demand for prediction markets.
Kraken-backed KRAKacquisition Corp closed a $345 million upsized IPO on Nasdaq, with units beginning to trade this week.
Bitcoin's price movement diverged from the Nasdaq futures, which fell nearly 0.8%.
Bitcoin’s short-term price action is still without bullish momentum, and according to macroeconomist Henrik Zeberg, the longer-term outlook may be deteriorating as well. Henrik Zeberg shared a strongly bearish assessment of the market’s current structure in a post on the social media platform X with the conclusion that Bitcoin is no longer behaving like an asset in a healthy expansion phase. Instead, he described Bitcoin as approaching an important peak, warning that the current structure carries an elevated risk of a sharp downside move once that peak is in place. Bitcoin’s Expanding Diagonal Points To Price Top Zeberg’s Bitcoin outlook is based on the expanding diagonal structure on Bitcoin’s monthly candlestick timeframe chart. This long-term pattern, which has been playing out since Bitcoin’s creation, shows increasing volatility, with the Bitcoin price making higher highs and lower lows with a widening range. Related Reading: People Are Not Ready For Bitcoin; Analyst Reveals What’s Coming Next According to the chart he shared, Bitcoin appears to be completing the final stages of this structure, and this is expected to be characterized by exhaustion. Zeberg labels the current zone as a topping area, where upside progress becomes increasingly unstable even if the price continues to increase. Interestingly, the chart projected a final surge as a blow-off top that could carry Bitcoin to the mid-$150,000 range. However, in this framework, that final push is not a sign of strength but a hallmark of late-cycle overconfidence. Expanding diagonals tend to resolve violently once the structure breaks, and Zeberg views the current setup as looking like where optimism peaked just before a reversal. From Euphoria To A Deep Crash Scenario Zeberg’s most controversial claims are in his projected downside targets. According to him, once the final euphoric rally plays out and Bitcoin reaches above $150,000, it could enter into a collapse on a scale that most Bitcoin investors currently consider unthinkable. Related Reading: Analyst Predicts When The Bitcoin Supercycle Will Actually Begin He compared the setup to the dot-com era, when the Nasdaq fell by more than 80%, and noted that Bitcoin has historically amplified both upside and downside moves. Based on that logic, he predicted a scenario where a broader AI and crypto bubble unwinds, leading to a Bitcoin price crash of about 97% or 98% from the eventual peak. This translates into a technical minimum target between $3,000 and $4,000, with the possibility of even deeper declines. Although the final rally may be dramatic, holding through the subsequent crash could be devastating for unprepared investors. Zeberg also highlighted momentum indicators that he believes support the bearish outlook. Bitcoin is showing what he describes as massive bearish divergence on the monthly timeframe. This is a situation where price continues to grind higher but momentum indicators such as the RSI fail to confirm those highs. Another indicator is the monthly MACD, which is also approaching, or already printing, a bearish crossover on the long-term chart. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com
The health-care and bitcoin treasury firm has six months to lift its share price above $1 for 10 consecutive days.
Crypto's 24/7 trading has influenced investor expectations, with Nasdaq acknowledging that many of its clients are already active overnight.
Nasdaq and MOVE index patterns warrant caution for BTC bulls.
Chipmaker Broadcom's 10% slide weighs on the market as Chicago Fed's Goolsbee signals more cuts than the median for 2026.
BNY, Nasdaq, iCapital and S&P Global invested in Digital Assets, powering blockchain infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets.
XRP and BTC trade close to make-or-break levels while Nasdaq's November price action raises pullback risks.
Bitcoin may be closing in on a new all-time high after moves in the derivatives market and fresh buying from large holders, according to market watchers and on-chain data. Related Reading: Crypto Wins Big: Thailand Moves To A 0% Tax On Local Exchange Gains Max Keiser, a long-time Bitcoin advocate, pointed to a filing by Nasdaq to increase options limits for BlackRock’s IBIT to 1 million contracts — a jump that represents roughly a 40x expansion from prior levels — as a key development that could remove barriers to bigger institutional flows. Options Market Expands Significantly According to Nasdaq paperwork and public commentary, the previous 25,000 contract cap had been seen by some as too small for rising volume. Market experts argued that earlier limits were “discriminatorily small” and suggested that 400,000 contracts would be a more reasonable baseline given current demand. Some described the change as a move that could place IBIT into a mega-cap derivatives category, unlocking follow-on effects for how banks and funds structure exposure to bitcoin. I first explained this in 2017: Now that BTC derivatives market was just expanded by 40x New ATH’s are in play. **November 2, 2017** Max Keiser first discussed Bitcoin market makers needing to expand their inventory to support higher prices in this X post: “Wall St traders… https://t.co/aBQ5DdSDay — Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) November 27, 2025 Banks And Market Makers React Market makers will be able to hedge larger positions without hitting the old size wall, which can lower spreads and deepen available liquidity. Based on reports, that also means banks can build structured notes that use IBIT as a reference without tripping existing risk caps — and JPMorgan is reportedly preparing Bitcoin-backed structured notes that would track BlackRock IBIT. Those products could channel steady, institutional flows into the market rather than one-off spikes. On-Chain Buyers Step In According to Glassnode’s Accumulation Trend Score by cohort, holders of 10,000 BTC or more have flipped to net accumulation and now show a score of 0.8, signaling strong buying. The 1,000 to 10,000 BTC group has also turned positive for the first time since September, while the 100 to 1,000 BTC cohort has been in active accumulation since October and continued buying through recent declines. Even retail holders with less than 1 BTC are showing their strongest accumulation since July. Price Action And Value Zones Bitcoin’s price behavior supports the buying narrative. The token fell into the low $80,000 area that served as support in May and then climbed back above $90,000 quickly, which many traders took as a sign that the market sees value in the $80,000 zone. Based on reports, the average cost basis for US spot bitcoin ETFs was near $82,000, and that figure has been cited as a reason institutions found the dip attractive. Related Reading: Bitcoin Faces More Downside After Recent Crash, Data Shows Market Risks And Short-Term Noise Keiser had warned previously that when size limits blocked hedging, the market would be prone to pullbacks — and some analysts say that is part of the reason for recent volatility. Expanding the options cap allows volume sellers to enter more smoothly, which could reduce erratic swings but will not erase market risk. Price spikes are still possible and downside moves remain a real threat if flows slow or macro conditions shift. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView
On Nov. 26, Nasdaq’s International Securities Exchange quietly triggered one of the most important developments in Bitcoin’s financial integration. The trading platform asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise the position limit on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) options from 250,000 contracts to one million. On the surface, the proposal looks procedural. […]
The post BlackRock’s IBIT is graduating to mega-cap options — opening the door to bank-grade products in your brokerage appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The deal between Upbit and Naver was reported in September, with suggestions that the former's parent Dunamu would be brought under Naver's financial arm.
In the turbulent and often unpredictable world of financial markets, asset correlations can dictate fortunes, creating either synergistic gains or painful downturns. Bitcoin is once again proving its resilience as it navigates a difficult period of negative market correlation. How Macro Pressure Failed To Break Bitcoin Market Structure Bitcoin is dealing with one of the most frustrating correlations in the market and is still surviving. CryptosRus has noted on X that BTC and Nasdaq are moving together, but BTC is reacting more to drops than to pumps. Wintermute pointed this out in their latest market report, and it’s exactly the type of pattern you normally see near macro bottoms, not near the top of a cycle. Related Reading: Why Is Bitcoin Price Crashing? Arthur Hayes Isn’t Surprised The incredible part of this trend is that BTC has already hit multiple all-time highs (ATHs) this year. BTC is still trading roughly 25% off the peak while carrying a correlation dynamic that shows how strongly it has been holding upward. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Bitcoin is on track to close the CME gap today, and the broader market context supports that move. The CIO and founder of MNFund and MNCapital, CryptoMichNL, has offered insight into crypto sentiment using the Fear and Greed Index, which shows an impression of the current state of the market comparable to previous occasions. This index is currently sitting at a 14 out of 100 level. The last time this level occurred was February 2025, right before BTC delivered a 20% decline in a month, and in June 2022, which marked a low during the Luna collapse. This shows exactly what the current market structure is, a pattern that doesn’t last long. CryptoMichNL concluded that it feels brutal when the broader crypto market and BTC are crashing simultaneously, but these phases do not last forever. That’s why patience is the most profitable strategy. Trend Reversal Strengthens As Price Moves Toward Support Zones Bitcoin is now moving directly into two major liquidity pockets, and these zones are likely to act as short-term support as the market searches for direction. An analyst known as Stockmoney Lizards has revealed that the BTC liquidation heatmap is signaling a heavy cluster of long liquidations between $80,000 and $90,000. Related Reading: Bitcoin Slides Deeper Into Red, Extending Decline Toward Key Support Zones At the same time, there is a CME true gap between the $92,000 and $92,500 region with no wicks. Meanwhile, BTC has already broken below the weekly supertrend and the weekly EMA50, confirming that momentum hasn’t flipped and BTC is still in a correction phase. Stockmoney Lizards noted that from here, the $90,000 is the natural bounce zone, and we will see if the bounce will manage to ignite a breakout to the upside, or if BTC can continue sliding toward the mid-$80,000 range. Featured image from Pngtree, chart from Tradingview.com
Canary’s spot XRP Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) has surpassed most of the experts’ predictions, and it is currently on track to see a record-breaking debut after registering strong institutional demand on its first day. Related Reading: Winklevoss Twins Back Zcash (ZEC) Treasury Company With $58M Investment First Spot XRP ETF Begins Trading On Thursday, the first single-token XRP spot ETF began trading on Nasdaq, smashing the initial performance expectations of multiple experts after clearing the last regulatory hurdles this week. Following the launch of Canary Capital’s spot XRP ETF (XRPC), the investment management firm asserted its conviction that “XRP Ledger represents a leading framework for global payments — purpose-built for interoperability and real-world settlement.” Notably, Canary Capital recently completed its 8-A filing for its XRPC ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and received the stock exchange’s green light on Wednesday afternoon. The Thursday launch comes amid the end of the US Government shutdown, which officially lasted 43 days and was forecasted to delay the long-awaited Altcoin ETFs until its conclusion. For context, the SEC was expected to approve multiple crypto-based investment products between early October and November, after the regulatory agency postponed the decision deadline in Q3 and released new generic listing standards for the products. However, the second wave of crypto-based investment products arrived despite the government setback, with the first set of ETFs launching over two weeks ago. On October 28, Canary Capital’s spot Litecoin and Hedera ETFs and Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) began trading after filing 8-A forms with the SEC. As crypto journalist Eleanor Terret explained, the launch was possible because an open government wasn’t required to continue the process, and the 8-A filings are “just as important” as the S-1 forms, since they register ETF shares under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Canary’s XRPC To Challenge BSOL’s Debut Ahead of the launch, multiple experts predicted that Canary’s spot XRP ETF could see strong demand and reach between $15 million and $35 million in volume on its first day. Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, Eric Balchunas, initially suggested that the investment product could hit $17 million in volume. Following the first half-hour, the XRP ETF saw $26 million in volume, the analyst noted, breaking past his original expectations. As a result, Balchunas suggested that the XRPC had a “good shot” at surpassing BSOL’s first-day volume and becoming the biggest ETF launch of 2025. As reported by NewsBTC, Bitwise’s SOL Staking ETF recorded an impressive volume of $10 million in the first 30 minutes of trading, which surged to $33 million by the half-day mark. The investment product closed its first day with around $57 million in volume, beating all other launches of this year. Related Reading: SUI Eyes Key Retest As Price Breaks Out Of Downtrend – Rally To $3 Ahead? In the afternoon, analyst James Seyffart noted that Canary’s XRP ETF had recorded around $46 million in volume by the half-day mark, with a few more hours of trading ahead. The analyst initially suggested that XRPC could see around $34 million in volume on day one. “This is almost guaranteed to be near the top of the list for 2025 launches and still has a shot at beating $BSOL for the top spot,” Seyffart concluded. As of this writing, XRP trades at $2.30, a 3.3% decline in the daily timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Some analysts expect XRP to climb sharply from its current price of $2.39. According to posts on X by a popular analyst known as Egrag Crypto, the coin is trading at the bottom of a descending triangle and could stage a strong rally in the coming weeks. Related Reading: Could Shiba Inu Triple? Analyst Sees 200% Move Coming Analysts Point To Historical Setups According to Egrag, two earlier runs give the pattern some weight. He compared the present chart to moves in 2017 and 2021. Back then, XRP went from $0.097 to $3.84 across a roughly three-month span around 2017–2018. In 2021, it rose from below $0.45 to above $1.90 in two monthly candles. Based on those moves, he expects a comeback within four to six weeks and projects gains of about 300% to 1,400% from today’s price. #XRP – ⚔️ Weakness? Or Just Testing the Faith of Bulls? ???? Lately, I’ve seen many #XRP Bulls turning #Bearish ????, frustrated by the sideways chop and the boring price action. They say things like “I see weakness on the HTF.” Let me tell you what I see ????️????️: I see traders… pic.twitter.com/5WTibse9r7 — EGRAG CRYPTO (@egragcrypto) November 11, 2025 “Mark my words: XRP will usually melt faces within 4–6 weeks, and history backs it up with evidence,” Egrag, who put a target range of $10 to $37 for this cycle, said. “I see traders chickening out, scared to lose their 10x gains. And that’s fine , protecting profits is smart,” he added. Other market voices have echoed parts of that view, reposting Egrag’s chart and wrote that XRP is “busy testing bulls’ faith.” ETF Filing Moves Forward Meanwhile, according to filings and reporting, Canary Capital has taken a key step toward launching a spot XRP ETF in the US. The firm filed a Form 8-A, a move that, once Nasdaq signs off, would let the fund list its shares. Crypto reporter Eleanor Terrett said the filing will become effective at 5:30 p.m. ET once Nasdaq certifies it, and trading is set to start when US markets open on Thursday, November 14, 2025. That development matters because an ETF can make an asset easier for many investors to buy. It does not mean prices will automatically skyrocket. It does mean more attention, and that can change market behavior in ways that are hard to predict. ????NEW: @CanaryFunds has filed its Form 8-A. This is the final step before it goes effective at 5:30 PM ET Wednesday once the Nasdaq certifies the listing. When that happens, the last hurdle is cleared and the first $XRP spot ETF will be set to launch Thursday at market open. pic.twitter.com/mXvkrrXbiJ — Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) November 11, 2025 Short-Term Data And Market Tone At press time, XRP was trading around $2.39, down about 3% over the last 24 hours. Technical traders focus on where the price sits inside the triangle pattern and watch volume for confirmation of a breakout. Related Reading: XRP ETF Canary Takes Flight: 8-A Filing Clears Path To Nasdaq Listing Some see the structure as a setup for a large move either way. Others point out that the market environment today is not the same as in 2017 or 2021, given bigger trading volumes and different regulatory factors. The ETF timing adds a new element to watch. If Nasdaq approves Canary Capital’s Form 8-A as reported, the first spot XRP shares could start trading on Thursday. Markets often react to such milestones, but how big that reaction will be is unknown. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView