![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9fa2-f237-7702-a709-db8a1a4c9837.PNG\")
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded nearly $1 billion in net inflows over the past week, marking their strongest performance in more than three months as market sentiment shifts toward risk assets.
Data from SoSoValue shows that spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs attracted $996 muillion in total net inflows last week, the highest weekly intake since early January, when inflows reached about $1.4 billion.
Friday saw $663.9 million in inflows, the strongest single-day performance of the week. Earlier gains included $411.5 million on Tuesday and $186 million on Wednesday, followed by a more modest $26 million on Thursday. The period began with a $291 million outflow on Monday.
Total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs climbed above $101 billion by Friday, alongside a sharp increase in trading activity, with daily volumes nearing $4.8 billion.
Related: Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin fund overtakes WisdomTree after 6 trading days
According to analysts at Bitunix, markets are increasingly pricing in how geopolitical tensions evolve rather than whether they persist. Signs of de-escalation, particularly around US–Iran relations, have reduced extreme risk scenarios, weakening demand for traditional safe havens like the US dollar, they said.
The analysts added that the Federal Reserve is still taking a cautious approach, and expectations for rate cuts remain limited. At the same time, concerns about US debt demand and high long-term yields are starting to weaken confidence in traditional “risk-free” assets. This has contributed to additional pressure on the dollar, further supporting flows into alternative assets, including Bitcoin.
“In crypto market structure, BTC is currently in a classic liquidity redistribution phase,” they wrote, adding that Bitcoin continues to trade in a defined range, with resistance above $75,000 and support forming near $72,000. “Liquidation heatmaps suggest the market is building a new equilibrium range rather than extending a directional trend,” they said.
Related: Three things Bitcoin must do to hold highs above $76K: Analysts
On Friday, Iran’s foreign minister announced that the Strait of Hormuz has been reopened to commercial shipping for the duration of the current ceasefire, a move quickly confirmed by US President Donald Trump. The decision eased immediate fears of supply disruption in one of the world’s most critical oil transit routes, triggering swift reactions across global markets.
Bitcoin surged above $77,000 following the news, while Brent crude fell roughly 10% to around $85 per barrel.
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", "description": "Bitcoin ETFs saw a surge in investor inflows and trading activity, with nearly $1 billion added in a week as markets priced in geopolitical easing and weaker demand for traditional safe-haven assets.", "published": "2026-04-18T09:28:25+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-etf" }, { "slug": "etf" } ], "slug": "spot-bitcoin-etfs-1b-weekly-inflows-risk-sentiment", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262597" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "SEC charges Donald Basile in $16M crypto fraud tied to ‘insured’ token", "leadText": "The SEC has sued crypto executive Donald Basile over an alleged $16 million scheme involving false claims about an “insured” Bitcoin Latinum token.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against crypto executive Donald Basile, accusing him and two companies he controlled of raising about $16 million from investors through false claims tied to a so-called “insured” crypto token known as Bitcoin Latinum.
In a complaint filed Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the SEC alleged that Basile ran the scheme between March and December 2021 through Monsoon Blockchain Corp. and GIBF GP Inc., offering investors Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs) that promised future delivery of the token, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Regulators said hundreds of investors were told the asset was backed and insured, but the SEC alleged no insurance company ever provided coverage or any proof that these claims were true, per the report.
The case marks one of the few SEC enforcement actions under the Trump administration, which has signaled a more crypto-friendly regulatory stance compared to previous administrations.
Related: Crypto market safe harbor lands at White House for review
The SEC said Basile repeatedly represented that Bitcoin Latinum was an insured, asset-backed cryptocurrency and that investor funds would help support its underlying value. Instead, the complaint alleges, millions of dollars were diverted to personal spending, including real estate purchases, credit card payments and the acquisition of a $160,000 horse.
The regulator is seeking permanent injunctions, repayment of allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest, civil penalties, and a ban on Basile’s participation in securities offerings, according to the WSJ. It also wants an officer-and-director bar preventing him from leading public companies in the future.
The Bitcoin Latinum website currently shows a 404 error.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9f7e-6274-7121-ac85-44a4e26f9b9f.PNG\")
Related: SEC proposes certain crypto interfaces don’t need to register as brokers
Last week, the SEC said many past enforcement actions against crypto firms did not directly benefit investors and reflected a focus on case volume rather than meaningful protection. The agency reported that since fiscal 2022 it brought 95 actions and collected $2.3 billion in penalties for “book-and-record” violations, but several cases involving crypto registration and dealer definitions did not identify clear investor harm.
The SEC also said this approach reflected a misinterpretation of securities laws and a misallocation of enforcement resources. Under Chair Paul Atkins, appointed in 2025, the agency says it has moved away from “regulation by enforcement” and is now prioritizing fraud, market manipulation and serious abuses of trust.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "Regulators allege Basile misled hundreds of investors with claims of an insured crypto asset, while millions were spent on personal expenses including real estate and a $160,000 horse.", "published": "2026-04-18T08:32:40+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "fraud" }, { "slug": "sec" }, { "slug": "scams" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "sec-donald-basile-16m-crypto-fraud-insured-token", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262587" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Circle unveils USDC Bridge for native cross-chain stablecoin transfers", "leadText": "The USDC Bridge adds to Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, which often sees over $500 million worth of USDC transfers each day.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched USDC Bridge, a new user interface built on top of the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) that seeks to simplify native cross-chain transfers of the USDC stablecoin.
On Friday, Circle’s USDC X account said the bridge allows users to move the USDC (USDC) stablecoin in a “predictable, transparent way,” citing a native burn-and-mint transfer mechanism and no bridge complexities.
Gas fees will be handled automatically, fees will be shown upfront, and live status updates will be provided throughout the transfer, Circle added.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ee5-d643-7682-88cf-111b5b087adc.png\")
The USDC Bridge builds on Circle’s CCTP, which was introduced in April 2023 and facilitates hundreds of millions of stablecoin transfers each day.
CCTP eliminated the need for wrapped and synthetic versions of USDC.
Cross-chain bridges seek to make the broader crypto ecosystem interoperable, functioning as a unified network rather than a collection of fragmented, isolated blockchains.
Making bridges as simple and easy to use as possible has been an area of focus for many crypto infrastructure firms.
In the past, bridges have confused users and arguably slowed crypto adoption, especially for beginners struggling to navigate bridge interfaces, trade routes and gas fees.
Cointelegraph found that USDC Bridge supports USDC transfers between at least 17 Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchains, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Monad, Optimism, Polygon, Sonic and World Network.
Related: Ukraine arrests FBI-wanted cybercrime suspect, seizes $11M in assets
Circle’s CCTP supports a broader number of blockchains, including Solana, Sui and Aptos, which are not natively EVM compatible.
On Wednesday, Circle was hit with a class action for failing to freeze around $230 million worth of USDC that moved through its CCTP from the Drift Protocol exploit on April 1.
Circle is accused of aiding and abetting conversion and negligence.
More than 100 members are involved in the class action. The law firm representing them, Mira Gibb, is seeking damages, with the final amount to be determined at trial.
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
", "description": "Circle has launched USDC Bridge, enabling native transfers of its USDC stablecoin across at least 17 blockchains.", "published": "2026-04-18T05:46:50+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "circle" }, { "slug": "fees" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "minting" } ], "slug": "circle-launches-usdc-bridge-native-cross-chain-transfers", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262582" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "X's new Cashtags feature drives $1B trading volume in first two days", "leadText": "X’s Cashtags feature has been integrated into Canadian-based online brokerage Wealthsimple, but has not yet been adopted by a US trading platform.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "Social media platform X has already generated roughly $1 billion in trading volume from its new Cashtags feature, which allows users to view stock and crypto data directly from the app.
In a post to X on Friday, the company’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said the estimated $1 billion in trading volume was reached after launching on Tuesday night, citing data aggregated from X’s trading pilot.
\n\n\nBased on aggregated data from our trading pilot, X has driven a estimated $1 billion in trading volume globally since launching on Tuesday night. https://t.co/TimRE4U37S
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 17, 2026
The new feature — currently only available to US and Canadian users on iPhones — is part of Elon Musk’s vision of turning X into an “everything app,” including peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce.
X sees more than 550 million users each month, positioning it as one of the largest social media platforms globally and giving it the ability to compete with established financial information providers in delivering market-related content and data.
Cashtags allow users to select a specific asset or smart contract address when posting a ticker, and tapping a tag displays live price charts and related posts.
Online brokerage Wealthsimple partnered with X to integrate the Cashtag feature, enabling Canadians to click on crypto and stock tickers and be taken directly to its trading platform.
The Cashtags feature hasn’t been integrated with a US brokerage yet.
Musk’s company also has X Money in the pipeline, a peer-to-peer payments system that seeks to offer yield-bearing accounts, a cashback debit card and other perks.
X rolled out an external beta of X Money in early March, showing payments between Musk and Hollywood actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series.
Related: X mulls new rules for first-time crypto posts amid tortoise scam
The integration of crypto payments into X Money remains a mystery, however.
Over the last few years, X has secured money transmitter licenses in over 40 US states and registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to make peer-to-peer payments possible on the platform.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
", "description": "X head of product Nikita Bier said the social media platform’s new Cashtags feature for crypto and stock data drove roughly $1 billion in trading volume across the first two days.", "published": "2026-04-18T03:46:56+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "twitter" }, { "slug": "elon-musk" }, { "slug": "data" }, { "slug": "stock-investment" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-investment" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "x-cashtags-feature-drives-1-billion-trading-volume-first-two-days", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262577" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Worldcoin tanks 13% as World’s iris-scanning tech expands to Zoom, Docusign", "leadText": "Most of the integrations are aimed at fighting deepfakes as the rise of AI-generated content makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish humans from AI.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "Worldcoin fell 13.4% to roughly $0.28 on Friday as World, the identity-focused company led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, unveiled several new integrations for its “proof of human” stack, which uses iris-scanning technology to verify identities.
Video conferencing tool Zoom is integrating World’s Deep Face authentication to prevent deepfakes, while electronic signature platform Docusign is adding World’s ID verification tech to digital agreements, World said on Friday. Dating app Tinder is also expanding its World ID verification to US users.
“As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of real people, the infrastructure to prove a human stands behind each agent becomes critical,” World said.
\n\n\nNo more deepfakes on video calls. @worldnetwork identify verification on @Zoom. pic.twitter.com/0ap0IOKR6H
— World (@worldnetwork) April 17, 2026
Alongside the surge in AI-generated content, deepfake technology has been used in increasingly sophisticated impersonation scams, helping fraudsters evade standard ID checks and deceive victims into handing over funds or sensitive data.
While biometric verification has been touted as a solution, critics warn that collecting data at scale raises privacy risks, particularly if controlled by a single company, and could lead to excessive surveillance if misused.
Worldcoin’s (WLD) double-digit fall to $0.28 came as the broader crypto market rose 2.2% on news of the US and Iran easing tensions and opening up the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.
WLD is the native cryptocurrency token of the World Network, used to reward users for verifying their unique identity and to enable transactions and participation within its ecosystem.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9dfc-2cb8-7091-92c9-a3a61b1bbb1d.png\")
World’s ID technology is mostly based on its Orb device, which scans a user’s iris to generate a unique digital identity used to verify they are human without revealing personal data.
Related: Why privacy coins often appear in post-hack fund flows
World has introduced an account-based system with features like key recovery and multi-device support for its proof of human stack, aimed at making verification more secure and portable.
Other recent World integrations include Amazon Web Services, Shopify, Browserbase, Exa, VanEck and Coinbase.
Coinbase announced that it would use World’s AgentKit, a developer toolkit that allows AI agents to prove they are linked to a verified, for its x402 AI agents micropayments protocol in March.
Magazine: AI agents will kill the web as we know it: Animoca’s Yat Siu
", "description": "Worldcoin, the token powering the identity-focused World Network, fell 13% as World introduced new integrations on Tinder, Zoom and Docusign on Friday.", "published": "2026-04-18T01:49:26+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "identity" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "worldcoin" }, { "slug": "scams" }, { "slug": "openai" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "worldcoin-falls-13-percent-as-world-iris-scanning-expands-zoom-docusign-tinder", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262572" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Here’s what happened in crypto today", "leadText": "Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.", "author": { "slug": "cointelegraph" }, "bodyText": "Today in crypto, Worldcoin fell double-digits as Sam Altman’s ID-focused company, World, made several integrations, including for Zoom and Docusign. Kraken’s parent company, Payward, acquired Bitnomial for $550 million, while Bitcoin surged above $76,000 after Iran’s foreign minister declared the Strait of Hormuz open for the remainder of the ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.
Worldcoin fell 13.4% to roughly $0.28 on Friday as World, the identity-focused company led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, unveiled several new integrations for its “proof of human” stack, which uses iris-scanning technology to verify identities.
Video conferencing tool Zoom is integrating World’s Deep Face authentication to prevent deepfakes, while electronic signature platform Docusign is adding World’s ID verification tech to digital agreements, World said on Friday. Dating app Tinder is also expanding its World ID verification to US users.
“As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of real people, the infrastructure to prove a human stands behind each agent becomes critical,” World said.
\n\n\nNo more deepfakes on video calls. @worldnetwork identify verification on @Zoom. pic.twitter.com/0ap0IOKR6H
— World (@worldnetwork) April 17, 2026
Alongside the surge in AI-generated content, deepfake technology has been used in increasingly sophisticated impersonation scams, helping fraudsters evade standard ID checks and deceive victims into handing over funds or sensitive data.
While biometric verification has been touted as a solution, critics warn that collecting data at scale raises privacy risks, particularly if controlled by a single company, and could lead to excessive surveillance if misused.
Worldcoin’s (WLD) double-digit fall to $0.28 came as the broader crypto market rose 2.2% on news of the US and Iran easing tensions and opening up the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.
WLD is the native cryptocurrency token of the World Network, used to reward users for verifying their unique identity and to enable transactions and participation within its ecosystem.
The parent company of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, Payward, announced on Friday that it will acquire Bitnomial, a US-licensed cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange.
Bitnomial has secured licenses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to offer exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage services, according to Payward’s announcement. Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said:
“Bitnomial spent a decade building it: crypto settlement, crypto collateral, continuous 24/7 markets. These are capabilities that cannot be retrofitted onto legacy systems. They have to be built natively.”
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9d6a-169b-7047-9bde-fdbec4bf5e2f.png\")
Payward said it plans to leverage Bitnomial’s CFTC-regulated infrastructure to offer crypto derivatives trading to US residents and integrations for its institutional clients, allowing them to offer crypto services to their own customers.
Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial vessel traffic for the remainder of the current ceasefire, prompting quick market reactions.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a Friday X post.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b90-4f4b-736b-b66c-9e9ea9b043cc.png\")
US President Donald Trump confirmed the opening of the passage in a Friday post on Truth Social.
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly hit $77,037 on Friday following the news, rising around 1%, following a 5% weekly recovery, according to TradingView data.
Brent crude oil futures sank to around $85 per barrel, falling 10% on the news, according to Tradingeconomics data.
Easing geopolitical tensions may bring more risk appetite among crypto investors. However, the two-week ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran is set to expire on April 22, with the threat of renewed escalation continuing to weigh on market sentiment.
", "description": "Today in crypto, Worldcoin falls 13% after Zoom, and DocuSign integrate World's ID tech, Payward agrees to acquire Bitnomial, while Bitcoin surged after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz open.", "published": "2026-04-17T22:50:14+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "israel" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "identity" }, { "slug": "cftc" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "worldcoin" }, { "slug": "oil-and-gas" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "what-happened-in-crypto-today", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "110589" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Russia introduces bill to criminalize unregistered crypto services", "leadText": "Individuals and groups would be required to register with the Bank of Russia before offering certain crypto services, or potentially face fines and prison time.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Russia’s government submitted a bill to its parliament’s lower house in an effort to amend the country's legal code to attach criminal liability for crypto services offered without regulatory approval or licensing.
In a draft law sent to the State Duma on Friday, Russian lawmakers proposed that entities \"carrying out activities related to the organization of digital currency circulation,” that operate without a license from Russia’s central bank, could be subject to criminal liability.
Without registration with the Bank of Russia, individuals could face up to $4,000 in fines and up to four years in prison, or more severe penalties if part of an organized group.
“The same act committed by an organized group, or involving the infliction of damage or the extraction of income on a particularly large scale, would be punishable by compulsory labor for up to five years or imprisonment for up to seven years,” the bill’s text said.
The bill also proposes a “fine of up to 1 million rubles [$13,100] or an amount equal to the convicted person’s salary or other income for a period of up to five years.”
The draft law followed a package of bills initially proposed in March that included criminal penalties for illegal crypto miners, but the most recent legislation included details on fines and potential prison time for any unregistered digital asset services.
According to Russian media outlet RBC, the country’s Supreme Court said that the crypto bill lacks “reasoned justification” for criminal penalties.
The court said that the measure was “premature” until Russia enacted its “Digital Currency and Digital Rights law,” expected to go into effect in July. If the bill passes it would give Russia’s government more control and oversight over the crypto industry.
Related: At least a dozen crypto entities attacked since Drift Protocol hack
Grinex, a Russia-based crypto exchange currently being sanctioned, halted trading for users on Thursday after losing more than 1 billion rubles — about $13.7 million — in a hack it suspected was carried out by “entities of hostile states.”
The company said it forwarded relevant information on the attack to law enforcement agencies and filed a criminal complaint.
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
", "description": "In a law introduced to Russia's State Duma on Friday, lawmakers proposed that entities engaged in certain crypto activities without a license could be subject to criminal penalties.", "published": "2026-04-17T22:33:01+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bank-of-russia" }, { "slug": "russia" }, { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "government" }, { "slug": "crimes" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "russia-criminalize-unregistered-crypto-services", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262567" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Polymarket odds of Hormuz Strait traffic normalizing by end of May spike to 73%", "leadText": "Traders on the Polymarket prediction market platform place the odds of the Strait returning to normal traffic by May 31, 2026, at 73%.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "Polymarket prediction market odds of the Strait of Hormuz “returning to normal” by the end of May spiked to 73% on Friday, following news that Iranian officials have temporarily opened up the Strait of Hormuz as part of a ceasefire deal.
The odds climbed to a high of 82% on Friday, after Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi announced that the Strait of Hormuz is open. Since that time, the odds have fallen back down to 73%. He said in an X post:
“The passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by the Ports and Maritime Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
![\"Bitcoin](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9d3a-b4a1-7f60-89bb-497b0d340ad3.png\")
However, traders on the platform placed the odds of the Strait returning to normal activity by the end of April at just 40%.
The war in Iran sent shockwaves through financial markets, impacting crypto and energy prices, as investors and financial analysts react to political developments in the ongoing conflict.
Related: Iran conflict hints Bitcoin’s addressable market could exceed gold: Bitwise
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) surged on Friday in response to the temporary reopening of the Strait under the ceasefire, briefly tapping $78,000 before climbing down to about $77,358, the price at the time of publication.
![\"Bitcoin](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9d3d-e504-72d8-8e01-dafc951e8ca6.png\")
Crypto market analyst Nic Puckrin told Cointelegraph that the ceasefire between the US and Iran announced in April is “fragile” and that core issues remain unresolved.
The fallout from the conflict will likely cast a shadow over financial markets for most of 2026, pushing back any interest rate cuts to Q3 2026 at the earliest, if rate cuts materialize at all this year, Puckrin said.
“A ceasefire that results in the end of geopolitical tensions, a sustained drop in oil prices toward $80, and ideally also softer-than-expected economic data that calms stagflation fears” are all needed for BTC to reclaim the $90,000 level, he said.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US naval blockade on Iran would “remain in full force and effect” until the “transaction with Iran is 100% complete.”
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal questioned US authorities responsible for overseeing Binance about whether the company is complying with anti-money laundering laws and sanctions under its 2023 court-imposed monitoring program.
According to a report published by Fortune on Friday, Blumenthal sent letters to the Justice Department and the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), asking for details on Binance’s compliance.
Binance and its former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao reached a deal in 2023, in which the exchange would pay $4.3 billion to settle civil regulatory enforcement actions, and CZ would plead guilty to one felony charge.
The deal also required that Binance be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements by US officials.
Blumenthal’s letter said he was concerned about “mounting allegations of dangerously lax anti-money laundering prevention by Binance.” Fortune reported that DOJ and FinCEN officials responsible for overseeing the exchange as part of the deal would not comment.
Related: Crypto billionaire to prison: CZ’s autobiography revisits turbulent Binance era
The letter followed reports that Binance was under scrutiny regarding US sanctions imposed on Iran.
The crypto exchange reportedly fired individuals responsible for telling Binance executives that $1 billion flowed through the platform to entities tied to Iran. A spokesperson for the exchange has denied the claims.
In February, a group of senators urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who was fired by US President Donald Trump in April, to complete a “prompt, comprehensive review” of Binance’s compliance controls.
![\"Congress,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9cd3-d4c1-7d75-b1ad-ce83dff5825f.png\")
Some US lawmakers have alleged that connections between Binance and Trump create conflicts of interest for the US President and his family’s crypto businesses.
In March 2025, a United Arab Emirates-based entity purchased a $2 billion stake in Binance using the USD1 stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, the company co-founded by Trump and his sons.
Trump also pardoned Binance’s former CEO, CZ, in October 2025 after he served four months in prison as part of his 2023 guilty plea.
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", "description": "US Senator Richard Blumenthal sent letters to the Justice Department and US Treasury’s FinCEN asking for details on Binance’s compliance under a 2023 settlement.", "published": "2026-04-17T20:22:53+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "congress" }, { "slug": "senate" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "binance" }, { "slug": "sanctions" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "us-senator-binance-iran-sanctions", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262537" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ether accumulation wallet balances increased by 33%: Is a rally to $3K next?", "leadText": "A confirmed cup-and-handle breakout on Ether’s chart and a double-digit increase in ETH accumulation wallet balances could be earlier signs of a longer-term rally for the altcoin.", "author": { "slug": "nancy-lubale" }, "bodyText": "Ether’s (ETH) rally to $2,400 is nearly 38% above its swing low at $1,750, but is ETH’s price move simply a momentum trade, or do longer-term data points suggest a paradigm shift at play?
Ether’s recent rally was preceded by an 89% surge in daily active addresses (DAA), which jumped to 730,278 from 384,763 on April 5.
The increase in Ethereum’s active addresses indicates increased user interaction with the network, which is generally a positive.
The chart below shows that activity increased significantly as Ether price rose to $2,300.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9bed-967c-7598-8ca9-6a9bf44d7189.png\")
Similar activity has been consistently observed near macro bottoms since 2022, preceding significant ETH price rallies.
Daily inflows into accumulation addresses have also increased since mid-2025, reaching an all-time high of 1.14 million ETH in November 2025. The inflows have continued to climb in 2026, averaging 200,000 ETH per day, with a spike to over 358,000 on Thursday.
Related: ETH/BTC ratio hits 10-week high as Ether outpaces Bitcoin: Are new price highs next?
The amount of ETH held in accumulation wallets, or holders with no history of selling, has increased by 6.5 million to 26.16 million from 19.64 million on Jan. 1, representing a 33% increase.
The ETH supply held in accumulation addresses is a key indicator for traders and market participants, as it reflects overall confidence in Ether’s long-term outlook.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9bed-9cba-7aa1-b897-1d6c29c01832.png\")
The total value of ETH staked further reinforces this outlook. The metric now stands at 39.2 million ETH, signaling growing investor confidence.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9bed-a3b1-7b9f-ad8f-93255eea2ba0.png\")
As Cointelegraph reported, Ether supply held on exchanges has fallen to multi-year lows, further tightening liquidity on order books.
The ETH/USD pair may resume its prevailing bullish trend after breaking out of a cup-and-handle (C&H) chart pattern, as shown in the chart below. A 12-hour candlestick close above the cup’s neckline at $2,400 may signal the start of a stronger uptrend.
The target is set by adding the cup’s depth to the breakout point, which comes to around $2,960, an approximately 22% increase from the current price.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9bed-aaf8-7058-a2d2-1e139970defb.png\")
The relative strength index has risen to 68, suggesting that ETH bulls are back in control.
Trader TheSkayeth spotted a larger C&H pattern forming over the last two months on the daily time frame, saying ETH was “setting up for a massive move.”
“If the cup and handle pattern continues, I think we get to the golden zone next.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9bed-af17-778b-9e9b-5704ff98f4d6.png\")
The measured target of this larger formation is $3,150, which is 30% above the current level.
Applying this framework, ETH bulls will need to hold above the $2,350-$2,400 zone to confirm a sustained upward breakout.
As Cointelegraph reported, a close above the $2,400 level would increase the prospects of the ETH/USDT pair rising to $2,800 and later to $3,050.
Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above $78,000 to hit another 10-week high on Friday as crypto and equity markets reacted to cooling tensions in the US and Israel war in Iran. The rally above range highs also resulted in a large liquidation of leveraged Bitcoin positions.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c89-65e6-7999-aedc-fb1d95cce31d.png\")
More than $660 million in short positions were liquidated, with Bitcoin accounting for $353 million of that total. Ether (ETH) followed with $160 million in short liquidations.
Related: Three things Bitcoin must do to hold highs above $76K: Analysts
Across the board, $826 million was wiped from the futures market over the last 24 hours.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c89-6b46-7806-aaca-e92d8a6ba81c.png\")
The single biggest liquidation occurred on Hyperliquid, where a $15.75 million BTC-USDT short position was closed.
Large clusters of short liquidations typically amplify the reach of asset rallies and data from CoinGlass showed a 13% rise in Bitcoin’s aggregate futures open interest (OI) over the last 24 hours.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c89-702c-707f-a112-519cdd53a126.png\")
Even though futures longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are always matched, rising OI suggests greater leverage and market participation, which, in this case, appears to be on the side of bulls.
Hyblock data showed ask liquidity sitting between $77,500 and $78,000 being absorbed as BTC rallied to its intra-day highs on Friday.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c89-73fa-737a-92e6-3fd62b0a3b17.png\")
Bitcoin’s moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator has signaled a buy on its weekly chart, a pattern that has historically preceded sharp price rallies.
The MACD is a popular momentum indicator used in technical analysis that helps traders identify the strength, direction and duration of a trend of an asset’s price.
The indicator reached its lowest level in history and has formed a bullish cross on the weekly chart, as shown in the figure below.
“Not only do we have a 1W MACD bullish cross and break of trend, we have it from the lowest point the MACD has ever dropped to,” analyst Sykodelic said in a recent post on X, adding:
“We are at a very important level here, and the weekly close will be very important.“
Previous instances show that Bitcoin tends to rise sharply when the MACD line (blue) crosses above the signal line (orange). The last time this happened was at the bottom of the 2022 bear market, which preceded a 376% increase in BTC price.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c89-78a1-7e9f-8daf-93155f4d8285.png\")
“A big move usually follows whenever this weekly MACD bullish cross happens,” analyst Mikybull Crypto said in a recent post on X.
Fellow analyst The Chart Report told their followers that previous crossovers have “historically produced a 93% win rate with a median 12-month return of +195%.”
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c91-7c8b-761a-9a5b-485410599209.jpeg\")
Other Bitcoin analysts suggest that the altcoin could continue its recovery to retest higher resistance levels, with BTC price targets set at $90,000 and above.
Payward, the parent company of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Friday that it has entered into a “definitive agreement” to acquire Bitnomial, a US-licensed cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange; the deal values Bitnomial’s equity at $20 billion.
Bitnomial is the “first” crypto-native exchange in the United States to hold all three regulatory licenses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage permits, according to Payward’s announcement.
“Settlement mechanics, margin models, and contract structures define what products can exist and who can access them. The US has had no clearing infrastructure built for digital assets,” Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said. He added:
“Bitnomial spent a decade building it: crypto settlement, crypto collateral, continuous 24/7 markets. These are capabilities that cannot be retrofitted onto legacy systems. They have to be built natively.”
Payward will use Bitnomial’s infrastructure to offer spot margin trading, perpetual futures contracts and options trading for US clients, the company said.
![\"Kraken,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c9a-997d-7302-b144-304ac80b1575.png\")
Payward’s business clients can also integrate crypto services for their users, including spot crypto trading, tokenized stocks, crypto derivatives and fiat onramps through Payward Services, an application programming interface (API).
The announcement follows Kraken’s expansion into tokenized stocks, tokenized perpetual futures trading and the company securing a limited-purpose account with the United States Federal Reserve, a first for the crypto industry.
Related: Deutsche Börse invests $200 million in Kraken parent Payward
In March 2026, Kraken became the first crypto company to gain approval for a limited-purpose master account, which was issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, one of the US central bank’s 12 regional districts.
The account gives Kraken access to the Federal Reserve’s central payment system used by banks, credit unions and other traditional financial institutions, so it can settle transactions directly through the Fed’s Fedwire platform.
However, the limited-purpose master account has a term of one year and features some restrictions.
![\"Kraken,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c9d-036a-7952-a125-5da501d506d8.png\")
Kraken’s limited-purpose account is similar to the ‘skinny’ Federal Reserve master accounts proposed by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller and promoted by Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis in 2025.
Magazine: Robinhood’s tokenized stocks have stirred up a legal hornet’s nest
", "description": "The Kraken crypto exchange's parent company, Payward, has agreed to acquire Bitnomial, a spot crypto and derivatives exchange regulated in the US.", "published": "2026-04-17T19:27:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "kraken" }, { "slug": "derivatives" }, { "slug": "financial-derivatives" }, { "slug": "companies" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "kraken-parent-acquire-cftc-bitnomial", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262502" }, { "category": { "slug": "top-10-cryptocurrencies" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Price predictions 4/17: BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, HYPE, ADA, BCH, LINK", "leadText": "Bitcoin pole vaulted to $78,000 and altcoins soared after Iran said that the Strait of Hormuz was fully open. Will bulls be able to sustain the upward momentum?", "author": { "slug": "rakesh-upadhyay" }, "bodyText": "Key points:
Bitcoin soared above $76,000, opening the doors for a further rally toward $84,000.
Several major altcoins are showing strength, signaling broad-based buying by the bulls.
Bitcoin (BTC) skyrocketed above the $76,000 resistance on Friday after Iran’s foreign minister said that the Strait of Hormuz will remain open for the remainder of the ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.
Another positive sign for the bulls is that BTC’s rise has been supported by solid accumulation by the whales. According to CryptoQuant data, BTC whales holding more than 1,000 BTC have added about 270,000 coins in the past 30 days, the largest buying spree since 2013.
However, some analysts remain skeptical about BTC’s advance. Glassnode said in its latest Week Onchain newsletter that the current recovery has more legs to it, but is likely to face selling pressure at the True Market Mean at $78,100. Buyers will have to sustain the price above $78,100 on a mid-term basis to create a “structural shift toward a bull market.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-3f7e-7ed2-9f31-17a54524dfa9.png\")
Another cautious view came from trading resource Material Indicators. In a video posted on X, Material Indicators said that BTC will have to cross the yearly open at $87,500 and the 50-week moving average near $97,000, and the relative strength index has to close above the 41 level on the weekly time frame to confirm that a bull market has returned.
Could BTC and select major altcoins sustain above their overhead resistance levels? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.
BTC surged above the $78,000 level on Friday, its highest level in ten weeks, indicating sustained buying by the bulls.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-4492-74f5-bbcc-b3232bb02121.png\")
The upsloping 20-day exponential moving average ($72,136) and the RSI near the overbought zone indicate that the bulls are attempting to seize control. A close above the $76,000 level will complete a bullish ascending triangle pattern, opening the door to a rally to $84,000, then to the pattern target of $92,000.
The moving averages are critical support levels to watch on the downside, as a close below them suggests the bears remain in control. The BTC/USDT pair may then tumble toward the triangle's support line.
Sellers attempted to halt the recovery at the $2,415 level in Ether (ETH), but the bulls continued to exert pressure and did not allow the price to dip below the 20-day EMA ($2,235).
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-49f0-7a0d-9c29-e7fdd72155fd.png\")
If the ETH price closes above the $2,415 resistance level, the recovery may extend to $2,800, then to $3,050. Such a move suggests that the ETH/USDT pair may have bottomed out at $1,748.
This bullish view will be invalidated in the near term if the price turns down sharply and breaks below the moving averages. That suggests the break above the $2,415 level may have been a bull trap. The pair may then decline to the $1,916 level.
XRP (XRP) closed above the 50-day simple moving average ($1.38) on Wednesday, indicating that the bears are losing their grip.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-4f71-772d-803c-756e653ede81.png\")
The 20-day EMA ($1.37) has started to turn up gradually, and the RSI is in the positive territory, indicating an advantage to the bulls. The XRP price may rally to the downtrend line of the descending channel pattern, which is expected to behave as a formidable hurdle. If buyers clear the hurdle, the XRP/USDT pair will indicate a potential trend change.
The moving averages are the vital support to watch out for on the downside. If the support breaks down, the pair may retest the crucial $1.27 level.
BNB (BNB) closed above the 50-day SMA ($626) on Thursday, indicating that the selling pressure is reducing.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-5524-7474-af44-7f3718551f0a.png\")
If the BNB price remains above the moving averages, the next stop is likely to be the $687 level. Sellers will try to halt the recovery at $687, but if buyers bulldoze their way through, the rally may reach $730 and eventually $790.
On the contrary, if the price turns down from the current level or the overhead resistance and breaks below the moving averages, it signals that the BNB/USDT pair may remain within the $570 to $687 range for a while longer.
Solana’s (SOL) close above the moving averages suggests that the bulls are attempting to push the price to the $98 resistance.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-5967-7586-8e12-ad928ee73214.png\")
Sellers are expected to fiercely defend the $98 level. If the SOL/USDT pair turns down sharply from $98 and breaks below the moving averages, it signals that the consolidation may extend for a few more days.
The first sign of strength on the upside will be a break and close above the $98 resistance. That opens the doors for a rally to the $117 level, where the bears are again expected to step in.
Dogecoin (DOGE) turned up from the moving averages on Wednesday and rallied to the $0.10 level on Thursday.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-5e54-7173-a534-3c05d359925c.png\")
Sellers will strive to halt the recovery at the $0.10 level, but if buyers do not give up much ground from the current level, it increases the possibility of a rally to $0.11 and subsequently to $0.12.
The bears are likely to have other plans. They will attempt to pull the DOGE price back below the moving averages. If they succeed, the DOGE/USDT pair may plummet to the solid support at $0.09.
Sellers are attempting to pull Hyperliquid (HYPE) back below the breakout level of $43.76, but the bulls have held their ground.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-62a1-7907-92e3-daa3ba1a112c.png\")
If the HYPE price continues higher and breaks above the $46 level, it suggests that the bulls have flipped the $43.76 level into support. That increases the likelihood of a rally to the $50 to $51.43 zone.
Time is running out for the bears. They will have to pull the HYPE/USDT pair below the 20-day EMA ($40.78) to make a comeback. If they manage to do that, the pair may slump to the 50-day SMA ($37.38).
Related: Bitcoin price quietly sets new 10-week high as trader sees $88K in weeks
Cardano (ADA) continued its recovery and is likely to test the resistance at the downtrend line of the descending channel pattern.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-6602-7aa3-86b4-2a62088840c3.png\")
Sellers are expected to aggressively defend the downtrend line, but if the bulls prevail, the ADA/USDT pair may climb to $0.32, then to $0.37. Such a move signals a potential short-term trend change.
On the contrary, if the ADA price turns down from the downtrend line and breaks below the moving averages, it suggests the pair may remain within the channel for some time.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) pierced the 20-day EMA ($447) on Thursday, but the relief rally is facing selling at the 50-day SMA ($454).
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-69e6-70d4-ae3f-4b5cfe3a6195.png\")
The 20-day EMA is flattening out, and the RSI is near the midpoint, suggesting that the selling pressure is reducing. If bulls prevent the BCH price from dipping below $443, it could signal a shift in sentiment. That increases the likelihood of a break above the 50-day SMA. If that happens, the BCH/USDT pair may surge to $486, then to $520.
Alternatively, if the price breaks below $443, it signals that the bears remain sellers on rallies. The pair may then plunge toward the solid support at $419.
Chainlink (LINK) is attempting to break above the $8 to $10 resistance, where bears are expected to mount a strong defense.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-6d2d-7145-a58d-03426854435e.png\")
If the price turns down from the overhead resistance and breaks below the moving averages, it suggests that the LINK/USDT pair may consolidate inside the range for a few more days.
On the other hand, if the LINK price closes above the $10 level, it indicates that the consolidation has resolved in favor of the bulls. The pair may then rally to the $11.61 level, where the bears are expected to step in. There is resistance at $10.94, but it is likely to be crossed.
Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) has introduced a service that lets institutional clients mint and redeem stablecoins directly from their bank accounts, using the Solana layer-1 blockchain network to enable round-the-clock settlement between fiat and digital assets.
The service will initially support Circle USDC (USDC) transactions above $100,000 and includes temporary fee waivers for minting and redemption on the Solana network, according to SGB’s announcement.
Additional assets such as Tether’s USDT (USDT), Ethena’s USDe (USDe) and Global Dollar (USDG) are expected to follow, the company said.
The new feature is integrated into the bank’s internal clearing system, allowing funds to move between onchain and traditional balances without relying on intermediary banking networks, SGB said.
The launch comes as payment networks, regulators and banks around the world move to integrate stablecoin settlement and blockchain infrastructure into the traditional financial system to reduce costs and settlement times.
Related: Related: Euro stablecoins dominate non-dollar market, Visa-backed report finds
In March, Mastercard agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion.
Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, said “most financial institutions and fintechs” are moving toward services built around stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
Separately, Visa began operating validator nodes on the Tempo network on Tuesday. Validators on the network can earn stablecoin-based rewards for processing transactions.
A Visa spokesperson told Cointelegraph the company is focused on the technical and strategic aspects of operating a validator, rather than generating revenue.
Regulatory frameworks around the world are also beginning to catch up. In April, Pakistan’s central bank allowed banks to serve licensed crypto firms, ending years of legal restrictions.
Earlier this year, the country signed an exploratory agreement to assess World Liberty Financial’s USD1 (USD1) stablecoin and its potential use for cross-border payments.
Meanwhile in Europe, where euro-denominated stablecoins still lag far behind dollar-backed tokens, a consortium of banks including ING, UniCredit and BBVA is developing a euro-pegged stablecoin.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9c3b-e0f3-7a5f-8204-024e1bc75cfb.png\")
The banks plan to distribute the stablecoin across crypto exchanges and banking channels, with a launch targeted for the second half of 2026.
The moves come as the stablecoin market cap, which exceeds $320 billion at the time of publication, according to data from DeFiLlama, continues to grow.
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
", "description": "Singapore Gulf Bank enables a new feature that allows institutional clients to convert fiat currency to stablecoins, as the stablecoin sector continues to grow.", "published": "2026-04-17T18:33:41+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "visa" }, { "slug": "singapore" }, { "slug": "hong-kong" }, { "slug": "banks" }, { "slug": "europe" }, { "slug": "pakistan" }, { "slug": "mastercard" }, { "slug": "tether" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "singapore-gulf-bank-stablecoin-mint-redeem", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262472" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "French finance minister backs euro-pegged stablecoins to compete with US", "leadText": "The country's finance minister supported the Qivalis initiative, launched in 2025, to create a euro-pegged stablecoin under the MiCA framework.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Roland Lescure, France’s finance minister, backed an initiative by European banks to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in 2026 to compete with US dollar-backed tokens, which currently dominate the market.
According to a Friday Reuters report, Lescure supported the euro-pegged Qivalis stablecoin plan launched in September 2025 by EU banks, including Dutch lender ING and Italy’s UniCredit.
The goal of the banks was to create a stablecoin in compliance with the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework; the MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin is expected to be launched in the second half of 2026.
“That is what we need, and that is what we want,” said Lescure, according to Reuters. “I also strongly encourage banks to further explore the launch of tokenized deposits.”
EU banks are collaborating to create an alternative to the US-dominated stablecoin market, led by Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC). As of Friday, USDT had a market capitalization of about $186 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Related: SocGen brings MiCA-compliant USDCV dollar stablecoin to MetaMask
Lescure, who reportedly made the comments in a pre-recorded message, said the relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones was “not satisfactory.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said that tokenization and stablecoins were likely to be “the name of the game” in 2026, highlighting benefits of blockchain infrastructure for finance.
However, he opposed interest-bearing stablecoins, claiming that they could destabilize financial systems, a criticism shared by several EU and US policy makers, as well as central bank officials, as stablecoin yield continues to be a contentious regulatory topic.
As of Friday, lawmakers in the US Senate had not announced any compromise that would allow a crypto market structure bill to move closer to a vote.
The CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill that passed in the US House of Representatives in July, has been stalled amid disagreements on how to address stablecoin yield, tokenized equities, ethics and other concerns.
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
", "description": "France's finance minister is backing a plan by a consortium of banks to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in late 2026 in response to US dominance over the market.", "published": "2026-04-17T18:14:20+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "france" }, { "slug": "government" }, { "slug": "banks" }, { "slug": "euro" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "french-finance-minister-euro-pegged-stablecoins", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262462" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin price quietly sets new 10-week high as trader sees $88K in weeks", "leadText": "Bitcoin price rallied above $77,000 amid cooling geopolitical tensions and record-high back-to-back closes for the S&P 500.", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) refreshed February highs on Friday as attention focused on the upcoming weekly close and a longer-term rally to $88,000.
Key points:
Bitcoin hits its highest levels in ten weeks as markets abandon geopolitical nerves.
BTC price strength may bring back $88,000 in just two to four weeks, a trader predicts.
$72,800 becomes the level to watch for the next weekly candle close.
Data from TradingView confirmed new ten-week highs of $77,027 on Bitstamp.
![\"Bitcoin](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ba4-89d2-717b-aa49-8f28e3c6810c.png\")
BTC price action attempted to capitalize on recent strength across risk assets, with geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over global oil supplies increasingly priced in. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon appeared to further boost market confidence.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 hit 7,050 points for the first time in history, sealing its highest-ever close and its second all-time high of the week.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b5d-c4dc-7be1-a458-36a742fe4a79.png\")
Commenting, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe said that Bitcoin should soon gain more thanks to reduced macro volatility, notably in the VIX volatility index.
“As long as the VIX continues to fall, and we're in a new equilibrium, where oil volatility goes down, Gold volatility significantly drops,” he wrote in a post on X.
“What will you start to see? More inflows in the $BTC ETF as allocators can allocate more towards Bitcoin.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b5c-0555-7cf2-868e-2f5959321de1.png\")
Van de Poppe referred to the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have seen $330 million in net inflows week-to-date, per data from UK-based investment firm Farside Investors.
“That would also benefit altcoins and $ETH, as they'll follow the path of Bitcoin,” he added.
“In that case, I see a strong case for Bitcoin continuing the rally to $85-88K in coming 2-4 weeks.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b5c-8aa3-7afd-9657-3be0111eb499.png\")
Trader and analyst Rekt Capital, meanwhile, put $72,800 as the “pivotal” level to reclaim at the upcoming weekly candle close for BTC/USD.
“If Bitcoin wants to Weekly Close above the Weekly resistance ($72,810, blue), then price would need to hold the blue level as support on any upcoming dip,” he explained alongside a chart showing key price points.
“The last time Bitcoin rejected from the black resistance in mid-March, price also lost the blue level as support. Which is why a Daily Close below the blue level after any upcoming dip could see price drop back into the blue-blue Weekly Range.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b5d-1da8-7bc0-9e34-eb5d2471a2a2.jpeg\")
Bearish perspectives included that of trader Roman, who maintained expectations of lower levels next.
Related: Bitcoin can grow 'probably a lot bigger' than $30T+ gold market — Analysis
Declining trading volume into the highs, he warned, was a telltale sign of fading momentum.
“We’re in a macro downtrend which when we see high volume continues downward. Low volume implies consolidation/correction to continue the overall trend,” he explained on X.
“The next high volume move likely takes us lower.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b5e-bb84-7c3e-aac8-4e3d5bda56cf.jpeg\")
As Cointelegraph reported, sub-$50,000 price levels remain a popular bet for Bitcoin’s next macro bottom.
Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the Neo Foundation after years of deadlock with co-founder Erik Zhang left one of crypto’s oldest networks effectively paralyzed.
The plan follows Neo’s first public financial disclosure since 2019, showing about $461 million in assets held across the Neo Foundation (NF) and Neo Global Development (NGD) at the end of 2025.
The proposed restructuring aims to replace what Hongfei described as informal, founder-driven governance, arguing the outcome could serve as a test case for how aging blockchain networks manage large treasuries and transition away from founder control.
Zhang has pushed back on key elements of the proposal, exposing further divisions at the top of the project and increasing scrutiny from users and investors.
Hongfei told Cointelegraph that at the core of the restructuring is a break with the founder-centric model that defined Neo’s first decade.
The proposal would redomicile the foundation to the Cayman Islands, create a five-member board and an independent Supervisor with power to block bylaw breaches, and impose a 24-month ban on either founder sitting on the board or supervisory body.
Neo’s fight has become a case study in how older blockchain networks with large treasuries struggle to move beyond founder-centric governance, especially after years of informal control and limited public financial disclosure.
Related: Aave DAO approves $25M funding grant, token allocation for Aave Labs
According to the disclosure, NF and NGD currently control about 41 million NEO (31.3%), mainly under single-signature control. Hongfei’s “Giveback II” plan would return 49.5 million reserved NEO (NEO) to the community and consolidate NGD-managed investments back into the foundation, which would operate under mandatory annual financial reports, onchain attestations for large transfers, and fully disclosed multi-signature wallets for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), stablecoins and other liquid assets.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b5d-920f-709d-a29a-7224a385c546.png\")
He said the changes are designed to replace “trust me” governance around treasury and custody, pointing to Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s influence-through-research model as a standard founders should emulate.
Zhang remains unconvinced, arguing that the proposal grounds Neo’s legitimacy in offchain legal structures and still leaves room for opaque third-party attestations instead of directly verifiable onchain addresses.
He said excluding him from the board for 24 months strips Neo of essential technical oversight, calling the Cayman “reset” a cosmetic shell change that dodges historical accountability and unresolved transparency issues.
The push comes as governance fights and perceived insider advantages dominate debate across decentralized finance. Aave’s long-running dispute between the founder-aligned Aave Chan Initiative and other stakeholders has raised questions about how much power entrenched service providers should wield inside decentralized autonomous organizations.
Related: WLFI proposes governance staking system and USD1 usage incentives
The Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial drew scathing criticism from stakeholders this week, including Tron founder Justin Sun, over a proposed new unlock schedule for its WLFI governance token and discretionary control over treasury assets.
Behind the governance reset sits an attempt to give Neo a credible new thesis in a market where activity has consolidated onto Ethereum, a few layer-2s, Solana, and a handful of other chains.
Hongfei conceded Neo’s user base today is “not where it was in the 2017 to 2021 cycle,” and the numbers “reflect a project that has seen better days.”
He said users are more concentrated in long-term holders and community groups; the Chinese market that once fueled activity has shrunk under Beijing’s bans, and Neo missed “DeFi Summer” after delays in shipping its N3 upgrade.
He now argues that the next decade of onchain activity will be driven less by humans than by autonomous AI agents transacting on their behalf, positioning Neo X as an “agent-first” blockchain optimized for the shift.
He said the real test for both the governance reboot and the AI thesis will be whether, over the next 12 to 24 months, Neo can complete its restructuring and attract a meaningful pipeline of agent-native projects, and whether he would still seek a board seat if those milestones are missed.
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
", "description": "Neo’s $461 million restructuring plan aims to replace informal governance with oversight, as co-founders clash over control and the future of the blockchain.", "published": "2026-04-17T14:50:03+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "neo" }, { "slug": "dao" }, { "slug": "coin-governance-system" } ], "slug": "neo-founder-proposes-461m-overhaul-to-governance", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262452" }, { "category": { "slug": "features" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Crypto execs ramp up security as wrench attacks increase", "leadText": "Notable crypto execs descended on Paris Blockchain Week, bringing more attention to personal security as kidnapping and ransom attempts skyrocket.", "author": { "slug": "aaron-wood" }, "bodyText": "The frequency of kidnap and ransom attempts on prominent cryptocurrency executives has skyrocketed in recent years.
Referred to, perhaps crudely, in the crypto community as a “$5 wrench attack,” these attempts to extract millions from crypto bigwigs have spurred politicians to mitigate risk.
Policymakers in France are currently working on safeguards, including a prevention platform announced at Paris Blockchain Week yesterday. In the private sector, insurance companies are offering bespoke coverage to crypto execs, which includes awareness and prevention training.
With kidnap and ransom attacks on the rise, the crypto wealthy are adopting new tactics and practices to stay secure.
Ransoming wealthy crypto holders is not a new problem. Cypherpunk and early Bitcoin adopter Jameson Lopp keeps a Github repository of such attacks. While not exhaustive, it has recorded at least 316 since 2014.
Rigel Walsh, a software developer at Swan Bitcoin, was already giving lectures on the topic in 2019, covering different attack vectors, from impersonation to home invasion and kidnapping.
According to Lopp’s repository, 79 ransom attacks occurred in 2025, while already in 2026, media have reported 27 attacks on crypto holders.
This type of crime is hardly exclusive to the crypto-rich, but the nature of digital assets and the industry itself makes crypto executives and investors particularly vulnerable.
Christian Ogden Davies, global head of distribution and innovation at Relm Insurance, told Cointelegraph that some of the new crypto-rich “don’t have big risk infrastructure around them.”
Traditionally, as an organization grows, “you usually then have more people come into your organization like a CEO that's experienced and maybe a chief risk officer or a chief legal officer, and then they start to look at insurances and how that kind of impacts them.”
As revenue increases, “you might have asset managers and wealth managers who turn around and go, ‘have you talked about or looked at your own personal security?’”
“Instead, in crypto, some people go from zero to hundreds of billions of net worth in weeks or months.”
This lack of concern, or at least attention, to personal security follows them into the very social and friendly space that is crypto. Davies said that crypto is one of the only sectors where “you'll have five CEOs of competing firms go and sit down for dinner and [...] see how things are going.”
Crypto is also highly liquid. Despite the increased amount of attention on crypto, be it through government monitoring and sanctions or private security and analysis services, crypto criminals can still cash out fairly easily.
Davies said that, while countries like North Korea and Iran have been sanctioned heavily, state-connected actors like hacker group Lazarus have still been able to get away with stolen funds. “If you have the right avenue and exit venue for it, you can still make it liquid.”
Related: Bitrefill links Lazarus Group to employee laptop hack, stolen funds
Legal and cultural elements may play a role in eliciting criminal attacks on crypto holders. France, and Paris in particular, has become a hotbed of ransom attacks on the crypto-rich. It “eclipses every other region by a country mile” in terms of crypto ransom attacks, said Davies.
One of the most high-profile attacks was the 2025 kidnapping and ransom of Ledger wallet co-founder David Balland. His colleague and co-founder, Eric Larchevêque, has reportedly said that French law, namely a requirement that entrepreneurs register their names and addresses, is at least partly to blame.
Then there’s the cultural draw. Davies said, “everyone loves Paris [...] It's a beautiful city and it just attracts lots of visitors as well. Whether you're an A-list celebrity, musician, actor, film star, you want to go out and hang in Paris and go and eat [at] the restaurants and stuff. If you're a crypto exec, you do the same thing. If you're an investment banker, you do the same thing. So you do have a lot of high concentration of visiting wealth to that area.”
Overall, the lack of security has created a new reality that “everyone has kind of had to wake up to very violently.”
And woke up they have. Spending on personal security among crypto executives has skyrocketed.
In 2024, American crypto exchange Coinbase spent $6.2 million on executive protection for its CEO Brian Armstrong. According to TechCrunch, this was more than the combined security costs of executives for JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Nvidia.
Larchevêque pays over $50,000 a month for security for himself and his family. He has cameras and weapons in his home and has reportedly lobbied for crypto executives to be allowed to carry firearms for their protection.
Related: Spain arrests suspect in 2025 kidnapping of Ledger co-founder
There have also been government-level efforts to address the problem. Yesterday at Paris Blockchain Week, Jean-Didier Berger, minister delegate to the interior minister of France, said his office had launched a prevention platform which has already drawn thousands of sign-ups. The platform will improve security coordination, which Berger said he’ll be working on with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez in the coming weeks.
At Paris Blockchain Week, police reportedly had a strong presence. In a post on X, The Block’s head of growth Tim Copeland said some conference attendees had police escorts through Paris.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b9c-cee8-7b92-976e-0d82c424e14b.png\")
Insurance companies have also seen a surge in interest. Ben Davis, who runs a crypto-centric insurance brokerage in the UK, Native Broking, told Reuters last year, “Two years ago, kidnap and ransom wasn't really a big problem. No one really wanted to talk about it. Now 100% of our clients are talking about it.\"
Christian Ogden Davies told Cointelegraph that Relm started offering a K&R (kidnap and ransom) policy after massive client interest. “The reason we launched it is because we're being asked by so many people for it.”
The product offers security expertise and remuneration of funds to clients should they find themselves in a situation where they need to pay a ransom. But much of the policy, and of mitigating possible ransom attacks generally, is making sure the client knows how to avoid that situation altogether.
“There's initial training and education of the people first. Try not to get yourself in that situation. This is what you say. This is what you don't say. This is who you speak to, how you speak, how you engage.”
“Don't turn left down that dark alley. It might be a shortcut, but just take that normal route.”
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
Update (4.17.26 6:43 PM UTC): This article has been updated to reflect updated BTC prices and rally data.
Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial vessel traffic for the remainder of the current ceasefire, prompting quick market reactions.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a Friday X post.
US President Donald Trump confirmed the opening of the passage in a Friday post on Truth Social.
Bitcoin (BTC) surged past $77,000 on Friday following the news, rising by over 3.7% in 24 hours and a weekly recovery of about 5%, according to data from CoinMarketCap and TradingView.
Brent crude oil futures sank to around $85 per barrel, falling 10% on the news, according to Tradingeconomics data.
Easing geopolitical tensions may bring more risk appetite among crypto investors. However, the two-week ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran is set to expire on April 22, with the threat of renewed escalation continuing to weigh on market sentiment.
Investors who sold assets in March are now “rushing back into the market” while risk appetite is returning amid the signs of geopolitical deescalation, according to a Friday X post from The Kobeissi Letter, adding that the S&P 500 index added $7 trillion over the past three weeks.
Related: Tom Lee says ‘mini crypto winter’ is over, sees Ether above $60K
Adding to the positive news, Axios reported Friday that US officials were discussing a proposal to release as much as $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in exchange for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Axios said the proposal was part of a three-page framework being discussed as part of efforts to end the war.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9bb8-ef12-77c0-bfa2-c5308c6d55e0.png\")
Still, the US naval blockade will remain in “full force and effect” until the US’ transaction with Iran is “100% complete,” wrote President Trump in a Friday Truth Social post, adding that “most of the points are already negotiated.”
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
", "description": "Bitcoin recovered above $77,000 and oil futures fell 10% after Iran’s foreign minister declared the Strait of Hormuz open to all commercial ships until the end of the ceasefire.", "published": "2026-04-17T14:23:16+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "israel" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "oil-and-gas" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-rallies-76k-iran-strait-of-hormuz-open", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262432" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Telegram CEO Durov warns EU age-verification app could enable wider tracking", "leadText": "Telegram CEO Pavel Durov cited claims the EU’s new age-check app was hacked in minutes, warning it could expand into wider online identity controls.", "author": { "slug": "helen-partz" }, "bodyText": "Telegram CEO Pavel Durov warned Friday that the European Union’s new age-verification app could become a stepping stone toward broader online identity tracking, days after the European Commission said the system was technically ready for rollout.
In a Telegram post on Friday, Durov cited analysis from security consultant Paul Moore, who said the app is hackable in “under two minutes” after examining its technical design.
“This product will be the catalyst for an enormous breach at some point,” Moore said in an X post on Thursday, adding that the system could be tricked so the age check isn’t properly tied to the actual user or their device.
Durov argued that the security concerns went beyond age checks and could, over time, be used to justify broader identity verification across online services in Europe.
The criticism reflects a wider debate over how age verification is being built into online platforms, as regulators in multiple regions push similar systems, raising concerns over security and digital identity infrastructure.
The European Commission released the first version of its age-verification blueprint in July 2025, with the aim of letting users prove they are over 18 without disclosing other personal information.
The age verification framework was developed as an open-source project designed to preserve privacy and support future interoperability with European Digital Identity Wallets.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b81-9564-7443-b8af-d74aa4ac8eda.png\")
In a statement on Tuesday, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU’s age verification app is “technically ready,” describing the tool as “completely anonymous” and claiming users can prove their age without revealing personal data or being tracked.
However, after researchers said the system can be bypassed in minutes, it’s unclear whether its privacy and security promises will hold up in real use.
Related: Signal push notifications could present privacy vulnerability, says Durov
According to Durov, the app is “hackable by design,” suggesting it was built in a way that makes it easy to break in practice, which he argues could later be used to justify stronger identity checks.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b81-97a0-7bc8-859d-64d861cbdb03.png\")
“The EU bureaucrats needed an excuse to silently start turning their ‘privacy-respecting’ age verification app into a surveillance mechanism over all Europeans using social media,” the Telegram CEO said.
Durov has emerged as a major advocate of free speech and digital privacy. He remains under judicial investigation in France over allegations tied to illegal activity facilitated through Telegram, including organized crime, fraud and the platform’s alleged failure to cooperate with authorities.
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026
", "description": "Telegram CEO Pavel Durov warned the EU’s new age verification app could lead to broader online identity checks after claims the app was hacked in minutes.", "published": "2026-04-17T14:15:23+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "security" }, { "slug": "privacy" }, { "slug": "european-union" }, { "slug": "pavel-durov" }, { "slug": "verification" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "data" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "eu-age-app-verification-surveillance-risk-durov", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262422" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ramp Network rolls out multichain wallet for simpler self-custody", "leadText": "The crypto infrastructure company said its new wallet lets users buy, sell, swap and cash out digital assets in one app without relying on outside providers.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "Fintech company Ramp Network said Friday it launched a multichain self-custodial wallet designed to tackle a common friction point in crypto of needing to rely on outside providers for core actions such as buying, swapping and cashing out.
The company said the wallet allows users to buy, sell, trade and cash out digital assets inside a single application, using Ramp’s own on-ramp, off-ramp and cross-chain infrastructure rather than handing users off to external services, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
Ramp said the wallet launches with support for Ether (ETH) across eight networks: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Linea, MegaETH, Optimism, Polygon zkEVM and zkSync Era. It will also offer support for additional networks, including Bitcoin, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Apechain, Avalanche, Celo and Gnosis.
Simplifying self-custody remains one of crypto’s biggest product problems. Ramp is betting that bringing payments, swaps and cash access into one app can make non-custodial wallets feel less fragmented without taking control of user assets. Ramp said it uses USDC (USDC) on Base as a core balance for transfers, payments and in-app activity, while assets remain secured through a self-custodial setup using passkeys and optional key export.
Other crypto wallets that offer integrated decentralized exchange (DEX) features for asset purchases and swaps include Metamask, Phantom, Best Wallet and Exodus.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9aa4-05d0-7538-bd6d-051ec197c0d9.png\")
Ramp said the wallet will be available globally, excluding the European Union, due to regulatory requirements.
Ramp Network is authorized as a Crypto Asset Service Provider under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) since December 2025, according to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s MiCA register.
However, launching a product such as a wallet requires “additional regulatory steps,” which are expected to be finalized in the coming months, Przemek Kowalczyk, co-founder and CEO at Ramp Network, told Cointelegraph.
Ramp said it previously operated mainly as the infrastructure layer behind crypto purchases in partner apps, including MetaMask and Trust Wallet, serving more than 10 million users globally.
Related: Fireblocks launches tool for institutions to earn yield on stablecoins
Kowalczyk said Ramp built the infrastructure itself so users would not have to leave the app to buy, swap or cash out, while still keeping control of their assets.
“We would not frame this as becoming a new intermediary, but rather as reducing the number of intermediaries involved in a transaction,” Kowalczyk said. “By bringing these flows into a single system, we reduce those handoffs and make the experience more consistent and predictable,” he added.
Kowalczyk argued that this unified wallet infrastructure will enable better execution control and simplify the fragmented wallet experience while users still maintain asset ownership.
Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide
", "description": "Ramp Network launched a self-custodial wallet seeking to improve user experience fragmentation by reducing third-party dependencies during asset swaps.", "published": "2026-04-17T14:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "wallet" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "self-custody" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "ramp-network-self-custodial-wallet-third-party-dependencies", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262377" }, { "category": { "slug": "sponsored" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Staynex bets on tokenized travel: AMA recap on AI booking, fair launch and RWA integration", "leadText": "During a Cointelegraph AMA, Staynex speakers explained fair launch tokenomics, AI-driven booking, and how real travel demand connects to tokenized assets.", "author": { "slug": "stacy-laptiy" }, "bodyText": "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.
![\"Travel,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9afd-c9a0-7222-90a3-fd1f22c4144b.jpg\")
Travel is moving from a simple booking experience toward a system based on ownership and participation. This idea set the tone for Cointelegraph’s AMA with Staynex.
“We want to build the future of social travel with Web3, AI and membership elements,” said Yuen Wong, CEO at Staynex Group, outlining the core concept behind the platform.
\n\n\nThe Future of Travel is Tokenized: AMA on Staynex, Community-Driven Hospitality, and RWA Integration https://t.co/ZwxQGvrXwK
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 10, 2026
The conversation opened with a simple question: why travel matters.
For Patrice Evra, Brand Ambassador & AI Travel Wingman Voice at Staynex, travel was not always part of life. He spoke about discovering it later and how it changed his outlook. “Traveling is the most knowledgeable and beautiful thing, and the world is not where you live,” Evra said.
That personal experience connects with a broader view shared by Jeff Hoffman, Chairman at Staynex, For him, travel has always been tied to understanding people and cultures. “Travel is the fatal enemy of prejudice… if more people travel we would have less conflict, less hate,” he stated.
These perspectives shape the thinking behind Staynex. Wong described the platform as a natural step in how travel services evolve when new tools become available.
At its core, Staynex focuses on commissionless bookings and adds layers such as passes, co-ownership models and community participation. The goal is to keep users engaged with the platform.
The discussion then moved from why travel matters to how the infrastructure behind it changes.
The discussion then turned to how travel platforms change over time. Hoffman pointed out that the resistance seen today around Web3 and AI is similar to the early days of online booking. “We’re going to give the power to the people to decide what they want to do,” he added, recalling the idea that drove the first generation of online travel platforms.
Today, the market itself looks different. Remote work and flexible lifestyles have created new expectations. “The travel industry was not designed for the digital nomad,” Hoffman said, highlighting a segment that continues to grow.
Staynex responds to this shift with AI tools that simplify planning and decision-making. Wong described how automation can handle routine choices and improve the overall experience: “AI knows my travel preferences, so it will make all adjustments for me.”
AI also changes how users approach decisions. Instead of comparing a few options, systems can process large amounts of data and present more relevant choices. This allows travel planning to become faster and more informed without adding complexity for the user.
The final part of the AMA focused on how Staynex links real-world usage with token mechanics. The team placed strong emphasis on fairness and accessibility from the start. “We made a promise that this would be a fair launch, everybody gets the same price,” Wong said.
Trust was a key factor behind that decision. “We wanted to be sure people don’t feel it a scam,” Evra commented, explaining why the team avoided aggressive pricing at launch.
The token model itself is tied to real usage. Staynex positions travel bookings and platform activity as the underlying drivers of its on-chain economy. The aim is to make travel products easier to access and manage, while giving users more flexibility.
The platform also focuses on audiences that already operate globally, such as digital nomads and crypto users. Hoffman noted that timing plays a key role when new models emerge. “When the customer changes, the technology changes – that’s the moment to create something new.”
The AMA closed with a clear direction. Travel is becoming more connected to data, ownership and user participation. Staynex is building within that shift, combining booking access, AI tools and tokenized assets into one system shaped by real usage.
", "description": "During a Cointelegraph AMA, Staynex speakers explained fair launch tokenomics, AI-driven booking, and how real travel demand connects to tokenized assets", "published": "2026-04-17T13:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "travel" }, { "slug": "payments" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "web3" }, { "slug": "tokenomics" }, { "slug": "rwa" }, { "slug": "tokenization" }, { "slug": "rwa-tokenization" } ], "slug": "staynex-bets-on-tokenized-travel-ama-recap-on-ai-booking-fair-launch-and-rwa-integration", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Recap" } ] }, "id": "262372" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Flow Capital plans to tokenize $150M private credit fund via DigiFT: Report", "leadText": "Bloomberg reported Flow Capital plans to tokenize its private credit fund to raise additional capital, but crypto execs warn tokenization doesn’t magically make hard-to-trade assets liquid.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "Flow Capital Partners is planning to tokenize its private credit fund through Singapore-based DigiFT, Bloomberg reported Friday, as the Hong Kong credit manager looks to tap blockchain-based distribution for its next capital raise.
According to the report, Flow Capital plans to bring its $150 million private credit fund on the blockchain through Singapore-based tokenization platform DigiFT by the end of April, seeking to raise an additional $30 million in tokenized shares by the end of 2026, Jacky Tian, chief investment officer of Flow Capital, said.
The $30 million raise is part of the company’s plans to expand the size of the fund to $250 million with a target net return of 12%. The fund launched in mid 2025, with $125 million in seed capital, according to the company. Cointelegraph has approached Flow Capital and DigiFT for comment.
The move adds to a growing push to use tokenization as a distribution channel for traditional credit products.
Some of the largest TradFi companies have announced similar tokenization initiatives, including asset manager BlackRock, which launched its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a tokenized treasury fund on Ethereum, in March 2024. Investment banking giant JPMorgan also launched its tokenized money-market fund, My OnChain Net Yield Fund (MONY), on Ethereum in December 2025.
However, industry leaders have raised misconceptions tied to the liquidity of tokenized assets.
Related: Gold, silver and oil drive 65,000% jump in commodity perpetuals
Oya Celiktemur, Ondo Finance sales director for Europe, said tokenization doesn’t magically make hard-to-trade assets liquid.
“I think there’s still this idea that tokenizing something illiquid will somehow magically make it a liquid asset, which is just not true,” said Celiktemur, speaking during a panel discussion at Paris Blockchain Week 2026.
Francesco Ranieri Fabracci, head of tokenization expansion at Tether, made a similar point, arguing that tokenizing an asset won’t make it liquid, but added that some instruments, including bonds, money market funds and stablecoin, will likely see consistent liquidity on blockchain rails.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b25-7c03-7b9f-9476-6ebcbe31d93a.png\")
The total value of tokenized assets rose 9.6% during the past 30 days to $29.9 billion on Friday, data from RWA.xyz shows.
Tokenized US treasury debt was the largest sector with $13.7 billion in value, followed by commodities with $5.4 billion and asset-backed credit with $3.2 billion.
Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?
", "description": "Flow Capital reportedly plans to tokenize its $150 million private credit fund as part of its efforts to raise an additional $30 million by the end of 2026.", "published": "2026-04-17T12:52:42+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "liquidity" }, { "slug": "tokenization" }, { "slug": "rwa-tokenization" } ], "slug": "flow-capital-tokenize-150m-private-credit-fund", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262402" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Tempo’s ‘Zones’ sparks debate over privacy in crypto infrastructure", "leadText": "Tempo’s new “Zones” feature offers private, permissioned stablecoin transactions on its layer-1 for enterprises, but critics warn the operator‑controlled design adds back centralized trust.", "author": { "slug": "christina-comben" }, "bodyText": "Tempo unveiled a new “Zones” feature Thursday aimed at giving enterprises bank-style privacy on public stablecoin rails, but not everyone in crypto is convinced the trade-offs are worth it.
The payments-focused layer-1, co-developed with backing from Stripe and Paradigm, said Zones will let companies run transactions in permissioned environments while still tapping public blockchain liquidity. The pitch targets a long-standing issue for institutions: sensitive data like payroll, merchant volumes or treasury activity being exposed on public ledgers.
Some privacy-focused developers argue that the design sacrifices too much. Because each Zone is controlled by an operator that can see full transaction data and suspend a user’s ability to transfer or withdraw funds based on its own compliance rules, critics say it introduces centralized trust assumptions closer to an exchange than a trust-minimized blockchain.
The debate reflects a broader divide in crypto infrastructure as projects compete for institutional adoption. While Tempo is betting on simplicity and interoperability, rivals are leaning into advanced cryptography to keep transaction data confidential end-to-end.
Tempo says that Zones are structured as parallel, permissioned chains attached to Tempo’s main network, designed for use cases such as payroll, fund management and B2B settlements. Companies can transact inside these environments while assets remain interoperable with the public chain, other Zones and shared liquidity pools.
![\"Privacy,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9aba-2471-7efe-8f75-2f409a83c019.png\")
Each Zone is run by an operator that controls access and has visibility into transactions, while the public network verifies batched state updates and proofs. Tempo says this approach preserves the benefits of a public blockchain while offering the compliance and auditability enterprises expect from traditional financial systems.
Related: XRP Ledger taps Boundless for bank-grade privacy on public blockchains
While some projects rely on advanced cryptography to hide transaction data and provide user anonymity, Tempo argues that these approaches “introduce unnecessary operational complexity and usability tradeoffs.”
Tempo’s operator-centric model has drawn criticism from some builders, who argue it weakens both privacy and self-custody. If a single party can access transaction data and control availability, they say, users are effectively trusting an intermediary rather than relying on cryptographic guarantees.
Projects like ZKSync, for example, rely on private chains anchored to public networks using zero-knowledge proofs. Arcium is exploring distributed models where data remains encrypted across nodes and only verified outputs are revealed, and Zama uses fully homomorphic encryption to enable computation on encrypted data.
Ghazi Ben Amor, senior vice president, business development at Zama, told Cointelegraph that, while the underlying cryptographic algorithms are “indeed extremely complex,” Zama abstracts that complexity and allows developers to code the smart contracts using Solidity and without any prior knowledge of cryptography.
He said that enterprises using Zama Protocol “don’t even notice any cryptography is operating behind the scene,” and argued that Tempo’s Zones are essentially private blockchains, no different from existing centralized payment systems, which have proven their limitations in terms of scalability.
Tempo did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for additional comment.
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
", "description": "Tempo’s new “Zones” lets enterprises run private stablecoin transactions in permissioned environments while tapping public liquidity. Privacy engineers say the design revives centralized trust issues.", "published": "2026-04-17T12:22:35+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "privacy" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "zk-rollup" }, { "slug": "institutions" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "tempo-zones-highlight-divide-over-privacy", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262387" }, { "category": { "slug": "sponsored" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Real-world utility builds on infrastructure progress at TezDev 2026", "leadText": "Prioritizing real-world utility over speculative metrics, the Tezos network is expanding into tokenized metals as a potential “revenue engine.”", "author": { "slug": "nihatcan-yanik" }, "bodyText": "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.
![\"Payments,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9b17-5b99-7681-ab20-c0a620b2f982.jpg\")
For a long time, the blockchain world felt like nonstop construction — lots of pipelines and blueprints, but not many places to move into. These days, the conversation is tilting toward things people can actually use.
That move — from an infrastructure-first mindset to shipping practical applications — came up again and again at TezDev 2026, the annual Tezos ecosystem showcase. The event was held on March 30 at the Hôtel Martinez on Cannes’ iconic Boulevard de la Croisette.
\n\n\nTezDev 2026 brought together builders, creators, and community members in Cannes last week.
— Tezos (@tezos) April 7, 2026
Thank you to everyone who attended and tuned into the livestream.
The next phase of Tezos is already in motion 💙 pic.twitter.com/kYc3Brt4sP
Amidst the high-level discourse, the gathering was grounded in practical interaction. Attendees stress-tested the ecosystem through app-driven TezQuest challenges by day, before the venue transformed for “Art After Dark: TezDev,” a 360-degree immersive exhibition probing the intersection of technology and creativity.
Before developers can build mainstream applications, the underlying plumbing must be sufficiently abstracted from the end user. This friction was the focal point of the “Native atomic composability” session, which tackled the persistent headache of runtime fragmentation.
Currently, moving assets between layer 1 and layer 2 requires a complex system of bridges, often introducing additional risk and friction. The proposed antidote is Tezos X, an execution layer designed to run Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Michelson runtimes simultaneously within a single rollup.
\n\n\n.@ArthurB takes the stage at TezDev next:
— Tezos (@tezos) March 30, 2026
→ Tezos X
→ upcoming milestones
→ and why infrastructure is just the beginning
15:45–16:15 CEST / 9:45–10:15 AM ET
Don’t miss it ↓https://t.co/KKFaGuZA8M
By allowing disparate smart contracts to interact seamlessly in one step, the complexity is abstracted away from the builder. “The fact that it's atomic guarantees the user that if something is failing in the middle, everything reverts,\" explained Tezos X product manager François Thiré. “So as a builder, you have nothing to take care of. The platform is doing it for you.”
The Tezos X testnet is scheduled for April 2026, and a mainnet proposal is planned for a community vote by the end of Q2 2026.
If native atomic composability resolves the technical friction, the ecosystem’s overarching philosophy must also evolve to capitalize on it. With the network currently achieving a 6-second block time and 12-second finality, alongside its layer-2 solution Etherlink supporting 1,300 TPS, the infrastructure is largely in place.
During the “Tezos in 2026” keynote, Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman articulated a stark pivot away from vanity metrics like mere active wallet counts, which historically drove crypto hype cycles.
Now, as AI coding agents lower the barrier to entry for independent developers, the focus is on genuine market demand and sustainable product adoption. The ultimate litmus test for this utility is the ability to generate revenue.
To that end, ecosystem entities are directly building products intended to serve as “revenue engines.” These include Metals.io, a platform for tokenized physical commodities; Bento, a multichain wallet designed as a distribution platform, and various “high-engagement, transaction-dense applications” in gamified finance.
Building on Uranium.io, Metals.io is a step forward into the broader metals market. Its initial asset lineup includes the existing uranium framework, gold offered through a strategic partnership with VNX Gold and a specialized basket of rare earth and critical metals.
\n\n\nAnd that's a wrap!
— Tezos (@tezos) March 30, 2026
TezDev 2026 closed with some big moments:
→ @metalsofficial goes live!
→ @ArthurB, @PowerHasheur, @ryanrodenbaugh + @dmitrytez share thoughts on where onchain earn is going next
→ @aljaparis, @Arthemort, @patricktresset, @Georg_Eckmayr, and @vinciane_j… pic.twitter.com/mJmTxMpNBF
“The one metric that’s really hard to game and the one metric that’s probably the healthiest to follow is revenue,” Breitman noted. “Payments are the clearest proof that the problem matters.”
Solving problems that matter, however, necessitates reaching audiences entirely unconcerned with decentralized ledgers. The “Beyond crypto natives: The next era of earn” session confronted the formidable challenge of institutional and retail onboarding.
Panelists acknowledged the lingering skepticism caused by past centralized platform failures, while pointing to real-world assets (RWAs), ranging from tokenized commodities to yield-bearing instruments, as the necessary bridge back to credibility.
According to the panelists, achieving this scale requires a pragmatic business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) approach that utilizes established legacy relationships to mask the underlying Web3 mechanics. Meria founder and CEO Owen Simonin, also known as Hasheur, summarized this strategy by saying:
“The next wave of adoption is not about convincing crypto skeptics; it's about working on interfaces, UI/UX and integrating institutions and distributors. [...] We have to work with people who already have the trust of the final user.”
While decentralized finance players are actively working with traditional institutions, the digital art sector has already used the blockchain to successfully move beyond them. The “Art on Tezos” panel celebrated a vibrant, global creator economy that thrives because it operates independently of legacy gatekeepers.
By eliminating the geographic barriers and prohibitive shipping costs of the physical art market, the network’s “low-fee structure” has nurtured an inherently borderless community. This technological democratization has had profound cultural implications and resulted in the facilitation of over half a million artwork purchases in the past year.
Art advisor and curator Brian Beccafico observed: “I believe that without Tezos, without NFTs in general, these artists [coming from places that usually do not have access to the art market] wouldn’t have been able to make a career for themselves and exist in the broader art world.”
In the end, TezDev 2026 had one main message of a broader maturation of the Tezos network alongside the market. The emphasis wasn’t on splashy metrics, but on practical apps — and on revenue models that hold up over the long term. If that works, the goal is simple: the blockchain part fades into the background, providing useful but invisible functionality for apps that people love.
", "description": "Prioritizing real-world utility over speculative metrics, the Tezos network is expanding into tokenized metals as a potential “revenue engine.”", "published": "2026-04-17T12:01:34+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "payments" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "tezos" }, { "slug": "art" }, { "slug": "rwa" } ], "slug": "real-world-utility-builds-on-infrastructure-progress-at-tezdev-2026", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Spotlight" } ] }, "id": "262382" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ethereum NFT platform Foundation shuts down after failed Blackdove sale", "leadText": "Foundation is shutting down after a failed sale to Blackdove, having processed about $230 million in NFT primary sales since its launch in 2021.", "author": { "slug": "helen-partz" }, "bodyText": "Foundation, one of the better-known Ethereum-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces of the 2021 boom, is shutting down after the sale that was supposed to keep it operating fell apart.
Kayvon Tehranian, Foundation’s founder and CEO, took to X on Wednesday to announce the marketplace’s closure following a failed acquisition by the digital art distribution platform Blackdove.
Although Tehranian did not directly mention Blackdove, he said the original goal of the sale was to ensure the platform would continue operating under new ownership. “That’s no longer possible,” he said, adding that Foundation is not in a position to bring the marketplace back online.
Foundation later said the site would briefly return so users could delist NFTs, in a message signed by the Blackdove team.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ad5-b8be-7e8d-968a-bec383126aae.png\")
The shutdown underscores the ongoing decline in NFT trading activity since the 2021 boom, as lower liquidity has left fewer independent marketplaces able to survive.
Foundation was launched in early 2021, capturing a massive year for tokenized digital art, when some NFTs sold for as much as $69 million apiece.
According to Blackdove, the platform facilitated more than $230 million in primary sales for artists around the world, hosting NFT sales for artists like Jen Stark, James Jean and Reuben Wu.
Foundation also became a venue for digital art by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose NFT piece “Stay Free” sold for about 2,200 Ether (ETH) in 2021, worth roughly $5 million at the time.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ad5-bd90-72f5-8f67-3a287112a8b1.png\")
As broader NFT activity cooled after peaking in 2022, platforms like Foundation faced shrinking liquidity and fewer sustainable transaction flows. Blackdove initially announced Foundation’s acquisition in early 2025, with the platform announcing transitioning ownership a year later.
Foundation’s closure adds to a growing list of NFT platforms that have shut down or pivoted away from trading digital art recently, with the sector’s market cap falling back to pre-hype levels seen in 2021 as of February 2026.
Mint Blockchain, an NFT-linked infrastructure network built on Ethereum, also announced Friday that it has ceased operations and instructed users to withdraw assets.
This year alone, at least two other NFT platforms announced they were winding down operations, including Gemini exchange-backed Nifty Gateway and the social NFT platform Rodeo.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ad5-bf99-7b86-8814-0bd169a1d928.png\")
MakersPlace shut down amid declining NFT activity last year, while X2Y2 wound down and pivoted away from NFTs. Crypto exchange Bybit has also closed its NFT marketplace as trading volumes fell.
Related: Yuga Labs settles lawsuit against artists accused of copying its NFTs
OpenSea has remained the dominant NFT marketplace despite the broader downturn, accounting for more than 73% of all activity across the sector at publishing time, with competition from rivals such as Blur, according to DefiLlama.
Despite the sharp decline in NFTs, some industry figures, including Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu, predicted that the sector could recover and reach new all-time highs.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "Foundation is shutting down after a failed acquisition by Blackdove, ending one of Ethereum’s early NFT art marketplaces that once drove major creator sales.", "published": "2026-04-17T11:26:23+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "art" }, { "slug": "nft" }, { "slug": "tokenization" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "foundation-nft-marketplace-shutdown-failed-sale", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262367" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Tokenization doesn’t ‘magically’ fix illiquid assets: PBW 2026", "leadText": "Industry speakers at Paris Blockchain Week said tokenization can broaden access and issuance, but it does not by itself create active secondary markets for illiquid assets.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "Tokenization does not automatically make hard-to-trade assets liquid, industry executives said at Paris Blockchain Week, pushing back on the idea that putting private credit, real estate or other illiquid products onchain will by itself create active secondary markets.
Speaking during a panel moderated by Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, Oya Celiktemur, Ondo Finance sales director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said there is still a misconception that tokenizing illiquid assets can make them easier to trade.
“I think there’s still this idea that tokenizing something illiquid will somehow magically make it a liquid asset, which is just not true,” said Celiktemur. She added that assets like real estate and private credit “were never that liquid” to begin with.
Francesco Ranieri Fabracci, head of tokenization expansion at Tether, made a similar point. “It’s not that if you put an asset onchain, it will be liquid,” he said, arguing that only a narrower set of instruments, including bonds, money market funds and stablecoins, are likely to achieve consistent liquidity in tokenized markets.
The discussion comes as the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) sector continues to expand, shifting attention from issuance growth toward whether tokenized products can achieve meaningful activity and move beyond limited distribution channels.
![\"Paris,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ad9-b778-78cf-99bc-62c4825907f6.jpg\")
Data from RWA anayltics platform RWA.xyz shows the tokenized RWA market expanded from $8.8 billion on April 16, 2025, to roughly $29.9 billion on April 16, 2026, more than tripling in size in one year.
The growth was led by relatively standardized and widely traded assets. Tokenized US Treasury Debt and commodities accounted for a large share of the market throughout the year.
Related: French minister says new measures are coming after crypto kidnappings
By contrast, categories typically associated with lower liquidity remained comparatively smaller despite strong percentage growth. Tokenized real estate increased from about $35 million to $296 million, while private equity rose from nearly $60 million to $223 million.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9ab7-3be7-7b3e-8825-5a5fa7d2e559.jpg\")
Other segments, including asset-backed credit and corporate credit, also expanded sharply in absolute terms, indicating rising issuance across a broader range of instruments.
But market value alone does not prove liquidity. Outstanding value can rise because more assets are issued, even if secondary market trading remains thin.
Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO
A Texas man found guilty of helping orchestrate a cryptocurrency scam project that defrauded $20 million from nearly 1,000 investors has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars by a US judge on Tuesday.
US District Judge LaShonda Hunt sentenced Robert Dunlap, who served as a trustee of the project that sold the fictional token Meta-1 Coin, to prison and ordered him to pay restitution to victims of the fraud, according to the Illinois US Attorney's office.
Assistant US attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini said in the government’s sentencing memorandum that Dunlap was “unrepentant” and that his lies grew “over the years.”
“Would-be criminals planning to engage in similar conduct need to know that such actions will be met with a serious repercussion that includes loss of one’s liberty for an extended period of time,” they added.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9a13-c470-7c2d-80a8-b432a662c83a.png\")
Regulators and authorities are turning up the heat on crypto scammers. In March, a man accused of hacking defunct DeFi platform Uranium Finance was charged with one count of computer fraud and one count of money laundering.
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois convicted Dunlap in November on two counts of mail fraud, each carrying a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.
He was accused of conspiring with others to market and sell Meta-1 Coin through a Meta-1 Coin Trust from 2018 to 2023, making false and misleading statements to investors, including that the token was backed by a $1 billion art collection made up of works by Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh and $44 billion in gold.
Related: There’s more to crypto crime than meets the eye: What you need to know
Dunlap and his co-conspirators used automated trading bots to artificially inflate the market price and trading volume of the Meta-1 Coin on the Meta Exchange, a website Dunlap created, according to authorities.
In March 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered an asset freeze and other emergency relief orders to stop Dunlap, another alleged accomplice, Nicole Bowdler and former Washington state Senator David Schmidt from marketing and selling Meta-1 Coin.
The defendants allegedly told investors that Meta-1 Coin was risk-free and could offer returns of up to 224,923%. Instead, the coins were never distributed and the funds were used to cover personal expenses and buy luxury cars, including a Ferrari, according to the SEC.
Magazine: Forget stablecoin yield, how does the CLARITY Act treat DeFi?
", "description": "Robert Dunlap, a key figure in the $20 million Meta-1 Coin fraud, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison after being found guilty on two counts of mail fraud in November.", "published": "2026-04-17T07:25:14+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "court" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "meta-1-coin-fraud-robert-dunlap-23-years-sentence", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262332" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Crypto in sustained winter as CEX volumes drop 39% in Q1: CoinGecko", "leadText": "March was the “weakest month\" with $800 billion in centralized crypto exchange trading volume, the lowest since November 2023.", "author": { "slug": "jesse-coghlan" }, "bodyText": "The cryptocurrency market has entered a “sustained crypto winter,” according to CoinGecko, as spot trading volumes on centralized crypto exchanges rapidly fell over the first quarter of 2026.
Crypto market capitalization fell by more than 20% during the first quarter as “bearish momentum from late 2025 collided with global geopolitical instability,” CoinGecko said in a report on Thursday.
That caused the top 10 centralized exchanges by spot volume to record a 39% decrease in trading volume over the quarter ended in March, dropping to $2.7 trillion from $4.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The drop comes as the crypto market has struggled to maintain positive momentum after Bitcoin (BTC) hit a record high of more than $126,000 six months ago, as the wider market reacted to fears of an economic slowdown and uncertainty over the fallout from US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9a0f-13d0-7a4b-b254-4b0e30f79b7f.png\")
March was the “weakest month,” according to CoinGecko, with $800 billion in trading volume, the lowest since November 2023.
CoinGecko said that the contraction in crypto markets was worsened by Kevin Warsh’s nomination as US Federal Reserve chair, which signaled “a potential hawkish shift in US monetary policy.”
Related: Three things Bitcoin must do to hold highs above $76K: Analysts
It added that daily trading activity across the crypto market saw “a significant decline” over the first quarter, with average daily trading volumes at $117.8 billion, a drop of 27% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025.
All of the top 10 spot centralized exchanges recorded declining volumes in the first quarter, CoinGecko said, with HTX, formerly Huobi, seeing “the biggest slump” quarter-on-quarter as volumes dipped 55% to $133.6 billion.
It said that Bitcoin fell 22% over the first quarter, “continuing to underperform all assets, despite US equity indexes such as NASDAQ and S&P 500 falling -7.1% and -4.8% respectively, their worst quarterly returns since 2022.”
Big Questions: Should you sell your Bitcoin for nickels for a 43% profit?
", "description": "CoinGecko says a 40% decline in crypto exchange trading volumes, capped by a two-and-a-half-year monthly volume low in March, shows the crypto market is in a sustained winter lull.", "published": "2026-04-17T07:16:48+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" }, { "slug": "coingecko" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "crypto-sustained-winter-q1-cex-volumes-drop-coingecko", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262327" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Cybersecurity researcher uncovers fake Ledger sold on Chinese marketplace", "leadText": "The researcher said they examined the fake Ledger device’s firmware and found signs pointing to a Chinese semiconductor company named Espressif Systems.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "Update April 18, 3:00 am UTC: This article has been updated to include comments from a Ledger spokesperson.
A Brazilian security researcher has warned others of the latest counterfeit Ledger device scam aimed at stealing users’ crypto.
Posting as “Past_Computer2901” on the “ledgerwallet” Reddit channel on Thursday, the security researcher said they purchased what they thought was a legitimate Ledger device for personal use, but soon realized after it arrived that it was a sophisticated counterfeit aimed at stealing user funds.
“This isn't meant to cause panic, but rather to serve as a serious warning — I’m honestly still a bit shaken by the sheer scale of this operation,” they said.
Scammers are adopting increasingly sophisticated strategies to target users opting for self-custody, from supply chain attacks to social engineering and approval scams.
Earlier this month, more than 50 victims were tricked into revealing their seed phrases on a fake Ledger Live app that made its way to the Apple App Store via a bait-and-switch strategy. The victims lost a combined $9.5 million before Apple took down the malicious app.
The researcher said he bought the Ledger Nano S Plus from a Chinese marketplace, which was priced the same as the official Ledger store. The packaging and the listing also appeared legitimate at first.
However, when they connected the device to the genuine Ledger Live app — which was luckily already installed on their computer — it failed Ledger’s built-in “Genuine Check.”
This prompted them to pull apart the device, discovering modified hardware and firmware designed to capture and expose sensitive wallet data.
The security researcher said the scammers target first-time Ledger users, as the QR code that comes in the box would normally direct users to download a malicious version of the Ledger Live app that would show a fake \"Genuine Check.”
Users continuing to follow the prompts will eventually allow scammers to obtain a user’s seed phrases and drain funds at any time.
![\"China,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d99fd-6d25-7bab-92d8-73e44f35d5f6.png\")
“Stay safe out there. Only download Ledger Live from ledger.com. Only buy hardware from ledger.com,” the security researcher said.
“If your device fails the Genuine Check — stop using it immediately.”
After pulling apart the device, they discovered clear signs of tampering, including scraped chip markings and a WiFi and Bluetooth antenna embedded inside the unit.
Legitimate Ledger hardware products are designed to keep private keys fully offline.
Related: Musician loses $420K Bitcoin ‘retirement fund’ via fake Ledger app
The security researcher then looked into the firmware, putting the “chip into boot mode,” which initially identified the device as a Nano S Plus 7704 with an attached serial number.
However, once the boot sequence completed, another manufacturer’s name showed up: Espressif Systems, a publicly listed Chinese semiconductor company based in Shanghai.
Cointelegraph reached out to Espressif for comment but didn’t receive an immediate response.
A Ledger spokesperson told Cointelegraph that it has become increasingly important for the ecosystem to “raise awareness around counterfeit devices,” adding:
”When purchasing from a marketplace, Ledger strongly encourages users to verify the identity of the seller. Users should ensure they only download the official Ledger Wallet apps on desktop and mobile. “
Magazine: What’s a ‘Network State’ and are there real-life examples? Big Questions
", "description": "A security researcher said they bought a fake Ledger device from a Chinese marketplace that had modified hardware and firmware designed to steal crypto.", "published": "2026-04-17T07:02:05+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "china" }, { "slug": "ledger" }, { "slug": "hardware-wallet" }, { "slug": "cybersecurity" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "fake-ledger-device-sold-chinese-market-place", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262317" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ethereum Foundation-funded program exposes 100 DPRK workers in crypto", "leadText": "The Ketman Project, funded by an Ethereum Foundation stipend, identified 100 North Korean IT workers and alerted about 53 projects employing DPRK operatives.", "author": { "slug": "brian-quarmby" }, "bodyText": "The Ethereum Foundation said it funded a six-month project that exposed 100 North Korean operatives who had infiltrated Web3 companies under fake identities.
The foundation on Thursday shared a recap of its ETH Rangers program, which was launched in late 2024 to provide \"stipends for individuals doing public goods security work\" within the ecosystem.
One of the recipients used the capital to build the Ketman Project to focus on investigating “fake developers” embedded within crypto, particularly operatives from North Korea.
During the six-month stipend period, the Ketman Project identified \"100 different DPRK IT workers operating within Web3 organizations\" and reached out to about 53 projects to alert them about having potentially employed active DPRK operatives.
\"This work directly addresses one of the most pressing operational security threats facing the Ethereum ecosystem today,\" the Ethereum Foundation said.
North Korean operatives have been plaguing the crypto sector, leading to billions worth of crypto stolen over the years. One of the highest-profile hacking groups from North Korea is known as the Lazarus Group.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d99c9-5b3b-7a4d-a1d5-5d492bd72845.png\")
The Ethereum Foundation did not go into detail about how the Ketman Project was able to identify the DPRK operatives. However, the project's website has an extensive range of articles explaining the types of \"tactics, behaviors and operational patterns\" the operatives deploy.
Related: CIA to integrate AI ‘co-workers’ to process intelligence, catch spies
They include technical red flags such as reusing avatars and profile metadata across multiple GitHub accounts, exposing unlinked email addresses during accidental screen sharing, and displaying default language settings, such as Russian, that contradict their claimed nationality.
Alongside identifying North Korean operatives, the Ketman Project also developed an open-source detection tool to identify suspicious GitHub activity and co-authored an industry-standard framework for identifying DPRK IT workers in partnership with blockchain-focused nonprofit organization the Security Alliance.
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
", "description": "The Ethereum Foundation’s ETH Rangers program supported a six-month investigation into North Korean operatives using fake identities to infiltrate Web3 companies.", "published": "2026-04-17T06:20:39+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "cybercrime" }, { "slug": "north-korea" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "eth-rangers-program-exposed-100-north-korean-operatives-infiltrating-web3", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262312" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "At least a dozen crypto entities attacked since Drift Protocol hack", "leadText": "Rhea Finance and the Russia-linked Grinex exchange were hacked for a combined $21 million over the past two days.", "author": { "slug": "martin-young" }, "bodyText": "At least 12 DeFi protocols and crypto businesses have been attacked in just over two weeks since the $280 million Drift Protocol exploit on April 1.
Attacks aimed at crypto protocols or companies since the start of April include CoW Swap, Hyperbridge, Bybit, Dango, Silo Finance, BSC TMM, Aethir, MONA, Zerion and, most recently, Rhea Finance and the Grinex exchange.
The Drift Protocol was hit with one of the largest exploits this year on April 1, losing around $280 million in a long-running social engineering attack suspected to involve North Korean-affiliated actors.
The attacks also come amid growing concerns this month that advancing AI models, such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and equivalent models, could eventually make it even easier for cyberattackers in the future.
DeFi protocol Rhea Finance reported on Thursday that an attacker “leveraged a vulnerability in Rhea’s Margin Trading feature to execute a coordinated pool manipulation attack,” impacting the Rhea Lend smart contract.
![\"Hackers,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d99c9-d9ce-7975-842d-b9d7afbf3c08.jpg\")
Around $7.6 million was extracted, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
“The attacker created fake token contracts and added liquidity in fresh pools, likely misleading the oracle and validation layer,” it explained.
Meanwhile, the Russia-linked Grinex exchange suspended operations after a $13.7 million hack on Thursday, blaming “unfriendly states” for the incursion.
Related: Stablecoin issuer Circle faces lawsuit over $280M Drift Protocol hack
Another attack this month was aimed at the Binance Smart Chain TMM/USDT liquidity pool, which suffered a reserve manipulation attack, resulting in the loss of around $1.67 million in early April, R3ACH Network analyst Jussy said on Thursday.
It followed just days after bridge aggregator Dango lost $410,000 from a smart contract bug on April 13.
In the same month, lending protocol Silo Finance lost $392,000 on April 3 from a misconfigured oracle exploit and decentralized GPU cloud computing platform Aethir lost $423,000 in an access control exploit on April 9.
The Drift Protocol and Zerion wallet exploits were two examples of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-affiliated groups using AI and social engineering to infiltrate crypto companies to steal credentials and funds.
Malicious actors pilfered over $168.6 million in cryptocurrency from 34 DeFi protocols in the first quarter of 2026, according to data from DefiLlama.
Magazine: Forget stablecoin yield, how does the CLARITY Act treat DeFi?
", "description": "A wave of crypto hacks and attacks followed the Drift exploit, hitting at least 12 entities, including Rhea Finance and Grinex, this week.", "published": "2026-04-17T06:08:27+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "hackers" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "12-crypto-protocol-entities-attacked-since-drift-exploit", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262307" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Zanzibar police probe crypto exec Joe McCann after fiancée’s death", "leadText": "Zanzibar police are reportedly holding Asymmetric founder Joe McCann for questioning after the death of his fiancée, Ashly Robinson.", "author": { "slug": "jesse-coghlan" }, "bodyText": "Police in Zanzibar are reportedly holding Joe McCann, a crypto trader and the founder of the crypto fund Asymmetric, for questioning after his fiancée died while the pair were on vacation.
McCann’s fiancée, Ashly Robinson, 31, died in hospital on April 9 after she was found a day earlier by staff at a hotel where the couple was staying, NBC News reported Thursday, citing a statement from Tanzanian police.
Police ruled Robinson’s death a suicide but said they are still questioning McCann. CBS News reported that police are holding McCann’s passport until autopsy results are complete.
Police said hotel staff told them the pair had a “misunderstanding” and had been separated, with McCann moved to a different room.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9966-bcea-7872-9ed7-d66fffd7b2c4.jpg\")
A hotel staffer reportedly later found Robinson unresponsive in her room with a belt around her neck and alerted management. She was then taken to the hospital.
Robinson’s family has disputed that account, with her sister, Alyssa Endres, telling NBC that “none of this makes sense” and that Robinson was happy after celebrating her birthday and engagement to McCann, which happened only days before her death.
Related: South Korean man indicted in alleged pesticide poisoning tied to crypto losses
McCann is the founder of the crypto venture and hedge fund Asymmetric, which changed its trading strategy in July 2025 after backlash from investors due to underperformance amid a prolonged period of crypto market volatility.
A plan to take a Solana (SOL) treasury company, which McCann would lead, public in a merger deal was reportedly called off in August for unknown reasons. It came just weeks after McCann said his fund had lost 80% so far that year.
McCann could not be reached for comment.
Magazine: Meet the onchain crypto detectives fighting crime better than the cops
", "description": "Joe McCann, the founder of the crypto venture fund Asymmetric, is being held for questioning by Zanzibar police following the death of his fiancée Ashly Robinson.", "published": "2026-04-17T04:22:45+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "tanzania" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "zanzibar-police-probe-crypto-exec-joe-mccann-after-fiancee-death", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262302" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Russia-linked crypto exchange Grinex halts trading after $14M hack", "leadText": "Grinex has been accused by US authorities of assisting Russia and other entities in evading sanctions and laundering funds for Russia-linked hackers.", "author": { "slug": "stephen-katte" }, "bodyText": "Sanctioned crypto exchange Grinex said it has suspended trading after losing more than 1 billion Russian rubles ($13.7 million) to an attack bearing signs of involvement by foreign intelligence agencies.
The exchange, which is registered in Kyrgyzstan but has been linked to Russia’s crypto ecosystem and alleged sanctions evasion, said on Thursday that the funds were taken from 54 addresses and that the digital footprint and nature of the attack indicate an “unprecedented level of resources and technology available only to entities of hostile states.”
“Due to the attack, the Grinex exchange has been forced to suspend operations. All available information has been transferred to law enforcement agencies. A criminal complaint has been filed at the location of the infrastructure,” it added.
Grinex had been widely seen as the successor to the similarly sanctioned Garantex exchange. Both have been accused by US authorities of assisting Russia and other entities in evading sanctions and laundering funds for Russia-linked hackers.
Elliptic founder Tom Robinson has accused it of being the primary platform for trading A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin linked to sanctions evasion.
A Grinex spokesperson told Cointelegraph last year that it strongly condemns any form of illegal activity, including sanctions evasion and money laundering.
Grinex may not have been the only exchange targeted. Blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs said on Thursday that two wallets from TokenSpot, a Kyrgyzstan-based exchange with on-chain links to Grinex, sent around $5,000 to the same consolidation address used by the Grinex attacker.
TokenSpot’s Telegram channel announced technical work and a brief platform outage on April 15, followed the next day by an announcement that it had resumed full operations.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d995a-b2c2-7c33-8536-ad1bfeb8f108.png\")
At the same time, TRM Labs said it has identified 16 additional addresses linked to the incident in addition to those Grinex publicly disclosed. The consolidation address where all the funds have been sent contains 45.9 million TRON (TRX), worth nearly $15 million.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said it tracked about $15 million in USDt (USDT) leaving Grinex accounts. The funds were then sent to accounts on the Tron or Ethereum blockchains.
Related: Ukraine arrests FBI-wanted cybercrime suspect, seizes $11M in assets
“This USDT was then converted to another asset, either TRX or ETH. By doing so, the thief avoided the risk of the stolen USDT being frozen by Tether,” the company said.
This is not the first time an exchange accused of helping entities evade US sanctions has been targeted. Iran-based exchange Nobitex had $81 million drained in June 2025, with a pro-Israel hacker group claiming responsibility.
Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO
", "description": "Sanctioned crypto exchange Grinex has halted trading after $14 million in USDT was drained from 54 wallets; however, blockchain analyst firms say the total might be higher.", "published": "2026-04-17T04:20:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "russia" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "grinex-hack-14m-crypto-exchange-suspends-trading", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262297" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ex-Treasury chief warns of US bond crash, calls for contingency plan", "leadText": "“When we hit it, it will be vicious, so we have to prepare for that eventuality,” said former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on a potential US Treasury market crisis.", "author": { "slug": "martin-young" }, "bodyText": "Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged US authorities to prepare a contingency plan for a potential future collapse in demand for US Treasurys, warning that the fallout would be “vicious.”
“We need an emergency break-the-glass plan, which is targeted and short-term, on the shelf, so it’s ready to go when we hit the wall,” Paulson told Bloomberg in an interview on Thursday.
“People say, when are you going to hit the wall? I obviously don’t know, it’s impossible to know. When we hit it, it will be vicious, so we have to prepare for that eventuality.”
The US Treasury market acts as the bedrock of the global financial system, serving as a “risk-free” benchmark with other assets, such as corporate bonds, mortgages, and stocks, being priced relative to Treasurys. Instability could cause ripple effects in the global economy.
For years, economists have warned of a potential “doom loop” where investors start demanding higher yields on Treasurys due to risks tied to the government’s burgeoning debts, which are currently more than $39 trillion.
This could cause an increase in interest payments, currently 4.3% on 10-year notes, which would widen the deficit. But if the Treasury cannot raise what it needs to pay interest, many assume the Federal Reserve would become the principal buyer, Bloomberg reported.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d994e-2b93-70f6-aa41-66facbb8e952.jpg\")
There could be several potential impacts on crypto markets if the $31 trillion US Treasury market were to melt down.
A Treasury market crisis could potentially trigger a flight to alternative stores of value such as Bitcoin (BTC) or gold. This may happen if the Fed is forced to monetize debt, stoking inflation fears and undermining confidence in the dollar.
However, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, is predominantly backed by Treasurys, with 63% of its total reserves comprising US Treasury bills and 10% overnight reverse repurchase agreements, according to the Tether transparency report.
Related: Ethereum stablecoin supply hits $180B all-time high: Token Terminal
Research lead at the Bitrue trading platform, Andri Fauzan Adziima, told Cointelegraph that this remains a “watch-list macro tail risk,” but if it happens, there could be short-term pain via “spiking yields, tighter global liquidity, and risk-off selling that hits BTC and altcoins hard while amplifying stablecoin risks.”
“Tether alone holds over $120 billion in Treasurys, making it vulnerable to redemption runs or depegs if confidence erodes and it faces fire-sale pressure.”
However, in the longer-term, it might “accelerate a flight to non-sovereign stores of value, positioning Bitcoin as ‘digital gold’ amid eroding trust in US debt/dollar dominance,”
It is potentially bullish if the crisis highlights fiat vulnerabilities without an immediate systemic meltdown, he said.
The US Treasury conducted its largest single debt buyback on Thursday, accepting $15 billion worth of older securities maturing from 2026 to 2028.
Such buybacks enhance Treasury market liquidity by retiring less-traded bonds and providing liquidity and cash to holders who may redeploy it elsewhere in the financial system.
Magazine: Forget stablecoin yield, how does the CLARITY Act treat DeFi?
", "description": "Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warned of a potential Treasury market collapse and urged an emergency plan as US debt surpassed $39 trillion.", "published": "2026-04-17T03:49:54+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "investments" }, { "slug": "economy" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "bonds" } ], "slug": "ex-treasury-chief-warns-us-treasurys-crash-calls-emergency-debt-plan", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262292" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Three things Bitcoin must do to hold highs above $76K: Analysts", "leadText": "Analysts say reclaiming $76,000, sustained spot market buy volume and consistent inflows to the Bitcoin ETFs are the necessary components required for a rally to new highs.", "author": { "slug": "nancy-lubale" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) struggles to reclaim price highs above $76,000, but analysts say that the uptrend may continue if key conditions are met.
Bitcoin’s 8% climb over the last three days saw it reclaim key levels, including the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $71,000.
“$76K is the level that decides everything,” analyst Crypto Patel said in a Wednesday post on X, adding:
“We need a proper HTF candle close above this zone to trust the move.”
Related: Bitcoin falls to lower support as analysts say markets are ignoring key Iran issue
The analyst further explained that a high-time frame close above $76,000 would open the path toward the $84,000-$96,000 zone, where investors acquired more than 2 million BTC over the last six months, according to Glassnode’s cost basis distribution heatmap.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d91c9-e1fc-7978-9122-f430d0a053f5.jpg\")
Echoing this view, trading resource Material Indicators said that “there are multiple levels of technical resistance stacked” between the spot price and a “bonafide $BTC bull market breakout.”
These include the yearly open at $87,500 and the 50-week moving average at $97,000, which must be reclaimed to confirm that the “$BTC bull market has returned,” Material Indicators said in a follow-up post.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d91c9-e5b6-72c4-9c89-baf5ea85361c.png\")
The trading resource further pointed out that the relative strength index must close and hold above the 41 level in the weekly time frame.
Previous occurrences in 2023, 2020 and 2019 have led to 660%, 1,600% and 316% BTC price rallies, respectively.
“Obviously, we are not there yet,” Materials indicators said in a video posted on X, adding:
“Those are the macro things that need to happen to say a validated bull market is on.”
For analyst Rekt Capital, the BTC/USD pair needs to achieve a weekly close above $72,800 to “confirm a breakout.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d91c9-ea7b-7e50-be8f-bba70f70ba90.png\")
As Cointelegraph reported, the bulls must decisively break above the $76,000-$80,000 range to confirm a trend change.
The bull score index, a measure of Bitcoin’s overall market health that combines fundamental and technical metrics, indicates a significant improvement in market conditions following BTC’s latest move to $76,000.
The metric increased to 40 on April 15, the highest since late October 2025. This reading remains within neutral territory, reflecting a gradual recovery after a period of relatively weak momentum.
While the bull score index improvement to 40 “reflects relative stability in the market,” it must rise to an area of “strong optimism (above 60), which typically indicates strong bullish conditions,” CryptoQuant analyst Arab Chain said in a Quicktake post, adding:
“If the indicator continues to improve gradually, it may signal a potential return of upward momentum, especially if higher levels are reclaimed in the coming period.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d91c9-f04a-72ef-a6b3-db0257425926.png\")
Meanwhile, demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs remains intermittent, with these investment products recording alternating inflows and outflows after every few days.
Although the $451 million in net inflows recorded on Tuesday pointed to a return in demand from US investors, persistent positive flows are required to propel BTC price higher.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d91c9-f71c-7aa4-9298-680902eebc68.png\")
As Cointelegraph reported, onchain activity is showing “bull market behavior,” with Bitcoin’s daily transaction count reaching 17-month highs, further reinforcing BTC’s upside potential.
Circle Internet Group is facing a class action lawsuit led by a Drift Protocol investor claiming it failed to freeze funds stolen in a $280 million exploit of the protocol on April 1.
The lawsuit was filed by Drift investor Joshua McCollum on behalf of over 100 members in a US district court in Massachusetts on Wednesday, which accused Circle of allowing the attackers to transfer about $230 million worth of USDC (USDC) from Solana to Ethereum via Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) over several hours without intervention.
“Circle permitted this criminal use of its technology and services,” attorneys representing McCollum wrote, adding: “These losses would not have occurred, or would have been substantially reduced, had Circle taken timely action.”
The suit accuses Circle of aiding and abetting conversion as well as negligence. Mira Gibb, the law firm representing McCollum and other Drift investors, is seeking damages, with the final amount to be determined at trial.
The case touches on a legal grey area around crypto companies that retain control over user funds. While such companies may have the technical ability to intervene or freeze assets, they often cite regulatory constraints or the lack of immediate legal authority as reasons for inaction — leaving accountability unclear as exploits unfold in real-time.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d98fa-3dc8-75a2-bc4c-f4d3f8f7b93d.png\")
McCollum’s lawyers pointed out that Circle froze 16 USDC wallets in connection with a sealed US civil case about a week before the Drift incident to argue that Circle had the technical capacity to do the same.
Cointelegraph reached out to Circle for comment, but didn’t receive an immediate response.
Crypto analytics firm Elliptic suspected the exploit was committed by North Korean state-backed hackers, who made over 100 transactions via Circle’s bridging technology during US working hours, where the stablecoin company is based.
Related: Ukraine arrests FBI-wanted cybercrime suspect, seizes $11M in assets
The funds were converted into Ether (ETH) and sent through the Tornado Cash privacy protocol to launder the proceeds and obscure the trail.
While Circle faced backlash for the inaction, ARK Invest’s director of research for digital assets, Lorenzo Valente, argued on Thursday that it made the right decision, arguing that freezing funds without a legal order opens the door for arbitrary discretion.
“Every future freeze is now a judgment call. Every non-freeze is a political statement. Why freeze the Drift hacker but not that sketchy Nigerian fraud wallet? Why this protester but not that one?”
While Valente sided with Circle’s decision, he speculated that the stolen funds will likely fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons program:
“Whether Circle got it right comes down to how much you weigh rule-of-law principles vs concrete harm. Reasonable people disagree.”
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
", "description": "Stablecoin issuer Circle has been hit with a class action over $230 million worth of USDC tied to the Drift Protocol hack on April 1.", "published": "2026-04-17T02:35:22+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "circle" }, { "slug": "hackers" }, { "slug": "court" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "solana" } ], "slug": "circle-faces-class-action-lawsuit-after-drift-protocol-hack", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262282" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin eyes $90K as whales absorb 20x daily BTC supply in 30 days", "leadText": "Bitcoin price has entered the breakout stage of a classic bullish reversal pattern and is now eyeing a run toward $90,000.", "author": { "slug": "yashu-gola" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) appears on track to hit $90,000 in the coming weeks as whales have accumulated about 20 times the cryptocurrency’s daily new supply in the past weeks.
Key takeaways:
Whales bought roughly 270,000 BTC in the past 30 days.
BTC broke out of its symmetrical pattern setup with a measured target at around $92,220.
Whales, entities that hold over 1,000 BTC, have added roughly 270,000 coins to their wallets in the past 30 days, marking their largest buying spree since 2013, according to onchain data resource CryptoQuant.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d972c-dc2a-75dc-aba7-8b13a4070a91.jpeg\")
Part of that whale accumulation came from Strategy. The company’s recent filings show that it bought about 42,166 BTC between March and April, accounting for roughly 16% of the 270,000 BTC added by whale wallets over the same period.
US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs also recorded more than $200 million in net inflows during that stretch. Still, those inflows remain modest compared with earlier phases of the cycle, pointing to cautious re-engagement by Wall Street traders.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9747-70c1-7c43-919a-d10360088fbd.png\")
The accumulation came even as Bitcoin whipsawed sharply in recent weeks, including a roughly 15% drawdown before fully recovering those losses, with easing US–Iran tensions helping drive the rebound in risk appetite.
Related: Bitcoin traders cash out 63K BTC profit as price rallied above $76K: Will the market rebound?
From a technical perspective, Bitcoin has entered the breakout stage of its prevailing symmetrical triangle pattern.
Triangle patterns can break in either direction regardless of the prevailing trend, with the resulting move often matching the formation’s maximum height.
In Bitcoin’s case, price has broken to the upside after moving above the triangle’s upper trendline, opening the door for a potential rally toward the measured target near $92,220 by April or May.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d975b-945a-75ed-9a8a-156de4f89ab8.png\")
Bitcoin’s price must break decisively above its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA, the blue line) at around $83,000 to reach the triangle target. This EMA was instrumental in limiting BTC’s attempts at an upside breakout in January.
Earlier, Nic Puckrin, crypto analyst and founder of Coin Bureau, said Bitcoin could push toward $90,000 if the current US–Iran ceasefire holds, oil prices fall toward $80, and softer economic data helps ease stagflation fears.
", "description": "Bitcoin’s market structure now favors a long-term rally to $90,000. Is the bull market back on?", "published": "2026-04-17T01:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-analysis" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-eyes-dollar90k-as-whales-absorb-20x-daily-btc-supply-in-30-days", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Price Analysis" } ] }, "id": "262262" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin liquidations top $283M after short squeeze sends BTC price above $75K", "leadText": "Bitcoin consolidates between $73,000 and $75,000 as liquidations trigger a short squeeze, but weak spot demand keeps the upside momentum in check.", "author": { "slug": "biraajmaan-tamuly" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) traded between $75,000 and $73,000 over a three-hour period during the New York market open on Thursday, and the abrupt downside move liquidated $283 million in futures positions. The resulting short squeeze pushed BTC back toward $75,000, but sustaining the rebound will require steady buying volume in the spot market.
A sharp move lower to $73,200 from $75,400 triggered a wave of long liquidations across the futures markets, totaling to $166 million, according to market commentator CryptoReviewing.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d976d-9a89-71f5-8598-aac6c5fee348.png\")
The price then reversed quickly, pushing back toward $75,000 and liquidating roughly $117 million in short positions, highlighting a rapid two-sided squeeze within the same trading window.
The move tracked closely with liquidation spikes, which forced closures of short positions. The funding rates turned positive to +0.0005 shortly after the bounce, signaling that bearish positioning had built up before unwinding.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d976e-2140-734c-bc4b-75260303f38f.png\")
This indicates that upside momentum came from shorts covering rather than new long exposure. The rally cleared nearby liquidity pockets and pushed the price back toward the session's mid-range.
The spot cumulative volume delta (CVD), which tracks net buying and selling in spot markets, continued to trend lower during the recovery. The divergence points to weaker spot participation even as Bitcoin holds above $74,000.
For a move above the $76,000 range highs, spot demand needs to strengthen alongside derivatives activity, aligning both sides of the market behind the price.
Related: Bitcoin rebounds near $74.5K as US stocks chase after new all-time highs
Bitcoin continues to move between defined liquidity clusters, with the price gravitating around key levels. According to analyst KriptoHolder, the $76,000–$78,000 range contains a concentrated supply zone with $2.81 billion in short-leveraged liquidity, while $74,000 serves as an equilibrium area.
Long-leveraged liquidity of $2.5 billion is below $72,000, forming a potential price magnet if the upper levels fail to clear.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9775-0bdf-76f5-941d-c1f976369994.jpg\")
Meanwhile, the short-term trader behavior also reflects recurring intraday patterns. Bitcoin trader Killa noted that eight of the past 11 Thursdays recorded more downside than upside. Thursday’s session has already seen a near 2% decline from the daily open, offering intraday opportunities within that pattern.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9777-62d8-76c7-93cb-83fc5966ffa7.png\")
Related: Bitcoin bull run ‘still too early’ to call as demand lags exiting capital: Analyst
", "description": "Bitcoin’s rebound to $75,000 followed a $283 million short liquidation, but softening spot-market demand could slow the rally's pace.", "published": "2026-04-17T00:30:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-liquidations-top-dollar283m-after-short-squeeze-sends-btc-price-above-dollar75k", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Price Analysis" } ] }, "id": "262247" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin funding rate stays negative even as BTC price trades above $75K: What gives?", "leadText": "Bitcoin’s futures funding rate has remained negative even as BTC bounced back above $75,000. Should traders be worried?", "author": { "slug": "marcel-pechman" }, "bodyText": "Key takeaways:
Negative Bitcoin futures funding rates signal bear-market losses and forced liquidations rather than a shift in sentiment.
Institutional inflows into Bitcoin ETFs and corporate accumulation suggest that spot demand remains solid.
Bitcoin (BTC) sold off in early trading hours at the US stock market open, briefly losing the $75,000 level before rebounding. This unexpected price swing triggered $120 million in liquidations of leveraged long (buy) BTC futures positions. During this ordeal, the Bitcoin funding rate has remained negative, which could hint at further downside and a potential advantage to the bears.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9800-17bc-7109-9afd-bccf5823809f.png\")
The negative funding rate has been the norm since Monday, indicating a lack of demand for bullish leverage. Negative rates mean shorts (sellers) are the ones paying to keep their positions open. Under neutral conditions, the indicator should range between 5% and 10% to compensate for the cost of capital and exchange risks. At first sight, a 20% rate indicates conviction, but that is not the whole story.
The perpetual contract funding rates are calculated every eight hours on most exchanges. Temporary spikes to 20%, either positive or negative, are not particularly concerning for most traders, as they amount to a 0.05% daily fee. In essence, even if the position has extremely high leverage, such as 20x, the cost is 1%. Unless this issue persists for much longer, it is hardly a burden.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9800-1a91-77d0-90b2-515996953542.png\")
Bitcoin bearish positions have been forcefully liquidated for $365 million since Monday, which has naturally eroded collateral on short positions. Traders could have opted to sit tight rather than rush to add margin, anticipating that funding rates would adjust on their own. Thus, the negative funding rate reflects losses from bears rather than conviction.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9800-1e02-78ec-8fce-940ac6dc9b49.png\")
Bitcoin’s intraday moves have largely tracked the S&P 500 index for the past couple of weeks. The US stock market jumped to an all-time high on Thursday while Bitcoin remains distant from its $126,200 peak. Consecutive failures to re-establish the $76,000 level partially explain the lack of enthusiasm in BTC derivatives markets. Still, the latest round of US economic data is supportive for risk markets, including Bitcoin.
US industrial production decreased by 0.5% in March from the previous month, according to data released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday. Consumer durable goods were the negative highlight, with automotive production down 2.8%. In parallel, the continuing jobless claims increased 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.818 million during the week ended April 4.
While counterintuitive, the S&P 500 benefited from the increased economic recession, which forced the government to accelerate stimulus measures. The upward pressure on inflation, which has also been fueled by the surge in oil prices, reduces incentives to hold fixed-income investments.
Related: Bitcoin bull run ‘still too early’ to call as demand lags exiting capital–Analyst
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9800-213b-7973-bb4c-3ce6158cab9f.png\")
The Bitcoin options market data provides no signs of excessive demand for downside price protection. The premium paid on put (sell) options on Deribit has lagged behind the equivalent call (buy) instruments over the past week. The $921 million in net inflows into US-listed Bitcoin spot ETFs over five days, along with continued accumulation from Strategy (MSTR US), boosted investors’ confidence.
At the moment, Bitcoin’s negative funding rate does not raise alarms, especially since institutional investor demand remains strong in BTC’s spot markets.
Josh Stark, a key researcher and project manager at the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit organization that stewards development of the Ethereum ecosystem, said Thursday that he is departing the organization after five years.
Stark did not provide a specific reason for his departure and said in a post on X that he has “no plans for the future.” Instead, he will take some personal time to focus on family and friends. He said:
“The Ethereum ecosystem has reliably done things the world told us were impossible. It is easy to forget how much real fear and doubt there was that Ethereum would never launch, that decentralized finance (DeFi) would never work, or that Proof of Stake would never ship.”
He is one of four people listed as “Management” on an organizational chart which shows nearly all of the Foundation’s staff reporting in. Cointelegraph reached out to Stark about his departure, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
![\"Ethereum](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d980d-0323-74e2-8afc-b89cf3fd3b00.png\")
The departure of Stark from the Ethereum Foundation represents the most high-profile exit from the organization since Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced sweeping leadership changes and a new direction for the Foundation in 2025. A day earlier, another Foundation contributor, Trent Van Epps, announced that he resigned last week.
Related: Ethereum Foundation nearly reaches 70,000 staked ETH goal
In January 2025, co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced sweeping changes to the Ethereum Foundation in response to growing criticism from the Ethereum community over the long-term direction of the ecosystem.
Bringing in “fresh” talent to the organization, greater decentralization and developing the protocol for faster transaction throughput and increased transaction speeds were among some of the goals Buterin listed for the changes.
However, the revamped Ethereum Foundation would not engage in ideological disputes, lobby US lawmakers in Washington or represent “vested interests,” Buterin added.
“These things aren't what EF does, and this isn't going to change. People seeking a different vision are welcome to start their own orgs,” he said.
![\"Ethereum](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d980e-509c-787c-8906-8a63626772d9.png\")
The Ethereum Foundation officially announced new leadership in March 2025, adding Hsiao-Wei Wang, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, and Tomasz Stańczak, CEO of Nethermind, an Ethereum execution client, as co-directors of the organization.
Stańczak stepped down from his role in February 2026, while Wang remains a member of the Ethereum Foundation’s management board, according to its organizational chart.
Magazine: Back to Ethereum: How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light
", "description": "A key researcher and figure in the Ethereum community has announced that he is departing the Ethereum Foundation after five years at the organization.", "published": "2026-04-16T22:20:50+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "ethereum-2-0" } ], "slug": "key-ethereum-developer-josh-stark-leaves-the-ethereum-foundation", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262222" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "After Kalshi appeal, prediction markets fight could head to US Supreme Court", "leadText": "An appellate court is expected to reach a decision after hearing arguments from Kalshi and lawyers representing the state of Nevada.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Some legal experts speculated that the state vs. federal jurisdiction battle over regulating prediction markets companies could soon be headed to the United States Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments from lawyers representing prediction markets platform Kalshi and Nevada authorities over the state's ban on the prediction markets' event contracts. The appeal was over a lower court decision preventing Kalshi from offering certain event-based contracts in Nevada, based on claims that the company needed a gaming license.
![\"Law,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d97c3-c772-7efd-9d2b-1883607450d3.png\")
The appellate judge overseeing Thursday’s oral arguments and the lawyer for Kalshi acknowledged that there had been several state-level enforcement actions against the company and other prediction market platforms, including criminal charges filed in Arizona. However, last week a federal court blocked Arizona authorities from enforcing the state’s gambling laws on Kalshi’s event contracts.
“I think the body of case law does demonstrate that what we really need to avoid here is having a state and a federal court considering exactly the same issue at exactly the same time and potentially reaching different outcomes,” said Colleen Sinzdak, representing Kalshi.
Related: CFTC probes oil futures trades tied to Trump's moves in Iran: Report
Central to Kalshi’s argument was that the platform’s event contracts were “swaps” falling under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rather than state gaming authorities. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has backed this position in the case of Crypto.com’s prediction markets against Nevada authorities.
The appellate court did not immediately announce a decision following oral arguments. Any ruling could affect how state courts treat prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket as policymakers come to terms with the growing market, expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal, whose company was not a party to the Kalshi proceedings but has a stake in the prediction markets fight, speculated that the case could go the US Supreme Court.
“The questions at oral argument are an unreliable signal in predicting the leanings of a court,” said Grewal in a Thursday X post following the oral arguments. “Either way, I stand by my longstanding prediction — the Supreme Court will resolve whether sports [contracts] on [Designated Contract Markets] are swaps subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC.”
The US Supreme Court gave states the authority to regulate sports gambling in its 2018 decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
HIVE Digital Technologies said it plans to raise $75 million through a private offering of 0% exchangeable senior notes due 2031, with proceeds expected to fund GPU purchases, data center development and other capital investments.
According to Thursday’s announcement, the notes will be issued by a wholly owned subsidiary and offered to qualified institutional buyers, with an option to raise an additional $15 million. Final terms, including the exchange rate, will be set at pricing.
The notes will be exchangeable under certain conditions, with HIVE able to settle conversions in cash, common shares or a combination of both. They will not bear regular interest, will not accrete and are unsecured obligations of the issuer, fully guaranteed by HIVE.
HIVE’s Nasdaq-traded shares (HIVE) sank 11.5% on Thursday while industry tracker CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI) fell 1.5%, per Yahoo Finance data. HIVE is the seventh-largest holding in that exchange-traded fund, at 4.89% weight.
Proceeds will be directed to the company’s subsidiaries for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures tied to graphics processing units and data center expansion. HIVE also said it plans to enter capped call transactions with financial counterparties to limit potential dilution from future conversions.
Separately, the company said it has received conditional approval to list its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with trading expected to begin later this month, subject to meeting listing requirements.
HIVE was among the first Bitcoin miners to pivot into high-performance computing in 2022, a shift that is now beginning to show up in its financial results. In its third quarter, the company reported $93.1 million in revenue, up 219% year over year, despite weaker Bitcoin prices and rising network difficulty.
In February, HIVE signed a two-year, $30 million agreement to deploy 504 Nvidia B200 GPUs for enterprise AI cloud services.
Related: Public crypto miners sold more BTC in Q1 2026 than all of 2025: Report
The fundraising comes as publicly traded Bitcoin miners continue to expand into high-performance computing and AI workloads.
Companies including MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, Bitdeer Technologies, TeraWulf, Hut 8, CleanSpark and IREN have all made moves into AI and high-performance computing, leveraging existing access to power and data center infrastructure.
In January, CleanSpark agreed to buy 447 acres in Texas to build a 300-megawatt AI-focused data center, with plans to expand to 600 MW, while in February, MARA acquired a majority stake in French computing infrastructure company Exaion as part of its push into AI and cloud services.
Meanwhile, CoreWeave, which began as a crypto mining operator and pivoted toward high-performance computing as early as 2019, has grown into a major provider of AI cloud infrastructure.
On Wednesday, the company announced a $6 billion agreement with Jane Street to provide AI computing capacity across its data centers, alongside a $1 billion equity investment from the firm, days after signing a multi-year deal with Anthropic to support its Claude large language models.
The shift is also extending beyond traditional miners. On Thursday, renewable-powered data center developer Soluna Holdings moved to consolidate ownership of its Texas-based campus, positioning the site for a transition toward AI-focused computing.
![\"Bitcoin](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d97c5-d43f-72b3-b1ba-770bf2c4f8da.png\")
Magazine: Forget stablecoin yield, how does the CLARITY Act treat DeFi?
", "description": "HIVE Digital plans a $75M notes offering to expand GPU capacity and data centers, as Bitcoin miners shift toward AI and high-performance computing.", "published": "2026-04-16T21:32:56+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin-mining" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "cloud-services" }, { "slug": "gpu" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "hive-plans-75m-raise-to-fund-ai-infrastructure-push", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262212" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Public crypto miners sold more BTC in Q1 2026 than all of 2025: Report", "leadText": "Mining companies are now split between those liquidating Bitcoin to cover operating expenses and those holding their BTC in reserve to fuel future growth.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "Publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies sold more BTC in Q1 2026 than in all four quarters of 2025, as business conditions tighten for the mining industry.
Publicly listed BTC miners, including MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific and Bitdeer, have collectively sold more than 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, according to TheEnergyMag.
The Q1 sales surpassed the 20,000 BTC sold in Q2 2022 during the crypto bear market triggered by the collapse of the Terra-Luna ecosystem, setting a “new record” for BTC miner sales in a single quarter, TheMinerMag said.
![\"Mining,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d977a-d7a9-73f6-a125-1c09a24a10b3.png\")
The sales come as hashprice, that is, the computing cost and a critical metric for miner profitability, sits at record low levels under $35 per petahash/second per day (PH/s), according to data from Hashrate Index.
That $35 PH/s level is the breakeven for many Bitcoin miners, particularly those running older mining machines, and the current hashprice of about $33 PH/s per day places about 20% of the mining industry in unprofitable territory.
![\"Mining,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d977c-6e07-71c0-aa51-e7b6d23b80b0.png\")
The heavy BTC sales come as the mining industry struggles with increased competition represented by a rising hashrate, the total computing power expended by miners to secure the network, reduced block rewards and macroeconomic headwinds.
Related: Bitcoin miners face a tougher road to the 2028 halving
The Bitcoin Miner Reserve, a metric tracking all the BTC held by miners, has been gradually decreasing since 2023, according to CryptoQuant.
Bitcoin miners collectively held over 1.86 million BTC at the end of 2023, but only hold about 1.8 million BTC at the time of publication.
![\"Mining,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d977e-ce7e-7026-a9fb-28b84b297efb.png\")
Miners periodically sell portions of their BTC to cover operating expenses, but a combination of lower crypto prices and rising energy costs has forced some miners to offload coins they would have held in their corporate treasuries.
“We expect further capitulation among higher-cost operators in H1 2026 unless BTC’s price recovers materially,” asset manager CoinShares said in its Q1 2026 Bitcoin Mining Report.
Standing in sharp contrast to the miners’ selling are Bitcoin treasury companies, like Strategy, which has been a regular buyer of the biggest crypto.
Michael Saylor, the co-founder of the biggest Bitcoin treasury company, earlier this week signaled that Strategy is acquiring more BTC, as the price retreated from the local high of over $73,000 reached this week.
“Think bigger,” Saylor said on Sunday, while sharing the chart of Strategy’s BTC purchase history that has become synonymous with imminent BTC acquisitions.
Magazine: Bitcoin mining industry ‘going to be dead in 2 years’: Bit Digital CEO
Market analysts said Bitcoin’s (BTC) latest rally to $76,000 was a “clear momentum shift,” confirming a short-term uptrend for BTC price.
Bitcoin’s short-term holder (STH) supply in profit, a measure of the share of recently acquired coins currently held at an unrealized gain, suggests that BTC/USD has not exhausted its bear market rally, data from Glassnode shows.
Local tops in bear market rallies have historically formed when this metric approaches its statistical mean of 54.2%, a threshold where the concentration of profitable STHs becomes sufficient to trigger meaningful distribution.
Currently at 43.2%, the STH supply in profit remains “meaningfully below that threshold, suggesting the present rally has not yet reached the zone of typical exhaustion,” Glassnode said in its latest Week Onchain newsletter, adding:
“This leaves slight room for further upside toward the True Market Mean, while also providing a quantitative level to monitor as price advances.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9704-2889-74f8-b25c-a92ce83469b4.png\")
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has remained in “deep under extension territory” relative to its 50-week simple moving average (SMA), analyst McKenna said in a recent post on X.
Related: Bitcoin traders cash out 63K BTC profit as price rallied above $76K: Will the market rebound?
When markets deviate either to the upside or downside, they usually revert back to their mean.
Combined with “clear momentum shifts and bullish trending signals firing then I would be inclined to be directionally bullish here, the analyst said, adding:
“BTC breaking above $74K and holding this level on a HTF is the final trigger I want to see to be confident in mid to high 80s over the coming weeks.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9704-3049-7e29-914d-47686c6518e3.jpg\")
Fellow analyst Bitcoin Archive focused on the falling US dollar index, saying that it provides a “massive tailwind for the next leg up” for Bitcoin.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9704-3ee3-782c-a723-b2f333f5a24a.png\")
As Cointelegraph reported, several metrics support Bitcoin’s potential to rise higher, including increasing network activity and a strengthening technical setup.
Bitcoin’s 41% drawdown from its $126,000 all-time high has seen the BTC/USD pair drop below key pricing levels, including the active realized price at $85,100, the STH cost basis at $80,950 and the true market mean currently at $78,140.
At $74,000, Bitcoin is 5.2% below the true market mean, a metric tracking the cost basis of active BTC supply.
While the price is yet to “test and stabilize above this key threshold, the probability of a spike toward and potentially above it remains considerable in the mid-term,” Glassnode added.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9704-4a92-7392-b521-7f0ca56dbf33.png\")
The importance of this resistance level is reinforced by cost basis distribution. The heatmap below shows that over 200,000 BTC were acquired for around $78,000.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9704-586b-742e-99b4-5055a35ba1e5.png\")
On the downside, the first major support is at $72,000, where the 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages (EMAs) appear to converge. It is also where investors bought approximately 220,000 BTC.
Lower than that, the $65,000-$70,000 demand zone is a key area to watch. This price band has historically served as a vital support level, as seen between October and November 2024, providing a launching pad for the October 2024-January 2025 rally.
As Cointelegraph reported, a drop below the $70,000 would suggest the bears are back in control, increasing the prospects of a drop toward $60,000.
The chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig, said he would not wait for the appointment of additional commissioners to lead the regulatory agency before moving ahead on rulemaking potentially related to digital assets and prediction markets.
In a Thursday hearing of the House Agriculture Committee, Selig responded to questions from ranking member Angie Craig, who called out the lack of leadership at the CFTC, which normally has a bipartisan panel of five commissioners. The Minnesota representative asked the chair to commit to not finalizing regulations while he is the only commissioner.
“In the interim, we cannot, for the sake of the American people, slow down in our rulemaking,” said Selig. “It’s very important that we get investor protections, consumer protections and safeguards for our markets. And so, I cannot, unfortunately, commit to not do my job that I was appointed to do by the president.”
![\"Government,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d9734-4829-7307-be2c-3c159ba679e3.png\")
Selig, who has served as the CFTC’s sole commissioner and chair since December, has come under scrutiny from many lawmakers for unilaterally leading the agency on rules favoring crypto and prediction markets with no bipartisan group of commissioners. As of Thursday, President Donald Trump had not publicly announced any nominations to staff the agency nor signaled he intended to do so.
“We’re going to do more through rulemaking,” said Selig in response to a question on the CFTC’s leadership from Representative Don Davis. “We can’t have the staff deciding on discretion what the rules are.”
Related: CFTC probes oil futures trades tied to Trump's moves in Iran: Report
The CFTC chair proposed rulemaking in March that could amend or issue new regulations over event contracts on prediction markets. Selig has been outspoken about claiming that the agency has “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets as the companies behind some platforms face state-level lawsuits related to sports betting laws and proposed legislation to crack down on insider trading.
Gaming authorities in several US states have filed lawsuits against prediction market companies like Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging the platforms offered sports betting in violation of state laws.
New Mexico Representative Gabe Vasquez questioned Selig at Thursday’s hearing with a visual aid showing that bets on event contracts and through state-level gaming “aren’t much of a difference, yet they are regulated completely differently.” He accused the CFTC of using “loopholes” to bypass state laws and requirements for prediction markets, causing some jurisdictions to miss out on revenue.
“The CFTC was not created or intended to regulate sports gambling,” said Vasquez, adding:
“Are we regulating real economic risk, or are we allowing prediction markets to steal billions of dollars in an unregulated free-for-all, with no consumer protection as Congress and the CFTC turns a blind eye?”
Companies like Kalshi have argued that they are under the sole jurisdiction of the CFTC. This argument led the company to court wins in Arizona and New Jersey, where this month judges blocked state officials from taking action against Kalshi.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
", "description": "CFTC Chair Michael Selig face questioning from lawmakers in the House Agriculture Committee on prediction markets and the agency's leadership.", "published": "2026-04-16T18:52:47+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "government" }, { "slug": "cftc" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "commodities-investment" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "cftc-chair-rulemaking-bipartisan-leadership", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262182" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Charles Schwab to roll out spot Bitcoin, Ether trading for retail clients", "leadText": "Schwab will introduce direct trading in the two biggest cryptos through a dedicated account, its first move into spot trading as it expands its digital asset offerings.", "author": { "slug": "nate-kostar" }, "bodyText": "Charles Schwab, one of the largest US brokerage firms, will roll out spot cryptocurrency trading for retail clients in the coming weeks, starting with Bitcoin and Ether, through a dedicated account linked to its brokerage platform.
According to a Thursday announcement, the offering will allow clients to trade and view crypto alongside stocks and other assets across Schwab’s web, mobile and Thinkorswim platforms, with custody held by its banking unit and execution handled through a partnership with Paxos, a federally regulated trust company.
Schwab reported $12.22 trillion in total client assets as of February 2026, according to its latest filings, and operates as a brokerage providing trading, banking and wealth management services.
At launch, the service will support trading in the two biggest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), at a fee of 75 basis points per transaction, with plans to add more cryptocurrencies and enable deposits and withdrawals over time.
At 75 bps, or 0.75%, Schwab’s fee places it above exchanges such as Kraken, where fees start around 0.25% to 0.40% and decline with volume, while broadly in line with Coinbase, where fees start at about 0.40% to 0.60% for lower-volume traders, according to information on those exchanges’ websites.
Clients will access the service through a separate crypto account, with assets held by Schwab’s banking subsidiary under a custodial model. The rollout will begin in phases over the coming weeks, initially limited to eligible US retail clients except residents of New York and Louisiana.
Schwab said the move expands its existing crypto offerings, which include exchange-traded products, futures and funds tied to digital assets. The company said its clients currently hold about 20% of spot crypto exchange-traded products, based on internal estimates.
Related: Binance adds spot trading guardrails to limit abnormal executions
Traditional financial companies are expanding their crypto offerings across trading, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and structured products.
On April 8, Morgan Stanley launched a spot Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) that recorded $30.6 million in inflows on its first day of NYSE Arca trading, marking its entry into the market for regulated crypto investment products. The fund website showed total net assets at $87.6 million as of Wednesday.
Also in April, Goldman Sachs filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a Bitcoin-linked ETF designed to generate income through options strategies, offering indirect exposure to Bitcoin while aiming to limit volatility.
As traditional financial firms expand into crypto, crypto-native companies are moving in the opposite direction, pushing into traditional markets through tokenized equities.
In December, Coinbase introduced trading for equities and ETFs, while in February Kraken launched tokenized equity perpetual futures, offering leveraged exposure to US stocks, indexes and commodities.
Magazine: Forget stablecoin yield, how does the CLARITY Act treat DeFi?
", "description": "Charles Schwab plans to launch spot Bitcoin and Ether trading for retail clients, expanding into direct crypto access alongside its existing investment offerings.", "published": "2026-04-16T18:18:01+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "coinbase" }, { "slug": "kraken" }, { "slug": "goldman-sachs" }, { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "morgan-stanley" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "charles-schwab-to-roll-out-spot-bitcoin-ether-trading-for-retail-clients", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "262167" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin bull run ‘still too early’ to call as demand lags exiting capital: Analyst", "leadText": "Bitcoin trades below the profitability threshold for active holders, with early signs of BTC demand offering limited price support for now.", "author": { "slug": "biraajmaan-tamuly" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) hit range highs above $76,000 on Wednesday, but Glassnode analysts say data suggest that calling for the start of a new bull market is premature.
New capital inflows have stayed weak, with Bitcoin’s growth rate remaining negative across all 105 trading days in 2026, highlighting a gap between stable price action and limited new demand.
Glassnode analyst CryptoViz.art uses the true market mean (TMM) to estimate the average cost basis of active BTC investors. The metric divides investor capitalization by liveliness-adjusted circulating supply, filtering out inactive coins and the lost supply.
Bitcoin crossed below this level on Jan. 31 and has stayed there for 75 days. The move placed the average active holder in a loss position, with a peak drawdown of 20% and a current gap of about 5% below the entry level.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d96b4-7329-7086-b1b1-4fa3950b9c79.jpg\")
Historical comparisons show 10 similar breaks since 2016, with durations ranging from two days to over 11 months. The deepest drawdowns reached 57% during the 2018–2019 and 2022–2023 cycles, while the March 2020 event saw a 40% decline over 49 days. The analyst added,
“That said, 75 days is still early. The 2018 and 2022 episodes didn't bottom until months 5-9. The signal isn't \"all clear\" — it's watch closely.”
Reclaiming the TMM, currently at $78,013, is key for active investors to return to profit, and it has aligned with momentum resets in earlier cycles.
Related: Adam Back says Bitcoin’s post-quantum shift may reveal true Satoshi stash
Bitcoin researcher Axel Adler Jr. points to a steady outflow of capital from the BTC market. The 365-day growth rate of market cap relative to realized cap has remained negative for all 105 trading days in 2026, with the latest reading at -0.000652.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d96af-87a8-7f03-8d12-945b9fe962dd.png\")
In simple terms, the market is not attracting enough new money to support higher prices.
The 30-day realized cap change shows the same trend. Only seven days saw positive inflows this year, all during a brief period in mid-January. Since Jan. 23, the metric has stayed negative, though it has improved slightly to -0.32% from early April lows near -0.54%.
Realized cap has also dropped to $1.08 trillion from $1.12 trillion since the start of the year, a 3.23% decline.
Adler Jr. said the recent improvement signals a slowdown in BTC outflows, not a bullish reversal. A meaningful shift would require both metrics to turn positive and hold above zero for a sustained period.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d96b0-58d2-7bca-806e-2214495e5a9c.png\")
Related: Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin fund overtakes WisdomTree after 6 trading days
", "description": "Bitcoin trades below active investors' cost basis amid persistent capital outflows. Can bulls keep the market in their grip?", "published": "2026-04-16T17:55:36+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-analysis" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-bull-run-still-too-early-to-call-as-demand-lags-exiting-capital-analyst", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Market Update" } ] }, "id": "262162" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin rebounds near $74.5K as US stocks chase after new all-time highs", "leadText": "Bitcoin attempted to recover the $75,000 level as US stocks chase after a second day of fresh all-time highs. Is the bull market back on?", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) treaded water at Thursday’s Wall Street open as the S&P 500 reached new all-time highs.
Key points:
Bitcoin stays locked on $74,000 after its local highs preceded a new record for the S&P 500.
Analysis warns that the US midterm elections may impact the stock rally.
Bitcoin could follow the Nasdaq 100 higher, a trader suggests.
Data from TradingView showed $74,000 continuing to form an intraday BTC price focus.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d96d4-0056-7663-8da9-a433868ebac0.png\")
US jobless claims came in marginally below expectations at 207,000 versus 213,000, pointing to the labor market withstanding current geopolitical and inflation pressures.
These followed a new record for the S&P 500, which crossed 7,000 points for the first time in history after Bitcoin hit two-month highs.
Commenting, trading resource Mosaic Asset Company noted that the S&P had advanced by nearly 11% in the past 11 trading sessions.
“It ranks as the fifth quickest recovery to record highs following a deep pullback,” it wrote in its latest “Mosaic Chart Alerts” update.
“The S&P closed firmly above the 7,000 level for the first time in history despite the ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East that sparked a 9% drawdown in the index into late March.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d96d3-6978-7428-a83a-56cfbe481700.png\")
Gold dipped to intraday lows and WTI crude oil eyed $94 per barrel as markets awaited further cues over the US-Iran war.
QCP, meanwhile, warned that seasonal trends could still end the stock rally as the US entered midterm elections. The S&P 500, it noted, “tends to find its peak about now ahead of mid-term elections, and then recovering during the final quarter of the year.”
“I would not base any investment decision or outlook based on seasonals alone, which is why I’m also watching confirmation from breadth,” it cautioned.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d96d2-7fe6-79dc-b0de-e6c40ead5792.jpg\")
With BTC price action finding resistance near its range highs, market participants eyed exchange order-book liquidity for clues as to where the next showdown could come.
Related: Bitcoin can grow 'probably a lot bigger' than $30T+ gold market — Analysis
“The price bucket at $72.2K - 72.4K has a large amount of open interest that has slowly accumulated,” Shubh Varma, CEO of crypto data platform Hyblock, told Cointelegraph on the day.
“We've seen this level where traders are often active, entering and exiting. Most recently, about $100 million longs and shorts opened here, bringing the total close to $400 million at that price bucket, over the last seven days (on Binance stablecoin perps).”
Varma added that this could form “an area to watch as potential support if price revisits it, as many of these longs and shorts may exit at breakeven ‘psychological’ level.\"
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Continuing the stocks theme, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe flagged Bitcoin’s relationship with the Nasdaq-100 index as a cause for optimism going forward.
“Bitcoin is about to follow Nasdaq,” he told X followers.
“The reason for this is quite simple: the correlation has been significantly strong most of the time. This period? The weakest correlation in the past 10 years.”
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Van de Poppe eyed a “tremendous opportunity” for Bitcoin buyers, having recently seen a similar bullish setup in Bitcoin versus gold.
Crypto exchange Zonda said a cold wallet holding around 4,500 Bitcoin is currently inaccessible as the platform faces concerns over delayed withdrawals.
Zonda CEO Przemysław Kral posted a video statement on Thursday disclosing the exchange’s wallet address, saying the private keys to the wallet were never handed over.
In the statement, Kral denied accusations of misappropriating funds, saying the private keys were intended to be handed over by Zonda founder and former CEO Sylwester Suszek, who has been missing since 2022.
“So for all those who claim that I had anything to do with Sylwester's disappearance, this is the prime argument that I care the most about Sylwester being found,” Kral said.
The disclosure follows weeks of controversy around the exchange after local reports suggested a probe into Zonda by Polish authorities, followed by an analysis by blockchain platform Recoveris, which alleged Zonda could have been insolvent based on a sharp drop in the exchange's hot wallet balances.
Kral’s public disclosure of the wallet marks the first time that Zonda has disclosed the address amid the controversy.
The address cited by the CEO holds 4,503 Bitcoin (BTC) currently worth about $334 million, with the last transaction recorded in November 2025 as of the time of publication.
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The CEO previously denied insolvency claims following the hot wallet investigation by Recoveris on April 6, insisting that Zonda remained fully solvent with more than 4,500 BTC in holdings.
In the video, Kral said that much of Zonda’s recent withdrawal pressure was driven by an abnormal spike in withdrawal requests, which he linked to negative media coverage.
He said Zonda normally processed around 100,000 withdrawal requests per year but saw more than 25,000 requests within hours and days around April 6.
Kral said the company plans to take legal action over what he described as false claims surrounding the exchange and promised to fulfill obligations to customers amid withdrawal concerns.
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Polish lawmaker Tomasz Mentzen said on X that Zonda may have lost access to its cold wallet following the disappearance of former CEO Suszek. Kral did not explicitly say the funds were lost, but said the private keys to the wallet were never transferred during the company handover.
Suszek has reportedly been missing since March 2022, with reporting referencing alleged criminal ties among certain shareholders of Zonda, formerly BitBay.
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The exchange was founded in Poland in 2014 and rebranded as Zonda in 2021. Kral told Cointelegraph in February that the company registered in Estonia amid regulatory uncertainty in Poland, citing delays in implementing the European Union-wide Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
The issue has drawn the exchange into a broader political debate, adding pressure on regulators and increasing scrutiny of Poland’s crypto sector.
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