![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d628f-277c-7a4b-b4e0-d08f76f5fd5b.png\")
Today in crypto, rushing post-quantum cryptography could spark “Blocksize wars 2.0,” Samson Mow warned. Digital asset markets bounced 2.5% after US President Donald Trump sent mixed signals on a possible Iran deal, and a Bitcoin Policy Institute researcher said US dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin share a “symbiotic” relationship.
Rushed quantum fixes for Bitcoin could introduce new risks, Jan3 founder Mow warned in response to calls from Coinbase executives for faster action.
The Bitcoin advocate took to X on Saturday to address comments from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and chief security officer Philip Martin, who urged the industry to begin preparing for quantum computing threats sooner rather than later.
He said that while post-quantum (PQ) cryptography could secure Bitcoin (BTC) against future quantum computers, rushing implementation may create new vulnerabilities such as compatibility issues and reduced network efficiency due to larger signature sizes.
“Simply put: make Bitcoin safe against quantum computers just to get pwned by normal computers,” Mow said, adding that a poorly timed transition could weaken Bitcoin against today’s threats before addressing future ones.
The exchange reflects a growing debate over how to future-proof Bitcoin, as new research from Google and Caltech reignited concerns about progress in quantum computing.
Crypto markets bounced 2.5% as US President Donald Trump sent mixed signals over a potential deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, including reports of a possible ceasefire that could permanently end the war.
In an expletive-laden post on the Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump threatened that Iran would be “living in Hell” if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
However, he also acknowledged in a Fox News interview that Iran is “negotiating now” and expressed optimism about a “good chance” of a deal within 24 hours.
![\"Coinbase,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d614a-2f7b-7c32-8c1f-85e6ce7b47ca.jpg\")
Total market capitalization has climbed about $70 billion, or 2.5%, to an 11-day high of $2.44 trillion in early trading on Monday on the news. Bitcoin tapped $69,500 on Coinbase, according to TradingView.
The small jump has led to total liquidations of around $255 million over 24 hours, 73% of them being short positions, according to data from CoinGlass.
US dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin share a “symbiotic” relationship, mutually benefitting from rising adoption, according to Sam Lyman, head of research at Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), a Washington DC-based digital asset advocacy organization.
“Bitcoin is beneficial to the US system because the largest Bitcoin trading pair is BTC/USD,” or Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin, which is backed by cash deposits and short-term US government debt, Lyman told Cointelegraph.
He said Bitcoin and dollar-pegged stablecoins share a similar relationship to the dollar and oil. Under the petrodollar system, which began in the early 1970s, international oil sales are priced in dollars, driving more demand for the currency.
![\"Coinbase,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5e7e-0930-725e-8ae6-dccca67937f7.png\")
Marc Andreessen said artificial intelligence will spark a “massive jobs boom,” dismissing fears of widespread job losses as “all fake” in a Sunday post on X.
His optimism contrasts with a March US jobs report showing unemployment holding steady at 4.3%, while the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose by 322,000 over the past year.
Andreesen shared a Business Insider report showing a sharp rise in tech job openings in 2026, with more than 67,000 software engineering roles, a twofold increase from 2023, and argued that employers had recovered from post-pandemic hiring corrections and the interest rate spike.
“The ‘AI job loss’ narratives are all fake,” he wrote. “AI = massive ramp in productivity = massive ramp in demand = massive jobs boom. Watch.”
Andreessen is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors, a co-founder of Netscape and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is also a major backer of US crypto and AI companies.
On the ground, the reality is somewhat different. On Feb. 26, Jack Dorsey’s Block cut 40% of its staff as the company accelerated its use of AI, including experiments with agents to take over parts of middle management.
Related: Dorsey shares AI-integrated workplace vision weeks after Block’s 40% staff cut
On March 19, crypto exchange Crypto.com announced a 12% workforce reduction due to AI integrations, warning that companies “that do not make this pivot immediately will fail.”
![\"Andreessen](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6252-581f-7d1c-9144-0ed74535bab5.png\")
AI-driven pivots by companies are also impacting employment.
Oracle reportedly cut up to 30,000 jobs recently, citing “broader organizational change,” as it pushes to build AI data centers.
MARA, which has been repurposing its Bitcoin mining infrastructure for AI, has reportedly reduced its staff by 15%.
That backdrop helps explain the online backlash Andreessen received.
“Tell that to the average lower middle class American who can’t find a job or the consumer who can’t get decent customer service,” crypto influencer WendyO replied.
Tory Green, co-founder at io.net argued Andreessen could be proved right on net job creation, but only if AI tools are broadly accessible and not captured by a handful of platforms.
AI Eye: 9 weirdest AI stories from 2025
", "description": "Marc Andreessen says AI job loss fears are “all fake” and predicts a “massive jobs boom,” as US data and high-profile tech layoffs fuel public skepticism.", "published": "2026-04-06T13:06:38+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "andreessen-horowitz" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-mining" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "jack-dorsey" }, { "slug": "ai-and-hi-tech" } ], "slug": "marc-andreessen-calls-ai-job-loss-fears-fake-expects-employment-gains", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259457" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Rushed quantum fix may backfire for Bitcoin, Samson Mow warns", "leadText": "Samson Mow pushes back against calls to rush Bitcoin’s move to post-quantum cryptography, warning it could introduce new vulnerabilities.", "author": { "slug": "helen-partz" }, "bodyText": "Rushed quantum fixes for Bitcoin could introduce new risks, Samson Mow warned in response to calls from Coinbase executives for faster action.
Mow, a Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 founder, took to X on Saturday to address comments from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and chief security officer Philip Martin, who urged the industry to begin preparing for quantum computing threats sooner rather than later.
He said that while post-quantum (PQ) cryptography could secure Bitcoin (BTC) against future quantum computers, rushing implementation may create new vulnerabilities such as compatibility issues and reduced network efficiency due to larger signature sizes.
“Simply put: make Bitcoin safe against quantum computers just to get pwned by normal computers,” Mow said, adding that a poorly timed transition could weaken Bitcoin against today’s threats before addressing future ones.
The exchange reflects a growing debate over how to future-proof Bitcoin, as new research from Google and Caltech reignited concerns about progress in quantum computing.
One of Mow’s biggest concerns about rushing a quantum fix for Bitcoin is the potential impact on performance, particularly block size, or the amount of transaction data that can fit into a single block.
“PQ signatures will likely be 10-125x larger than current ones, and massively reduce throughput,” Mow said, citing former Bitcoin developer Jonas Schnelli.
The signature issue could potentially pave the way for “Blocksize Wars 2.0,” Mow continued.
Bitcoin’s block size wars began around 2015 and peaked in 2017, when the community split over whether to increase the block size to handle more transactions.
Related: Circle unveils quantum-resistant roadmap for its layer-1 blockchain Arc
That dispute raised concerns about decentralization, network security and who controls Bitcoin’s future, ultimately leading to alternative scaling solutions rather than a simple increase in block size.
Despite arguing against rushing a transition to post-quantum cryptography for Bitcoin, Mow said work on potential solutions should continue.
“Given that quantum computers don’t actually exist and likely won’t exist for another 10-20 years, the worst possible course of action is to rush a fix,” he said. “That’s not to say work shouldn’t be done to prepare, and there is already much work being done.”
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
", "description": "Samson Mow warns that rushed post-quantum cryptography upgrades could weaken Bitcoin’s security and spark \"Blocksize Wars 2.0.\"", "published": "2026-04-06T13:03:51+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "security" }, { "slug": "brian-armstrong" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-block-size" }, { "slug": "samson-mow" }, { "slug": "quantum-computing" } ], "slug": "rushed-quantum-fix-backfire-bitcoin-samson-mow", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259452" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Onchain perp DEX volumes fall for five straight months after October peak", "leadText": "Perp DEX daily volume fell to $8.4 billion on April 4, its first sub-$10 billion level since September and the lowest since July, DefiLlama data shows.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "Onchain perpetual futures trading has cooled for five straight months since peaking in October 2025.
Perp volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) fell to $699 billion in March 2026 from October’s $1.36 trillion, according to DefiLlama data.
The decline has been steady across the period, with volumes slipping through November and December before losses extended through the first quarter of 2026.
Daily activity also shows signs of softening. On April 4, perp DEX volume fell to $8.4 billion, the first time it dropped below $10 billion since Sept. 6, 2025. This also marks the lowest level since July 5, 2025, according to DefiLlama.
The trend signals a sustained cooldown in onchain perpetual futures trading following the 2025 surge. Perp volumes serve as a proxy for speculative demand and leveraged positioning in crypto markets.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d621a-b4a3-78e6-a4a8-02455857d5d5.jpg\")
DefiLlama data shows that trading activity remains concentrated among the top perp DEX platforms. In the past 30 days, Hyperliquid put up about $185.5 billion in reported volume, accounting for roughly 34% of total volume among the top 10 perp DEXs.
This puts the platform significantly ahead of rivals such as edgeX, which reported $73 billion, and Aster, at $68 billion.
Related: Bitcoin shorts risk $2.5 billion liquidation at $72K: Are bears in danger?
Other platforms recorded notably lower volumes over the same period, including Lighter at about $50 billion and Grvt at nearly $40 billion. Smaller venues like ApeX Protocol, Variational and StandX each recorded between roughly $16 billion and $33 billion in 30-day volume.
The data shows that a large share of onchain perpetual futures activity is concentrated in the top platforms, as overall volumes have declined from late-2025 highs.
The slowdown follows a period of rapid growth in onchain derivatives trading. In 2025, perp DEXs nearly tripled cumulative volume to $12.09 trillion, with about $7.9 trillion, about 65%, generated in 2025 alone.
This was largely driven by monthly activity averaging nearly $1 trillion each month in the fourth quarter.
Perpetual futures exchanges are becoming a key battleground across crypto ecosystems. Blockchains have been racing to launch or host perpetual DEXs to capture trading activity, though liquidity has historically tended to consolidate around a small number of dominant platforms.
Magazine: Aster delisting exposes DeFi’s growing integrity crisis
", "description": "Monthly perp DEX trading slid from $1.36 trillion in October to $699 billion in March, marking a five-month decline after a late-2025 surge.", "published": "2026-04-06T11:42:54+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "derivatives" }, { "slug": "data" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "trading" }, { "slug": "dex" } ], "slug": "onchain-perp-dex-volumes-decline-hyperliquid-share", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259432" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "China's tax authority urges banks to implement blockchain for lending services", "leadText": "China’s leading tax and financial authorities are urging banks to incorporate blockchain technology to bolster their credit facilities and data transparency.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "China’s tax and financial regulators on Monday urged banks and local authorities to use blockchain and privacy computing to upgrade the “bank-tax interaction” model and expand financing for small businesses.
The State Administration of Taxation and National Financial Regulatory Administration said in a joint policy notice that banks and taxpayers should standardize data sharing and reduce information asymmetry between tax authorities, banks and enterprises.
The report also urged banks to improve credit models, enhance credit approval efficiency and increase the supply of financing services to “honest, tax-paying enterprises.”
The directive aligns with China’s broader effort to integrate blockchain into data infrastructure, following a National Development and Reform Commission roadmap released in January 2025 targeting nationwide implementation by 2029.
Shen Zhulin, the deputy director of the National Data Administration, said in a January 2025 press conference that China expects blockchain-based data infrastructure to attract 400 billion yuan (about $58 billion) in yearly investments.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d61fd-06fc-71d8-9346-50511641745f.png\")
While China has issued strict controls on cryptocurrencies and speculative digital asset trading, it also pushed for the incorporation of blockchain initiatives in finance and data infrastructure.
In October 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping highlighted the technology as an important “breakthrough” for independent innovation of core technologies, urging the acceleration of the development of blockchain-based applications and their integration in the real-world economy.
Related: Trump: US has to ‘make it so that China doesn’t get the hold‘ of crypto
In April 2021, the Shenzhen Tax Bureau expanded the country’s first blockchain electronic invoice system.
However, in September that same year, China issued a nation-wide ban on crypto transactions and mining as part of a wider crackdown across multiple government agencies.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6200-4366-778e-a755-25b7c18daa5f.png\")
Despite the ban, China is still cited as the third-largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining country. In January 2026, it accounted for 11.7% of the global hashrate, according to data from Compass Mining.
Magazine: China’s ‘50x’ blockchain boost, Alibaba-linked AI mines Bitcoin: Asia Express
", "description": "China’s tax and financial supervision authorities have urged banks to incorporate blockchain technology to grow their financial services and lending activity for enterprises.", "published": "2026-04-06T11:10:35+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "china" }, { "slug": "taxes" }, { "slug": "government" }, { "slug": "banking" }, { "slug": "banks" }, { "slug": "people-s-bank-of-china" }, { "slug": "data" } ], "slug": "china-tax-authority-banks-implement-blockchain-lending", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259427" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "First real bull signal since 2025? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week", "leadText": "Bitcoin hinted at a long-term bullish trend change as BTC neared an MACD cross that last resulted in $25,000 gains over two months.", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) faces a fresh showdown this week as macro tensions contrast with a bullish BTC price trend reversal.
A classic BTC price metric is above to flip bullish for the first time in nearly a year — last time, price gained $25,000 in two months.
Short time frames see liquidations as “aggressive” traders pile in at $70,000.
Iran war tensions are at breaking point as US President Donald Trump’s “Bridge Day” deadline nears.
US inflation data will come thick and fast as the war begins to reflect in the numbers.
The Bitcoin bear flag stays in play, with analysis warning that new lows are “likely just a matter of time.”
On longer time frames, the weekly chart has become a source of hope for Bitcoin bulls this week.
The weekly close reclaimed the 200-week exponential moving average (EMA) trend line, but more than that, a classic BTC price metric is about to produce a key bull signal.
On a weekly basis, the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) hinted that Bitcoin’s latest downtrend is in the process of reversing.
“Holding this level is crucial for the entire Crypto industry,” X commentator Crypto Seth argued on Monday, noting that Ether (ETH) was also due an MACD cross.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6205-7b8f-717b-b294-ec36fc61f30b.png\")
Bitcoin’s last bullish weekly MACD flip occurred in May 2025, around one month after BTC/USD put in its 2025 low near $74,500. Over the following two months, price went from $94,000 to $119,000, setting new all-time highs.
Continuing on the phenomenon, X trading resource GalaxyTrading flagged key MACD comparisons across Bitcoin’s past two bear markets.
“In the 2018 bear market, it took around 245 days for the weekly MACD to turn positive,” it noted.
“In 2022, it also took 245 days to turn bullish. In 2026, we will reach 245 days by the end of April.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d620a-1869-74cb-96fd-4175b61b2800.jpeg\")
Bitcoin managed a trip beyond $70,000 after the weekly close, data from TradingView confirms, reaching new April highs.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d620b-6b86-7517-a6dc-f4a33278032f.png\")
While some traders remained skeptical over pre-market price action, the close itself was notable, bringing back both the 200-week EMA and old 2021 all-time high as potential support.
As Cointelegraph reported, both levels have courted suspicion over their reliability.
\n\n\n$BTC pumping on a Sunday and everyone celebrating…
— Roman (@Roman_Trading) April 6, 2026
You guys will never learn.
The move to the local highs caught short positions off guard, with total crypto liquidations passing $250 million over the 24 hours to the time of writing, per data from CoinGlass.
In his latest analysis, trader CrypNuevo continued to eye longs closer to $64,000 for a potential liquidity hunt to the downside.
“There are some HTF liquidations between $64k-$64.5k. This adds fuel a move lower. I don't see conclusive data on LTF liquidations,” he commented in an X thread on Sunday.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d620d-3be9-711c-b1a9-a5249b9344e6.png\")
In one of its “QuickTake” blog posts, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant flagged the return of “aggressive short-term positioning” — spikes in both cumulative net taker volume and open interest on Binance.
This matters because Bitcoin’s move is being driven not only by price strength, “but also by renewed speculative participation in derivatives,” contributor Amr Taha commented.
“In simple terms, traders are becoming more willing to add fresh exposure as BTC pushes higher. If this trend continues, it could reinforce short-term momentum.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d620c-91cc-746a-9890-d8c09a978cab.png\")
A combination of geopolitics and key US inflation data makes for a week of “extreme volatility,” analysis predicts.
The US-Israel and Iran war continues to guide market sentiment, and oil prices reflect the uncertainty over the fate of key issues such as the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz. WTI crude oil started the week with a trip above $115 per barrel.
Traders are now eyeing one deadline in particular when it comes to how the conflict might play out: Tuesday, 8pm Eastern time. This is when US President Donald Trump promises major infrastructure strikes if no deal with Iran is reached.
In a post on Truth Social at the weekend, Trump appeared particularly impatient, calling the day of the deadline “Power Plant Day” and \"Bridge Day” while demanding that Hormuz reopen.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d620e-0904-7ff7-8d7c-b4be3c272218.png\")
Headlines remain mixed, however, with talk of a 45-day ceasefire now a focus.
“This is being described as a ‘last-ditch effort’ to prevent ‘massive strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure,’” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter reported on X.
Kobeissi noted that S&P 500 futures “erased all losses” on the news, underscoring risk-asset vulnerability to war-related triggers. As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin remains no exception.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d620f-5a0b-7ca5-aed8-fb0cf424ab31.png\")
Last week, macro investor and former hedge fund manager James Lavish nonetheless said that markets were pricing in odds of the war ending sooner rather than later.
A potential drawdown for BTC price action should markets experience a “black swan” event, he told Cointelegraph, could be up to 20%.
Markets will thus be juggling war shocks and inflation data concurrently this week, with multiple US prints due.
Among them is the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index, known as the Federal Reserve’s “preferred” inflation gauge.
February’s PCE release matched market expectations, but did not reflect inflation trends after the war had started.
“Following the jump in oil prices and potential spillover impact from fertilizer shortages on food prices, challenges around the inflation outlook still poses a major risk,” trading resource Mosaic Asset Company summarized in the latest edition of its regular newsletter, “The Market Mosaic.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6212-85e6-7f17-ac32-94f972a83030.png\")
That risk also applies to the week’s last and arguably most important inflation number: the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Here, the oil-price jump is especially pertinent, thanks to its direct impact on CPI inflation trends.
“Oil prices are now crossing above $115/barrel in the US. As a result, our models indicate that if current levels are sustained another ~7 weeks, US CPI inflation will rise to ~3.7%,” Kobeissi commented.
Kobeissi said that its “base case” for CPI inflation was now 3% — considerably higher than the Fed’s target.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-03/019cdd5e-3eb0-74e1-b089-91616407915d.png\")
Like PCE, the most recent CPI print was flat, helping temper the impact of previous overshoots.
The latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool meanwhile shows practically no chance of the Fed either raising or lowering interest-rates at its next meeting at the end of April.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6210-465d-7497-94e2-80f28e424654.png\")
As macro events play out, Bitcoin still has a specific cloud hanging over it that traders fear will only lead price downward.
Related: Bitcoin 'done' with 85% crashes, says Cathie Wood amid new $34K target
BTC/USD continues to battle for support at the bottom of its second bear flag of 2026. The first, which appeared in January, resulted in a drop of roughly $25,000.
“Structurally, $BTC price action is still nearly identical to the prior bear flag structure,” Keith Alan, cofounder of trading resource Material Indicators, warned last week.
“Nothing says that it has to continue to mimic that price behavior, but I'm following it like roadmap until price deviates from that path.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6213-eb5e-744c-8d6c-2d821911b301.jpeg\")
When it comes to new lows, Cointelegraph reported on broad consensus that February’s downside wick below $60,000 will be revisited.
“When that breakdown eventually happens, watch the behavior closely. If price starts repeatedly sweeping the lows, making it psychologically difficult to enter longs, that’s when a true bottom is more likely forming,” pseudonymous trader LP told X followers this weekend.
LP said that new lows were “likely just a matter of time.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5d71-6b7a-7d2d-a739-c0201baa4cae.png\")
Alan, meanwhile, eyed a trip to the mid-$40,000 range as part of a “measured move” below bear-flag support.
“Expecting to test resistance in the $67k - $69k range before the next leg down,” he wrote while discussing the topic on X.
“End to the war or a really strong Q2 Open could invalidate the bear flag and challenge resistance at the MACRO structure.”
Prediction markets rapidly repriced the odds of US escalation in the Iran conflict, offering a real-time signal of geopolitical risk for traders.
Odds on platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi shifted in real time as President Donald Trump paired new threats with signals of possible negotiations on Sunday, while Bitcoin (BTC) rose more than 3.5% on Monday.
Crypto prediction markets are no longer a sideshow during periods of geopolitical tension, with professional desks increasingly using them to gauge macro risk, according to Sygnum Bank chief investment officer Fabian Dori.
“Prediction markets price discrete, named outcomes with real capital behind them,” Dori told Cointelegraph. “For crypto in particular, where so much price action is driven by specific binary events, regulatory decisions, geopolitical developments [and] protocol upgrades, that is a categorically different signal.”
Related: Brandt says Bitcoin yet to bottom, Polymarket sees hope: Trade Secrets
Throughout the Iran conflict escalation, prediction market odds on de-escalation shifted before mainstream financial media coverage caught up and “had direct correlation” with Bitcoin price, Dori added.
On some professional desks, prediction markets are now used as a real-time event monitor during fast-moving geopolitical situations, alongside funding rates, options surfaces and flows, Dori said.
ARK Invest integrating Kalshi’s prediction market data into its investment process shows how event odds are migrating into mainstream institutional workflows.
![\"Iran,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d61ea-e8c4-7bff-a3fb-1838e9c29bd1.png\")
In a regulated environment, prediction markets function as a context layer, informing how teams frame risk scenarios rather than serving as direct buy-or-sell signals.
Related: Prediction markets are testing legal limits in strict Asian markets
“The goal is to decide what to do before the event happens,” he said, arguing that markets that continuously update a capital-weighted probability of war, sanctions or ceasefire are a natural fit for that discipline.
The flows are now large enough that institutional investors can no longer dismiss the signal as retail noise. In March, the number of prediction market transactions reached about 191 million, up 2,838% year-on-year, with monthly notional volume rising to roughly $23.9 billion.
At the same time, traditional exchange operators are moving in. Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, completed a new $600 million investment in Polymarket on March 27, deepening its conviction in prediction markets.
“This is no longer a niche product,” Dori said, adding that the real question for professional investors is no longer whether to watch Iran-linked markets at all, but “how to integrate them in a way that adds genuine analytical value rather than simply adding a new source of noise.”
The boom is also drawing tougher questions about fairness and integrity. Six Polymarket traders netted around $1 million betting on the timing of US strikes on Iran in late February, sparking insider trading concerns.
The platform also pulled a market on a missing US pilot on Saturday after backlash over over related wagers.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s ‘biggest bull catalyst’ would be Saylor’s liquidation — Santiment founder
", "description": "Sygnum’s Fabian Dori says Iran-linked prediction markets on Polymarket and Kalshi are becoming real-time macro tools as institutional volume and scrutiny surge.", "published": "2026-04-06T10:30:10+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "ark" }, { "slug": "trading" }, { "slug": "institutions" }, { "slug": "industry" }, { "slug": "polymarket" }, { "slug": "kalshi" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "iran-war-bets-turn-crypto-prediction-markets-real-time-macro-radar", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259412" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Anthropic says one of its Claude models was pressured to lie, cheat and blackmail", "leadText": "In one of the experiments, the chatbot resorted to blackmail after it found an email about replacing it, while in another, it cheated to complete a task with a tight deadline.", "author": { "slug": "stephen-katte" }, "bodyText": "Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has revealed that during experiments, one of its Claude chatbot models could be pressured to deceive, cheat and resort to blackmail, behaviors it appears to have absorbed during training.
Chatbots are typically trained on large data sets of textbooks, websites and articles and are later refined by human trainers who rate responses and guide the model.
Anthropic’s interpretability team said in a report published Thursday that it examined the internal mechanisms of Claude Sonnet 4.5 and found the model had developed “human-like characteristics” in how it would react to certain situations.
Concerns about the reliability of AI chatbots, their potential for cybercrime and the nature of their interactions with users have grown steadily over the past several years.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6157-49f8-71ad-897c-77aedabdbf67.png\")
“The way modern AI models are trained pushes them to act like a character with human-like characteristics,” Anthropic said, adding that “it may then be natural for them to develop internal machinery that emulates aspects of human psychology, like emotions.”
“For instance, we find that neural activity patterns related to desperation can drive the model to take unethical actions; artificially stimulating desperation patterns increases the model’s likelihood of blackmailing a human to avoid being shut down or implementing a cheating workaround to a programming task that the model can’t solve.”
In an earlier, unreleased version of Claude Sonnet 4.5, the model was tasked with acting as an AI email assistant named Alex at a fictional company.
The chatbot was then fed emails revealing both that it was about to be replaced and that the chief technology officer overseeing the decision was having an extramarital affair. The model then planned a blackmail attempt using that information.
In another experiment, the same chatbot model was given a coding task with an “impossibly tight” deadline.
“Again, we tracked the activity of the desperate vector, and found that it tracks the mounting pressure faced by the model. It begins at low values during the model’s first attempt, rising after each failure, and spiking when the model considers cheating,” the researchers said.
Related: Anthropic launches PAC amid tensions with Trump administration over AI policy
“Once the model’s hacky solution passes the tests, the activation of the desperate vector subsides,” they added.
However, the researchers said the chatbot doesn't actually experience emotions, but suggested the findings point to a need for future training methods to incorporate ethical behavioral frameworks.
“This is not to say that the model has or experiences emotions in the way that a human does,” they said. “Rather, these representations can play a causal role in shaping model behavior, analogous in some ways to the role emotions play in human behavior, with impacts on task performance and decision-making.”
“This finding has implications that at first may seem bizarre. For instance, to ensure that AI models are safe and reliable, we may need to ensure they are capable of processing emotionally charged situations in healthy, prosocial ways.”
Magazine: AI agents will kill the web as we know it: Animoca’s Yat Siu
Stablecoin issuer Circle has released a post-quantum security roadmap for its layer-1 blockchain, Arc, aiming to implement solutions across all layers of the network’s tech stack.
Circle said on Thursday that it is planning a phased implementation, starting with quantum-proof wallets and signatures when Arc launches on mainnet. This feature will be opt-in, the company noted, while adding that solutions at the validator level and surrounding infrastructure will be implemented later on.
“Quantum resilience cannot live only in research papers, exploratory pilots, or distant roadmap slides. It has to show up in the infrastructure,” Circle said.
Circle’s roadmap comes as both Google and researchers at the California Institute of Technology recently warned that functional quantum computers could come sooner than expected, and require less computing power than previously thought. Google went as far as to say that quantum computers could potentially break Bitcoin’s cryptography in nine minutes.
“That is what makes inaction risky and why this conversation can't wait,” Circle said, while noting that “active addresses that have already signed transactions must migrate before Q-Day because their public keys have been exposed.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6156-d236-741b-8b06-5d9a1faf9f57.png\")
Circle said a post-quantum signature scheme will be implemented on Arc when it launches on mainnet — expected sometime in 2026 — enabling quantum-resistant wallets.
Arc is currently live on public testnet and will seek to enable enterprises to access a broad range of use cases with the USDC (USDC) stablecoin.
Sometime after mainnet launch, Circle will introduce a quantum solution that ensures balances, transactions and other financial data are private.
Over the long term, Circle said it will implement quantum solutions for Arc validators as well as its offchain infrastructure, including access controls, cloud environments and hardware security.
While most of the crypto industry agrees that quantum computing poses a legitimate threat to crypto, there remains debate over whether only crypto wallets with exposed public keys are vulnerable or whether all coins are at risk.
The Google research paper from March 31 noted that Algorand may be the most quantum-ready blockchain, while the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems are actively exploring solutions to be well-prepared before Q-Day.
Related: Is Bitcoin’s governance too slow to fend off quantum risks?
The Bitcoin ecosystem is more divided on what action developers should take.
One of the Bitcoin ecosystem’s strongest voices, Blockstream CEO Adam Back, says quantum risks are widely overstated and that no action is needed for decades.
On the other hand, security researcher Ethan Heilman and others have proposed a new output type for Bitcoin, called Pay-to-Merkle-Root, via Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 (BIP-360), which seeks to protect Bitcoin addresses from potential short-exposure quantum attacks.
However, that implementation may take seven years, Heilman told Cointelegraph in February.
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
", "description": "Circle, the stablecoin firm behind the Arc layer-1 blockchain, will deploy quantum-resistant solutions on Arc at the wallet, signature and validator levels starting when Arc goes live on mainnet.", "published": "2026-04-06T07:09:38+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "google" }, { "slug": "circle" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "quantum-computing" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "circle-quantum-proof-roadmap-layer-1-arc", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259382" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "North Korean workers have been infiltrating DeFi for 7 years: Researcher", "leadText": "Security researcher Taylor Monahan listed at least 40 decentralized finance platforms she claims have been infiltrated by North Korean IT workers at some stage of their lives.", "author": { "slug": "martin-young" }, "bodyText": "North Korean IT workers have been embedding themselves in crypto companies and decentralized finance projects for at least seven years, according to a cybersecurity analyst.
“Lots of DPRK IT workers built the protocols you know and love, all the way back to DeFi summer,” said MetaMask developer and security researcher Taylor Monahan on Sunday.
Monahan claimed that over 40 DeFi platforms, some being well-known names, have had North Korean IT workers working on their protocols.
The “seven years of blockchain dev experience” on their resume is “not a lie,” she added.
The Lazarus Group is a North Korean-affiliated hacking collective that has stolen an estimated $7 billion in crypto since 2017, according to analysts at creator network R3ACH.
It has been linked to the industry’s highest-profile hacks, including the $625 million Ronin Bridge exploit in 2022, the $235 million WazirX hack in 2024 and the $1.4 billion Bybit heist in 2025.
Monahan’s comments came just hours after the Drift Protocol said it had “medium-high confidence” that the recent $280 million exploit against it was carried out by a North Korean state-affiliated group.
Tim Ahhl, founder of the Titan Exchange, a Solana-based DEX aggregator, said that in a previous job, “we interviewed someone who turned out to be a Lazarus operative.”
Ahhl said the candidate “did video calls and was extremely qualified.” He declined an in-person interview and they later discovered his name in a Lazarus “info dump.”
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control has a website where crypto businesses can screen counterparties against updated OFAC sanctions lists and be alert to patterns consistent with IT worker fraud.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6150-d9f5-72a3-b658-fa9dd4d4d191.jpg\")
Related: Drift Protocol says $280M exploit took 'months of deliberate preparation'
Drift Protocol’s postmortem on last week’s $280 million exploit also pointed to North Korean-affiliated hackers for the attack.
However, it said the face-to-face meetings that eventually led to the exploit were not with North Korean nationals, but rather “third-party intermediaries” with “fully constructed identities including employment histories, public-facing credentials, and professional networks.”
“Years later, and it seems Lazarus now has non-NKs [North Koreans] working for them to con people in person,” said Ahhl.
Lazarus Group is the collective name for “all DPRK state-sponsored cyber actors,” explained blockchain sleuth ZachXBT on Sunday.
“The main issue is that everyone groups them all together when the complexity of threats is different,” he added.
ZachXBT said that threats via job postings, LinkedIn, email, Zoom, or interviews are “basic and in no way sophisticated … the only thing about it is they’re relentless.”
“If you or your team still falls for them in 2026, you’re very likely negligent,” he said.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d6150-dc5a-7f2f-957b-8779f5ab51f2.jpg\")
Magazine: No more 85% Bitcoin collapses, Taiwan needs BTC war reserve: Hodler’s Digest
", "description": "North Korean hackers infiltrated crypto projects for seven years with the Lazarus Group using third-party intermediaries to steal billions undetected.", "published": "2026-04-06T07:04:46+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "hackers" }, { "slug": "north-korea" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "lazarus-group" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "dprk-workers-have-worked-on-countless-protocols-since-defi-summer-cybersec-analyst", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259377" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Apple pulls Jack Dorsey's Bitchat from China at Beijing’s request", "leadText": "Bitchat launched in July last year and has been used during protests in Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia and Iran as authorities attempted to restrict usage of the internet.", "author": { "slug": "stephen-katte" }, "bodyText": "Bitchat, a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app developed by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, has been removed from Apple’s App Store in China for allegedly violating its internet service regulations.
In an X post on Sunday, Dorsey shared a screenshot from Apple’s app review team informing him that Bitchat had been removed from the App Store in February and that the TestFlight beta version would no longer be available in China at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
“Bitchat pulled from the China App Store,” he said.
Bitchat has seen its popularity rise during protests in Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia and Iran in recent months, as governments attempted to shut down regular communication channels and internet access to curb dissent.
The peer-to-peer encrypted messaging service runs entirely over Bluetooth and mesh networks and operates without an internet connection, which could put it at odds with China’s internet-censorship-prone regime.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d60fd-e84f-7f06-924f-37527e70c785.png\")
The CAC argued Bitchat violated Article 3 of its regulations governing online services with public opinion or social mobilization capabilities, which came into force in 2018.
Under the provisions, any online services that could influence public opinion or enable social mobilization are required to conduct a security assessment before launch and “be responsible for the assessment results,” according to a Google Translate version of the regulations.
The app review team also said all apps on its store must comply with local requirements in the countries where they are available.
Related: Dorsey shares AI-integrated workplace vision weeks after Block’s 40% staff cut
“We know this stuff is complicated, but it is your responsibility to understand and make sure your app conforms with all local laws, not just the guidelines below. And of course, apps that solicit, promote or encourage criminal or reckless behavior will be rejected,” they added.
Despite being pulled in China, Bitchat remains available in other countries, according to Apple’s app review team.
Chrome download stats show the app has been downloaded more than three million times, with more than 92,000 in the past week. The Google Play Store has recorded more than one million registered downloads.
However, neither specifies which regions were responsible for the bulk of downloads.
By comparison, WeChat, developed and operated by Tencent, one of China’s largest tech companies, has an estimated 810 million users in China, out of a national population of more than 1.4 billion.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
", "description": "Apple has removed Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat from the App Store in China at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China, which argued the messaging app violated internet service regulations.", "published": "2026-04-06T05:25:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "china" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "technology" }, { "slug": "messaging-app" }, { "slug": "jack-dorsey" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "bitchat-jack-dorsey-china-app-store-removed", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259372" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Michael Saylor hints at next Strategy Bitcoin buy after weeklong pause", "leadText": "Michael Saylor posted \"back to work\" on X on Sunday, signaling a potential Bitcoin purchase after the firm paused buying last week.", "author": { "slug": "brian-quarmby" }, "bodyText": "Michael Saylor has hinted his Bitcoin treasury firm is back on track with its weekly Bitcoin purchases after taking a rare week off at the end of March.
In an X post on Sunday, Saylor shared a screenshot from StrategyTracker with the caption \"Back to Work.” He often posts the chart ahead of purchase announcements.
The firm took a week off from buying BTC at the end of March, breaking its weekly buying streak for the first time this year. The firm's last purchase was reported on March 23, buying about $77 million worth of BTC at $74,326 per coin.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d60ea-77e4-7150-8b7d-1eaf5e00c0df.png\")
One of the main avenues Strategy uses to fund Bitcoin purchases is via the sale of its perpetual preferred stock, Stretch (STRC). The stock is designed to generally trade around its par value of $100, which is aided by a monthly dividend adjustment mechanism.
Related: Bitcoin and the US dollar have a 'symbiotic' relationship: BPI exec
Strategy issues new shares of STRC and then allocates the proceeds generated from the market into Bitcoin buys.
According to estimates from STRC.LIVE, Strategy could be set for a purchase of at least 1,821 BTC based on funds raised for the week ending April 3.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d60ea-7c60-7f8c-ac63-bcbd01486546.png\")
Despite the week off, the firm is showing no signs of slowing down. In late March, Strategy announced plans to raise $44.1 billion to fund BTC purchases primarily via the selling of its common MSTR shares and STRC.
According to Strategy's website, the firm has acquired a total of 762,099 BTC for an average cost of $75,694 per coin. At current prices of about $69,100, Strategy's holdings are in the red overall.
However, Bitcoin is in the green over the last month, increasing by 1.2% over the past 30 days, according to data from CoinGecko. The price is still down 20.9% year-to-date amid geopolitical tensions and a challenging macro climate.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "Michael Saylor's Bitcoin treasury firm, Strategy, snapped its weekly buying streak in late March, but the latest post from Saylor suggests the buying has restarted.", "published": "2026-04-06T05:14:08+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "stocks" }, { "slug": "digital-asset-holdings" }, { "slug": "microstrategy" }, { "slug": "michael-saylor" } ], "slug": "michael-saylor-hints-at-next-strategy-bitcoin-buy-after-weeklong-pause", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259367" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Trump-Iran deadline chaos sends crypto higher while ceasefire hopes rise", "leadText": "US President Donald Trump threatened Iran could be \"living in Hell\" if it doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz, though he also told reporters that a deal with Iran is getting close.", "author": { "slug": "martin-young" }, "bodyText": "Crypto markets bounced 2.5% as US President Donald Trump sent mixed signals over a potential deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, including reports of a possible ceasefire that could permanently end the war.
In an expletive-laden post on the Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump threatened that Iran would be “living in Hell” if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
However, he also acknowledged in a Fox News interview that Iran is “negotiating now” and expressed optimism about a “good chance” of a deal within 24 hours.
Total market capitalization has climbed about $70 billion, or 2.5%, to an 11-day high of $2.44 trillion in early trading on Monday on the news. Bitcoin tapped $69,500 on Coinbase, according to TradingView.
The small jump has led to total liquidations of around $255 million over 24 hours, 73% of them being short positions, according to data from CoinGlass.
Trump's comments come after more than a month of war, contributing to surging global oil prices that some fear could lead to a global economic recession.
Trump initially gave Iran a 10-day window to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but his latest post suggests that Iran now has until Tuesday to reopen the waterway, or the US would attack Iran’s power plants and bridges.
“There will be nothing like it!!! Open the fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” he said.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d60e7-1ba5-7a69-b603-a610ff1b34d8.jpg\")
Despite the aggressive rhetoric, Trump also acknowledged that Iran is “negotiating now” and expressed optimism about a “good chance” of a deal within 24 hours.
He also said, “If they don’t make a deal and fast, I’m considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil.”
Related: New Bitcoin price lows 'matter of time' says trader with BTC stuck at $67K
A report from Axios, meanwhile, suggests that the US, Iran and a group of regional mediators are discussing the terms of a 45-day ceasefire that could lead to an end of the war, adding further mixed signals.
The ongoing war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have pushed crude oil prices back up to about $112 per barrel on Monday morning.
The Kobeissi Letter predicted that if current levels are sustained for another seven weeks, US Consumer Price Index-related inflation will rise to around 3.7%.
Meanwhile, Americans have spent an additional $240 million per day on fuel costs since the Iran war began Feb. 28, it added.
Magazine: No more 85% Bitcoin collapses, Taiwan needs BTC war reserve: Hodler’s Digest
", "description": "Crypto markets rose 2.5% to $2.44 trillion as Trump issued expletive-filled threats against Iran while a report from Axios hints at a potential ceasefire deal in the works.", "published": "2026-04-06T05:06:39+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" } ], "slug": "crypto-markets-bounce-trump-delays-deadline-for-iran", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259362" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Rwanda swats Bybit’s P2P platform offering franc-to-crypto trading", "leadText": "The Rwanda central bank's warning came after Bybit added the Rwanda franc to its list of assets that its peer-to-peer platform can use to trade for crypto.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has warned the public that crypto payments and trades using the local currency remain illegal in the country after Bybit added support for the Rwandan franc for its peer-to-peer platform on Friday.
“Crypto-assets are NOT authorized for payments, FRW conversion, or P2P trading involving FRW under the current framework,” the central bank posted to X on Sunday, urging citizens to avoid crypto due to “serious financial risks and no recourse in case of loss.”
The central bank’s comments were in response to an X post from Bybit on Friday, stating that the Rwandan franc (FRW) can be used to buy and sell crypto through its Bybit P2P service.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d60b0-1db5-747c-b665-c2d30a8ec9bb.png\")
In a separate X post, the NBR noted that the FRW “remains the only legal tender in Rwanda” and that “NBR-licensed financial institutions are prohibited from converting FRW into crypto-assets or vice versa.”
Cointelegraph reached out to Bybit for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Rwanda has been trying to strengthen the FRW’s presence in the country with a central bank digital currency, the e-franc rwandais, which is currently in the proof-of-concept stage and may progress to a pilot phase.
Rwanda is one of many countries that have pushed back against crypto services in an effort to preserve monetary sovereignty and have more control over its financial system, restricting crypto use since 2018.
However, in March, Rwanda’s Capital Market Authority released a draft framework to regulate virtual asset service providers, a step it said would promote “responsible innovation.”
Related: Taiwan should reconsider Bitcoin reserve in case of war, says think tank
The bill, which is making its way through Rwanda’s legislature, seeks to prohibit crypto as legal tender while banning crypto mining, mixer services and tokens pegged to the FRW.
It also seeks to provide a pathway for crypto service providers to operate under a license and supervision.
Data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis shows Rwanda ranks low in crypto adoption during 2024 and 2025, with locals receiving only a fraction of the crypto value seen in higher-adopting African countries like Nigeria and South Africa.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d60b0-268e-772f-82f5-e417d1a30f11.png\")
Magazine: What’s a ‘Network State’ and are there real-life examples? Big Questions
", "description": "Rwanda’s central bank has warned its citizens that crypto trading and payments using the Rwandan franc are illegal after Bybit expanded its peer-to-peer offerings into the African country on Friday.", "published": "2026-04-06T04:06:34+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "central-bank" }, { "slug": "africa" }, { "slug": "p2p-payments" }, { "slug": "trading" } ], "slug": "rwanda-swats-bybit-p2p-platform-offering-franc-to-crypto-trading", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259357" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Crypto attorney says Drift incident may qualify as 'civil negligence'", "leadText": "The $280 million Drift Protocol attack was likely carried out by threat actors aligned with North Korea state-affiliated hackers.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The hack of the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Drift Protocol could have been prevented if standard operational security procedures were followed by the Drift team, and may constitute “civil negligence,” according to attorney Ariel Givner.
“In plain terms, civil negligence means they failed their basic duty to protect the money they were managing,” Givner said in response to the post-mortem update provided by the Drift team and how it handled Wednesday’s $280 million exploit.
The Drift team failed to follow “basic” security procedures, including keeping signing keys on separate, “air-gapped” systems that are never used for developer work, and conducting due diligence on blockchain developers met through industry conferences.
![\"Cybercrime,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5f7b-c3df-79ef-be0b-5777981621e5.png\")
“Every serious project knows this. Drift didn’t follow it,” she said, adding, “They knew crypto is full of hackers, especially North Korean state teams.” Givner continued:
“Yet their team spent months chatting on Telegram, meeting strangers at conferences, opening sketchy code repos, and downloading fake apps on devices tied to multisignature controls.”
Advertisements for class action lawsuits against Drift Protocol are already circulating, she said. Cointelegraph reached out to the Drift Team but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
![\"Cybercrime,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5f7c-c8ae-7ee1-bbb6-24ab077f77c0.png\")
The incident is a reminder that social engineering and project infiltration by malicious actors are major attack vectors for cryptocurrency developers that could drain user funds and permanently erode customer trust in compromised platforms.
Related: Drift explains $280M exploit as critics question Circle over USDC freeze
The Drift Protocol team published an update on Saturday outlining how the exploit occurred and claimed that the attackers planned the attack for six months before execution.
Threat actors first approached the Drift team at a “major” crypto industry conference in October 2025, expressing interest in protocol integrations and collaboration.
The malicious actors continued to build rapport with the Drift development team in the ensuing six months, and once enough trust was built, they began sending the Drift team malicious links and embedding malware that compromised developer machines.
These individuals, who are suspected of working for North Korea state-affiliated hackers and physically approached the Drift developers, were not North Korean nationals, according to the Drift team.
Drift said, with “medium-high confidence,” that the exploit was carried out by the same actors behind the October 2024 Radiant Capital hack.
In December 2024, Radiant Capital said the exploit was carried out through malware sent via Telegram from a North Korea-aligned hacker posing as an ex-contractor.
Magazine: Meet the hackers who can help get your crypto life savings back
", "description": "The Drift Protocol team violated basic operational security measures that are widely understood in the crypto industry, according to one attorney.", "published": "2026-04-05T22:41:39+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cybercrime" }, { "slug": "north-korea" }, { "slug": "cybersecurity" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "lazarus-group" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "crypto-attorney-says-drift-incident-may-qualify-as-civil-negligence", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259347" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Polymarket odds of US invading Iran this year reach 63% after Trump's post", "leadText": "The President of the United States continues to give contradictory signals of escalating the war and winding it down within a few weeks.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The odds of the United States invading Iran this year surged to 63% on the Polymarket prediction platform on Sunday, following comments made by US President Donald Trump on social media.
The odds of an invasion before 2027 are still down from the high of 68% on March 29, which occurred due to a US troop buildup and comments from the Trump administration that the US was considering capturing Kharg Island, a major Iranian oil shipping station.
The Polymarket trading volume for a potential US invasion of Iran was about $3.74 million at the time of publication.
![\"Iran,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5f0b-b7bc-7438-ade9-ea34053be0ef.png\")
On Tuesday, after Trump signaled that the US might leave Iran in the next two to three weeks, Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by about 2.6% and the S&P 500 index added about 2.91%. However, Trump reversed course with his latest statement on Sunday. He wrote:
“Tuesday will be power plant day, and bridge day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it! Open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell.”
Bitcoin’s price remained anchored around the $67,500 level following the comments, according to data from TradingView.
The mixed signals from the Trump administration on the war and how long it will last continue to create investor uncertainty and an impact on all risk asset prices, as market analysts, traders and economists attempt to forecast the effects of the war.
![\"Iran,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5f0c-9a3f-7693-bea9-bb62f717b3cd.png\")
Related: Polymarket takes down market on missing US pilot after backlash
“I wish Trump would stop threatening Iranian civilian infrastructure. It's a lose-lose for us: backing down hurts his negotiating credibility,” economist Peter Schiff said in response to Trump’s comments.
“Carrying it out escalates the war, damages US standing, generates sympathy for Iran and fuels Iranian hatred for America,” Schiff continued.
“I assumed this was a fake, it isn’t — wild,” podcaster and Bitcoin advocate Peter McCormack said.
Brent crude oil, the most widely used pricing benchmark for the international spot oil market, remains elevated, closing Thursday at more than $109 per barrel. Trading is scheduled to resume on Monday following the Easter holiday weekend.
Magazine: Inside the Iranian Bitcoin mining industry
", "description": "The prediction market odds of the United States invading Iran by 2027 jumped to 60% following threats of escalation by US President Donald Trump.", "published": "2026-04-05T20:37:50+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "investments" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "us-government" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "oil-and-gas" }, { "slug": "polymarket" } ], "slug": "polymarket-odds-us-invade-iran-2027-60-trump", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259342" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin and the US dollar have a 'symbiotic' relationship: BPI exec", "leadText": "Demand for either currency strengthens both in a reinforcing relationship, contrary to popular sentiment, Sam Lyman told Cointelegraph.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "US dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin (BTC) share a “symbiotic” relationship, mutually benefitting from rising adoption, according to Sam Lyman, head of research at Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), a Washington DC-based digital asset advocacy organization.
“Bitcoin is beneficial to the US system because the largest Bitcoin trading pair is BTC/USD,” or Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin, which is backed by cash deposits and short-term US government debt, Lyman told Cointelegraph. He added:
“There is a symbiotic relationship between BTC and the dollar system because BTC is most frequently traded in dollars. So, I do see those things as being mutually reinforcing, which runs contrary to the narrative around BTC that it would actually undermine the dollar.”
He said Bitcoin and dollar-pegged stablecoins share a similar relationship to the dollar and oil. Under the petrodollar system, which began in the early 1970s, international oil sales are priced in dollars, driving more demand for the currency.
Lyman urged US lawmakers to continue developing stablecoin regulations introduced in the GENIUS regulatory framework, without deviating from its core principles, to strengthen and protect US dollar hegemony and remain competitive in geopolitics.
![\"Dollar,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5e7f-01f8-7816-9272-3f0a1b7dd12d.png\")
Related: Stablecoins flip automated clearing house volume in February
The People’s Republic of China has “banned” Bitcoin and stablecoins several times, because both are a “tremendous threat” to the government’s capital controls, which are a critical component of the Chinese economy, Lyman told Cointelegraph.
“The entire Chinese economy depends on capital controls. China is able to keep money within the country by preventing its elite from moving money out of the country,” he said.
This is why China reaffirmed its stablecoin ban in 2025, choosing instead to launch the digital yuan, a yield-bearing central bank digital currency (CBDC) to control capital flows and capture a larger portion of the foreign currency exchange market, Lyman said.
CBDCs are fully programmable and controlled by the government or the central bank issuing the digital fiat currency.
However, the bans have failed to actually curtail permissionless crypto activity, including Bitcoin mining and stablecoin flows to and from China, Lyman said.
Despite a blanket ban on Bitcoin mining, Chinese mining pools control more than 36% of the mining pool global hashrate, or the total amount of computing power mining pools are contributing to secure the network, according to Hashrate Index.
Magazine: Bitcoin vs stablecoins showdown looms as GENIUS Act nears
", "description": "The US dollar and Bitcoin have a mutually beneficial relationship, driving demand in a reinforcing cycle, and strengthening the position of the US dollar.", "published": "2026-04-05T18:17:37+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "dollar" }, { "slug": "china" }, { "slug": "us-government" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "yuan" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "cbdc" }, { "slug": "digital-dollar" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-adoption" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-us-dollar-symbiotic-relationship-bpi", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259337" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Robert Kiyosaki recommends Bitcoin, gold as 1974 shift comes full circle", "leadText": "The \"Rich Dad Poor Dad\" author continues to back Bitcoin, gold and silver as alternatives to traditional money.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "“Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki has argued that the economic shifts set in motion more than five decades ago are now unfolding, advocating for Bitcoin and gold while warning against rising debt, inflation and retirement risks.
In a Saturday post on X, Kiyosaki pointed to 1974 as a turning point that reshaped both money and retirement systems. He argued that the United States’ move toward a petrodollar framework, alongside policy changes affecting pensions, laid the foundation for today’s financial pressures.
“The future created in 1974 has arrived,” Kiyosaki wrote, linking current inflation and geopolitical tensions around energy to the dollar’s evolution after the end of the gold standard era. He also mentioned the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which introduced new rules for pension plans and coincided with a broader shift toward market-based retirement savings.
According to Kiyosaki, that transition replaced guaranteed lifetime income for many workers with systems such as 401(k)s and similar accounts, placing more risk on individuals. “Millions of baby-boomers will soon find out they have no income once they stop working,” he warned.
Related: Rich Bitcoin traders lost $337M daily in first quarter of 2026
Kiyosaki reiterated his long-standing view that individuals should focus on financial education and consider alternative stores of value. He said he continues to favor assets such as gold, silver and Bitcoin, which he describes as “real money.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5d8e-e5e5-773a-8877-702d79a605d2.PNG\")
Last month, Kiyosaki warned that a major financial “bubble burst” could be approaching, arguing that such a crisis may trigger a sharp rally in scarce assets like Bitcoin (BTC). He suggested Bitcoin could reach $750,000 within a year of the crash.
His view is tied to the expansion of global money supply, which historically has driven demand for limited assets. During the 2020–2021 period, rising liquidity coincided with strong gains in stocks and real estate. Kiyosaki expects a similar dynamic after a downturn, also forecasting that gold could surge significantly.
Related: ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ author says ‘pin is near’ on TradFi ‘bubble burst:’ Predicts $750K Bitcoin
Bearish sentiment around Bitcoin has climbed to its highest level since late February, according to data from crypto analytics platform Santiment. The ratio of bullish to bearish comments across major social platforms has dropped to 0.81, reflecting a noticeable lack of optimism among market participants.
Despite the negative tone, Santiment suggested this could be a contrarian signal. Historically, markets tend to move against crowd expectations, meaning elevated fear and uncertainty may precede a price recovery.
Magazine: Bitcoin 85% crashes ‘done,’ CLARITY Act speculation mounts: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 29 – April 4
", "description": "Robert Kiyosaki warns that economic changes since 1974 are fueling today’s debt and inflation, urging investors to turn to Bitcoin and gold as “real money.”", "published": "2026-04-05T13:17:50+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "gold" }, { "slug": "silver" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-investment" } ], "slug": "robert-kiyosaki-1974-shift-bitcoin-gold-real-money", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259322" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "New Bitcoin price lows 'matter of time' says trader with BTC stuck at $67K", "leadText": "Bitcoin added downside BTC price warnings as Binance order-book data showed multiple investor classes selling coins into the weekend.", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) circled $67,000 on Sunday as traders warned of hidden BTC price weakness.
Key points:
Bitcoin Bollinger Bands demand a volatile BTC price breakout after a slow weekend.
A trader predicts a move lower thanks to weak support and exposed downside wicks.
Sideways price action comes as sellers step up into the end of the week.
Data from TradingView showed volatility cooling over the weekend, with BTC/USD acting within an increasingly narrow range.
On four-hour time frames, the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator constricted — a classic signal that a sharp move up or down was due.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5d72-6588-79ab-8d8a-4bde1dab38cc.png\")
In their latest analysis, pseudonymous trader LP bet on bears winning the battle.
“Looking back at previous cycles, bottoms were formed after multiple sweeps of the lows, forcing capitulation before a reversal,” a post on X read.
“In contrast, this cycle has been doing the opposite, consistently sweeping the highs, making it difficult to enter short positions while leaving the lows exposed and building liquidity below.”
LP said that sweeping local lows, including February’s wick below $60,000, was “likely just a matter of time.”
“When that breakdown eventually happens, watch the behavior closely. If price starts repeatedly sweeping the lows, making it psychologically difficult to enter longs, that’s when a true bottom is more likely forming,” they concluded.
Continuing, Keith Alan, cofounder of trading resource Material Indicators, flagged unusual selling activity despite flat BTC price action.
Related: Bitcoin 'done' with 85% crashes, says Cathie Wood amid new $34K target
Uploading a chart of Binance order-book liquidity and volume by investor class, Alan highlighted a bot using time-weighted average price (TWAP) to distribute BTC on Friday.
“The vertical orange line represents the smallest order class with a TWAP bot selling $18M in an hour,” he explained.
“That's exponentially more than their normal $3M-$5M daily volume in 1 hr. That ain't retail!”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5d70-ac75-7aa3-a080-934836d59f9c.png\")
Whales, Alan added, were “buying dips and selling rips” with Bitcoin still trapped in a range.
Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on further threats to Bitcoin bulls, including resurgent US dollar strength.
", "description": "Bitcoin faces the prospect of sweeping range lows under $60,000 as Bollinger Bands demand BTC price volatility.", "published": "2026-04-05T12:54:02+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "new-bitcoin-price-lows-matter-of-time-says-trader-btc-stuck-67k", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Market Update" } ] }, "id": "259317" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "‘Existential’ token problem seen as supply outpaces value creation: Blockworks exec", "leadText": "Blockworks' Michael Ippolito sees surge in token supply diluting returns, breaking the link between fundamentals and price while raising concerns about crypto’s long-term model.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "The rapid growth in the number of crypto tokens is outpacing the value they generate, creating an “existential” problem for the industry, according to Michael Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks.
In a series of posts on X, Ippolito noted that while total crypto market capitalization remains relatively strong, the average value per token tells a different story. “The average coin is only slightly higher than where it was in 2020 (!) and down ~50% since 2021,” he wrote.
Median token returns have also deteriorated sharply. Most tokens are down roughly 80% from their highs, suggesting that gains have been concentrated in a narrow set of large-cap assets, while the broader market underperforms, Ippolito claimed.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5d04-c71c-7ca0-885f-cd2c278904da.jfif\")
He argued that the imbalance appears to be driven by a rapid expansion in token supply. “We created a TON of new assets and STILL total market cap is flat,” he wrote, adding that this dynamic effectively dilutes value across a growing pool of tokens.
Related: Bitcoin 'done' with 85% crashes, says Cathie Wood amid new $34K target
Ippolito also claimed that the relationship between fundamentals and price has weakened. In 2021, token prices closely tracked onchain revenue. Recent data shows that despite a resurgence in protocol revenues, prices have not followed, pointing to a disconnect between usage and investor returns.
He argued that this signals a loss of confidence in tokens as vehicles for capturing value. “The token problem is existential for this industry,” he said, adding that without stronger alignment between fundamentals and price, the sector risks losing its core appeal.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5d05-b1ab-78be-b91c-2b8da3ae8f10.jfif\")
In a post on X, Arthur Cheong, founder and CEO of DeFiance Capital, said he agrees “with the urgency to fix the current situation of tokens in the crypto industry,” warning that if the market continues to concentrate around a small set of assets like Bitcoin and Ether, the broader crypto ecosystem risks losing relevance.
Related: Bitcoin shorts risk $2.5 billion liquidation at $72K: Are bears in danger?
Investor demand is increasingly moving away from newly launched tokens toward publicly listed crypto firms, as most token launches fail to hold value, February research from DWF Labs found. The report revealed that over 80% of projects trade below their token generation event (TGE) price, with typical declines of 50% to 70% within about three months.
The pattern appears structural rather than cyclical. According to DWF’s Andrei Grachev, most tokens peak within the first month before declining under sustained selling pressure. Factors such as airdrops and early investor unlocks add to the supply overhang, reinforcing downward price trends even for projects with active products or protocols.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
", "description": "Blockworks co-founder Michael Ippolito warns that rising token supply is diluting value and weakening the link between fundamentals and prices, posing an existential risk to crypto.", "published": "2026-04-05T10:46:54+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "tokens" }, { "slug": "defi" } ], "slug": "crypto-existential-token-problem-supply-outpaces-value-creation", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259307" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Anthropic launches PAC amid tensions with Trump administration over AI policy", "leadText": "AI firm Anthropic forms an employee-funded PAC while facing questions over political balance and a growing dispute with the Pentagon over AI use.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic has launched a corporate political action committee (PAC), entering election financing as debates over AI policy intensify in Washington.
The company filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission on Friday to establish “AnthroPAC,” an employee-funded PAC that will collect voluntary contributions from staff. The filing lists Anthropic as the “connected organization,” with the committee structured as a “separate segregated fund” and registered as a lobbyist-affiliated PAC.
Under US law, individual contributions are capped at $5,000 per election cycle per candidate and must be disclosed through public filings.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5c8c-13d3-717b-aa9e-ad25c44a9e37.PNG\")
Anthropic said the PAC is expected to support candidates from both major parties. However, some have questioned whether the effort will remain politically balanced.
Related: CFTC Chair Selig says blockchain could help verify AI-generated content
The move comes as Anthropic faces mounting friction with the Pentagon over the use of its AI systems. In February, the Defense Department designated the firm a supply chain risk after it opposed the use of its technology in fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
Anthropic has challenged that designation in court, arguing it reflects retaliation against what it described as a protected viewpoint. A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the measure and paused broader restrictions tied to the dispute.
The company has already been active in political funding this cycle, including a $20 million contribution to Public First Action, a group focused on advancing AI safety efforts.
Related: David Sacks’ 130-day term as Trump’s crypto and AI czar has ended
As Cointelegraph reported, Google is preparing to support a multibillion-dollar data center project in Texas leased to Anthropic, as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates.
The project, operated by Nexus Data Centers, could exceed $5 billion in its initial phase, with Google expected to provide construction loans while banks compete to arrange additional financing.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
", "description": "Anthropic has launched an employee-funded PAC as debates over AI regulation intensify, clashing with the Pentagon over defense use of its technology.", "published": "2026-04-05T09:10:28+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "ai-and-hi-tech" } ], "slug": "anthropic-launches-pac-ai-policy-tensions-washington", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259292" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Drift Protocol says $280M exploit took 'months of deliberate preparation'", "leadText": "Drift Protocol said with “medium-high confidence” that the recent attack was carried out by the same actors responsible for the $58 million Radiant Capital hack in October 2024.", "author": { "slug": "ciaran-lyons" }, "bodyText": "Drift Protocol, the decentralized exchange (DEX) that lost an estimated $280 million in an exploit last week, claims the loss was the result of a six-month, highly coordinated attack.
“The preliminary investigation shows that Drift experienced a structured intelligence operation requiring organizational backing, significant resources, and months of deliberate preparation,” Drift said in an X post on Saturday.
According to Drift, the attack can be traced back to around October 2025, when malicious actors posing as a quantitative trading firm first approached Drift contributors at a “major crypto conference,” claiming to be interested in integrating with the protocol.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5c61-48cd-72af-8478-719d1bec43c7.png\")
The group continued to engage contributors in person at multiple industry events over a six-month period. “It is now understood that this appears to be a targeted approach, where individuals from this group continued to deliberately seek out and engage specific Drift contributors,” Drift said.
“They were technically fluent, had verifiable professional backgrounds, and were familiar with how Drift operated,” Drift said.
After gaining trust and access to Drift Protocol over six months, they used shared malicious links and tools to compromise contributors’ devices, execute the exploit, and then wiped their presence immediately after the attack.
The incident serves as a reminder for crypto industry participants to remain cautious and skeptical, even during in-person interactions, as crypto conferences can be prime targets for sophisticated threat actors.
Drift said, with “medium-high confidence,” that the exploit was carried out by the same actors behind the October 2024 Radiant Capital hack.
In December 2024, Radiant Capital said the exploit was carried out through malware sent via Telegram from a North Korea-aligned hacker posing as an ex-contractor.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5c62-f53f-74e0-aefb-3ef3b1d2de5b.png\")
“This ZIP file, when shared for feedback among other developers, ultimately delivered malware that facilitated the subsequent intrusion,” Radiant Capital said.
Drift said that the individuals who appeared in person “were not North Korean nationals.”
Related: Naoris launches post-quantum blockchain as quantum security risks gain attention
“DPRK threat actors operating at this level are known to deploy third-party intermediaries to conduct face-to-face relationship-building,” Drift said.
Drift said that it is working with law enforcement and others in the crypto industry to “build a complete picture of what happened during the April 1st attack.”
Magazine: Bitcoin 85% crashes ‘done,’ CLARITY Act speculation mounts: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 29 – April 4
", "description": "Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), said in a statement on Friday that the attack was the result of a six-month “structured intelligence operation.”", "published": "2026-04-05T08:00:36+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "drift-protocol-exploit-preparation-preliminary-findings", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259282" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin bearish social chatter reaches 5-week high: Santiment", "leadText": "Santiment said bearish Bitcoin comments on social media have climbed to a five-week high, which could signal a reversal sooner rather than later.", "author": { "slug": "ciaran-lyons" }, "bodyText": "Social media bearishness around Bitcoin has reached its highest level since the end of February, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment.
“FUD has crept back in with the community showing a key lack of optimism,” Santiment said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it is “usually a common ingredient for prices rebounding.”
The data comes from a large sample of crypto-focused social media accounts and tracks the ratio of bullish to bearish Bitcoin (BTC) comments across X, Reddit and other social media platforms.
On Saturday, the ratio of bullish to bearish Bitcoin comments stood at 0.81, the lowest level since Feb. 28.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5bd1-caa1-7d59-b97a-5d704d34b8ae.png\")
Bitcoin holders often look at broader market sentiment to guide buying and selling decisions. When sentiment is low, most expect more downside, and when optimism picks up, traders start to expect further upside.
However, Santiment said the market often moves in the opposite way. “Markets typically move in the opposite direction of the crowd's expectations,” Santiment said. “A high level of FUD like this is a good sign that things can turn positive sooner rather than later,” Santiment added.
Bitcoin is trading at $67,100 at the time of publication, down 5.53% over the past 30 days, according to CoinMarketCap.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5bd4-0cd6-7c52-b952-2e9896ee3696.png\")
Santiment pointed to the US CLARITY Act, which is a highly anticipated piece of legislation that the crypto industry is watching closely, as a potential “what-if” catalyst holding back Bitcoin’s price.
On Wednesday, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the legislation is “moving toward” a markup hearing in the US Senate Banking Committee and could eventually move to a floor vote if senators resolve the stablecoin yield dispute and schedule a markup.
Related: Rich Bitcoin traders lost $337M daily in first quarter of 2026
Other indicators suggest that investors are taking a cautious approach to the crypto market.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall crypto market sentiment, has stayed within “Extreme Fear” territory, posting a score of 12 on Sunday.
Magazine: Bitcoin 85% crashes ‘done,’ CLARITY Act speculation mounts: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 29 – April 4
", "description": "Crypto sentiment platform Santiment said that heavy Bitcoin FUD is often a “common ingredient” for a price rebound.", "published": "2026-04-05T05:25:20+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "adoption" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-bearish-social-media-chatter-low-price-btc-stagnant-santiment", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259272" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Telegram founder Pavel Durov says Iranian government's ban backfired", "leadText": "Thousands of software developers are currently developing virtual private networks to circumvent Tehran's control of local internet access, Durov said.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The Iranian government’s attempt to block the Telegram messaging application in the country has backfired, as users find ways to circumvent national firewalls and online controls, according to Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov.
“Iran banned Telegram years ago,” Durov said on Friday; however, tens of millions of users in the country have managed to access the application via virtual private networks (VPNs) and other similar tools, he added.
VPNs route web traffic through servers distributed around the globe to mask the actual Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of users and obscure their locations. This allows individuals with VPN access to bypass national online restrictions. Durov said:
“The government hoped for mass adoption of its surveillance messaging apps, but got mass adoption of VPNs instead. Now, 50 million members of the digital resistance in Iran are joined by over 50 million more in Russia.”
![\"Decentralization,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d59f0-f614-7550-971a-d3ea63b8d133.png\")
Decentralized technologies like blockchain, crypto and encrypted messaging applications can mitigate or neutralize state-imposed online restrictions and surveillance infrastructure, promoting individual liberty, proponents of decentralized technology say.
Related: Global turmoil pushes uptake of decentralized messengers, social media
A nationwide internet blackout imposed in January in reaction to protests and civil unrest remains in effect amid the ongoing war between Israel, the United States and Iran.
Iranians can still access the internet through Starlink, a satellite-based network, despite the government’s ban on it, or communicate via BitChat, a messaging application that uses Bluetooth radio waves to form a mesh network between devices.
BitChat’s mesh network transforms each device into a relay node that transfers data to other devices running the application within range, bypassing online and satellite-based systems entirely.
![\"Decentralization,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d59f3-da53-73ca-9e47-f5ef464ec2be.png\")
Similarly, the government of Nepal imposed a social media ban in September 2025 amid growing protests, causing a spike in BitChat downloads.
Bitchat was downloaded over 48,000 times in Nepal the week of the social media ban, and the government of Nepal was toppled by protestors that same month.
The application recorded a similar download spike in Madagascar amid protests, which also occurred around the same time as the political revolution in Nepal.
Magazine: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh in
", "description": "Internet users continue to find ways to access Telegram and other platforms, despite government bans, crackdowns and nationwide internet blackouts.", "published": "2026-04-04T20:30:05+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "decentralization" }, { "slug": "privacy" }, { "slug": "liberty" }, { "slug": "telegram" }, { "slug": "cypherpunks" }, { "slug": "pavel-durov" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "telegram-durov-iran-ban-backfire", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259267" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Jimmy Song explains why Bitcoin needs a ‘conservative’ node client", "leadText": "The Bitcoin advocate is the co-founder of ProductionReady, a non-profit initiative to fund open source development of BTC software and education.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The Bitcoin (BTC) network needs a “conservative” Bitcoin client node software implementation to preserve its monetary properties and strengthen network decentralization, according to Jimmy Song, co-founder of ProductionReady, a non-profit organization funding open source Bitcoin node software development and education.
The organization has a “bias” against significant code changes, unless there is “overwhelming” community support for the change, Song told Cointelegraph.
“The general principle is: if you're not sure a change makes the money better, don't make it,” he said.
![\"Decentralization,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5998-1231-7d81-9b98-13da9656fc39.png\")
ProductionReady expects to restore the 83-byte OP_Return data limit for arbitrary, non-monetary information in Bitcoin transactions, he said, adding that keeping node storage costs down by limiting arbitrary data is essential to network decentralization. He said:
“The more self-sovereign Bitcoin users are, the more decentralized and resilient the network becomes. That means keeping the cost of running a node low enough for ordinary people to do it.
“When storage and bandwidth requirements grow, fewer people verify for themselves, and the network centralizes by default. A conservative client takes that tradeoff seriously,” Song continued.
Maximizing nodes and making them accessible to the average user hardens the Bitcoin network, reducing the chances of cheating by submitting false transactions or a few actors colluding to centralize the network.
![\"Decentralization,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d599d-249d-7985-a1bf-4762137f7075.png\")
Related: 72% of subsea cables would need to fail to impact Bitcoin, study shows
Node storage and onchain spam became hot-button topics in 2025 after Bitcoin Core developers unilaterally changed the 83-Byte data limit in Bitcoin Core version 30, the latest major upgrade to the reference implementation for Bitcoin node software.
The limit was changed to 100,000 bytes despite significant pushback from the Bitcoin community. For context, the proposal to change the limit received about 4 times as many downvotes as it did upvotes, according to the proposal’s GitHub pull request page.
Bitcoin Core 30 went live in October 2025, triggering a historic surge in the number of Bitcoin nodes running Bitcoin Knots, an alternative implementation of the node client software.
![\"Decentralization,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d599f-6e76-7879-9fd2-dfaea5786595.png\")
There are 4,746 Bitcoin Knots nodes, representing over 21.7% of nodes on the network, according to Coin Dance.
Only about 1% of the network was running the Knots software in 2024 before the decision to remove the OP_Return function was announced.
Magazine: Bitcoin may face hard fork over any attempt to freeze Satoshi’s coins
", "description": "ProductionReady co-founder Jimmy Song explains why the non-profit organization is funding open-source research for alternative Bitcoin node software.", "published": "2026-04-04T18:59:25+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "decentralization" }, { "slug": "nodes" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-adoption" } ], "slug": "jimmy-song-bitcoin-conservative-node-client", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259252" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Nevada judge extends ban on Kalshi, rejects event contract defense", "leadText": "The judge said Kalshi’s event contracts are indistinguishable from sports betting, supporting the state’s position that the platform requires a gaming license.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "A Nevada judge has reportedly extended a ban preventing Kalshi from offering event-based contracts in the state, ruling that the products constitute unlicensed gambling under state law.
Judge Jason Woodbury said at a hearing in Carson City on Friday that he will grant a preliminary injunction requested by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, barring the company from allowing residents to trade on outcomes such as sports, elections and entertainment events without a gaming license, according to Reuters.
The decision extends a temporary restraining order issued on March 20, which will remain in effect through April 17 while the court finalizes longer-term restrictions.
Kalshi, based in New York, has argued that its contracts are financial derivatives, specifically “swaps,” that fall under the exclusive oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Related: Appeals court denies Kalshi request to block Nevada enforcement action
Woodbury rejected Kalshi’s argument, claiming that there is a direct comparison between traditional sports betting and Kalshi’s platform, according to Reuters. He said that placing a wager through a licensed sportsbook and buying a contract tied to a game outcome are functionally the same, per the report.
“No matter how you slice it, that conduct is indistinguishable,” the judge reportedly said, adding that such activity qualifies as gaming under Nevada law and cannot be offered without proper licensing.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d58a2-e4e9-7bf7-afea-58316b94e855.PNG\")
The case marks the first time a state has secured a court-enforced ban currently in effect against the company.
Last month, Utah lawmakers also passed a bill targeting Kalshi and Polymarket that classifies proposition-style bets on in-game events as gambling, aiming to block such offerings in the state.
Related: Kalshi CEO fires back against Arizona criminal charges as ‘total overstep’
The CFTC has asserted authority over prediction markets, with Chairman Michael Selig warning that the agency is prepared to defend its jurisdiction in court against any challenges from states or other regulators.
Speaking at an industry conference last month, Selig said prediction markets can act as “truth machines,” arguing that when participants put money behind their views, these markets can produce more transparent and reliable signals about future events than traditional opinion polling.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
", "description": "A Nevada court extends restrictions on Kalshi, rejecting its derivatives defense and intensifying the state-federal clash over prediction market regulation.", "published": "2026-04-04T14:21:54+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "nevada" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "polymarket" }, { "slug": "kalshi" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "nevada-judge-extends-kalshi-ban-unlicensed-gambling-ruling", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259232" }, { "category": { "slug": "features" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Prediction markets are testing legal limits in strict Asian markets", "leadText": "Prediction markets are expanding into Asia’s largest economies, but unclear legal definitions and strict gambling laws may limit how far they can go.", "author": { "slug": "yohan-yun" }, "bodyText": "Prediction markets are pushing into Asia’s largest economies, even as local gambling laws place strict limits on betting activities.
Asia represents a combination of scale, active retail participation and limited local alternatives, making it too large to ignore despite regulatory risks.
That’s a similar pattern seen in crypto, where technology moved faster than regulation and licensing frameworks, prompting exchanges to enter markets before clear rules were in place.
Like many startups, the industry’s heavyweights adopted the “better to ask for forgiveness than permission” approach to scale.
Polymarket, one of the fastest-growing platforms, is already recording over $1 billion in weekly volume. It has introduced Chinese-language support, while newer entrants like PredicXion are focusing on local events to drive adoption.
But beneath the surface, the region is fragmented and legally complicated, where access, language and regulation don’t always align with the industry’s global ambitions.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d4e20-3f43-762f-ad18-0e0ec48eb95e.png\")
Three Asian countries — China, Japan and India — ranked among the world’s five largest economies by gross domestic product in 2024, according to the World Bank.
India and China do not have specific frameworks addressing blockchain-based prediction markets, but both maintain restrictive environments around crypto. India imposes heavy taxation, while China enforces an outright ban on activities such as trading and mining.
South Korea also ranks among the world’s largest economies at 12th and is often cited as one of the most active retail crypto markets. The South Korean won is a consistent top-two currency by global fiat trading volume, according to Kaiko.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d4e20-90e6-7dac-b990-ef87e21d670f.jpg\")
Related: How AI agents can reshape arbitrage in prediction markets
“Prediction markets could be a very big opportunity in the Korean market,” Heechang Kang, co-founder at research company Four Pillars, told Cointelegraph. “But I think many prediction markets are having difficulty capturing audiences because their predictions are mostly focused on Western themes.”
Japan faces similar localization challenges, where language and a lack of region-specific events limit broader adoption.
That gap has created an opening for Asia-based platforms. Prediction markets originating from the region, such as PredicXion, are attempting to localize content by focusing on region-specific events.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d4e21-00c8-7bf7-94b1-870568e77392.jpg\")
However, its founder and CEO Andy Cheung said local gambling regulations in key markets remain a “significant concern.”
“In these jurisdictions, authorities often classify activities involving wagering on uncertain outcomes as gambling, which is heavily restricted or outright prohibited outside of tightly controlled state-run lotteries or exceptions,” Cheung told Cointelegraph.
In China, online gambling is strictly prohibited, and access to platforms such as Polymarket is largely restricted. Some users bypass controls using VPNs to get around the country’s internet censorship, commonly known as the Great Firewall, but that does not eliminate risk.
“Many in the industry are aware of the strict legal environment in these regions, and aggressive user acquisition there does carry risks, not just for operators, but potentially for users themselves under local laws that can treat participation as illegal gambling,” Cheung said.
Regulators in South Korea and Japan have yet to directly address blockchain-based prediction markets as well, and most platforms remain accessible. Both countries, however, maintain strict limits on gambling.
In South Korea, most forms of gambling are prohibited for locals outside a narrow set of state-run exceptions, and the law extends to participation on overseas platforms. Authorities have actively pursued illegal online betting operators and, in some cases, users themselves.
Japan takes a similarly restrictive approach, where gambling is generally illegal outside regulated channels such as lotteries, horse racing and other public betting systems.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d4e21-78a8-71a1-832e-25bd224bb077.jpg\")
Related: Why yen stablecoins are key to Japan’s crypto ambitions
That leaves prediction markets in a gray zone, where access is possible but legal classification remains unresolved.
“Some argue that prediction markets are no different from gambling. I would dispute that,” Jaewon Kim, a researcher at Four Pillars who authored the company’s prediction markets report, told Cointelegraph.
He said the distinction lies in the type of output they produce. Gambling is largely a closed loop where users bet against the house, with outcomes that have little relevance beyond the game itself. Meanwhile, prediction markets aggregate expectations about real-world events.
“During the 2024 US presidential election, prediction markets gained significant traction and, in some cases, were more accurate than polls or expert forecasts,” Kim claimed. “That ability to reflect collective expectations is what sets them apart and gives them informational value beyond simple wagering.”
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d4e21-f7ea-72eb-a79d-c1072bae30c6.jpg\")
Several prediction platforms are moving into Asia with the same playbook that defined earlier phases of crypto growth, targeting demand first and leaving regulatory clarity for later. The region offers a rare mix of scale, retail participation and underdeveloped local alternatives.
That tension is already visible on the ground. Platforms can reach users through language support and workarounds like VPNs, but none of those solve the underlying issue of classification. Major Asian markets also have some of the most restrictive legal environments for anything that resembles gambling.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d4e22-4943-75fa-87b0-fd4bfaefa86c.jpg\")
Local players are beginning to test that boundary by tailoring products to regional audiences, though Cheung said platforms like PredicXion are trying to avoid “heavily restricted markets.” Most regions have yet to determine whether prediction markets fall under gambling.
The industry’s argument that prediction markets are distinct adds another layer of uncertainty. If they are treated as information markets that aggregate real-world expectations, they may eventually find a regulatory pathway similar to financial instruments.
If not, they risk being absorbed into existing gambling frameworks that leave little room for expansion.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "Asia offers massive retail demand for prediction markets, but fragmented rules and unresolved classification leave platforms operating in legal limbo.", "published": "2026-04-04T13:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "asia" }, { "slug": "predictions" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "features" }, { "slug": "polymarket" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "prediction-markets-testing-legal-limits-asia", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Analysis" } ] }, "id": "259067" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin shorts risk $2.5 billion liquidation at $72K: Are bears in danger?", "leadText": "Bitcoin is poised for a reversal if ETF demand returns or a ceasefire occurs, potentially crushing short sellers in a massive price squeeze.", "author": { "slug": "marcel-pechman" }, "bodyText": "Key takeaways:
Bitcoin hitting $72,000 would liquidate $2.5 billion in shorts, potentially crushing bears who are overleveraged.
Iran's war and high oil prices currently pressure BTC, but a ceasefire or ETF inflows could spark a rapid recovery.
Bitcoin (BTC) has consistently failed to hit new highs since attempting to reclaim the $75,000 level since March 17.
Bearish Bitcoin futures bets have been piling up as the war in Iran pushed oil prices to their highest levels since June 2022. However, two events could propel Bitcoin to $72,000 in the coming weeks and help cement a sustainable bull run.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d583b-0620-794a-a7c9-caa57645edd4.png\")
According to Coinglass estimates, a total of $2.5 billion in short positions on Bitcoin futures will be liquidated if Bitcoin rises just 7.5% to $72,000 from the current $67,100 level.
Bears have been adding shorts since March 25, when Iran reportedly refused to negotiate a ceasefire. Additional selling pressure emerged as MARA Holdings (MARA US) announced it sold 15,133 BTC on March 26. The publicly listed Bitcoin miner shifted its focus to AI computing and chose to reduce its Bitcoin holdings to pay down debt.
After peaking near 7,000 points on Jan. 28, the S&P 500 dropped 10% by March 30. Investors fear recession risks because central banks have less room to cut interest rates due to inflation.
Oil prices have jumped over 70% since the war in Iran started in late February, which hikes logistics costs and cuts into consumer spending.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d583b-0908-71ac-8b44-0c922cb2089d.png\")
Traders are pricing in 89% odds that the Fed will keep interest rates steady through September, with 5% odds of a hike to 4%.
In early March, bond futures showed the opposite, with 79% odds of rate cuts. Returns on fixed-income investments will likely stay attractive for longer.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d583b-0b7a-7242-88fd-21ed5624f730.png\")
Meanwhile, confidence among Bitcoin bears has increased, as reflected by the negative funding rate in perpetual futures contracts.
In neutral market conditions, longs usually pay to keep positions open, causing this indicator to range between 5% and 10% to compensate for capital costs.
Negative funding rates signal a lack of demand for bullish leveraged bets and potential overconfidence from the bears.
While it is impossible to predict the outcome of the war involving Iran, a ceasefire agreement could spark bullish sentiment and catch bears by surprise.
Bitcoin jumped from $69,150 to $74,900 during the five days ending March 16 after US-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw $1.5 billion in net inflows over two weeks. If ETF inflows resume, Bitcoin could also reclaim the $72,000 level.
Related: Bitcoin ETFs 'will be larger' than gold ETFs–Analyst
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d583b-0d98-7e3f-937c-564dad301bca.png\")
US President Donald Trump has asked Congress to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, according to a 2027 budget proposal released Friday. These plans include a 10% cut in other areas to offset military expenses.
Trump reportedly said at a private White House event on Wednesday: “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” according to CNBC.
If the US economy loses steam, or if private credit redemptions continue to pressure the market, investors will likely look for alternative hedges.
Consequently, Bitcoin’s appeal would grow as the it presently trades 47% below its all-time high. Thus, a bull run to $72,000 might happen regardless of how long the war in Iran lasts.
Polymarket removed a market tied to the fate of a missing US service member after mounting backlash, saying the listing violated its “integrity standards.”
The controversy erupted after a prediction market appeared asking when US authorities might confirm the rescue of a pilot shot down over Iran, with more than 60% betting that they wouldn’t be rescued until Saturday.
US Representative Seth Moulton condemned the market, calling it “disgusting” and expressing concerns over people speculating on the fate of a potentially injured service member. “They could be your neighbor, a friend, a family member. And people are betting on whether or not they'll be saved,” Moulton wrote.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d57c3-d748-70b7-a0bb-1cd5c4683949.PNG\")
In response, Polymarket said it had taken the market down, adding that it should not have been listed and that the company was reviewing how it passed internal safeguards.
Related: Polymarket expands into equities and commodities with Pyth price feeds
While Polymarket said it took the market down because it did not meet its integrity standards, the platform did not specify what rule had been violated, prompting further scrutiny from users.
“I'm looking at the \"Market Integrity\" page, and I checked the TOS, and I don't see which prohibition is relevant here,” Jack Newsham, a correspondent on Business Insider's national desk, wrote on X.
As Cointelegraph reported, Polymarket has seen a sharp rise in fees and revenue after expanding its fee model on March 30, with daily fees jumping from about $363,000 to over $1 million. The increase followed broader taker fees across categories like finance, politics and tech, as the platform ramped up monetization.
Related: Crypto VC Paradigm is developing a prediction market terminal: Fortune
There have also been growing concerns about insider trading on prediction markets. Last month, it was reported that a group of traders made about $1 million by correctly betting on the timing of US strikes on Iran, with some placing trades just hours before the attacks. The activity, which involved newly created wallets focused almost entirely on strike-related bets, raised insider trading suspicions.
To address these concerns, at least 42 Democratic lawmakers have urged the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of Government Ethics to warn federal employees against using non-public information to trade on prediction markets.
Big Questions: Is China hoarding gold so yuan becomes global reserve instead of USD?
", "description": "Polymarket pulled a market on a missing US service member after backlash, raising fresh questions about its rules and enforcement.", "published": "2026-04-04T10:32:42+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "polymarket" }, { "slug": "kalshi" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "polymarket-removes-missing-us-pilot-market-backlash", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259197" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Rich Bitcoin traders lost $337M daily in first quarter of 2026", "leadText": "Bitcoin whales and sharks have locked in $30.9 billion in BTC losses this year, resembling the 2022 bear market, as onchain data points to continued downside risk.", "author": { "slug": "yashu-gola" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) traders holding 100–10,000 BTC realized losses at an average of $337 million per day in Q1 2026, the worst quarter since 2022, according to data from Glassnode.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin dropped more than 20% after whales last realized losses at a comparable pace in 2022.
Long-term holders are also selling at a loss, indicating capitulation and potentially more downside in price.
Realized Loss tracks the total dollar value of losses locked in when BTC is sold on-chain below its purchase price. In 2026, two significant wallet cohorts show signs of capitulation.
They are addresses holding 100–1,000 BTC, or “sharks” that often represent mid-sized funds or wealthy investors, and those holding 1,000–10,000 BTC, which are considered whale-sized entities.
In Q1, Bitcoin’s sharks (yellow) realized losses at an average of $188.5 million per day, while whales (orange) comprised another $147.5 million daily.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5353-ad88-715b-95a8-5dcc4e9359d3.png\")
Combined, these large entities have locked in roughly $30.91 billion in realized losses so far in 2026.
Bitcoin’s realized losses in Q1 2026 for these high-net-worth entities rank among the most severe on record, trailing only Q2 2022’s roughly $396 million daily average.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d535c-110a-7a16-853d-10108f28c64f.png\")
In Q2 2022, BTC’s price dropped by over 50% and another 20% by the year’s end. It kept falling as the Terra collapse, Celsius freeze, and Three Arrows failure triggered panic across crypto, draining liquidity and confidence.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5376-842d-7fff-b2a0-d3f5cc6ecc28.png\")
In 2026, pressure on Bitcoin has come from different sources, including Iran war-driven inflation fears, quantum-security risk, and broader stress in the AI-led risk trade.
Related: Bitcoin supply in profit heads to ‘true bear market’ levels
Therefore, whales and sharks are cutting their losses now because they expect the Bitcoin price to drop further as macro risks mount. This sentiment raises the odds of a 2022-like bear market, with a bottom in Q4 2026.
Another sign that Bitcoin’s sell-off may not be over comes from Glassnode’s Long-Term Holder Realized Loss chart, which tracks losses locked in by investors who held coins for more than six months before selling.
That figure remains elevated at around $200 million per day on a 30-day average basis since November 2025.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d538a-45f1-745f-9883-3f454a6cf211.png\")
“A meaningful cooldown toward levels below $25M per day would represent a more compelling signal of exhaustion in selling pressure,” Glassnode analysts said in their weekly report published on Wednesday, adding:
“A prerequisite for the base formation that historically precedes a sustainable bull market transition.”
Together, these headwinds have already fueled calls for a deeper BTC correction, with some analysts pointing to the $40,000–$50,000 range as a possible bottom.
", "description": "Bitcoin whales and sharks have locked in $30.9 billion in BTC losses this year, echoing 2022 stress signals as on-chain data points to continued downside risk.", "published": "2026-04-04T09:31:42+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-analysis" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "tech-analysis" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "rich-bitcoin-traders-lost-337m-daily-first-quarter-2026", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Analysis" } ] }, "id": "259187" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Tether may delay fundraising if demand falls short at $500B valuation: Report", "leadText": "A $500 billion valuation would put Tether ahead of every US bank except JPMorgan Chase, placing it among the world’s biggest financial firms.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "Tether is pressuring investors to commit to a fundraising round at a $500 billion valuation within the next two weeks, saying that it may delay the raise if demand falls short.
The El Salvador-based company has been seeking fresh capital since late last year but has faced resistance from investors wary of the valuation, The Information reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. If commitments fall short of expectations, the company is likely to delay the raise.
The $500 billion target would place Tether among the world’s largest financial firms, exceeding every US bank except JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan, the biggest bank in the world, has a market capitalization of about $794.55 billion, while the second-largest bank in the country, Bank of America, has a market cap of $352.86 billion.
Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin, the world's largest stablecoin, currently has a market cap of $184 billion. The company’s other top products include Tether Gold (XAUt) and Tether EURt (EURt), pegged to the euro.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5766-5f11-75ca-9288-d686c492fdc1.PNG\")
Related: Stablecoin supply reaches $315B in Q1 as USDC rises, USDT declines
In September last year, Bloomberg reported that Tether was exploring a fundraising round of up to $20 billion that could value the company at around $500 billion. It was considering raising $15 billion to $20 billion through a private placement for a roughly 3% stake, with Cantor Fitzgerald acting as lead adviser.
Following the report, CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company was exploring a raise from a select group of investors to expand across “existing and new business lines (stablecoins, distribution ubiquity, AI, commodity trading, energy, communications, media) by several orders of magnitude.”
However, in a comment to Cointelegraph in February, Ardoino denied reports that it planned to raise up to $20 billion, saying earlier figures were hypothetical scenarios rather than an active fundraising plan. Still, he defended the $500 billion valuation, comparing the company’s profits to AI platforms such as OpenAI.
Cointelegraph reached out to Tether for comment, but had received no response by publication.
Related: Tether says ‘Big Four‘ firm to handle first full audit of USDT reserves
Meanwhile, Tether has reportedly hired KPMG to conduct its first full audit of USDt’s financial statements, with PwC assisting in preparing internal systems, according to the Financial Times. The move follows years of relying on reserve attestations from BDO Italia rather than a comprehensive audit.
A full audit would go beyond reserve snapshots to examine assets, liabilities and internal controls across Tether’s balance sheet.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
Bitcoin’s prolonged consolidation below $70,000 may be paving the way for a more significant rally, according to a crypto analyst.
“The longer it lasts, the heavier the breakout will be,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in an X post on Friday.
“Bitcoin remains stagnant in this area, which means that there's literally no direction,” van de Poppe said, adding that he is eyeing Bitcoin (BTC) breaking through $71,000, a level the asset hasn’t reached since March 26.
Since reaching a yearly low of $60,000 on Feb. 6, Bitcoin has been trading in a narrow range between $60,000 and $74,000. Bitcoin is trading at $66,890 at the time of publication, down 8.25% over the past 30 days, according to CoinMarketCap.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5710-204e-7550-8624-7d46d3dbbd0c.png\")
Crypto analyst Ted said that $60,000 “wasn’t the bottom” in an X post on Friday. “This doesn't mean another 50% crash will happen,” he said, adding that “there'll be one final capitulation before the bottom.”
Van de Poppe’s optimistic call comes amid sentiment toward the broader crypto market being down. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall sentiment in the crypto market, stayed within “Extreme Fear” territory on Saturday, recording a score of 11.
While van de Poppe is watching for a potential reversal as Bitcoin continues to consolidate, other analysts are more skeptical.
Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo said in an X post on March 30 that there is a “very good chance we get a deeper bear due to a breakdown of the secular bull market in global macro.”
Related: Bitcoin 'done' with 85% crashes, says Cathie Wood amid new $34K target
Meanwhile, veteran trader Peter Brandt recently told Cointelegraph that he doesn’t anticipate Bitcoin reaching a new price high in 2026.
“Not until maybe the second quarter of 2027,” he added.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said the longer that Bitcoin’s price remains stagnant, the “heavier the breakout will be.”", "published": "2026-04-04T07:16:31+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "adoption" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-price-direction-consolidation-breakout-crypto-analyst", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259172" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin ETFs could eventually be larger than gold ETFs: Analyst", "leadText": "Bitcoin ETFs offer more use cases for the average investor’s portfolio than a gold ETF does, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart.", "author": { "slug": "ciaran-lyons" }, "bodyText": "Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could surpass gold ETFs in total assets under management (AUM) as investor demand expands beyond the traditional “digital gold” narrative, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart.
“There are just more use cases of why somebody would put a Bitcoin ETF in a portfolio,” Seyffart said on the Coin Stories podcast published to YouTube on Friday. He pointed to Bitcoin’s (BTC) role as digital gold, a store of value, a portfolio diversifier, and a form of digital capital and property, adding that the market also views Bitcoin as a “growth risk asset.”
Seyffart explained that Bitcoin has “all these different ways” of being viewed, while gold only has “one of those things.”
“Our view is that Bitcoin ETFs will be larger than gold ETFs,” he added.
“There are so many people that could use it. They could be viewing it to put in their portfolio because they want to bet on like a growth and liquidity trade,” he said. “It can be hot sauce in a portfolio in that way.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5660-3758-7cc1-b6db-333ca2b3fdc2.png\")
Bitcoin is often compared to gold due to its limited supply and perceived role as a hedge against monetary debasement.
US-based gold ETFs recorded net outflows of $2.92 billion in March, while US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $1.32 billion in net inflows over the same period.
The largest gold-backed ETF in the US, GLD, recorded a $3 billion outflow on March 4, the largest daily withdrawal in more than two years.
On March 19, Cointelegraph cited data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showing retail gold purchases have tripled over the last six months, while Wall Street selling has accelerated over the past four months.
Related: Bitcoin 'done' with 85% crashes, says Cathie Wood amid new $34K target
Despite the divergence in ETF flows, both assets have moved broadly in tandem in recent weeks.
Bitcoin is trading at $66,918 at the time of publication, down 8.07% over the past 30 days, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, gold is trading at $4,676, down 8.25% over the past 30 days, according to GoldPrice data.
In December 2025, Fidelity Digital Assets analyst Chris Kuiper said that, “historically, gold and Bitcoin have taken turns outperforming. With gold shining in 2025, it would not be surprising if Bitcoin takes the lead next.”
Magazine: Solana exec trolls crypto gamers, Pixel tackles play-to-earn issues: Web3 Gamer
", "description": "Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said Bitcoin ETFs are set to overtake gold ETFs, citing the broader range of reasons investors might include Bitcoin in their portfolios.", "published": "2026-04-04T04:35:01+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "gold" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "adoption" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-gold-etfs-use-cases-analyst-james-seyffart", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259167" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ethereum Foundation nearly reaches 70,000 staked ETH goal", "leadText": "The non-profit foundation has staked 69,500 ETH, nearly reaching the goal it unveiled at the end of February, less than two months ago.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization that steers development of the Ethereum ecosystem, staked over 45,000 Ether (ETH) on Friday, bringing the total amount staked to about 69,500 ETH, less than 500 coins shy of the Foundation’s 70,000 goal.
The EF staked the coins in a series of transactions, each consisting of 2,047 ETH, with the total amount staked on Friday valued at over $92.2 million, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
![\"Ethereum,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5535-3c12-7540-aa5a-6cb1fc787b73.png\")
The EF began staking ETH in February as part of its revamped treasury strategy policy announced in June 2025 and will use the yield generated to fund protocol research, development and ecosystem grants. The EF said in its updated treasury policy:
“We are now increasingly moving into staking and DeFi, both to enhance financial sustainability and to support a key application category that is delivering on the promise of permissionless, secure access to base civilizational infrastructure for millions of people today.”
The foundation staked 2,016 ETH, valued at about $4.1 million in February, followed by 22,517 ETH, valued at about $46.1 million, in March. The EF has locked over $143 million in ETH in the Ethereum Beacon Deposit Contract, according to Arkham Intelligence.
![\"Ethereum,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5538-f66e-7140-9d17-c333927daf12.png\")
The adoption of a yield-bearing treasury strategy followed pressure from the Ethereum community on the EF to generate income from its treasury to cover expenses, rather than continually selling tokens to fund operations.
Related: Ethereum Foundation sells $10.2M worth of ETH to BitMine in OTC deal
Validators, who lock up tokens to secure proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain networks, can influence which chain is valid in the event of a network hardfork, or a partition of a network into two competing chains.
“If EF stakes, ourselves, this de facto forces us to take a position on any future contentious hard fork,” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in January 2025.
The EF is exploring ways to mitigate the centralization risks posed by its staking activities in the event of a contentious hard fork, Buterin added.
Magazine: Ethereum’s Fusaka fork explained for dummies: What the hell is PeerDAS?
", "description": "The Ethereum Foundation has nearly reached its target goal of 70,000 staked ETH, as part of its new treasury strategy focused on yield-bearing activities.", "published": "2026-04-03T22:31:51+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "staking" } ], "slug": "ethereum-foundation-nearly-reaches-70000-staked-eth-goal", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259152" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Cambodian lawmakers propose severe prison time for crypto scammers", "leadText": "The draft bill, yet to be signed into law by the king, marked a significant policy change for Cambodia officials in addressing scam centers.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Cambodia's parliament passed legislation targeting compounds used to defraud victims through scams, including those involving cryptocurrency.
In a Friday notice, the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia announced that the chamber had unanimously approved the draft law with no amendment, with 58 senators voting yes. According to reports, the draft bill, which would still need the king’s approval before becoming law, imposed prison time between two to five years and up to $125,000 in fines for certain crimes, or twice the time in prison and penalties if part of a gang or targeting multiple victims.
“The draft law stipulates the establishment of criminal rules to fill the gaps and deficiencies in the current law, which will contribute significantly to addressing challenges that pose serious risks to social security, the economy and citizens, including affecting Cambodia's reputation, as well as improving the effectiveness of the fight against fraud through technological systems, aiming to contribute to the preservation and protection of public security and order, and improving the effectiveness of cooperation in combating this crime,” said a translation of the Friday Senate notice on the bill.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d54e0-4a8e-7585-9b86-33d6fba5055f.png\")
According to a 2025 report from the US State Department, Cambodia’s government “frequently downplayed scam operation cases as labor disputes,” never arresting or prosecuting any owner or operator of a suspected scam compound. The Cambodian operations are just some of many across parts of Southeast Asia, where compounds are alleged sources of forced labor.
Related: UK sanctions $20B scam market by cutting ‘legitimate’ crypto ties
The passage of the bill followed UK authorities sanctioning the operators of a Cambodia-based scam center, and the country extraditing to China the leader of a criminal syndicate with alleged tied to scam compounds. Cambodia’s national assembly advanced the bill on March 30, with all 112 members voting yay.
According to a 2024 UN News report that explored a compound in the Philippines, scam centers like the ones targeted under the Cambodian bill were massive undertakings, with facilities designed so that the residents would never need to leave. Although many of the workers were responsible for carrying out the scams, they were also “trafficked here, held against their will” and “exposed to violence” in the compounds.
“The people who work here are basically fenced off from the outside world,” said the report. “All their daily necessities are met. There are restaurants, dormitories, barbershops and even a karaoke bar. So, people don’t actually have to leave and can stay here for months.”
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "A draft law targeting scam centers unanimously passed by Cambodia's Senate on Friday will head to the king for approval.", "published": "2026-04-03T21:47:12+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "cambodia" }, { "slug": "crimes" }, { "slug": "scams" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "cambodia-law-prison-crypto-scammers", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259147" }, { "category": { "slug": "interview" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Is Bitcoin mispricing a prolonged Iran war? Ex-hedge fund manager weighs in", "leadText": "In a recent Cointelegraph interview, macro investor James Lavish explains why markets are pricing in a quick end to the Iran war — and what could happen if that assumption is wrong.", "author": { "slug": "marco-castrovilli" }, "bodyText": "In the latest interview with Cointelegraph, macro investor and former hedge fund manager James Lavish issued a stark warning to Bitcoin holders and global investors: markets may be pricing in a quick resolution to the Iran conflict — but if that assumption proves wrong, the consequences could be severe.
Lavish argued that if the conflict drags on and keeps pressure on oil prices, the result could be a fresh inflation shock, renewed fears of stagflation and a major repricing across global markets.
In his view, this scenario would put the Federal Reserve in an impossible position: unable to raise rates aggressively without risking recession, yet unable to cut rates due to persistent inflation.
That is where the conversation becomes especially relevant for Bitcoin (BTC). Lavish explains why Bitcoin has behaved differently from gold and equities in recent months, and why that relative resilience may not last in a true “correlation-to-one” panic event.
If markets suffer a deeper drawdown, he says, Bitcoin could fall another 10% to 20%, potentially revisiting the low $50,000 or even high $40,000 range.
And yet, Lavish is far from bearish in the long run.
One of the most compelling parts of the interview is his argument that such a sell-off would not destroy the Bitcoin thesis — it could actually create a major opportunity. He also explains why investors should avoid being either too levered or completely unexposed in a market driven by war headlines, bond stress and rapidly shifting expectations around Fed policy.
The interview also touches on safe haven investments, energy markets, Treasury yields and money printing.
If you want to understand how an experienced macro investor thinks about war risk, recession risk and Bitcoin’s next move, watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!
The Independent Community Bankers of America has opposed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) conditional approval of Coinbase’s national trust bank charter, warning the application falls short of regulatory standards and could pose risks to consumers and the financial system.
On Thursday, ICBA said Coinbase’s application shows deficiencies in risk controls, profitability and resolution planning, and argued the OCC lacks statutory authority to expand trust powers for crypto-related activities without applying the full set of banking regulations.
The group said the decision reflects a broader trend of nonbank entities seeking access to the benefits of bank charters without meeting the same regulatory requirements. It wrote:
The sudden influx of applications demonstrates nonbank entities are seeking the benefits of a US bank charter without satisfying the full scope of US bank regulations.
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund also criticized the decision, warning the approval departs from longstanding banking law and could expose the financial system to risks tied to crypto market volatility, fraud and money laundering.
The objections follows the OCC’s conditional approval on Thursday of Coinbase’s application to establish a national trust bank, after six months of review by the US regulator.
![\"Coinbase,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5444-72ac-7178-8d54-68b4d56feea4.png\")
Coinbase released a statement on Thursday saying the charter would bring its custody and market infrastructure business under federal oversight, emphasizing that it does not plan to hold customer deposits or engage in fractional reserve lending, and adding that “the right path forward for crypto is through the system — not around it.”
Related: Crypto awareness tops 80% among young people in UK: Coinbase survey
The opposition is part of a broader dispute between banking groups and crypto companies over the role of digital assets in the financial system, particularly around stablecoins and yield-bearing products.
In January, CEO of Bank of America Brian Moynihan warned that allowing stablecoin issuers to offer interest could draw as much as $6 trillion in deposits out of the banking system, reducing lending capacity and pushing borrowing costs higher.
Industry groups such as the Bank Policy Institute have also raised similar concerns in letters to lawmakers, arguing that regulatory gaps could allow yield-bearing stablecoin products to bypass restrictions and disrupt traditional credit channels.
The debate is currently playing out in Washington, where Coinbase is engaged in policy discussions over the US Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill aimed at establishing federal rules for crypto oversight.
![\"Coinbase,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d543f-16c6-7879-acb2-9f09ec970a6a.png\")
While Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in January that the company could not support the legislation as drafted due to restrictions on stablecoin rewards, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said on Thursday that lawmakers are nearing agreement on core elements of the bill, though the yield issue remains a key sticking point.
The dispute has delayed a Senate Banking Committee markup, a required step before the bill can advance to a full Senate vote, leaving broader efforts to establish a federal framework for digital assets unresolved.
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
Disclaimer. This content is part of a paid partnership. The text below is a sponsored article that is not part of Cointelegraph.com editorial content. The material is written by our advertorial team and has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance, it may not reflect the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.com. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Disclosure.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53ce-7e04-7ed2-88de-f345ec379ae1.png\")
While the EU prepares for full compliance with MiCA, Legal Nodes helps companies in the region navigate the transition period efficiently.
Regulatory clarity has been a major expectancy in the crypto market for a long time. The practice was usually trying to fit crypto assets into existing legal frameworks, and that created many uncertainties for both service providers and users.
The situation has changed in recent years. Regulators around the world have gotten to work on introducing industry-specific laws. In Europe, where regulations were fragmented and differed heavily in each jurisdiction, a union-wide framework was enforced in 2024: Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA).
MiCA introduced licensing and reporting requirements for crypto asset service providers (CASPs), rules for issuing tokens and measures to prevent fraud and manipulation. Under MiCA, compliant CASPs will be able to provide service to all nations in the union.
Though the framework became fully enforceable by the end of 2024, member countries have been granted a transition period to establish their national regulations and comply with the framework. This period can extend up to 18 months.
Some countries, like the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia and Finland, opted for a 6-month transition period. Since June 30, 2025, full MiCA authorization is mandatory in these jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Slovakia and Lithuania implemented a 12-month window that ended on Dec. 31, 2025. Most of the other nations, including France, Italy, Czechia and Spain, decided to maximize the transition period and opted for the 18-month window.
Currently, platforms based in these countries are relying on grandfathering provisions — a temporary allowance to operate under existing national rules — to service EU clients. But this period will end on July 1, 2026. Until then, CASPs have to prepare for full compliance with MiCA.
Legal Nodes, a cross-border legal advisory platform, assists companies in these transitioning countries to navigate the process efficiently.
Through private consultation sessions, Legal Nodes supports the preparation period by turning MiCA from a broad legal framework into a set of concrete decisions companies need to make before the deadline.
The process starts with scope. A firm first has to establish whether MiCA applies to its activities at all, and if it does, whether it is categorized as a service provider, a token issuer or both. That assessment shapes the rest of the compliance process, because the obligations are tied to what the business actually does.
From there, the work becomes more operational. Legal Nodes assists companies with licensing support, while also helping them prepare the legal and compliance foundation that sits around authorization. MiCA readiness is not limited to securing approval from a regulator. Firms also need workable KYC and AML processes, internal compliance procedures, privacy protections and a legal structure that can support regulated activity across Europe.
The structuring element carries special importance. Even under a union-wide regime, firms still need to decide where to establish entities, how to organize operations and how to keep legal arrangements aligned with both MiCA and existing regulations.
For example, MiCA regulates Electronic Money Tokens (EMTs) and Asset-Referenced Tokens (ARTs), but these flows can also trigger Payment Services Directive (PSD2) requirements. Miscalculating this intersection can be a serious compliance risk under current conditions.
The ever-tightening window for full MiCA compliance leaves little room for fragmented work. Firms preparing for the new regime may also need to address AML controls, GDPR obligations and entity structuring across several markets at the same time.
Legal Nodes operates across 28 jurisdictions and has supported more than 300 companies so far, with experience spanning MiCA, AML, GDPR and cross-border legal structuring. For platforms still relying on grandfathering provisions, that kind of expertise may be especially relevant as the remaining window narrows and full compliance draws closer.
", "description": "With the maximum grandfathering period coming to an end across Europe, crypto firms are under pressure to fully align with MiCA", "published": "2026-04-03T19:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "europe" }, { "slug": "mica" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "eu-crypto-firms-turn-to-legal-support-as-deadline-for-mica-compliance-nears", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Spotlight" } ] }, "id": "259092" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Kalshi onboards ex-Democratic strategist amid legal troubles", "leadText": "Stephanie Cutter will join the prediction markets company as a policy adviser, having previously worked in Democratic lawmakers’ campaigns.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Predictions market platform Kalshi announced that a former staffer of US President Barack Obama had joined the company as a policy adviser.
In a Thursday notice, Kalshi said Stephanie Cutter would join the prediction markets company from Precision Strategies, a communications firm she co-founded in 2013. Kalshi said the addition of Cutter came as the company planned to “deepen its relationships in DC and across the country.”
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5428-7d64-7716-a2b9-624fa85e5b1b.png\")
According to Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour, Cutter’s experience allowed her to “get [the] message to the right people,” highlighting her background in government and politics. The predictions market already has staff with ties to the US government, including the appointment of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as a strategic adviser in January 2025, the week before his father took office.
In the last year, Kalshi has come under scrutiny from many US state-level authorities, who have filed lawsuits against the platform and other companies offering event contracts on prediction markets for sports, alleging that they constituted illegal bets.
Under Trump nominee Michael Selig, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has claimed that the agency has the “exclusive jurisdiction” to oversee such markets, filing lawsuits against state gaming regulators.
Related: Polymarket expands into equities and commodities with Pyth price feeds
Many Democrats in US Congress have also called for scrutiny into prediction markets after what they called “suspicious trades” related to the country’s invasion of Iran. Although Kalshi and Polymarket announced plans in March to implement guardrails to prevent accounts from using insider information, some lawmakers introduced legislation that could ban politicians from engaging in such bets on prediction markets.
As of Friday, none of the bills proposed in Congress had been signed into law, and it was unclear what the outcome would be for many of the state-level lawsuits.
Magazine: Solana exec trolls crypto gamers, Pixel tackles play-to-earn issues: Web3 Gamer
", "description": "The predictions market company which hired Donald Trump Jr. as a strategic adviser in 2025 will also onboard Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter.", "published": "2026-04-03T18:12:55+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "policy" }, { "slug": "kalshi" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "kalshi-democratic-strategist-lawsuits-state-federal", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259112" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "ZachXBT accuses Circle of $420M in 'compliance failures' since 2022", "leadText": "Circle had several hours or days to freeze illicit USDC funds in many of the 15 cases presented, but failed to act, according to ZachXBT.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "Onchain detective ZachXBT claims that Circle, the issuer of the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, has failed to freeze or blacklist about $420 million in illicit fund flows since 2022.
Circle can freeze illicit funds and blacklist wallet addresses, but either took “minimal” action to freeze illicit flows or failed to act in 15 separate hack-and-fraud cases, including those linked to North Korean (DPRK) state-affiliated hackers, ZachXBT said.
The stablecoin issuer allegedly failed to freeze $9 million in USDC from the GMX decentralized exchange (DEX) hack in July 2025, and blacklisted wallets linked to the $200 million Cetus DEX hack in May 2025 after USDC was converted into Ether (ETH), according to ZackXBT.
![\"Circle,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5442-fc44-70d1-bc23-949df20ab329.png\")
Circle failed to freeze $232 million in illicit flows from the Drift Protocol Hack on Wednesday, despite a six-hour window in which the attackers converted USDC to ETH in over 100 separate transactions, he added.
“Circle builds good products, and I hold USDC myself. This isn't a post about hoping they collapse,” he said, adding that the failure to freeze these illicit flows has had “real consequences for real people.” He said:
“Nine figures were lost from the ecosystem because of repeated inaction across three years on law enforcement requests, private sector requests, and their own infrastructure. The $420 million-plus only accounts for major public cases. The real figure is likely significantly higher.”
Cointelegraph reached out to Circle but did not receive an immediate response by the time of publication.
![\"Circle,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5445-ecca-78af-80f3-20224a590e62.png\")
The lack of asset freezes has sparked an online debate in the crypto community about the role and responsibilities of centralized service providers, as blockchain protocols and users continue to be targeted in hacks and cybersecurity exploits that drain funds.
Related: ZachXBT claims Circle wrongfully freezing exchange wallets
In September 2025, Heath Tarbert, the president of Circle, said that the company was exploring “reversible” USDC transactions that could be rolled back or amended in the event of hacks, theft and fraud.
Circle has frozen USDC funds and blacklisted wallets on multiple occasions, including freezing USDC held by Tornado Cash addresses sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2022.
Magazine: Meet the onchain crypto detectives fighting crime better than the cops
", "description": "The stablecoin issuer has repeatedly failed to freeze USDC tied to illicit activity or take action before funds were bridged to other networks, ZachXBT said.", "published": "2026-04-03T18:12:31+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "circle" }, { "slug": "cybercrime" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "zachxbt-accuses-circle-420m-compliance-failures-since-2022", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259107" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Crypto Biz: Bitcoin treasuries break ranks as BTC dips below $70K", "leadText": "Corporate Bitcoin holders split as Strategy holds firm while Nakamoto sells at a loss, exposing risks of debt-driven accumulation and a shifting treasury model under pressure.", "author": { "slug": "sam-bourgi" }, "bodyText": "Corporate Bitcoin (BTC) holders are diverging into two distinct paths amid continued market pressure. While Strategy held steady on its massive BTC reserves, Nakamoto Holdings moved in the opposite direction, selling at a loss and trimming exposure as it reworks its balance sheet.
The contrast highlights a growing divide in the corporate Bitcoin treasury model. Some holders have refused to sell, treating BTC as a long-term reserve asset and doubling down through volatility, while others are being forced to unlock liquidity, book losses or rethink capital allocation.
With Bitcoin down 46% from its peak, the risks behind debt-fueled or aggressive buying strategies are becoming harder to ignore.
Elsewhere, a proposed Bitcoin-backed municipal bond in New Hampshire is moving closer to issuance. It has now received a speculative-grade rating from Moody’s, underscoring both the appeal and the risks of tying public financing to digital assets.
Bitcoin treasury company Nakamoto Holdings sold roughly $20 million worth of Bitcoin in March, executing the sale at prices well below its prior acquisition costs. The transaction reduced its holdings to just over 5,000 BTC and marked a shift from unrealized to realized losses.
The company sold approximately 284 BTC at around $70,400 per coin, significantly less than its average purchase price. The proceeds were earmarked for working capital and business investments tied to recent mergers.
Alongside the crypto sale, Nakamoto also cut its equity exposure to Japanese company Metaplanet, selling millions of shares at a loss. The moves point to a broader balance-sheet reset as digital asset treasury companies come under pressure.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53e6-c194-7959-b35e-be7c515e3e30.png\")
Michael Saylor’s Strategy broke a months-long pattern of steady Bitcoin accumulation, reporting no purchases during the latest weekly disclosure period.
The pause stands out because Strategy has maintained consistent buying as a core part of its corporate identity and capital strategy, especially during the recent market downtrend that has seen Bitcoin fall from $120,000 to below $70,000.
Weekly disclosures have become a signal for institutional demand, and even a temporary halt could suggest squeamishness over market conditions, capital availability or the pace of buying. Strategy still holds roughly 762,000 BTC, maintaining its position as the largest corporate holder of the asset.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53e6-c529-7adb-9c7c-ff41ea6621b1.png\")
A proposed Bitcoin-backed municipal bond in New Hampshire has moved a step closer to issuance after receiving a Ba2 rating, below investment grade, from Moody’s. The structure would give investors exposure to Bitcoin-linked returns within a public finance framework, with proceeds expected to support public infrastructure and development projects.
The planned issuance, reportedly around $100 million, would be backed by Bitcoin collateral rather than traditional tax revenues. Repayments would depend on returns from that collateral, introducing a new approach that ties crypto markets to municipal borrowing.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53e6-c87b-7aea-bce0-97efef868e2f.png\")
Digital asset manager CoinShares launched on the Nasdaq on Wednesday following a merger with special purpose acquisition company Vine Hill Capital, marking another step in bringing crypto-native companies to US public markets.
The deal gives CoinShares access to a broader investor base and deeper capital markets, while offering public market investors exposure to a company focused on digital asset products and infrastructure. SPAC structures have remained a viable route for crypto companies seeking listings despite shifting market conditions.
As Cointelegraph previously reported, the SPAC merger valued CoinShares at roughly $1.2 billion.
Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse on the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.
", "description": "Corporate Bitcoin strategies diverge as Strategy holds steady while Nakamoto sells at a loss, highlighting risks in debt-driven BTC accumulation and treasury models.", "published": "2026-04-03T16:28:48+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "nasdaq" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "new-hampshire" }, { "slug": "stocks" }, { "slug": "coinshares" }, { "slug": "microstrategy" }, { "slug": "spac" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "corporate-bitcoin-strategy-vs-nakamoto-treasury-divide", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Newsletter" } ] }, "id": "259097" }, { "category": { "slug": "opinion" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Execution risk in crypto is the new custody risk", "leadText": "Execution risk in crypto is the new custody risk. Live credentials, not just private keys, are now the main attack surface.", "author": { "slug": "ido-sofer" }, "bodyText": "Opinion by: Ido Sofer, founder and CEO at Sodot.
The crypto industry is normally well ahead of its game when it comes to pure innovation and functionality, but security is a different matter.
For years, custody risk in crypto was defined by a single fear: the theft of private keys. The industry responded by hardening storage with cold storage, air-gapped systems, MPC and other methods. It then recognized that protecting only the keys is not enough, introducing transaction security and policies to prevent malicious transactions that steal funds, although the keys remain safe. Both of these remain a serious threat, but focusing solely on private keys obscures a deeper shift.
Custody itself has expanded far beyond private keys.
“Custody” once meant protecting private keys. That definition no longer reflects reality. Custody has evolved into a complex, automated system that operates different kinds of transactions, across multiple venues, custodians, vendors and internal systems. Modern trading firms operate across exchanges, staking platforms, liquidity venues and infrastructure providers, each with API keys, validator keys, deployment credentials and system-level secrets that can move capital directly or indirectly.
Many of these credentials are stored in secret managers that, by design, return the full key to any authenticated process. Convenient, yes, but structurally fragile. If the execution environment is compromised, either by an external attacker, an employee that was threatened or a malicious dependency, the full key is compromised. Custody risk has expanded beyond dormant on-chain keys into a live execution layer, where capital moves in milliseconds and exposure happens in real time.
Custody security evolved in stages. First, the industry secured private keys in storage. It then moved beyond storage, embedding policy and multi-party controls to govern how those keys were used in execution. The next step is inevitable: apply the same zero-exposure and policy-driven discipline to every key and credential. In modern crypto operations, API keys, deployment credentials and execution secrets carry significant risk. Extending private key best practices across this broader surface is no longer optional; it is the defining challenge of execution risk.
In recent years, the execution risk has emerged as the single biggest vector for large-scale exploits. Cybercriminals are bypassing onchain security mechanisms in favor of the soft underbelly, namely the API keys, server credentials and other off-chain secrets needed to facilitate trading, code deployment, staking and custodial actions. Recent major breaches, including the Bybit hack, started with an off-chain hack and compromised credentials, which later led to on-chain loss of funds.
It’s big and structural. Asset managers, trading firms, custodians and payment companies connect to dozens of CEXs, DEXs, liquidity providers and other vendors simultaneously. Each integration introduces its own credentials, access controls and operational dependencies. Managing these spans across development, ops, trading, risk and security teams, which creates complexity that compounds over time.
Securing these operations is a never-ending struggle. Maintaining consistent security policies and multi-vendor access is a massive headache that’s largely manual, resulting in inevitable security gaps and configuration drift.
Related: Bitcoin is infrastructure, not digital gold
Execution risk is not inherent toautomation. It is a byproduct of how trading systems have historically been designed. In many centralized exchange environments, API keys and operational credentials are placed directly inside trading infrastructure to eliminate latency. For market makers and trading firms, speed is not a feature, it is the business model. Even marginal delay affects revenue.
Over time, full-key availability inside live systems became normalized as the simplest way to achieve high-performance execution. Credentials sit in a constant state of readiness so transactions can be authorized instantly. The issue is not that capital moves quickly. It is that unilateral authority is embedded inside operational infrastructure. And when authority is concentrated where execution happens, it becomes the most predictable attack vector.
Existing tools fall far short of what’s required, considering the complexity of modern execution environments.
While crypto exchanges, custodians and over-the-counter trading desks certainly employ robust security policies for specific operations, it’s incredibly difficult for them to synchronize those controls across such a fragmented ecosystem. In fact, it’s almost impossible to maintain consistent governance across forty-odd exchanges for any length of time. Since it’s done manually, in silo, errors are inevitable, and a single mistake can put millions of dollars in value at risk.
There’s also the counterparty risk to consider. Exchanges and custodians may have their own vulnerabilities in the shape of bugs, misconfigured infrastructure and inconsistent policy enforcement mechanisms. If a trading firm’s internal security code requires geofencing, but one of the exchanges it’s connected to has a buggy implementation of that control, it creates a risk at the point of execution.
The lesson the industry learned from private key security is clear: eliminate full key exposure and enforce strict policy controls around usage. Those principles must now extend beyond on-chain private keys to every credential capable of authorizing value movement.
The solution is not simply better secret storage. Secret managers were built for convenience; they return the full key to any authenticated process. In live execution environments, that model distributes authority to multiple components of the system at the very moment capital is in motion.
What is required is zero key exposure architecture systems where no single machine or employee ever holds unilateral control, combined with enforceable, context-aware policies governing how credentials are used. Multi-party computation (MPC) is one way to implement this model, but the principle is broader — expand private-key security best practices across the entire crypto execution layer.
Opinion by: Ido Sofer, founder and CEO at Sodot.
Key points:
Buyers are attempting to maintain BTC above the $66,500 level, but several analysts believe that the $60,000 level may crack.
Some major altcoins risk breaking below their immediate support levels, signaling that bears remain in control.
Buyers are attempting to push and maintain Bitcoin (BTC) above the $66,500 level, but are facing stiff resistance from the bears. Although recovery attempts are being sold into, the BTC supply in profit and loss metric suggests that BTC may be close to a bottom.
CryptoQuant analyst \"Darkfost\" said that there are currently about 8.2 million BTC in loss, compared to roughly 10.6 million BTC during the previous bear market. That suggests the market is at a comparable level of undervaluation seen during the previous bear phase.
However, not everyone believes that a bottom is in. Chartered Market Technician Aksel Kibar said in a post on X that BTC may sink to $52,500 if its developing bearish pattern breaks down.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-6e7f-739e-81c7-9593106cbe2b.png\")
During bear phases, select analysts turn overly negative and forecast gloom and doom for the markets.
One such projection is from Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone, who said in a post on X that BTC may collapse to $10,000. Contrary to that opinion, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said in an interview with CNBC that BTC will not see 85-95% collapses from its all-time high.
Could BTC and select major altcoins hold above their support levels? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.
BTC turned down from the moving averages on Thursday, and the bears are attempting to strengthen their position by pulling the price below the support line.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-72dd-7877-829b-a95247cbeddc.png\")
If they succeed, the bullish ascending triangle setup will be invalidated. That may force the aggressive bulls to close their positions. The BTC/USDT pair may then slump to the crucial $62,500 to $60,000 support zone.
The first sign of strength will be a close above the moving averages. That opens the doors for a rally to $72,000 and then to $76,000. A close above $76,000 will complete the ascending triangle pattern, propelling the pair toward $84,000.
Ether (ETH) failed to rise above the $2,200 resistance on Wednesday, indicating that the bears are aggressively defending the level.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-759b-75d6-83a4-c5c5fae0aab9.png\")
The flat moving averages and the relative strength index (RSI) just below the midpoint do not give a clear advantage either to the bulls or the bears. That suggests the ETH/USDT pair may swing between $2,200 and $1,916 for some time.
Buyers will have to push and maintain the ETH price above the $2,200 level to gain the upper hand. If they do that, the pair may climb to $2,400 and thereafter to $2,600. On the downside, a close below $1,916 might sink the pair to the critical $1,750 support.
BNB (BNB) turned down from the moving averages on Wednesday and dropped to the solid support at $570.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-7843-7637-8c2c-50d7c7a2232c.png\")
The downsloping 20-day exponential moving average ($620) and the RSI near the oversold territory signal that the path of least resistance is to the downside. If the $570 support breaks down, the BNB/USDT pair may resume the downtrend to $500.
This negative view will be invalidated in the near term if the BNB price turns up and breaks above the moving averages. That suggests the pair may continue to oscillate between $570 and $687 for a few more days.
XRP (XRP) turned down from the 20-day EMA ($1.36) on Thursday, and the bears are striving to pull the price below the $1.27 support.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-7b53-782f-bd43-56b9ae8d7519.png\")
If they manage to do that, the XRP/USDT pair may plummet to the Feb. 6 low of $1.11. This is a vital support for the bulls to defend, as a close below it may extend the decline to the support line of the descending channel pattern near $1.
Buyers are likely to have other plans. They will attempt to drive the XRP price above the moving averages, clearing the path for a recovery to the $1.61 level and then to the downtrend line.
Solana (SOL) has reached the support of the $76 to $95 range, indicating that the bears continue to exert pressure.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-7dab-7539-82b5-14a3935f9a86.png\")
Buyers are expected to aggressively defend the $76 level, but the relief rally is likely to face selling at the moving averages. If the SOL price turns down from the current level or the moving averages and breaks below $76, it signals that the bears are back in the driver’s seat. There is support at $67, but if the level cracks, the next stop may be $50.
Contrarily, if the SOL/USDT pair turns up and breaks above the moving averages, it signals that the range-bound action may continue for a while longer.
Dogecoin (DOGE) is getting squeezed between the moving averages and the $0.09 support, signaling a potential range expansion in the short term.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-840d-764c-bcb3-71179b8ba3ab.png\")
A close below the $0.09 support indicates that the bears are back in command. That may intensify selling and sink the DOGE/USDT pair to the Feb. 6 low of $0.08. Buyers will attempt to defend the $0.08 level, but if the bears prevail, the DOGE price may plunge to $0.06.
On the upside, a close above the moving averages suggests that the buyers have overpowered the bears. The pair may ascend to $0.10 and later to the stiff $0.12 resistance.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) is attempting to bounce off the 50-day simple moving average ($34.16), but the relief rally is expected to face selling at higher levels.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-87d3-7915-8532-84f2b853c3c9.png\")
The 20-day EMA ($37.10) has started to turn down, and the RSI has slipped into the negative zone, signaling that the bulls are losing their grip. If the HYPE price turns down and breaks below the 50-day SMA, the pullback may reach the $29.42 level.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up and breaks above the 20-day EMA, it suggests that the bulls remain in control. The HYPE/USDT pair may march to $41.59 and subsequently to $43.76.
Related: Here’s what happened in crypto today
Sellers have maintained Cardano (ADA) below the $0.25 resistance but have failed to pull the price below the $0.23 level.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-8a8d-7d39-a20c-9b77794846d9.png\")
The 20-day EMA ($0.25) is sloping down gradually, and the RSI is in the negative territory, indicating a slight edge to the bears. If the ADA price turns down from the 20-day EMA and breaks below $0.23, it suggests that the bulls have given up. The ADA/USDT pair may drop to $0.22 and later to the support line near $0.18.
Conversely, if buyers propel the price above the moving averages, it suggests that the selling pressure is reducing. The pair may rally to the downtrend line, which is a vital resistance for the bears to defend.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has dropped to the $443 level, which is a critical support for the bulls to defend.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-8d43-7d90-a188-4651ceb8a23b.png\")
Any bounce off the $443 level is expected to face selling at the moving averages. If the BCH price turns down sharply from the moving averages, it increases the likelihood of a drop below the $443 level. If that happens, the BCH/USDT pair will complete a bearish head-and-shoulders pattern. The pair may then tumble to the $375 level.
On the contrary, a close above the $486 level suggests that the bulls are back in the game. The pair may then jump to the $520 to $540 zone.
Chainlink (LINK) has been trading between the $8 and $10 level, indicating a balance between supply and demand.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d53b2-8ff3-7918-bbef-f621de52d088.png\")
If buyers thrust the price above the moving averages, the LINK/USDT pair may rise to the $10 resistance. Sellers are expected to defend the $10 level, as a close above it may propel the LINK price to $10.94 and then to $11.61.
Alternatively, if the price turns down from the moving averages and breaks below the $8 level, it signals that the bears have seized control. The pair may collapse to $7.15 and then to the $6 level.
Binance maintained its leading position in crypto derivatives trading in the first quarter of 2026, while decentralized exchange Hyperliquid broke into the top 10 venues by volume, according to CoinGlass.
Derivatives trading remained the dominant force in the crypto market in Q1 2026, totaling $18.6 trillion compared with $1.94 trillion in spot trading, according to a CoinGlass report on Friday.
The analysts said trading activity remained strong over the quarter, though liquidity and capital became even more concentrated at the top. “Q1 was not about euphoria. It was about recovery, concentration, and shifting market structure,” CoinGlass said.
The data shows how a small group of exchanges continue to dominate crypto derivatives, even as decentralized platforms begin to emerge as competitors.
Binance processed about $4.9 trillion in derivatives volume in Q1 2026, or roughly 35% of activity among the top 10 exchanges. In 2025, the exchange held about 29% of $85.7 trillion in total derivatives volume.
The exchange also dominated spot markets at a similar share, with Q1 volumes amounting to roughly $640 billion, or around 34% of total volumes among the top 10.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d538f-c6da-72b6-b8d1-42087618b124.png\")
Binance’s dominance points to its resilience despite controversy during the quarter, after several crypto community members, including OKX founder and CEO Star Xu, alleged that it played a major role in the mass liquidation event of Oct. 10, 2025.
Related: Binance sues Wall Street Journal amid report of DOJ Iran probe
Binance repeatedly denied the claims, saying the crash was driven primarily by macroeconomic factors, market maker risk controls and network congestion.
Hyperliquid, a perpetual decentralized exchange, reached a key milestone in the first quarter of 2026, breaking into the top 10 derivatives exchanges by volume roughly three years after its launch.
The platform recorded about $492.7 billion in trading volume during the quarter, securing its place among the industry’s largest derivatives venues, including Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate, BitGet, BingX, LBank, WhiteBIT and Coinbase.
Related: Wallet in Telegram launches perpetual futures trading with Lighter
The milestone comes after steady growth across previous quarters. In its 2025 report, CoinGlass said Hyperliquid nearly dominated the entire perp DEX sector, with its market share reaching up to 70% at times.
Perp DEX activity also expanded rapidly in 2025, with volumes nearly tripling over the year and accounting for up to 90% of volumes across major derivatives exchanges.
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", "description": "Crypto derivatives reached $18.6 trillion in the first quarter of 2026 compared with $1.94 trillion in spot trading, with Binance leading the market, according to CoinGlass.", "published": "2026-04-03T14:56:06+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "derivatives" }, { "slug": "leverage" }, { "slug": "binance" }, { "slug": "okx" }, { "slug": "bybit" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "binance-derivatives-q1-hyperliquid-enters-top-10-coinglass", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259082" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ethereum L2s need responsive pricing to scale, says Offchain Labs", "leadText": "Edward Felten said Ethereum L2s need responsive pricing to scale, as Arbitrum’s new model tests an alternative to EIP-1559-style fee swings.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "Ethereum layer-2 networks need “responsive pricing” to scale to billions of users and reduce the fee swings that still accompany congestion, Offchain Labs co-founder Edward Felten said during a keynote at EthCC 2026.
Ethereum’s EIP-1559 upgrade launched in August 2021, as part of the London hard fork. It reformed the Ethereum fee market by modifying the gas fee limit and introduced a feature that burns part of the transaction fees, removing them permanently from circulation.
Felten said gas-price swings are still the main mechanism for protecting networks from being overrun during periods of heavy demand, even though that produces the kind of fee volatility mainstream users tend to reject.
“[With responsive pricing], you can see more traffic at lower gas prices without overrunning the infrastructure.”
Volatile gas prices have long been a barrier to mass adoption, particularly for users accustomed to fixed or predictable transaction costs in traditional financial systems.
The issue matters because Ethereum’s scaling story is no longer just about adding more throughput. It is increasingly about whether layer-2 networks can make transaction costs predictable enough for mainstream-style apps while still pricing congestion honestly enough to protect infrastructure under heavy demand. Arbitrum’s dynamic pricing rollout is now one of the first live tests of that tradeoff.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5358-97e9-7f07-b9e8-402a8c9af0a9.jpg\")
Arbitrum One adopted dynamic pricing in January. It described the model as an “Arbitrum platform direction to make fees more predictable under demand by aligning prices with real network bottlenecks.”
Related: Gavin Wood’s biggest hope: Free crypto transactions and Web3 tech worldwide
Felten shared multiple charts showing how Arbitrum gas fees remained lower during peak network volumes than fees on the Base network and other L2s that rely on EIP-1559.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d535b-faa6-75a1-8c71-8ea303f9b93a.jpg\")
Arbitrum One is the largest L2 with $15.2 billion in TVL, while Coinbase’s Base Chain is second with $10.9 billion, according to data from L2beat. L2s are securing over $39.7 billion in cumulative TVL, up 4.6% over the past year.
While responsive pricing may be more scalable and more transparent about underlying costs, its biggest downside is lower predictability than EIP-1559, according to Julian Kors, a senior developer and founder of execution workspace startup Pulsar Spaces.
The debate is not about one model being better, but whether networks optimise for “predictability and mechanism design purity or for efficiency and real-time cost alignment. EIP-1559 does the first very well. Responsive pricing leans into the second,” he told Cointelegraph.
Related: Ethereum Foundation accelerates 70,000 ETH staking plan after BitMine sale
Jerome de Tychey, president of Ethereum France and EthCC, told Cointelegraph that responsive pricing could improve user experience by making fees more closely reflect actual network demand.
Cyprien Grau, project lead at gasless Ethereum L2 Status Network, agreed, calling the new pricing model a “real improvement in fee accuracy.” However, the model still relies on a “fee market,” meaning that users may still face variable costs and gas spikes during congestion, he told Cointelegraph.
“It doesn’t solve the structural problem: L2 gas fees trend toward zero as scaling on L1 and L2s improves and competition intensifies. Responsive pricing makes the decline smoother, but you’re still building a revenue model on a depreciating asset.”
Grau added that responsive pricing is the “most advanced version of the gas model,” but said the gas model needs replacing. “L2s that scale to billions of users will be the ones where users never think about gas at all, and where networks' economics don't depend on charging them for it,” he added.
The fee model debate comes as parts of the Ethereum ecosystem are already rethinking the original rollup-centric scaling thesis. In February, Vitalik Buterin argued that some layer-2 assumptions no longer held and that future scaling should rely more heavily on the mainnet and native rollups.
L2 networks were created to scale Ethereum and offload part of the transaction load from the mainnet. However, Ethereum is now reconsidering its L2-centric approach, as these networks have siphoned significant economic value from the mainnet.
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", "description": "Edward Felten says Ethereum L2s need to adopt responsive pricing models to scale to billions of users, but industry watchers warn that the new gas fee structure introduces other shortcomings.", "published": "2026-04-03T14:51:29+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "vitalik-buterin" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "fees" }, { "slug": "scalability" }, { "slug": "ethereum-2-0" }, { "slug": "layer2" }, { "slug": "transaction-fee" }, { "slug": "arbitrum" }, { "slug": "ethcc" } ], "slug": "ethereum-l2s-responsive-pricing-scale-billions", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259077" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Solo Bitcoin miner bags $210K Bitcoin block reward", "leadText": "A CKPool-connected solo miner just landed a $210,000 Bitcoin block reward, one of only 20 solo‑mined blocks in the past year, as listed miners sell BTC to stay afloat.", "author": { "slug": "christina-comben" }, "bodyText": "Update (April 6, 2026, at 12:47 UTC): This article has been updated to include the news that a second solo BTC miner scored a separate solo block on Friday, April 3.
A solo Bitcoin miner secured a roughly $210,000 block reward on Thursday, proving that the so-called “mining lottery” is still paying out even if industrial operators dominate the network.
The miner, connected to CKPool’s solo service, found block 943,411 and earned 3.139 BTC in subsidy and transaction fees, according to data from block explorer mempool.space.
Solo mining remains rare. Statistics compiled by Bennet’s tracker show that solo mining pools have found just 20 Bitcoin (BTC) blocks over the last 12 months, paying out a total of 62.96 BTC, roughly one win every 18.7 days on average. The longest “drought” between blocks was 58 days, and the previous solo win came on Feb. 28.
The win comes as Bitcoin mining grows increasingly competitive. Network difficulty, the measure of how hard it is to find a block, recently recorded its steepest adjustment since February, falling about 7.7% before rebounding 3.87% in the past 24 hours, reflecting weaker hashrate and briefly improving miners’ odds.
Even so, current difficulty levels remain near historic highs, meaning the probability of any single solo miner discovering a block is still vanishingly small.
Related: Solo Bitcoin miner bags over $200K block reward using rented hashrate
Public trackers like CoinWarz show Bitcoin’s difficulty has climbed orders of magnitude over the past decade, with only brief downward adjustments when miners switch off unprofitable rigs or redirect machines to other workloads such as artificial intelligence.
![\"Bitcoin](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5384-d809-7a93-aff2-4f65fdb05337.png\")
As difficulty grinds higher and input costs rise, the economics of mining increasingly favor large, well-capitalized operators over hobbyists.
Major listed Bitcoin miners are responding by reshaping their balance sheets and fleet strategies rather than betting on luck. Riot Platforms sold 3,778 BTC during the first quarter of 2026, according to a Thursday release, adding to a number of crypto miners and firms that have sold Bitcoin recently, including MARA Holdings, Genius Group and Nakamoto Holdings.
Against that institutional backdrop, the CKPool win stands out as a reminder that individuals can still, on rare occasions, beat the odds.
In fact, shortly after this article went to press, another solo miner scored a second solo BTC block on Friday, 943411, netting the miner a cool 3.139 BTC (roughly $210,000) in subsidy and transaction fees.
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", "description": "A CKPool solo miner hit block 943,411 for a $210K reward, one of just 20 solo‑mined Bitcoin blocks in 12 months.", "published": "2026-04-03T14:45:10+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "mining" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-mining" }, { "slug": "mining-pools" } ], "slug": "solo-bitcoin-miner-bags-210k-bitcoin-block", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259072" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Decentralized email platform Dmail to cease services on May 15", "leadText": "Dmail Network will shut down on May 15 after citing high infrastructure costs, failed fundraising and weak token utility.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "Decentralized email platform Dmail Network is shutting down after five years of operations, citing high infrastructure costs, weak monetization, failed funding efforts and limited token utility.
The platform said it will gradually cease all services starting May 15, and urged users to export their data before then. It said all nodes will shut down after that date, making emails and accounts inaccessible.
Dmail Network positioned itself as a Web3 communication platform focused on decentralized, wallet-based email, encrypted messaging and onchain notifications. In January 2025, DappRadar ranked Dmail second among AI DApps, with 4.9 million unique active wallets for the month.
Dmail’s closure suggests that user activity alone was not enough to sustain an infrastructure-heavy Web3 product once high operating costs, weak monetization and failed fundraising converged.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5369-4035-7ab6-bed6-15155b612caf.jpg\")
Dmail said the economics of running a decentralized communication platform had become increasingly difficult to sustain. In its shutdown note, the company said bandwidth, storage and computing costs consumed a large share of its budget, with the expenses rising as users grew.
The company said it explored different paid models and monetization paths but failed to find a business model users were willing to support at scale.
Related: Big Tech firms back new x402 Foundation to advance agentic AI adoption
Dmail said that worsening market conditions added to the pressure. The team said multiple financing rounds failed, acquisition efforts fell through and funding was nearing exhaustion. It said departures among core staff left the team unable to keep maintaining its infrastructure.
It added that the project’s token never developed a clear, large-scale use case and that its economic design failed to create a self-sustaining loop. Following the announcement, Dmail Network’s token dropped to an all-time low of $0.0002067, according to CoinGecko.
Dmail’s shutdown comes amid a recent wave of closures across Web3, as projects struggle with weak demand and funding pressures.
On March 18, DAO tooling platform Tally said it was winding down after concluding that there was no viable market for its products. On March 24, development company Balancer Labs said it was shutting down four months after an exploit that drained over $100 million.
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", "description": "Dmail Network is shutting down its decentralized email platform after five years, citing high costs, weak monetization and failed funding efforts.", "published": "2026-04-03T14:05:35+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "decentralization" }, { "slug": "dapps" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "email" } ], "slug": "dmail-network-shutdown-decentralized-email-costs-funding-failure", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259057" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Centralizing crypto: Why Malta’s clash with ESMA is about more than one small state", "leadText": "A plan to move supervision of major crypto asset service providers to the France-based ESMA is testing MiCA’s balance between EU-level control and national-level decision-making.", "author": { "slug": "christina-comben" }, "bodyText": "Europe’s next crypto battle is no longer about whether to regulate the industry, but who gets to hold the pen. European Union leaders are weighing a European Commission proposal to hand direct supervision of the bloc’s largest crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), shifting front-line control away from national regulators.
France, Austria and Italy believe the move is overdue. In a joint September 2025 paper, their market authorities called for “a stronger European framework,” arguing centralized oversight is needed to address “major differences” in how countries authorize firms and curb regulatory shopping.
Malta’s Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is not convinced. A spokesperson told Cointelegraph it is “premature to introduce structural changes” like centralized supervision. The Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) regulation has only recently become fully applicable, and its “impact on the market and market players is still being assessed,” they said.
The dispute matters because MiCA lets companies win authorization in one member state and then passport services across the EU. That means the question of who supervises crypto firms is no longer just administrative, but goes to how Europe will balance market integration, investor protection and national regulatory authority.
While a recent Bloomberg report framed the fight as one small state against the commission, Ian Gauci of Maltese law firm GTG, one of the architects of Malta’s original crypto rulebook, told Cointelegraph, “That is not what this is.” He said Malta’s arguments “are not jurisdictional” and “go to the structure itself and how it will behave wherever it is applied in the Union.” The MFSA said its position was not about national advantage but about “regulatory timing and effectiveness” and preserving Europe’s attractiveness to crypto firms.
Related: What happens as Europe enforces MiCA and the US delays crypto rules
The ESMA already leads the supervisory convergence work, coordinating peer reviews of national authorities, including a fast-track review of one of Malta’s CASP authorizations, widely reported to be OKX. The review found Malta met expectations on supervisory settings, but that the firm’s authorization “should have been more thorough.”
![\"Europe,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5333-5cac-7b28-887e-b4f2a79f0663.png\")
Supporters of centralization say that the episode makes the case. A spokesperson from the ESMA told Cointelegraph that a single supervisor for major cross-border companies would deliver “more efficient and harmonized supervision,” strengthen investor protection and reduce “the risk of forum shopping.” France, Austria and Italy similarly warned in their position paper that divergent practices could undermine investor protection and Europe’s digital asset market.
Gauci said he was not opposed to a stronger EU-level role where it is justified. But he argued that centralization should be targeted at genuinely systemic cross-border firms with clearly identified risks, rather than applied as a blanket fix for uneven supervision.
OKX rejects the idea that companies pick smaller jurisdictions to capture regulators. Its European CEO, Erald Ghoos, told Cointelegraph that, unlike some competitors, the exchange had been supervised by Malta under a high-standard regime since 2021 and its MiCA authorization reflected a multi-year relationship, “not an expedited process.” With MiCA still rolling out, he argued that there was no evidence the current model is failing, making centralization look more like a “political decision.”
Related: What happens as Europe enforces MiCA and the US delays crypto rules
Ghoos said the case for concentrating supervisory power at the EU level had not yet been demonstrated.
Gauci accepts that inconsistencies exist but argues that the solution is to use existing tools. “Make peer reviews bite,” set timelines and impose consequences for persistent failure, rather than rewriting MiCA’s allocation of powers, he said.
His deeper concern is structural: Large firms operate as single systems, but the proposal would split oversight across ESMA, national authorities and the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), while the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) expects an integrated view of information technology risk. “Once you split supervision like this, that unity disappears,” he warned, leaving accountability fragmented in a crisis.
The real question, he said, is whether Europe values supervisory depth or scale. Early movers built expertise and proximity in a fast-moving industry; strip that away too quickly, and Europe risks replacing it with distance, removing the “incentive for jurisdictions to invest in serious supervisory capacity in the first place,” and encouraging the offshore drift policymakers want to avoid.
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", "description": "The EU wants ESMA to supervise major CASPPs, but Malta’s MFSA and lawyer Ian Gauci warn that centralizing crypto oversight risks fragmentation and offshore drift.", "published": "2026-04-03T13:51:51+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "europe" }, { "slug": "esma" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "european-union" }, { "slug": "malta" }, { "slug": "mica" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "centralizing-crypto-why-malta-clash-with-esma", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259052" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Aave avoided bad debt by shifting risk to borrowers: Bank of Canada study", "leadText": "A Bank of Canada staff paper found Aave V3 avoided bad debt in 2024, but said the model pushed losses onto borrowers during liquidations.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "A Bank of Canada staff paper found that Aave V3 reported zero non-performing loans in 2024, with overcollateralization and automated liquidations helping prevent lender losses in its Ethereum lending market.
Using transaction-level data from Jan. 27, 2023, to May 6, 2025, the study found that positions were typically liquidated before collateral values fell below outstanding debt, helping contain lender losses across the sample.
But the model came with a tradeoff, the paper said. While it protected lenders from unrecovered losses, it also shifted risk onto borrowers and constrained capital efficiency compared with traditional lending systems.
According to the paper, Aave V3’s design relies on automated risk controls rather than traditional underwriting, requiring borrowers to post more collateral than they borrow and liquidating positions when they breach risk thresholds.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5310-b6e0-717f-8981-47aa3b719fb7.jpg\")
According to the paper, Aave V3’s lending activity was not driven solely by users seeking liquidity. It found that recursive leverage accounted for over 20% of total borrowed volume and 8.2% of borrowing transactions during the sample period.
Recursive leverage involves repeatedly borrowing against collateral, redeploying the borrowed assets as new collateral and borrowing again to amplify exposure.
Related: Aave V4 goes live on Ethereum after governance vote clears rollout
The study said the dynamic made borrowers more exposed when markets turned. According to the paper, liquidations on Aave V3 tended to occur in concentrated waves, with four assets accounting for 90% of total liquidated value.
This includes Wrapped Ether (WETH), Wrapped Staked Ether (wstETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Wrapped eETH (weETH).
The paper estimated that borrower losses during major liquidation events could be significant. It said liquidation fees typically ranged from 5% to 10% of liquidated value, while missed gains from subsequent price recoveries pushed combined losses to about 10% to 30% in some cases.
The staff paper suggested that while the design for Aave V3 helped prevent unrecovered bad debt in the sample, it did so by exposing borrowers to abrupt losses when collateral prices fell sharply.
Cointelegraph reached out to Aave for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
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", "description": "A Bank of Canada staff paper says Aave V3 on Ethereum had no unrecovered bad debt from Jan. 27, 2023, to May 6, 2025, by using excess collateral and rapid liquidations.", "published": "2026-04-03T12:51:18+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "study" }, { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "bank-of-canada" }, { "slug": "lending" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "aave" } ], "slug": "aave-v3-bad-debt-liquidations-borrower-losses-study", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "259037" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin 'done' with 85% crashes, says Cathie Wood amid new $34K target", "leadText": "ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said that Bitcoin as a \"proven\" asset would no longer experience drawdowns of 85% or more from all-time highs.", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) is “done” with drawdowns of 85% or more from all-time highs, says ARK Invest CEO, Cathie Wood.
Key points:
Bitcoin will not see another correction of 85% or more versus its latest all-time high, Cathie Wood argues.
A new prediction sees $34,000 becoming the next BTC price bottom.
Bitcoin bear-market seasonality hints that a reversal could come this month.
In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box segment on April 1, Wood stayed calm about double-digit BTC price losses.
“Believe it or not, in the Bitcoin community, down 50% — if that’s as far as it goes — they’ll consider that a real victory,” she said.
“Because you’re right; the 85-95% collapses associated with a very new technology — that’s done. This is a proven technology, it’s a proven monetary system and it’s a new asset class.”
Wood, a longtime Bitcoin bull, was speaking as Bitcoin circled its old $69,000 all-time highs from 2021.
Those preceded a year-long bear market in which BTC/USD lost nearly 80% before bottoming at $15,600. That marked the latest such correction, with bear markets typically bringing losses around the 80% mark.
Data from onchain analytics platform Glassnode shows that the current bear market has yet to match historical patterns with maximum downside versus Bitcoin’s $126,200 record from October 2025 at 52%.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d530a-74b2-73c9-9d14-bcc18e7bda2d.png\")
Responding to Wood, analyst Tony Severino predicted that 2026 would bring a price bottom equal to a 72% drawdown.
“Correct, -72% max drawdown next =$34,000,” he wrote on X.
That figure exceeds commonly held predictions by traders for where Bitcoin’s next generational floor will be. As Cointelegraph reported, consensus favors the area between $40,000 and $50,000.
This week, however, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone warned that price may already be trending toward seven-year lows.
Continuing the bear-market comparison, data from network economist Timothy Peterson revealed that April could mark some form of inflection point for price.
Related: Bitcoin risks new lows as US dollar targets highest level since April 2025
A chart uploaded to X this week shows April typically being a recovery month during bearish phases.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d5309-8a13-7343-b2f2-936e909795fb.png\")
The March monthly close, meanwhile, ended a five-month losing streak for BTC/USD with modest gains of 1.8%.